A HISTORY OF SURREY 



ties are given, one of ;f 50 being held at Girton 

 College, Cambridge. A ' Secondary Teachers' ' 

 Training College was opened in 1888, and 

 now numbers thirty-four student teachers. So 

 with an endowment of ;ti,20o a year, includ- 

 ing the Clothworkers' contribution, generally 

 £600 a year, a good work is being done through 

 devotion to educational purposes of these 

 charities, which had become obsolete and 

 even mischievous in their original application. 



KING'S COLLEGE SCHOOL, 

 WIMBLEDON 



The latest accession to Surrey Schools by 

 adoption is King's College School, removed 

 from the Strand to Wimbledon Common, in 

 1897. 



It was founded on the lines of Winchester 

 and Eton, or more exactly of the school of 

 Merton College, Oxford, long extinct, and 

 that of Magdalen College, Oxford, now highly 

 flourishing. It was founded as part and 

 parcel of a college for boys of a larger growth, 

 and occupied part of the buildings, and is now 

 under the governing body of the college. There 

 was, however, this marked difference, that 

 while the older foundations were national, 

 King's College School was denominational. 

 King's CoUege charter was granted 14 August 

 1829. The school was opened in 1 83 1 under 

 the Rev. J. R. Major, who held office no less 

 than thirty-six years. Under him the school 

 at one time reached about 400 boys, but in 

 his later years had fallen below 300. One 

 of his most famous pupils was Sir William 

 Preece, of telegraphic fame. The Rev. G. F. 

 Maclean came as headmaster in 1867. In 

 1 868 the numbers were 4 1 2 . An event appar- 

 ently wholly disconnected with the school, 

 produced a sudden increase. The Franco- 

 German War of 1870, sent many English 

 refugees from Hamburg and other places 

 which were thought to be within the sphere 

 of hostilities, to London, and their boys found 

 hospitality at King's CoUege School. The 

 numbers flew above 600, and the school was 

 able to contest with the City of London 

 School the claim to be the largest secondary 

 school in London or perhaps in the country. 

 The fame of Dr. Maclean retained the incre- 

 ment, after the immediate cause of it had 

 ceased to operate, in spite of there being no 

 kind of playground, and the fact that the 

 class-rooms were buried partiy underground 

 in the basement of the college. Its success 

 appears to have been largely due to its being 

 one of the first schools in the country to be 

 divided into two sides, classical and modern, 

 and to the good teaching and opportunities 



it enjoyed on the latter side in connection 

 with the scientific and technical side of King's 

 College. 



Lord Milner, Dr. Gow, the headmaster of 

 Westminster, and Mr. Anstey Guthrie, the 

 author of Fice Versa (whose views of schools, 

 if drawn from King's College, do not present 

 his alma mater in an attractive light), were 

 among the distinguished products of this era. 

 Dr. Maclean retired in 1879 to the Warden- 

 ship of St. Augustine's Theological College 

 at Canterbury, and only died last year. 



Dr. Stokoe, who had been eminently suc- 

 cessful as Headmaster of Reading School, be- 

 came Headmaster. In 1880 there were 630 

 boys ; in 1889, 239. The removal of St. Paul's 

 School from its old narrow quarters in St. 

 Paul's Churchyard, to its present splendid 

 buildings and spacious domain at Hammer- 

 smith, by taking off those who lived in the west 

 of London, was the first cause of the decline. 

 In its first year it intercepted nearly 100 boys, 

 so that the numbers at King's College in 1884 

 were only 538. The decline was hastened by 

 an internal incident, resulting in the death of 

 a boy, which appeared to reflect discredit on 

 the tone of the boys and the supervision of the 

 masters. In 1889 Dr. Stokoe retired to the 

 rectory of Lutterworth, and the Rev. Charles 

 William Bourne became Headmaster. 



From Atherstone Grammar School in 

 Warwickshire Mr. Bourne had won a scholar- 

 ship at St. John's College, Cambridge, where 

 he was a wrangler, and also in the second class 

 for classics. As assistant master at Marl- 

 borough, and successively Headmaster of 

 Bedford County School and Inverness College, 

 he had a mixed experience before moving to 

 King's College School. There the numbers 

 at first showed some signs of increase, going 

 up to 275, but the development of Dulwich 

 College, and other schools had made con- 

 tinuous success, at least to the old extent, 

 impossible. The Headmaster soon saw that 

 without any recreation ground, or any 

 chance of getting one nearer than Worm- 

 wood Scrubbs, King's College School 

 could only carry on a languid career in its 

 original home. When Mr. J. W. Head- 

 lam, now one of the Secondary School in- 

 spectors of the Board of Education, reported 

 on Surrey schools in 1894.' he pointed out 

 the absurdity of boys having to go into schools 

 in London from places outside it better fitted 

 for schools, and suggested that if there were 

 a first-grade school at Wimbledon it would 

 almost entirely meet the deficiency of first- 



' Rep. of the Royal Com. on Secondary Education, 

 vii. 14. 



220 



