Duke of York's Royal Military School

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The Duke of York’s Royal Military School was originally founded in 1801 by Prince Frederick Augustus, Duke of York and Albany son of King George III and Queen Charlotte. The school was originally named the Royal Military Asylum and located at Chelsea, London, United Kingdom. In 1892, the RMA was renamed The Duke of York's Royal Military School and, in 1909, moved to new premises constructed on the cliffs of Dover, Kent, United Kingdom. The RMA was founded as an establishment to deal with many orphans of the armed forces during the years 1793-1815 from during conflict between Britain and Revolutionary France. The RMA was modeled on the Royal Hibernian Military School (1765-1924), and based on a monitorial system of education. Today the Duke of York’s Royal Military School provides co-educational admission to pupils whose parents are serving or were serving in any branch of the armed services at any rank. The school is an executive agency of the Ministry of Defence.

Pupils are well provided for, and the school has a strong sporting culture. The 150 acres (607,000 m²) of land provides more than enough room for, among others, a full size athletics track, astroturf, swimming pool, indoor squash courts, gymnasium and dozens of full size grass pitches for rugby and cricket.

The school is currently divided into nine Houses. Until the the school became coeducational in 1994, only eight boarding houses existed and these were subdivded into two junior (Haig and Kitchener) and six senior (Roberts,Wolseley, Wellington, Clive, Wolfe and Marlborough) houses. As part of the preparation for coeducational status, the former sanatorium was converted into a ninth boarding house, Alanbrooke. This was initially a mixed-age house housing all of the school's female pupils. As additional girls arrived over successive years, Marlborough was converted to a senior girls house. The male incumbents were moved into Kitchener, which became a senior boys house. The intake of male junior school pupils was of necessity reduced at this time, due to the limited space available to converted into additional bedspaces in Haig.

To emcompess the extra Junior Boys, Haig House now holds 4 dorms instead of the usual 3. The extra having been built on the end of the house. This extention, including a laundry room, the dorm itself, a shower area and 2 rooms, currently used as the Deputy Housemasters office and 3 extra cubicles respectivly, has worked well.

Wolfe and Clive houses have also since been converted to female houses for the Senior School girls, Alanbrooke being used exclusively for the Junior School girls.

The pupils are well known for their high school spirit which continues well after school through a strong old boys (and now girls) network. It is common for pupils generations apart to socialise with each other as if they had grown up together. This can be particularly useful when travelling, as the schools unique background has resulted in a wide spread of ex pupils across the globe. There are especially high concentrations in Australia and Hong Kong.

The School, recently celebrated thier Bi-Centenery in 2001/02. They held a service at Christmas in 2001, aswell as a special Parade at the end of the 2002. Select pupils of the then years 7+8 also were involved in the reinactment of the founding of the Royal Asylum at Chelsea.