Royal Naval School
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Royal Naval School was an English school which was established in Camberwell in 1833 and then formally constituted by the Royal Naval College Act 1840.[1] It was a charitable institution, established as a boarding school for the sons of officers in the Royal Navy and Royal Marines, and many of its pupils achieved prominence in military and diplomatic service.
A purpose-built school building was designed by architect John Shaw Jr and opened in about 1844 in New Cross in south-east London (close to Deptford and Greenwich, both areas with strong naval connections). However, the school soon outgrew this building and relocated to Mottingham in 1889. The building remained in educational use, being sold to the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths for £25,000 and being re-opened by the Prince of Wales in July 1891 as the 'Goldsmiths' Company's Technical and Recreative Institute', though it was always known simply as the 'Goldsmiths' Institute'[2]; later (1904), it became the main building of Goldsmiths College.
Meanwhile, the Royal Naval School remained at Mottingham (in a building today occupied by Eltham College) until it closed in 1910.
Author Ellen Thorneycroft Fowler was wife to one of the teachers at the School before it closed.[3]
[edit] Notable pupils
- Maj Gen Sir William Throsby Bridges (1861-1915)
- Admiral Sir George Nares, British naval officer and Arctic explorer (1831-1915)
- Gen Richard John Meade (1821-1894)
- Sir Charles Mitchell, governor of Fiji and the Straits Settlements (1836-1899)
- Admiral Stuart Nicholson (1865-1936)
- Kivas Tully, architect (1820-1905)
- William Hoste Webb, Quebec politician (1820-1890)
