Dover College

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Dover College
Motto Non recuso laborem
(I refuse no work)
Established 1871
Type Public school
Religious affiliation Anglican
Headmaster Stephen Jones MSc MLitt FRSA
Chairman of the Governors Dr J. Sullivan
Founder Dr. Astley
Location Dover
Kent
England Flag of England
Staff 50 (approx.)
Students 340 (approx.)
Gender Co-educational
Ages 4 to 18
Houses 6
School colours Black and White

         

Former pupils Old Dovorians
Website www.dovercollege.org.uk

Dover College is a co-educational public school in Dover, Kent, England. It was founded in 1871, and takes both day pupils and boarders.

[edit] History

[edit] Foundation

See also: Dover Priory#Dover College

In 1869 Robert Chignell, who had a private school at Westmount, in Folkestone Road, leased part of the Dover Priory buildings for a private school. He passed on his interest, however, to a group of leading citizens and local businessmen in Dover, led by the Mayor of Dover, Dr. Astley, who had formed the Dover College Company to promote the foundation of a public school for the town on what remained of the Priory site with the dual intention of providing a public school education for local boys and of using and thus preserving the Priory's remaining ancient buildings.

The College was founded and opened modestly as a boys' school on 15 September 1871. It acquired the large hall, or guest-house, in 1879 and converted it into a school chapel by enlarging the east end into an apse. In time, the Ecclesiastical Commissioners made over the whole property to the College Trustees. The refectory was restored, revealing an important but damaged fresco, as (in 1881, to mark a charitable act by Sir Richard Dickenson the then mayor of Dover) was the gatehouse. The Gatehouse was restored by the celebrated architect George Street and is currently used as a studio for drama.

It is set in the grounds and ruins of the Priory of St Martin, which was sacked by Henry VIII as part of his dissolution of the monasteries. Dover Priory railway station is named after this priory. Some of the original C12th buildings remain. The refectory is still used as an eating hall. The college chapel was originally the monks' dormitory (the bell tower was added in the late C19th) and the priory gatehouse is still intact and in use. The composer, Thomas Tallis, was organist to the priory in the late C16th and he is commemorated in the college's Tallis Music School.

[edit] 20th century

In August 1917, part of the school was damaged during an air raid and the decision was finally taken to evacuate the college from Dover to Leamington Spa in the Midlands, returning to Dover in 1919 with only 150 pupils. (During World War I, in common with many other schools, Old Dovorians became officers in the British Armed Forces and as a result suffered high casualty rates due to sniping — 177 former pupils died; one, Naval officer Arthur Leyland Harrison posthumously received the Victoria Cross for the Zeebrugge raid; another old boy, Gen Sir Reginald Dallas Brooks, was also on that raid and won a DSO before going on to become Governor of Victoria.)

In 1922 a trust set up by the old boys took ownership of the college and in 1923 it was reconstituted with a Royal Charter, which defined its aims:

The object of the Corporation of Dover College shall be the conduct of a College for boys … in which they may receive a sound religious, classical, mathematical, scientific and general education and the doing of such things as are conducive to the attainment of this objective.

During the Second World War, Dover was on the front line, with only the Straits of Dover separating the town from Nazi-occupied France, and one of the most likely areas for a German invasion. As a result, the school was again evacuated, initially for a term to Blundell's School in Devon with which Dover College had a long standing friendship, and thence to Poltimore House, also in Devon. It returned to Dover in 1945 with 168 boys. During the war 102 former pupils died; Lt Col Terence Otway won a famous DSO for his action in capturing the Merville battery on D-Day.

In 1974, Dover College was one of the first English public schools to become co-educational, and in September 2001 it opened a junior department for pupils aged 4-11.

[edit] Old Dovorians

Notable alumni, in chronological order, include:

[edit] Notable Teaching Staff

[edit] External links