| Motto | Possunt Quia Posse Videntur They can because they think they can |
|---|---|
| Established | 1745 |
| Type | Government Secondary |
| Religion | Anglican |
| Headmaster | Trevor Pilgrim |
| Chairman of Board of Management | Patterson Cheltenham QC, Appointed by the Minister of Education |
| Founder | Christopher Codrington |
| Location | Society St John Barbados |
| Students | Approximately 973 |
| Gender | 497 boys & 476 girls |
| Ages | 11–18 |
| Houses | Codrington, Emtage, Gooding, Laborde, Wedderburn |
| School Song | Here we stand where our fathers standing. |
| Official Phone | 1 (246) 423 3834 |
| Former Pupils | Old Lodge Boys |
Contents |
In 2010, The Lodge School celebrated its 265th anniversary as an institution of learning. This extended period has not been continuous, as the school closed and reopened four times during these two and a half centuries. The timescales chosen for this article have their benchmarks with some of these dates. The school at various times was known as Codrington College, The College, The Mansion School, the Codrington Grammar School, The Codrington Foundation School, Codrington Collegiate School, Codrington Endowed School, Codrington Lodge Grammar School and even The Lodge Collegiate School. By 1882 the school's name had finally settled on The Lodge School, after the Chaplain's Lodge where some of the early classes were undertaken.
The Lodge school, had its beginnings in a bequest made by Sir Christopher Codrington who had two estates on the island. The Codrington experiment was to baptise and instruct in Christian education which was greeted with much suspicion by other Barbadian slave owners in the 18th Century. Codrington’s managers were ordered to give his people time off for themselves (usually a Saturday), Sunday being reserved for Christian instruction through which they were to have the benefits of education and the consolations of Christian religion.
There is some dispute as to the exact date of the school's foundation. Building work is recorded as having commenced in 1714, but for a variety of reasons was not finished until 1743.[1] The Barbados Pocket Book of 1838 however records that the Codrington Foundation School was founded in 1721. When the school opened its doors to twelve foundationers to "teach them gratis, the Sons of such Persons as shall be judged not to be in Sufficient Circumstances to bring them up in learning the learned languages" on 9th Sept 1745, chronographers recognise this date officially as its inception. Other pupils were fee paying and most were boarders. The Lodge School is therefore one of the oldest secondary educational establishments on Barbados.
The bequest, Codrington Foundation School, was established with the primary purpose of educating boys who could be subsequently trained in "the study and practice of divinity, physic and chirurgery" there and at other seminaries in the region. In History of Barbados its author Robert Hermann Schomburgk gives an early account of Codrington College on pages 111 to 123. The first Bishop of Barbados, William Hart Coleridge [1], contributed immensely to the development of education in Barbados. The promotion of education was high on his agenda and the number of schools increased from eight to eighty three during his episcopate. The number of children receiving education in these schools increased from five hundred (500) to seven thousand (7000).
The devastating hurricane of 1780 ruined many buildings on the island, including those of the school. The historian Poyer describes it "the havoc which met the eye contributed to subdue the firmest mind. The howling of the tempest; the noise of the descending torrents from clouds surcharged with rain; the incessant flashings of lightning; the roaring of the thunder; the continual crash of falling houses; the dismal groans of the wounded and the dying; the shrieks of despair; the lamentations of woe; and the screams of women and children calling for help on those whose ears were now closed to the voice of complaint, formed an accumulation of sorrow and of terror too great for human fortitude, to vast for human conception.[2] Earlier in 1775, the school was closed as a result of financial difficulties with the Codrington estates and it was not until 1789 that it was able to open again, continuing in a precarious manner with a succession of Headmasters, such that by the middle of the last decade of the Eighteenth Century it was not flourishing.
The appointment of Rev M Nicholson in 1797 was to have a marked improvement of the scholastic achievements as the school also made consistent progress. Pupils were known to leave and go straight to University. Under his leadership Foundation Scholarships were first offered in 1819 to students to enable them to go up to further education. Notably it wasn't until 1879 that the Barbados Scholarship scheme was started.
Coleridge also reorganised Codrington Foundation School so that it became in 1827 a training establishment for clergy as had been intended by its founder, Christopher Codrington. The Grammar School was transferred to the Chaplain's Lodge on the upper estate (from which the school later took its name) in 1829 under the charge of the Rev. John Packer and finally settled where it is now located on Codrington’s Society Estate in the parish of St John. Measures were taken for the opening of the College "no longer as a mere Grammar school for boys, but as a strictly collegiate institution for the education of young men, especially with a view to Holy Orders" (Society for the Propagation of the Gospel report on Codrington College, 1847).
In 1846 the Barbados Legislature made its first state grant of £750 for education. The Rev. Richard Rawle was appointed as Principal of Codrington College and the training of elementary school teachers was undertaken. In 1850 the first Education Act was passed which also raised the grant to secondary schools to £3,000 per annum. By June of that year under the headship of Rev W. Webb the numbers at the school had grown to 39 boys and two years later this had increased to 63 pupils, 48 of whom were boarders. In 1878 the governing body of the Lodge School was properly constituted and in the following year, the Government took over the running of the school, meeting all the expenses of the institution and paying a small stipend to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (SPC).
In BB Ward's History of The Lodge School 1745-1900 [3] he closes the chapter of The Fourth School with the comment "perhaps an unfortunate oversight that there is nothing in the school to perpetuate the names of Mark Nicholson (Headmaster 1797-1821) and Rev Rawle (Principal of Codrington College 1847-1864), two of three men (Codrington, of course, the other) to whom the school owes its very existence".
The Government leased the lands containing the school from the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel and the school reopened in 1881 as a grant maintained First Grade School administered by a Governing Body with Mr Tracey as Headmaster. An Education Commission established by Bishop Mitchinson secured an affiliation of Codrington College to Durham University.[4] Further improvements were made to the school, but its grammar school ethos remained unchanged. On the retirement of Tracey in 1892, and with frequent changes of headmasters, the school floundered somewhat. In 1899, when O. DeC. Emtage was appointed Headmaster, the school began to flourish again under his leadership and by 1902 it had outgrown its accommodation. Building works were started and new wings were constructed to provide a library, improved science lecture rooms and a reading room. Also at the turn of the century, Mr Emtage instituted the annual speech at which athletic meetings were held. Prior to 1900 these were only held occasionally. In 1903 the Cadet Corps at The Lodge started and was the first such unit in the West Indies.
The Latin quote "Possunt Quia Posse Videntur" by Roman poet Virgil is the school’s motto chosen by Mr Emtage, is also the school motto for Christ College, Brecon, Wales [2] founded by Royal Charter in 1541 by King Henry VIII as well as for The Harvard-Westlake School in Los Angeles California. The English translation of the motto is "They Can Because They Think They Can". The school Arms and Crest were designed by Mrs Evan Sealy, wife of a former rector of St John in conjunction with Mr Emtage in the first decade of the twentieth century. The School crest of the leading sea horse comes from the Barbados Arms. The coat of Arms has a white field, indicative of purity and uprightnesss; a black and fess , hinting that the qualities signified by the field would be strenuously defended; and finally three Maltese croses, the device of St John the Apostle and the Knights Templar of the same name. The fess and white field were adopted from the arms of Codrington College, the lions of the latter being replaced by Maltese crosses [5]
When Mr Emtage resigned in 1931, the school could hardly be recognised as the one he took over in 1899. The Lodge School Record comments "trace what nerve of body politic you will and at its source, ruling our activities whence alone they can be ruled, siting where metaphor he had now sat for a quarter of a century, you will find the chief".[6] The school roll at this time had increased to over 100, with nearly sixty being boarders.
With the appointment of Rev H.B.Gooding to succeed Mr Emtage, The Lodge School had finally produced its own Headmaster, an achievement to be proud of. The new Headmaster re-introduced Greek into the curriculum and encouraged the serious study of Classics. In 1935 the Memorial Hall was completed, partly to accommodate the increased number of boarders on the first floor, but also to provide for more classrooms. Construction of a new science/laboratory block accommodating additional classrooms on a second floor also took place. There was great interest in the boarding establishment and the number of applications to join the school increased, especially from neighbouring islands, and when Gooding retired in 1941 the school roll had passed 150, which included about 70 boarders.
The Memorial Hall was built from funds raised almost exclusively by Old Boys in honour of former pupils who died in the First World War. It was opened in 1935 and bronze plaques bearing the names of those who died in both World Wars were added in 1965.
In May 1944, the Sanatorium and Library was destroyed by fire. The Library was temporarily rehoused in locked cupboards in a classroom until 1953 when a small room became available where the books were stored. The new library rebuilt from subscriptions and re-opened in 1955. Further building works were undertaken and the boarding establishment was enlarged to accommodate 30 more termly boarders by 1945. By June 1946, the school roll had increased to 213.[7] In September 1950 the school roll passed 300 for the first time.
In 1959 the Government, through the Education Act, instituted the Common Entrance Examinations to The Lodge and similar secondary education schools on the island. Around this time the school roll exceeded 400.
For much of the 1960s, the school population was quite static but pressure by Government was beginning to be placed on the school to increase its numbers and the Governing Body acceded to the wishes of the Minister of Education to expand into a three form entry such that the 1967 school roll of 438 had passed 550 by 1970. Two new laboratories were added in 1967 eventually leading to two labs for each of the three science disciplines.[8] The following year a new classroom block to accommodate a further three classrooms was opened.
In 1971 the Government instituted free Secondary education which immediately impacted on the boarding establishment of the school, such that by 1979 this 234 year unique aspect of the Lodge School became uneconomic to maintain. Another great shift in the school was about to take place in the mid seventies with the introduction of girls from other schools into the sixth form. Earlier in 1970, two girls from a sister school, Codrington High, had come to The Lodge to undertake Biology A Level instruction, but it was not till 1974 that The Lodge had enrolled its first girls into the school.
ln 1979 the hundred year lease the Government was given on the premises by the SPC expired and it took the opportunity to acquire full possession of the premises The Lodge School in October 1983.
Much of the historical information is courtesy of P.D.Frost's kind copy of F.A.Hoyos, Two Hundred Years: A History of the Lodge School, 1745–1945, published by the Barbados Advocate as well as B.B. Ward's History of The Lodge School 1745 - 1900.[9]
The Rolls of Honour[10] commemorating the school's war dead are on two bronze plaques on either side of the entrance to the Memorial Hall, the portal of which has the word Remember engraved. The Lodge School Old Boys' Association raised funds over several years to have these memorials to their fallen comrades poigniantly installed and consecrated in 1965.
| 1914 - 1918 | 1939 - 1945 |
|---|---|
| A.F.M. Berkeley | P.L.I. Archer DFC |
| A.G. Cameron DSC | G.L.A. Clarke |
| H.T.A. Cox | P.E. Davison |
| A. Edghill MC | A.P.C. Dunlop |
| J.S. Gardiner | P. DeFreitas DSC |
| R. Hancock DSO | A.W. Gooding |
| M.R. Hannam | J.A. Greenidge |
| R.E.L. Hollinsed | J.D. Greenidge |
| W.L. Hutchinson | T.D.L. Johnson |
| F.L. Johnson | R.C. Lynch |
| J. Manning | J.H. Manning |
| C.G. Peterkin | J.C. Manning |
| H.S. Wilson | W.H.B Short DFC |
| J.S. Wilson | J.W.S. Skinner |
| H.V.F. Smith |
(school closed for 14 years due to financial difficulties with the Codrington estates)
(school closed Midsummer 1848 to 11 June 1849)
(school closed for 4 years due to financial difficulties with the SPG and its decision to hand the assets of the school over to the Government on a 99 lease basis)
A BD$25m project involving the construction of two new blocks, a hall, pavilion, new bathrooms, additional exits and other refurbishments to the facility will begin in 2011. The Memorial Hall will be kept but many buildings will undergo substantial improvements.
Here we stand where our fathers standing
Thought the thoughts that are ours today;
Yielding their hearts to the School’s commanding,
Tuned their lives to accept her sway:
One with theirs is the prayer we pray-
One with theirs is our Hope, our Light-
One with theirs is the game we play-
One with theirs is our rule for right.
Still in the lore of her legend’s pages
Truth, like the quenchless star
Set for a sign for future ages
Shines on the years that are.
Here in the games that are ours for playing
Find we more that the moment’s prize-
Shoulder to shoulder our ranks arraying,
Face the future with fearless eyes,
Hence with doubting and vain surmise!
Standing firmly we front the foe;
Whatsoever the days devise,
Life shall call us and we will go.
Ay, and the lesson of this our chorus
Still we will bear in mind;
Draw for the light of the years before us,
Might from the years behind.
Here in the tasks that are ours for learning
Read we more than the pages bear-
Fan the flame in our spirit burning
Not to be less that our fathers were;
What they ventured we too would dare-
Whither they journeyed we set our face-
Long as The Lodge that had these in care,
Stand unmoved in her storied place.
Memory born of old days shall bind us
-Though we return no more-
Still shall the light of the years behind us
Brighten the years before.
William Wallace Cathcart Dunlop (1920)[3] Professor of Classics at Codrington College