George Watson's College
<templatestyles src="Module:Hatnote/styles.css"></templatestyles>
George Watson's College | |
---|---|
200px
Ex Corde Caritas
Love from the Heart
|
|
Address | |
Colinton Road (Merchiston) Edinburgh, EH10 5EG Scotland |
|
Information | |
Type | co-educational, independent |
Religious affiliation(s) | Christian |
Established | 1741-05-17 | (as George Watson's Hospital)
Founder | George Watson |
Principal | Melvyn Roffe[1] |
Age | 3[1] to 18[1] |
Pupils | 2,358[1] |
Area | 50 acre[2] |
Campus type | urban parkland |
Houses | Cockburn-Greyfriars, Lauriston, Melville-Ogilvie, Preston-Falconhall |
School colour(s) | Maroon, white |
Sports | Rugby, hockey, cricket, rowing, badminton, squash, football, sailing, rifle shooting, skiing, athletics, tennis, rock climbing, polo, surfing, fencing, curling. |
Rival | George Heriot's School |
Publication | The Watsonian, Caritas, Recorder, Tick Talk[3] |
Alumni | List of Old Watsonians |
Alumni name | Watsonians |
Website | gwc.org.uk |
250px |
George Watson's College is a co-educational independent day school in Scotland, situated on Colinton Road, in the Merchiston area of Edinburgh. It was first established as a hospital school in 1741, became a day school in 1871, and was merged with its sister school George Watson's Ladies College in 1974. It is a Merchant Company of Edinburgh school and a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference.
Contents
History
Foundation
The school was established according to the instructions of George Watson (1654–1723) who bequeathed the bulk of his fortune of £12,000 – a vast sum in 1723 – to found a school for the provision of post-primary boarding education.
Watson was never a member of the Merchant Company of Edinburgh, but he was impressed by their running of the Merchant Maiden Hospital and so he chose the Company to implement the terms of his will. After some years, the Governors bought land known as Heriot's Croft, located off Lauriston Place in Edinburgh, close to the Meadows and opposite George Heriot's School, and engaged an architect. The foundation stone was laid on 22 May 1738, and the building was completed early in 1741. (At the time, there was concern that this site was too far from the city, but today it would be regarded as close to the city centre.)
The school opened as George Watson's Hospital on Whitsunday, 17 May 1741. The initial roll consisted of 11 boys, aged 9–10 years; by 1749 there were 30, while in 1842 pupils numbered 86, this figure being maintained until the end of the Hospital system in 1870.[4]
In accordance with Watson's will, the governors were responsible for former pupils up to the age of 25; they were helped to find apprenticeships and paid an allowance. Watson's stated preference was for allowing the hospital's charges to become skilled workers, though the governors also allowed boys who showed an ability to pursue medicine or academia.[5]
Re-establishment as a day school
By the 1860s, the hospital school system had fallen into general public disrepute, while the Merchant Company was fearful both of government intervention in the schooling system and of its own decline. The solution was to re-found Watson's, and the three other hospitals under its governorship, as day schools. In July 1868 the Company applied to Parliament for powers to reorganise their schools and make different use of their endowments to as to make education more widely available.
Watsons' was thus completely transformed, reopening on 26 September 1870 as a fee-paying day school with a roll of 800 boys, initially called George Watson's College Schools for Boys.
In 1869, the original hospital building was sold to the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh. When the infirmary sought to expand in 1871, the school moved a short distance west to the former Merchant Maiden Hospital building in Archibald Place. The original hospital building was incorporated into the infirmary, and the chapel remained in use as the hospital chapel until the infirmary was itself moved away. The remains of the building were demolished in 2004 during the redevelopment of the infirmary site by the Quartermile consortium,[5] which also redeveloped the site of the Archibald Place buildings, which had been demolished in the 1930s after the school moved to its present site.
1932 buildings
In the years following World War I, the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary needed to expand once more and was interested in the site then occupied by Watson's. At the same time, the Archibald Place building was cramped and in need of modernisation, as well as being distant from the school's playing fields at Myreside. In 1924 the Merchant Company announced that they had taken the decision to sell the Archibald Place building to the Infirmary for a "fair" price.
In 1927, agreement was made to acquire the site of Merchiston Castle School – adjacent to the Myreside playing fields – and a competition was held to design the new school building. The winner was announced in June 1928 as James B Dunn, himself a Watsonian, with a plan described as "simple, direct and masterly".
Building work on the new site commenced in August 1929. The new building, facing Colinton Road, was in a neo-classical style and sandstone-faced. It is H-shaped, extending over two stories, with a large central Assembly Hall which seats up to 1835.
The new building was completed in 1932. It was opened on 22 September by HRH Prince George (later Duke of Kent).
The Golden Jubilee of the creation of the 1932 buildings fell in 1982, and was marked by a number of celebrations. These culminated on 29 June with a visit from Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth. The Queen spent two hours touring the campus, including a short concert, and she unveiled a commemorative plaque.[5]
George Watson's Ladies College
The reforms, which saw the hospital's transformation into a day school, also saw the Merchant Company wish to open a school for girls. In July 1868, the Company applied to Parliament for powers to reorganise their schools and make different use of their endowments to as to make education more widely available.
In February 1871, the Company took over the lease of Melville House in George Square, Edinburgh and used it as the location of the nascent George Watson's College Schools for Young Ladies. It was renamed to George Watson's College for Ladies in 1877, and to George Watson's Ladies College in 1890.[5]
Amalgamation
In 1967, the Merchant Company announced its plan to combine the two Watson's Colleges to form a single co-educational campus in Colinton Road. Building work was required to house the combined school.
The first joint assembly of the amalgamated school was held on 1 October 1974. The school found itself in the Guinness Book of Records as the largest co-educational school in Scotland, with a roll of over 2,400 pupils.[5]
Since then the school has remained co-educational, and now serves day pupils only; previously various boarding houses were maintained from time to time in the Tipperlinn Road area, and on-campus at New Myreside House.
George Watson's College also incorporates the once entirely separate John Watson's School, the former premises of which now house the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art.
George Watson's College Pipes and Drums
George Watson's College Pipes and Drums is affiliated with the school. They played at the 2009 Edinburgh Military Tattoo.
Notable alumni
<templatestyles src="Module:Hatnote/styles.css"></templatestyles>
<templatestyles src="Module:Hatnote/styles.css"></templatestyles>
- The Reverend David Arnott, Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland for 2011–2012
- John William Ballantyne obstetrician and pioneer of female education in the field of medicine
- Sir John Charles Fenton, lawyer, Solicitor General for Scotland
- Ian Frazer, Creator of the Human Papilloma virus vaccine and Australian of the Year 2006
- Prof Neil Campbell (chemist)
- Thomas Cooper, 1st Baron Cooper of Culross, Solicitor General for Scotland, Lord Advocate
- Karin Giannone, Journalist and news presenter at BBC News
- Robert Horne, 1st Viscount Horne, Chancellor of the Exchequer
- Martha Kearney, BBC broadcaster and journalist
- Paul Nuki Chief Editor at NHS Choices.
- Hugo Rifkind, journalist
- Sir Malcolm Rifkind, KCMG, QC, politician (Conservative Party)
- Captain Henry Peel Ritchie, First World War Victoria Cross recipient
- Tun Dato' Sir James Beveridge Thomson, KBE, SSM, PMN, PJK, lawyer and judge, Chief Justice of the Federal Court of Malaysia.
- Sir Robert Brown (Robin) Black, GCMG, Governor of Hong Kong, 1958–64
- Colin Boyd, Baron Boyd of Duncansby, PC, QC, Lord Advocate, life peer in the British House of Lords
- John Corrie, politician, MP, MEP
- Finlay Currie, actor
- David Maxwell Fyfe, 1st Earl of Kilmuir, GCVO, PC, QC, Barrister, Home Secretary and Lord Chancellor
- Frances Guy Diplomat (British Ambassador to the Yemen and Lebanon)
- Ronald King Murray, Lord Murray, PC, politician and judge, (Labour Party)
- Robert Reed, Lord Reed, Supreme Court of the United Kingdom
- Iain Macphail, Lord Macphail
- Alastair Campbell, Lord Bracadale, QC
- Sir John Ireland Falconer, WS
- Air Chief Marshal Sir James Robb (RAF officer), GCB, KBE, DSO, DFC, AFC
- Rear Admiral George Pirie Thomson, CBE, naval officer and Britain's Chief Press Censor in WWII
- Lieutenant General Sir David Young (British Army officer), KBE, CB, DFC
- Major-General Sir Alexander Biggam, KBE, CB, FRSE, FRCPE, FRCP
- Malcolm Chisholm
- Ronald King Murray, Lord Murray, PC, politician and judge, (Labour Party)
- Chris Smith, Baron Smith of Finsbury, PC, former British MP and Cabinet minister (Labour Party)
- Elizabeth Smith, MSP
- David Steel, Baron Steel of Aikwood, KT, KBE, PC, politician (Liberal Democrats), MP, former leader of the Liberal Party
- William Wolfe
- Auckland Geddes, 1st Baron Geddes, GCMG, KCB, PC
- Sir Eric Anderson, KT, FRSE, provost of Eton College
- Norman Davidson (biochemist), CBE
- Sir John Flett (geologist), KBE, FRSE, FRS, FGS
- Keith Moffatt, physicist
- Stan Paterson, glaciologist
- Ian R. Porteous, mathematician
- Gerald Russell, Professor of Psychiatry
- John Steele (oceanographer)
- Joseph Wedderburn, mathematician
- Sir Basil Spence, architect
- Jimmy Finlayson, actor
- Peter Baikie, Scottish comedian and composer
- Jack Docherty, Scottish writer, actor, presenter and producer.
- Jamie Drummond, Edinburgh-born Canadian sommelier and amateur dramatist.
- Donald Runnicles, OBE, noted conductor
- Malcolm Martineau, pianist and recital accompanist
- Myles MacInnes (known as Mylo), singer-songwriter, music producer, and DJ
- Keith McIvor (known as JD Twitch) music producer, and DJ
- Rebecca West, writer and campaigner
- Robin Williamson, musician with The Incredible String Band
- Douglas Percy Bliss, painter
- Jo Fraser, Painter
- Henry Raeburn Dobson, painter
- Ian Anderson, musician with Jethro Tull
- Martin Bell, skier, and four times participant of the Winter Olympics
- Neil McCallum (cricketer)
- Sir Chris Hoy, MBE, Six-time Olympic gold medal winning track cyclist
- Gillian Cooke, athlete and bobsledder
- Robin Smith, mountaineer
- Craig Sutherland, professional footballer
- Keith Fraser, Olympic Athlete 1992
- Gavin Hastings, OBE, rugby player
- Scott Hastings, rugby player
- Jason White, rugby player
- Ian Robertson (rugby player and commentator)
- David Johnston International rugby player and professional footballer (Heart of Midlothian)
- Marcus Di Rollo
- John Howard Wilson, rugby player
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
External links
![]() |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.. |
Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- Pages with broken file links
- Articles containing Latin-language text
- Pages using infobox school with unsupported parameters
- Independent schools in Edinburgh
- Member schools of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference
- Educational institutions established in the 1740s
- Category B listed buildings in Edinburgh