An A to Z of The King's School, Canterbury

An

AZ to

of The King’s School, Canterbury

Having been nominated for Gosford Park (2002), The Golden Compass (2007), and Life of Pi (2012), former pupil Anna Pinnock (Broughton 1978-80) received an Academy Award in 2015 for Best Production Design alongside production designer Ada Stockhausen for their work on The Grand Budapest Hotel. Pinnock was also nominated for Into the Woods in 2015 and was granted leave from filming the James Bond title, Spectre, in order to attend theAwards.

A

bbot Fyndon’s Great Gate, the entrance to St. Augustine’s, forms part of the remains of the first Benedictine Abbey in England, established around AD598 following the arrival of Augustine of Canterbury, a Benedictine monk who became the first Archbishop of Canterbury.

The crenellated great gatehouse completed the building of the inner court in 1309.

B

roughton was one of the two original boys’ houses when the School acquired the St. Augustine’s site in 1976. Girls were attached to the house from 1978 and it became the School’s fourth girls’ boarding house in 1993. Named after William Broughton OKS, the first (and only) Bishop of Australia of the Church of England.

The gateway at Bailey was built in the fourteenth century, and the main part of the house in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Next to the girls’ Sixth Form house is the route of the original Roman road into Canterbury, and the first Kent and Canterbury Hospital was at the end of the garden.

C

arlyon Bay hotel, near St Austell in Cornwall became home to The King’s School in 1940 when the School was evacuated from Canterbury during the Second World War. An extract from The Cantuarian at the time goes some way to describing the potential impact of the war on the very existence of King’s. In 2005 Carlyon House, a mixed day house, opened to commemorate the hospitality shown to the School during the war.

Thus there came about one of the most historic events in the life of the School; perhaps indeed, the finale of its history, but even the most sceptical of us, and those least affected by that love of it which we are so frequently told we should have, hope that at the end of the war we shall go back to Canterbury and our prosperous days of peace.

The Cantuarian 1940

D

rama and Dance at King’s finds its home in The Malthouse, a converted Victorian building which holds a 334-seat theatre, drama and dance studios and state-of-the-art dressing rooms. Opened in 2019 by Joanna Lumley OBE, FRGS, the facility is described as better than those in professional environments by the Absolutely Fabulous actress, and allows King’s pupils to grow their confidence and fully explore the Performing Arts. Recent productions, many performed outdoors in some of the beautiful settings around the Cathedral Precincts, have included Cyrano de Bergerac, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Romeo & Juliet and a recent return to musical theatre with Little Shop of Horrors.

E

ast Kent Schools Together, formed in 2017, is a local partnership initiative made up of three state schools, three independent schools (one of which is King’s) and a university. The aim of the partnership is to raise aspirations and widen horizons. Each school contributes and draws from the partnership on an equal footing for the benefit of all. The inclusion of a university as a partner opens exciting and innovative educational opportunities for the schools involved. Initiatives have included Mind’s Eye Kent, a magazine showcasing the writing talents of students from across the partnership, the Big Sing, a partnerships choir and the Big Chill, a well-being day for students from across all seven schools.

F

amous individuals educated at King’s over the years have contributed to society in a variety of ways.

Over 130 OKS names are recorded in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Among the most distinguished are William Harvey, Christopher Marlowe, Walter Pater, W. Somerset Maugham, Sir Hugh Walpole CBE, Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery and Sir Patrick Leigh Fermor. Today the best known include ex-England cricket captain David Gower OBE, the astronaut Michael Foale CBE, triple Olympic medallist Fran Houghton MBE, War Horse author Sir Michael Morpurgo OBE, former Deputy Chief of Staff for David Cameron Baroness Fall and the former Minister responsible for the 2012 London Olympics Sir Hugh Robertson.

G

reen Court is now at the centre of the School. It has been surrounded by lime trees since at least 1708 and there are now ones commemorating two former Headmasters (Thomas Field and Peter Newell). The Court was originally used by the Dean and Chapter for the purpose of exercising their horses, but in 1812 the scholars of The King’s School were given the free liberty of playing on the Court. Cricket was played here in the mid-nineteenth century with athletics following suit from the 1860s. An ancient rule suggests that the Captain of School is allowed to keep a goat tethered on the grass as well as being allowed to grow a beard and take his wife to lessons.

Galpin’s takes its name from The Reverend Arthur Galpin, Headmaster from 1897-1910. It was originally built in 1864 as the Headmaster’s house and became a boys’ boarding house in 1952 after School House was divided in two.

Galpin’s occupies the site of the monastic Aula Nova. Part of this structure, most notably the Norman Staircase, remains to this day.

H

arvey House is a girls’ boarding house. It was originally located at 82-86 Broad Street which later became Jervis House. It moved to its current home at St. Augustine’s in 1998. The house is named after one of our most famous OKS, William Harvey, an English Physician who was the first to demonstrate the circulation of blood through the body.

I

ndependent Schools, such as King’s, educate over 630,000 children in around 2,500 schools in the UK. This equates to around 6.5% of the total number of school children in the UK with the figure rising to more than 15% of pupils over the age of 16. The King’s School is a truly global community with pupils from over 40 different countries currently at the School.

J

unior King’s was founded in 1879 as the preparatory school to The King’s School. The pupils of Junior King’s spent the first half century alongside their senior counterparts in the Cathedral Precincts. In 1929 the School moved to its present location at Milner Court, just two miles from Canterbury.

Formerly the home of Lord Alfred Milner, the Tudor house and grounds were given to The King’s School in his memory

by Lady Milner. The new school building was opened on 5th October 1929 by her great friend Rudyard Kipling, author of The Jungle Book.

Opened in 1992, Jervis is a purpose-built girls’ boarding house, named after Douglas Jervis OKS and his sister Norah, both benefactors to the School. Situated on Broad Street, the house is linked to the Precincts by a door through the city wall that leads directly to the Dining Hall, the Undercroft and Green Court.

K

ing’s Week is a unique festival of music, drama, dance, art and recreation that has been held every year in the last week of the Summer Term since 1952. It continues to attract thousands of parents, friends and visitors. King’s Week features over one hundred events in over thirty attractive locations ranging from jazz to dance, from classical music to a variety of plays, and from lectures to recitals. The week provides a relaxing focus in the period after public examinations and a glorious conclusion to the academic year.

Kingsdown House became the seventh girls’ boarding house in 2015. A striking combination of old and new, the house features a new building joined to an existing Grade II listed, William Butterfield, building that was originally a school itself in 1847. Named after, and opened by, Lady Kingsdown, Governor Emerita.

L

inacre House, a fine Georgian building incorporating part of the medieval prior’s lodging, is a boys’ boarding house.

Named after Thomas Linacre, founder of the Royal College of Physicians the building was at one point a Canon’s house. When Canon Nelson, brother of Horatio, lived here, Lady Hamilton is reputed to have danced on a table in the room that is now the Head of House’s study.

Luxmoore House, named after Sir Arthur Fairfax Coryndon Luxmoore OKS, Lord Justice of Appeal, is a girls’ boarding house. Originally a boys’ boarding house situated on the New Dover Road, Luxmoore moved into a purpose-built house within the Precincts, opened by the Queen Mother in 1981. A sundial in the front garden records her visit in Latin verse. Luxmoore became the second girls’ house in 1991.

M

eister Omers, popularly known as MO, is a boys’ boarding house. It was built in the fifteenth century by Cardinal Beaufort and has one of the widest fireplaces in England. Edward IV held a Parliament here in 1470. Cardinal Coligny is said to have died here in suspicious circumstances in 1568, and the arms of Queen Elizabeth, originally in an upstairs dormitory but now in the hall, probably mark her visit in 1573.

Mitchinson’s, a mixed day house, opened in the Mint Yard in 1982. It moved to its new site in February 2018. The building in St. Radigund’s Street had once been Bligh Brothers Coachworks, where two of the Chitty Bang Bang cars were partly built for Count Zborowski (1895-1924). His exploits inspired Ian Fleming’s Chitty Chitty Bang Bang stories. The house is named after John Mitchinson, Headmaster 1859-1873.

Day boys had been organised separately for some years and they competed in house matches from 1929 but it wasn’t until 1935 that they were listed as a separate house, which was named Marlowe in 1936. The house is named after poet and dramatist Christopher Marlowe OKS. The studies are named after characters in Marlowe’s plays and some fascinating archive material on the playwright is displayed on the stairs.

(The)

N

orman Staircase is one of the most painted, photographed, and admired sites in Canterbury. As its name suggests it dates back to the twelfth century.

For formal occasions the School traditionally gathered here. Archbishops of Canterbury and royalty have addressed the School from the Staircase during visitations. King George VI, accompanied by Queen Elizabeth and Princess Elizabeth, presented the School’s Royal Charter to the Dean on 11th July 1946 from these very steps.

O

lympians that have attended the School include: 1920 Leslie Housden (athletics) 1936 Alan Barrett: silver medal (rowing) 1952 Richard Norris: bronze medal (hockey) 1960 Richard Fishlock, Colin Porter (rowing) 1964 Roger Sutton (hockey) 1976 Thomas Bishop (rowing) 1980 Simon Osborne (athletics) 1988 John Maxey (rowing) 1996 Nick Strange (rowing) 2000 Fred Scarlett: gold medal (rowing); Frances Houghton (rowing) 2002 Winter Olympics: Hugh Pritchard (biathlon)

2004 Frances Houghton: silver medal (rowing) 2008 Frances Houghton: silver medal (rowing) 2012 Tom Ransley: bronze medal (rowing); Frances Houghton (rowing) 2014 Winter Olympics: Millie Knight (Paralympic skiing) 2016 Tom Ransley: gold medal (rowing); Frances Houghton: silver medal (rowing) 2018 Winter Olympics: Millie Knight: two silver medals, one bronze (Paralympic skiing) 2022 Winter Olympics: Millie Knight: bronze medal (Paralympic skiing)

P

urple gowns were part of the school uniform in the sixteenth century before being replaced with black gowns in the nineteenth century. Purple was reintroduced in the 1930s for School Monitors (Prefects) and Senior King’s Scholars.

Q

ueen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh visited the School in 2015 as they unveiled sculptures of themselves at Canterbury Cathedral to mark the Queen’s Diamond

Jubilee. After lunch in the Deanery a lucky group of pupils and staff attended a private service in the Cathedral with the royals before witnessing the grand unveiling. The sculptures, carved by sculptor Nina Bilbey, from Wells-next-the-Sea, Norfolk stand by the west door of the Cathedral and are the first royal sculptures to be installed there during Queen Elizabeth II’s reign.

R

owing has been a sport at King’s since 1862 when boys originally rowed at Fordwich, close to the School. The King’s School Boat Club was established in the 1890s and is now located at Westbere Lakes in Sturry. Many pupils have represented Great Britain and England at Junior level and gone on to taste success at World Championships and Olympic Games. Fred Scarlett MBE (Olympic gold medallist 2000), Frances Houghton MBE (Olympic silver medallist 2004, 2008 & 2016 and World Champion 2005, 2006, 2007 & 2010) and Tom Ransley MBE (Olympic gold medallist 2016, Olympic bronze medallist 2012 and World Champion 2013 & 2014) are our most successful rowers.

S

chool House, a boys’ boarding house, was opened in 1864 to replace the old Almonry building which was then demolished. From the 1860s until 1901 School House was the only boarding house, though there were also dormitories in what later became The Grange. The Headmaster was the housemaster, originally living in what became the separate Galpin’s House in 1952.

T

radescant is named after John Tradescant OKS, the distinguished gardener and collector. The building was designed by William Butterfield and opened as part of St. Augustine College in 1848. It was one of the two original boys’ boarding houses when the School acquired the St. Augustine’s site in 1976.

The Grange is a boys’ boarding house which takes its name from its former home in the Precincts between 1928 and 2007. Built on the ruins of a former granary, the original building now houses the Edred Wright Music School, classrooms, and part of the School Archives.

The new building, at St. Augustine’s, was opened in 2007 by the late distinguished travel writer Sir Patrick Leigh Fermor DSC OBE OKS, himself a former Grange boy.

U

niform in its current guise at King’s - known as ‘Canterbury dress’ - dates back just over a hundred years. The wing collar, black jacket and pin stripe trousers are very much Edwardian. (The girls’ uniform, introduced when the School went fully co-educational in 1990, is an adaptation of this).

King’s Scholars have always worn white surplices for cathedral services: there is a reference in 1635 to “a snowy Croud of Kings Schollers”.

V

oluntary Community Service at King’s offers pupils an opportunity to help others in the community.

The Charity Commission suggests that the School may be the oldest charity in the country. Certainly the School is very conscious of its duty to the wider community.

Around 50 pupils from the Fifth and Sixth Form take part in activities ranging from assisting at a primary school as part of the Partnership programme to helping out in a charity shop.

W

alpole House is an eighteenth century building, incorporating part of the medieval Archbishop’s Palace.

From 1879 to 1929 it housed the Junior School. It was then the Sanatorium, until it became a boarding house in 1935.

It was named after Sir Hugh Walpole OKS. Walpole was the first girls’ house when the School became fully coeducational in 1990.

The War Memorial was created after the First World War and unveiled on 19th December 1921 by Major General Sir Evan Carter OKS. The sunken Memorial Court was hollowed out with the boys at the school doing the digging. Tablets commemorating those who were killed during the First & Second World Wars contain the names of 273 boys and masters. An outdoor service is held around the War Memorial on Remembrance Sunday in November, at which the names of OKS who died in service of their country are read out.

X

and I adorn the coat of arms used by the School. The School does not have its own coat of arms but uses a version of Canterbury Cathedral’s. Some accounts claim that the Greek letters (iota, chi) stand for Jesus Christ. However, Thomas Willement in Heraldic Notices of Canterbury Cathedral (1827) p.6 states: ‘The letters on the cross are evidently an abbreviation of ‘Christi’, the Church having been so dedicated.’ Thus it is properly chi, iota: hence the lower case iota in many versions.The heraldic description is: ‘Azure, on a cross, argent, the letter Χ, surmounted by the letter i, sable’.

Y

oung Enterprise, which reaches over 300,000 young people across the UK, helping them to develop their business, financial and entrepreneurial capabilities, is just one of over thirty endeavours in the extensive Activities programme at King’s. Recent businesses at the school have included Planting Memories (Hand made cards with planting seeds contained within), SID zines (an environmental magazine for children aged 5-10), Folie (shopping bags with a chalkboard paint panel enabling the user to write their shopping list on the bag), and Canterbury in Watercolour (a calendar and postcards depicting scenes of Canterbury painted by a current pupil).

Z

eal and zero gravity go hand in hand for Colin Michael Foale CBE OKS, a BritishAmerican astrophysicist and former NASA astronaut. He is a veteran of six space missions, and is the only NASA astronaut to have flown extended missions aboard both Mir and the International Space Station. He was the first Briton to perform a spacewalk, and holds the cumulative-time-in-space record for a UK citizen. He studied at Queens’ College, Cambridge at the same time as Stephen Fry, receiving a first-class honours degree in Natural Sciences in 1978 and a doctorate in laboratory astrophysics in 1982. He applied and was turned down twice as an astronaut candidate before being accepted in 1987. In 2004 he spoke to pupils at King’s via live radio link from the International Space Station. Each year an award, named after Foale, is made to pupils who show an aptitude for science, intend to study science at university and have a desire to communicate their ideas and interests to the school body.

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