A H I STO RY OF THE RGS IN ITS PEOPLE BY DAVID GOLDWATER (51-62)
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or the first centuries of the RGS’s existence, its main impetus was to educate boys. Masters – a term which was to last well into the 20th Century—guided boys along the paths of literacy, numeracy and of course, righteousness. Co-education was not to flourish until well into the 20th Century, although there were some exceptions. The world’s oldest co-educational school is thought to be Archbishop Tenison’s Church of England High School, Croydon, established in 1714. The world’s oldest co-educational both day and boarding school is Dollar Academy in Scotland. From its opening in 1818 until now, the school has admitted both boys and girls. Two women should be especially noted as having a crucial role in the establishment of our School as we know it. In 1525 Thomas Horsley made provision in his will that upon the death of his wife Johanna, the income from a trust should to be paid to the city for part of the stipend of a grammar school master. Around two generations after the establishment of the School, on March 22nd 1600, Queen Elizabeth I granted the burgesses of Newcastle upon Tyne a new ‘Great Charter’, part of which bestowed its Royal status on the Grammar School. The names of the female domestic and catering staff have gone unrecorded, but like Barrie Bulch of today, iconic Catering Superintendents, are remembered by the many thousands of willing recipients of jam roly-poly and lashings of ice-cream. Ma Stevens (31-56), Clara Teunon (57-72), who was Jack
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Wolstenholme’s (48-75) cousin and Jenny Sims (72-98) helped the regiments of RGS students to sustain their studies well into the afternoon and without selfservice, or industrial ovens. Long before the momentous millennial move into co-education, relations with the nearby girls’ schools The Great Charter of 1600
were warm and close, despite the Debating Society in June 1907 opposing the view that women should be included in the electorate and in March 1909 upholding the motion ‘Women were not to be allowed into the professions’. By 1936, Novo was reporting that an interdebate took place with members of the Central High School. A record 163 attended and there was a high standard of speaking from both schools on the subject: ‘That the Arts are more important in education than Science’. Through the decades, Novo records very many examples of warm inter-school relations, particularly with CHS and CNHS. April 1952 Astronomical Society meetings invited members of the Science Society of the NCHS. In Spring 1953,
