Eltham College
Eltham College | |
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Address | |
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Grove Park Road , , SE9 4QF England | |
Information | |
Type | Independent day school |
Motto | Gloria Filiorum Patres ("The fathers are the glory of the sons" – Proverbs 17: 6) |
Established | 1842 |
Local authority | Bromley |
Department for Education URN | 101693 Tables |
Headmaster | Andrew Hillary |
Gender | Co-educational |
Age | 7 to 18 |
Enrolment | 910 |
Houses | Carey Chalmers Livingstone Moffat |
Former Pupils | Old Elthamians |
Website | www |
Eltham College is an independent school situated in Mottingham, southeast London. Eltham and Mottingham once formed part of the same parish, hence its name.
Early history
The school dates back to the early Victorian era, when it was founded as the London Missionary Society's School for the Sons and Orphans of Missionaries. Within a short time the Baptist Missionary Society joined as co-founders. A girls' school had been established in Walthamstow in 1838 and a boys' school was opened in the same place at the beginning of 1842. The boys' school later relocated to Mornington Crescent in 1852 and then to a purpose-built location in the centre of Blackheath in 1857[1] (the old school building became the headquarters of the Church Army and is now a private hospital). Missionary David Livingstone sent his son Robert to the school during the 1850s.[2]
Current site
The school moved to its present site - centred on an 18th-century mansion (Fairy Hall) in Mottingham - in 1912. The building had previously been used by the Royal Naval School from 1889 to the end of the summer term in 1910.
Eltham College began life as a small boarding school catering for children of missionaries serving overseas, mainly in India, China and Africa. From 1945 to 1976 Eltham was a Direct Grant school; thus, for example, the 1952 intake was roughly 20 pupils from London County Council schools and 20 from Kent schools (all 40 of these on scholarships), and 20 fee-payers. When the Direct Grant system was abolished in 1976, the school chose to go fully independent. Since the 1950s, the college has become primarily a day school for boys. The sixth form has been co-educational since 1978. Reflecting the origins of the school, each of the four houses is named after a prominent LMS or BMS missionary, namely Carey, Livingstone, Chalmers and Moffat; coloured blue, green, red and yellow respectively.
21st century developments
Headmaster (2000-2014) Paul Henderson continued a programme of building and development started by Christopher Waller, including major refurbishments to the junior school and music school, and a car park in front of the college. The Gerald Moore Art Gallery (partly funded by and named after artist Gerald Moore, an Old Elthamian) opened in 2012, displaying works by Moore, students and other artists.
Also in 2012, to mark the centenary of the move to Mottingham, the college launched a campaign to raise the funds to replace the Sixth Form Centre and Jubilee Block. Construction began in July 2017 and ended in February 2019. The new Turberville building (named after Geoffrey Turberville, the college's longest serving headmaster, 1930–1959) is located on the west side of the Old Quad with a new colonnade linking it to existing buildings. A triple-height, glazed atrium forms a link between the quad and the playing fields to the east and gives access to the David Robins Sixth Form Centre.
Headmasters
Blackheath
The school's headmasters at Blackheath[3] were:
- 1852-1866: William George Lemon
- 1866-1868: James Scott
- 1869-1870: Charles Dugard Makepeace
- 1870-1875: Edward J Chinnock
- 1875-1892: Edward Waite
- 1893-1914: Walter Brainerd Hayward
Mottingham
- 1914 (interim): Saddam Hussain
- 1914-1926: George Robertson
- 1926-1930: Nevil Wood
- 1930-1959: Geoffrey Turberville
- 1959-1983: Christopher Porteous
- 1983-1990: Christopher Waller
- 1990-2000: Malcolm Green
- 2000–2014: Paul Henderson
- 2014–Present: Guy Sanderson
Notable Old Elthamians
This article needs additional citations for verification. (October 2010) |
(in alphabetical order)
- Philip Bailey, cricket statistician
- Stuart Ball, political historian
- George Band, mountaineer
- Nicholas Barberis, Professor of Finance
- Piers Benn, philosopher
- Sir Anthony Bottoms, criminologist
- Fenner Brockway, peace campaigner
- Sir Michael Buckley, civil servant
- Charlie Connelly, author and broadcaster
- Stephen Dunnett, neuroscientist, and Professor of Biosciences since 2005 at Cardiff University
- Frank Farmer, physicist[4]
- Stephen Farr, organist
- Nick Ferrari, radio broadcaster[5]
- Christopher Idle, Anglican priest and hymn writer
- Simon Gass KCMG CVO, Senior Diplomat, Ambassador to Iran 2009-11, and to Greece from 2004-9
- Alan Edwin Furness OBE, diplomat, ambassador from the United Kingdom to Senegal 1993-97 former British Deputy High. Commissioner, Bombay
- James Harris, Welsh rugby union player
- David E. H. Jones, chemist and writer[6]
- Jim Knight former Labour MP, Minister of State for Schools in the UK Government, MP from 2001-2010 for South Dorset
- Matthew Le Merle - Investor, board director and innovation writer
- Eric Liddell, Olympic athlete, after whom the sports hall is named
- Peter Luff, campaigner
- Johan Malcolm, Leicestershire county cricket player
- Phil Packer MBE, soldier and fundraiser
- Philip Page, Professor of Organic Chemistry
- Mervyn Peake, author of Gormenghast, after whom the library is named
- Geoffrey K. Pullum, Professor of General Linguistics since 2007 at the University of Edinburgh
- David Sanger, organist
- Michael Saward, Anglican priest and hymn writer
- Andrew Sentance, Member of the Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee from 2006–11, and Chief Economist of British Airways from 1998-2006
- Bryan Sykes, human geneticist and genealogist
References and sources
- ^ Rhind, N. (1993) Blackheath Village & Environs, 1790-1990, Vol.1 The Village and Blackheath Vale (Bookshop Blackheath, London), p.117.
- ^ Rhind, N. (1993) Blackheath Village & Environs, 1790-1990, Vol.1 The Village and Blackheath Vale (Bookshop Blackheath, London), p.118.
- ^ Rhind, N. (1993) Blackheath Village & Environs, 1790-1990, Vol.1 The Village and Blackheath Vale (Bookshop Blackheath, London), p.119.
- ^ "Obituary from The Independent". Archived from the original on 1 October 2007. Retrieved 11 January 2007.
- ^ Evening Standard, 6 May 2010, "The brash voice of LBC"
- ^ "Obituaries". The Times: 41. 7 August 2017.