Wandsworth School History

The following histories are taken from The Link and cover the period 1895 to 1957.


A BRIEF OUTLINE OF THE HISTORY OF WANDSWORTH SCHOOL

1895 Day Science School opened in the newly founded Wandsworth Technical Institute in the High Street, S.W. 18., with two masters and 34 boys. The Building was a converted Skating Rink!
1896 Girls were admitted, the School consisting of 17 girls and 38 boys. The courses were identical, except that the girls took Domestic Economy instead of Woodwork. Dr. Waite was appointed to the Staff.
1900 Dr. Waite began his long service as Headmaster. Latin was introduced and a games field obtained. Free tickets for swimming in the new Baths close by, were issued.
1902 School roll 172 (102 boys and 70 girls). Messrs. Phillimore and Powell appointed. The School this year received a grant from the Board of Education (under the 1902 Act). The name of the School was changed to 'The Wandsworth Technical Institute Secondary School.
1903 Gymnastics introduced into the curriculum.
1904 German introduced as a School subject.
1906 Old Wandsworthians' Association founded. This year the School experienced its First Inspection by the Board of Education. An Iron structure was added to provide four extra classrooms.
1907 Organised games were included in the curriculum.
1908 The School Library was started with 400 volumes. A new Sports Field adjoining South fields Station was acquired.
1909 Mayfield opened, the 120 girls being transferred thence.
1911 The first trip was organised--to Belgium.
1914 School roll 364 (all boys): Chess Club rounded: First World War began: Out of a Service roll of 500, 98 boys lost their lives.
1916 The Twenty-Fifth anniversary of the opening of the School--which passed unnoticed !
1917 First Edition of The Link printed.
1918 --End of the First World War.
1919 School roll 530. This year saw the extension of out-of-school activities. The Choir and Orchestra were founded; also the Stamp and Nature Clubs. The Hobbies Exhibition was held for the first time.
1920 Parents' Evenings were instituted.
1922 Dramatic Society and Photographic Club started. Present site acquired for the New School Building. 1923 Debating Society founded.
1924 Historical Society instituted by Mr. Terry. The first of the Annual Shakespeare plays was performed (Dr. Jory).
1925 The School Song was sung for the first time at Speech Day.
1927 New Building Opened in Sutherland Grove. School name changed to Wandsworth School. The School Hymn "Foundation" was sung at the Ceremonial Opening on the 8th December.
1929 War Memorial Pavilion opened. House names changed from Reds, Blues, etc., to Cromwell, Gibbon, Morley, Pitt (after famous local men).
War Memorial Tablet unveiled by the Bishop of Kingston.
1932 Dr. Waite retired after 32 years service as Headmaster. Wandsworthians' Lodge inaugurated. H. Raymond King succeeded Dr. Waite. House Tutorial and Diligence Systems introduced.
1933 School became the hub of the International Summer Schools' Organisation. Annual interchange of pupils during the summer holiday periods.
1939 Second World War: School evacuated to Woking, where work was continued in conjunction with Woking Grammar School.
1940 School moved into Little Firs, Woking. Houses amalgamated, due to paucity of numbers, into Morgibbs and Crompitts.
1943 Wartime classes commenced at Sutherland Grove in charge of Mr. Powell.
1945 School Jubilee Year: celebrated by the whole School being together in Sutherland Grove after 6 years of War.


From: The Link December 1957, author not given.

THE STORY OF WANDSWORTH SCHOOL

This is the story which was recited at the School Official Opening, the first part of which was printed in our special Jubilee Link in 1946.

Spoken by A. W. Atkinson, D. Ayshford, P.M. Cassidy, G.W. Willis, G.W.C. Wort.

Happily, in September, 1945, our tale of tribulation came to an end, the two branches of the School joined up, and Wandsworth School passed its fiftieth birthday in its own home. An auspicious beginning of the School's Jubilee Year. The School was given time to settle down before the week's celebrations in the Summer term. So that the Jubilee commemoration actually occurred in 1946. Lord Nathan, with Lady Nathan, presided at the main ceremony. It was on this occasion that the first part of this chronicle was spoken by five prefects. We are repeating and continuing their story.

A notable event of the week was a Commemoration Service in Wandsworth Parish Church when a memorable sermon was preached by Rev. J. H. (now Canon) Waddington who with four other Old Boys in Holy Orders shared the conducting of the service. A Choral Ode, composed by Dr. Wardale to words by Mr. Ascher was sung by the School Choir. Other events of the week included a Parents Day, Old Wandsworthians Day, an Open Day and a Sports Day at which Mrs. Shapcott made the formal presentation of the Shapcott Cup.

1945 marked the introduction of the regular House Assemblies on Friday mornings that have been a feature of the School week ever since. While we are on the subject of Houses you might like to know' that in the later years of evacuation the shrinkage of numbers led to the coalescence of the Houses in pairs, in which they were known as Motgibbs and Crompitts. The Annual Play on the pre-war pattern was revived in December, 1946."Androcles and the Lion" however, marked a break in the tradition of Shakespeare plays.

In 1947 the Wandsworthians Memorial Fund was launched in a joint appeal by School, Governors, Parents Association, Old Wandsworthians and the Wandsworthians Lodge. Its immediate object was a Memorial Plaque which, in due course, was unveiled on 11th November, 1949 at a moving ceremony in the School Hall by Air Chief Marshall, Lord Dowding, Chief of Fighter Command in the Battle of Britain. But the Memorial Committee hoped eventually to achieve a more ambitious object as a worthy and fitting memorial: A Sports Ground for Old Boys of the School. During the ten years that have elapsed since then, the Committee--have explored every avenue and left no stone unturned. The most conspicuous drive has come from the Old Wandsworthians Rugby Section. But it was not until the present year that the chance occurred to purchase a suitable piece of ground for development. With at last a tangible and practicable plan as the basis of a renewed appeal. All boys of the School, past, present and future have a stake in this enterprise. And as Napoleon might have said, every Wandsworth recruit has an Old Wandsworthians tie in his satchel. To get back to our chronicle:

In 1947 began our association with the Technical Branch. This School originated as the London or home section of the evacuated Brixton Junior Technical School. But it had grown too large for the parent school to re-absorb it after the war. The idea of giving the Headmaster charge of this school as well as the grammar school was gradually to integrate the two schools. Which might have happened sooner had not the L.C.C. removed the Technical Branch from Merton Road to Garratt Lane. So that in practice for some years it remained virtually a separate school in charge of Mr. Makin, appointed in 1949 from the Grammar School staff. On the scholastic side the Branch continued to recruit pupils in four streams at the age of 13 for three-year technical courses, either general or craft-biassed, based on Building as the centre of interest. The social side was developed on lines parallel to those of the Grammar School and a House and Tutorial system instituted. The Houses were named Gainsborough, Scott, Smeaton and Wren - great names in the history of Art and Architecture.

The School Magazine first appeared in 1950 and was published annually for 6 years. Its very appropriate name, the Pyramid, was adopted as the winning suggestion in a competition among the boys. Old Boys and Parents Associations were instituted. The former had a spasmodic existence but the latter developed strongly under the wise chairmanship of Mr. Chalk and firm staff support. As soon as the Building Plan for the new school was settled, the process of integration began. A shuttle bus service was started. Boys of eleven were recruited for the school as a whole and a Form 1 was based in the Garratt Lane building. This form exchanged places with another Form 1 based in Sutherland Grove for half the week. Recruitment to the combined school and transfer between the two parts were increased until by 1955, a majority of boys at Garratt Lane were Wandsworth School pupils. So that when the time came to join forces, the new school was not faced with the problem of absorbing "a foreign body"

To return again to the story of the Main School: The pre-war Hobbies Exhibition was revived in the Spring of 1947 and combined with other activities to form the new annual Eisteddfod. We have always owed a lot to members of Staff from the Principality. The cup presented by Mayfield to commemorate their wartime sojourn here was the first Eisteddfod Trophy.

Wandsworth's reputation for activity in the international field was recognised in various ways by Unesco. The first of a number of tasks we did for Unesco was the sorting and packaging of thousands of C.O.1 photographs to provide teaching material for schools in the devastated countries.

Extract from the Grindelward Echo for 12th August, 1947: "A young Englishman named Paul Brunning, entirely unaccustomed to mountaineering, climbed the Faulhorn last Saturday in 3 hours ". Brunning had been awarded an L.C.C. Mod. Lang Travel Scholarship for 3 months study abroad. We have upon occasions won three of these valuable scholarships in a single year. But who will be the next Wandworthian to win, as Clive Wilson did, a Rotary Foundation Fellowship of £1,000 for a year's study at the Harvard School of Business Administration?

In 1948 Mr. Keyte with the help of Mr. Makin and Mr. Robilliard organised the first "Week in Industry" at the invitation of Messrs. Stewart and Lloyds at the new iron town of Corby in Northamptonshire.

In 1948 at the first Speech Day since before the war, Mr. George Tomlinson, Minister of Education, presented the prizes. He said that for courtesy Wandsworth boys were "the best lot in London ".

The Sixth Form was beginning to build up again. In 1950 three boys got places at Cambridge and in 1952 three boys at Oxford.
In 1951 occurred the death of Dr. Waite, the first headmaster, 19 years after his retirement. Two headmasters have carried the School forward to its 63rd year. Is this a record?

In 1951 the Parents Association presented the School with a stage proscenium as a Festival Year Commemoration Gift. And Lord Hailsham presented the Prizes.

In 1952 as another task for Unesco the School helped an Arab Refugee School at Aqabet Jaber. In a touching letter of thanks, three of the Arab pupils began: "Our school lies on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho" This modern Good Samaritan story was highlighted in the 1954 Unesco Calendar and the name of Wandsworth School went round the world.

In 1951 the W. H. Rhodes Canadian Tour was revived and N. Roberts, Head Boy was selected to take part. As more recently last year's Joint Head Prefects were both selected: Hore in 1956 and Simons in 1957.

1953 was Coronation Year and also marked the 21st anniversary of the Parents Association and of the present Headmaster's appointment. The Parents presented a handsome Fives Trophy and the Headmaster's Eisteddfod Trophy to mark the occasion.

In 1953 the Mendola Medal, a high scientific distinction was awarded to Dr. Basil Weedon. The last match played in the School Field before building operations began was against Swansea Grammar School on the morning of the England-Wales Rugby International at Twickenham in January, 1954.

At the end of 1953 Mr. Allen the Schoolkeeper retired after 42 years with the School: and Mr. Catto, School Secretary, after 20 years. All these things seemed to mark the end of an epoch ---or the beginning.

1955-56 was the year of transition. The forms were re-named to suit the new pattern. The Lower School naming its forms from the non-recurring letters of the Greek Gnothi de seauton (Know then thyself) was separately organised. The Main School made similar use of the letters of the Greek word Pantheoreticos, suggesting the unity in variety of its wide range of studies.

Owing to the hold-ups in building operations, three plans had to be devised for the opening of the Autumn Term 1956. Full occupation, partial occupation, or no occupation at all. And in the end it proved to be no occupation until the following January. We had to find a temporary home for our 410 new eleven year olds. The recently vacated Elliott Building was taken over and all Forms 1 placed there, in charge of Mr. Bacchus.

Finally in January, 1957, all three branches of the School came together on the one site.
The Grammar School with 550 boys.
The Technical Branch with 350.
The Lower School with 410.
A total of over 1,300 boys
.
Professor Dorothy Tarrant, retiring Vice-Chairman of Governors, presented the prizes at the first combined Speech Day in the new Grand Hall.

And here the Chronicle stops - to be picked up again, perhaps, by the Prefects of 1995 when the School will have reached its centenary. And in that perspective there is little doubt that they will see clearly why Wandsworth led the way into the new age of secondary education. Firstly, because it built upon a sound and tried grammar school tradition and lived up to the standards that such a tradition demanded. Secondly, because it was able to incorporate from the start the experience and tradition of technical education stemming from the Brixton School of Building. Thirdly, because the School retained its full identity throughout: its expansion was gradual and planned as a result of many years thinking. In did not have to face all its problems at once or to improvise hasty solutions. Fourthly, because of its long experience of a well tried system of human and social relations in the School. Fifthly, because, earlier than other schools, it responded to the expanding demands that the second half of the 20th century made upon secondary education, in the spirit of enterprise that has marked so much of its history.

This is our faith and in this faith "We Serve "; May whatsoever things in our past are honourable and of good report inspire the present generation and the generations that come after to compose gallantly and generously Wandsworth School's unfolding story.


From: The Link December 1957



The last game (Swansea v. Wandsworth) was played on the School's fields on 16 January 1954. A year later, 14 January 1955, the view from the same place was very different.
(The Link, April 1955)