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George Watson's College
| George Watson's College | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Address | |
Colinton Road (Merchiston) Edinburgh , EH10 5EG Scotland | |
| Information | |
| Type | co-educational, independent |
| Motto | Ex Corde Caritas (Love from the Heart) |
| Established | 17 May 1741 (1741-05-17) (as George Watson's Hospital) |
| Founder | George Watson |
| Principal | Melvyn Roffe[1] |
| Age | 3[1] to 18[1] |
| Number of 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 |
 | |
George Watson by William Aikman
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
1 History
1.1 Foundation
1.2 Re-establishment as a day school
1.3 1932 buildings
1.4 George Watson's Ladies College
1.5 Amalgamation
2 Notable alumni
3 Notable staff
4 References
5 External links
History
Engraving of the original George Watson's Hospital, Edinburgh c.1850
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.
Watson's 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.
In 1902 the College was the first prestigious Scottish secondary school to appoint a woman head. The school's staff were mainly men and there were 930 pupils.[6]Charlotte Ainslie was an ex-pupil who had studied at Bedford College and now led George Watson's Ladies' College.[7]
1932 buildings
250th anniversary plaque in Edinburgh's Greyfriars Kirkyard
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
George Square Melville House, built in 1871 on the site of Admiral Duncan's house, was the home of George Watson's Ladies College until sold to Edinburgh University in 1974.
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 (nick-named "bug-huts") were maintained from time to time in the Spylaw 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.
The school pipe band at Sanix World Rugby Youth Invitational Tournament, Global Arena, Japan 2006
Notable alumni
According to the Sutton Trust, the school is placed first in Scotland and joint 29th in the UK for the number of the nation's leading people produced.[8]
Academia and Science
John William Ballantyne (1861 - 1923) - obstetrician and pioneer of female education in the field of medicine- Sir John Flett (geologist) (1869 - 1947), KBE, FRSE, FRS, FGS
James Dalgleish Hamilton Jamieson (1875 - 1966), FRSE - dentist and academic author
Joseph Wedderburn (1882 - 1948) - mathematician- Prof Neil Campbell (1903 - 1996) - chemist
Norman Davidson (1911 - 1972), CBE - biochemist
John Alexander Loraine (1924 - 1988), FRSE - endocrinologist
Stan Paterson (1924 - 2013) - glaciologist
John Steele (1926 - 2013) - oceanographer
Gerald Russell (b. 1928)) - Professor of Psychiatry
Ian R. Porteous (1930 - 2011) - mathematician
Keith Moffatt (b. 1935) - physicist
Ian Frazer (b. 1953) - Creator of the Human Papilloma virus vaccine and Australian of the Year 2006
Agnes Yewande Savage (1906-1964), pioneer woman in medicine in West Africa
Media and Arts
Finlay Currie (1878 - 1968) - actor
Charles Alexander Malcolm (1881 - 1961), FRSE - legal librarian and historical author
Jimmy Finlayson (1887 - 1953) - actor
David Kennedy Fraser (1888 - 1962), FRSE - educator
Rebecca West (1892 - 1983) - writer and campaigner
Douglas Percy Bliss (1900 - 1984) - painter
Henry Raeburn Dobson (1901 - 1985) - painter
Robin Williamson (b. 1943) - musician with The Incredible String Band
Ian Anderson (b. 1947) - musician with Jethro Tull
Donald Runnicles (b. 1954), OBE - noted conductor
Martha Kearney (b. 1957) - BBC broadcaster and journalist
Peter Baikie (b. 1957) - Scottish comedian and composer
Malcolm Martineau (b. 1960) - pianist and recital accompanist
Jack Docherty (b. 1962) - Scottish writer, actor, presenter and producer.
Paul Nuki (b. 1964) - Chief Editor at NHS Choices
Jamie Drummond (b. 1971) - Edinburgh-born Canadian sommelier and amateur dramatist.
Karin Giannone (b. 1974) - Journalist and news presenter at BBC News
Hugo Rifkind (b. 1977) - journalist
Myles MacInnes (known as Mylo) (b. 1978) - singer-songwriter, music producer, and DJ
Keith McIvor (known as JD Twitch) - music producer, and DJ
Ayden Brouwers (b. 1998) - Actor, artist, playwrite
Law
- Sir John Ireland Falconer (1879 - 1954) - WS
- Sir John Charles Fenton (1880 - 1951) - lawyer, Solicitor General for Scotland
Robert Horne, 1st Viscount Horne (1871 - 1940) - Chancellor of the Exchequer
Thomas Cooper, 1st Baron Cooper of Culross (1892 - 1956) - Solicitor General for Scotland, Lord Advocate
Iain Macphail, Lord Macphail (1938 - 2009)
Robert Reed, Lord Reed - Supreme Court of the United Kingdom
Alastair Campbell, Lord Bracadale (b. 1949) - QC
Politics
David Maxwell Fyfe, 1st Earl of Kilmuir (1900 - 1967), GCVO, PC, QC - Barrister, Home Secretary and Lord Chancellor
Tun Dato' Sir James Beveridge Thomson (1902 - 1983), KBE, SSM, PMN, PJK - lawyer and judge, Chief Justice of the Federal Court of Malaysia.- Sir Robert Brown (Robin) Black (1906 - 1999), GCMG - Governor of Hong Kong, 1958–64
Ronald King Murray, Lord Murray (1922 - 2016), PC - politician and judge, (Labour Party)
William Wolfe (1924 - 2010) - politician
John Corrie (b. 1935) - politician, MP, MEP
David Steel, Baron Steel of Aikwood (b. 1938), KT, KBE, PC - politician (Liberal Democrats), MP, former leader of the Liberal Party
- Sir Malcolm Rifkind (b. 1946), KCMG, QC - politician (Conservative Party)
Malcolm Chisholm (b. 1949) - politician
Chris Smith, Baron Smith of Finsbury (b. 1951), PC - former British MP and Cabinet minister (Labour Party)
Colin Boyd, Baron Boyd of Duncansby (b. 1953), PC, QC - Lord Advocate, life peer in the British House of Lords
Frances Guy (b. 1959) - Diplomat, British Ambassador to the Yemen and Lebanon
Elizabeth Smith (b. 1960) - MSP
Military
- Captain Henry Peel Ritchie (1876 - 1958) - First World War Victoria Cross recipient
- Rear Admiral George Pirie Thomson (1887 - 1965), CBE - naval officer and Britain's Chief Press Censor in WWII
- Major-General Sir Alexander Biggam (1888 - 1963), KBE, CB, FRSE, FRCPE, FRCP
- Air Chief Marshal Sir James Robb (RAF officer) (1895 - 1968), GCB, KBE, DSO, DFC, AFC
- Lieutenant General Sir David Young (British Army officer) (1926 - 2000), KBE, CB, DFC
Religion
- The Reverend David Arnott - Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland for 2011–2012
Sports
John Howard Wilson (1930 - 2015) - rugby player
Robin Smith (1938 - 1962) - mountaineer
Ian Robertson (b. 1945) - rugby player and commentator
David Johnston (b. 1958) - International rugby player and professional footballer (Heart of Midlothian)
Gavin Hastings (b. 1962), OBE - rugby player
Scott Hastings (b. 1964) - rugby player
Martin Bell (b. 1964) - skier, and four times participant of the Winter Olympics
Keith Fraser (b. 1968) - Olympic Athlete 1992- Sir Chris Hoy (b. 1976), MBE - Six-time Olympic gold medal winning track cyclist
Neil McCallum (b. 1977) - cricketer
Jason White (b. 1978) - rugby player
Marcus Di Rollo (b. 1978) - rugby player
Gillian Cooke (b. 1982) - athlete and bobsledder
Craig Sutherland (b. 1988) - professional footballer
Stuart McInally (b. 1990) - Scottish National Rugby Player [9]
Josh Kerr (b.1997) - middle-distance runner [10]
Other
Auckland Geddes, 1st Baron Geddes (1879 - 1954), GCMG, KCB, PC
- Sir Basil Spence (1907 - 1976) - architect
- Sir Eric Anderson (b. 1936), KT, FRSE, provost and Headmaster of Eton and Shrewsbury
Notable staff
Charlotte Ainslie OBE - first woman head at a prestigious Scottish school.[7]
William Dickson FRSE (1905-1992), Head of Science. The only schoolteacher to have been elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry.
Andrew J G Barclay and Alexander Yule Fraser, Maths masters, joint founders of the Edinburgh Mathematical Society
Peter Pinkerton FRSE - maths master, 1903 to 1913[11]
Robert Taylor Skinner FRSE taught mathematics in the school 1893 to 1899[12]
References
^ abcd "George Watson's College". Scottish Council of Independent Schools. Retrieved 2015-01-19..mw-parser-output cite.citation{font-style:inherit}.mw-parser-output q{quotes:"""""""'""'"}.mw-parser-output code.cs1-code{color:inherit;background:inherit;border:inherit;padding:inherit}.mw-parser-output .cs1-lock-free a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/65/Lock-green.svg/9px-Lock-green.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .cs1-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .cs1-lock-registration a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d6/Lock-gray-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-gray-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .cs1-lock-subscription a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/aa/Lock-red-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-red-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration{color:#555}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription span,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration span{border-bottom:1px dotted;cursor:help}.mw-parser-output .cs1-hidden-error{display:none;font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-visible-error{font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration,.mw-parser-output .cs1-format{font-size:95%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-left,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-left{padding-left:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-right,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-right{padding-right:0.2em}
^ "Our School". George Watson's College. Retrieved 2015-01-19.
^ "School Publications". George Watson's College. Retrieved 2015-01-19.
^ Waugh, Hector Liston (1970). George Watson's College. George Watson's College.
^ abcde Howie, Les (2006). George Watson's College: An Illustrated History. George Watson's College. pp. 1–270. ISBN 978-0-9501838-2-4.
^ Elizabeth L. Ewan; Sue Innes; Sian Reynolds; Rose Pipes (8 March 2006). The Biographical Dictionary of Scottish Women. Edinburgh University Press. p. 7. ISBN 978-0-7486-2660-1.
^ ab Lindy Moore, ‘Ainslie, Charlotte Edith (1863–1960)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 accessed 11 June 2017
^ "The Educational Backgrounds of the Nation's Leading People" (PDF). Sutton Trust. Retrieved November 2012. Check date values in:|accessdate=(help)
^ http://www.edinburghrugby.org/edinburgh-rugby/player/stuart-mcinally
^ https://golobos.com/roster.aspx?rp_id=2579
^ Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002 (PDF). The Royal Society of Edinburgh. July 2006. ISBN 0 902 198 84 X.
^ Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002 (PDF). The Royal Society of Edinburgh. July 2006. ISBN 0 902 198 84 X.
External links
 | Wikimedia Commons has media related to George Watson's College. |
- George Watson's College
- George Watson's College page on Scottish Schools Online
- Bullying report
Coordinates: 55°55′49″N 3°13′4″W / 55.93028°N 3.21778°W / 55.93028; -3.21778
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