History
The school was originally located at Greenwich Hospital, and was based in what is now the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, London. The Hospital was founded in 1694, and the school in 1712, both by Royal Charter. The original purpose of the school was to provide assistance and education to the orphans of seafarers in the Royal and Merchant Navies, and it was once the largest school for navigation and seamanship in the country.
The school has been located in Holbrook since 1933. The Holbrook campus was designed by the Birmingham-based arts and crafts architect Herbert Tudor Buckland. Most of the buildings are now Grade II listed with the main range and chapel being Grade II*.
Until relatively recently, entry to the school was limited to the children or grandchildren of seafarers. Until the 1950s, boys of the school were also required to join the Royal or Merchant Navies, and as such the education was focused on maritime matters. Although this requirement has not been in force for some decades, the school has retained certain naval traditions such as Naval uniform, divisions (a formal parade and march past as practised in the armed forces) and an element of marching.
In 1991 the school became coeducational, with the girls first being introduced into Hood house, followed by Cornwallis, Howe and Blake. Girls initially had a different uniform from boys, but this was changed to match the boys' uniform, and subsequently followed the changes in dress as seen in the Royal Navy. The first female Head of School was appointed in 1992 to work along side the male head of School.
In 1994 the entire school was bussed to Greenwich Hospital to parade in front of Queen Elizabeth II, in celebration of the tercentenary of the Hospital. The parade took place on the parade ground in front of the Queen's House.
In 2005 RHS was one of 50 of the country's leading private schools which were found guilty of running an illegal price-fixing cartel which had allowed them to drive up fees for thousands of parents. Each school was required to pay a nominal penalty of £10,000 and all agreed to make ex-gratia payments totalling three million pounds into a trust designed to benefit pupils who attended the schools during the period in respect of which fee information was shared.
Read more about this topic: Royal Hospital School
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