Queen Victoria School was opened on 28 September 1908 by King Edward VII, and is Scotland's Ministry of Defence school for the sons and daughters of Scottish soldiers, sailors and airmen. It occupies a Scottish baronial style building on a campus just outside Dunblane in rural Stirling.
The idea of the school was originally proposed to Queen Victoria as a memorial to the Scottish dead of the Boer Wars, and after her death it was thought fit to name it in her memory. Money was raised from Scottish servicemen and the people of Scotland to complete the project.
The school's patron is the Duke of Edinburgh KG KT OM GBE, and the head of school is W A Bellars MA(Hons) DipEd MA(Ed Man) PGCE.
Traditionally the school provided an austere but continuous education for Scottish war orphans, with a good deal of military training and sports. Since the Second World War, the school has provided an education to children whose fathers have been travelling the world in the Armed Forces.
It became co-educational at the start of the 1996-97 academic year. Female pupils were introduced across the entire school, from Primary Seven to Sixth Year. The first female senior monitor was chosen soon after, in 1999.
A strong military ethos is still maintained by a pipe band and Combined Cadet Force (CCF) section. The school has its own "colours", its own cap badge, and pupils wear the Hunting Stewart tartan. The school pipe band used to play at every rugby home international at Murrayfield Stadium Edinburgh.
The school consists of four boarding houses: Cunningham, Haig, Wavell and Trenchard. Each house is named after a notable British officer, and they represent each strand of the armed forces, Royal Navy, Royal Air Force and Army.
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“A sure proportion of rogue and dunce finds its way into every school and requires a cruel share of time, and the gentle teacher, who wished to be a Providence to youth, is grown a martinet, sore with suspicions; knows as much vice as the judge of a police court, and his love of learning is lost in the routine of grammars and books of elements.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)