Army Children’s Schools

By Paul H. Vickers, Friends of the Aldershot Military Museum

Earlier this year the Marlborough School celebrated its 125th anniversary with a fine afternoon’s event much enjoyed by the children, parents, staff and guests. The school was justly proud of reaching this milestone, and it is remarkable that the original Victorian buildings are still at the heart of the school, although much modernised inside to make them fit for modern children’s education.

The Marlborough School, and the adjacent Clocktower school, were built as part of the reconstruction of Aldershot Garrison in the 1890s, when the wooden huts of the old Camp were replaced with new brick buildings. The Marlborough School was built as an infants’ school with seats for 328 children, while the Clocktower was an “Adult and elder children’s school”, with seats for 270 pupils. The designation of this school reflects the practice of using the elder children’s schools also for soldiers’ education after the children had finished for the day.

There had been Army schools in the camp since the earliest days, when they were housed in large wooden huts, each school shared by two battalions. These were adult and elder children’s schools; for younger children there were divisional infants’ schools in North and South Camps, and in the Permanent Barracks. Sheldrake’s 1859 ‘Guide to Aldershot’ described the “large central Garrison Infant School for 120 children, and quarters for four school-mistresses, a covered playground, an open playground inclosed by a wall, and a small garden for instruction”. Soldiers were expected to send their children to the Army schools, and after 1870 attendance was made compulsory. Nominal fees had to be paid, two pence per month for one child of an NCO or soldier, with reductions for additional children of the same family.

In the rank-conscious Victorian era, there was a separate school for children of officers. In 1860 General Knollys wrote that “The officers have felt it a great boon to have the privilege of sending their children to be educated at this institution and Miss Ellis [the headmistress] has conducted it with judgement and ability.”

When the camp was rebuilt in the 1890s the number of schools was rationalised, with new larger schools covering wider areas within the garrison. The Marlborough and Clocktower schools served North Camp (Marlborough Lines). For Stanhope Lines, in the centre of the garrison, there were infants’ schools in Provost Road and in Maida Barracks. Also in Provost Road was the Royal Engineers and Army Service Corps elder boys’ school, while the elder girls’ school was in Barossa Barracks. In the cavalry barracks there were infants’ and older children’s schools situated between Beaumont and Willems Barracks.

In charge of the schools and teaching the children were Army Schoolmasters and Schoolmistresses. Schoolmasters were originally trained in Chelsea, but in December 1887 training transferred to Aldershot. After the Army Regulations of 1910 updated the rules for Army Schoolmasters, successful candidates were enlisted for twelve years into the Corps of Army Schoolmasters, initially ranking next to a Master Gunner, 3rd Class, then after eight years they were granted the rank of Warrant Officers. A very few were selected for commissioning as inspectors with the honorary rank of lieutenant, rising to captain after ten years in the inspectorate. They could marry after three years enlisted service or after reaching the age of 23.

In the 1850s candidates for the Army Schoolmistresses had to be between 18 and 35 years of age and had to produce a certificate of moral character from a clergyman. Under the 1910 regulations applicants had to be between 20 and 22 years of age, and satisfy appropriate physical and educational standards. Probationary Army Schoolmistresses underwent twelve months’ training at the Stanhope Lines “Model School”. A schoolmistress was not permitted to marry a soldier below the rank of sergeant and were liable to retirement on marriage, although this was not necessarily enforced.

The children’s education was formal and the range of subjects limited. Emphasis was on reading, writing and arithmetic, plus religion, English history, general geography, and English grammar, and in some schools music was also included. At the infants’ schools children attended from 09.00 to 12 noon, and in the afternoon from 14.00 to 16.00. At the elder children’s schools boys and girls attended from 09.00 to 12 noon, but in the afternoon only boys had a further one or two hours of classes. In the afternoon girls attended what was called “industrial school”, where they were taught practical skills, especially needlework, knitting and “household occupations”.

W. Blackman was appointed an Army Assistant Schoolmaster in 1898 and he remembered his first day at an Aldershot Garrison School:

“After being introduced to the members of the School Staff, I heard a small bell tinkling from a window and the boys assembled by classes, in the asphalted playground. Hands, hair and boots were inspected and the scholars then marched into a large classroom where staff and boys joined in singing one of the well known hymns … Morning prayers were then read by the schoolmaster in charge and this was followed by certain prescribed verses from the Bible, which had to be learned by heart and repeated all round the class at the half yearly inspections. Then came the Scripture Lesson proper, and at 9.30 am the boys dispersed to various rooms for instruction in their class work.”

When the Army Educational Corps was created in 1920 it took over responsibility for Army schools. The Corps of Army Schoolmasters was disbanded and its members transferred into the new Corps. However, the Army Schoolmistresses, who were neither wholly civilian nor military, continued. In 1927 Queen Mary became their patron and they were collectively honoured by the title of Queen’s Army Schoolmistresses.

In 1927 Army schools were reorganised, following changes which had been introduced into civilian children’s schools. The classification into infants and elder children’s schools was replaced by a new division into Infants, Junior Mixed and Elder Children. In Aldershot the Model School was re-named “The Stanhope Infants’ School”; Maida Infants’ School became the “Maida Junior Mixed School”; Barrosa remained an Elder Girls’ School but took over the centre for Queen’s Army Schoolmistresses on probation; the RE and RASC Elder Boys’ School was re-named the “Haig Elder Boys’ School”; and the Cavalry Elder Children’s School was closed and the pupils distributed between Maida, Barrosa and Haig Schools. The remaining schools were unchanged.

The school for officers’ children was now situated in Knollys Road and its headmistress was Miss Florence Seed. It continued until Miss Seed retired in 1969, by which time she was aged 84. Mrs Dobson, who was a teacher at the school, remembered: “The education at the school was very basic, with a great emphasis on good manners and etiquette.”

After the end of the Second World War, Local Education Authorities were invited to accept responsibility for the education of Army children in their areas, and on 1 April 1948 all Army children’s schools in Southern Command were handed over. One of the Queen’s Army Schoolmistresses lamented: “The Atomic Age has reached even the Marlborough Lines School and we are in the process of disintegration!”

Fortunately such fears proved unfounded, and the transfer of the garrison’s schools from Army to local authority control was successful. Marlborough School did not “disintegrate” but has flourished, and we hope its recent anniversary will be one of many more to be celebrated in the years to come.

Credits

Article originally published in the The Garrison, Autumn 2022

Copyright © Paul H. Vickers. This article, including the accompanying pictures, may not be reproduced or republished, in whole or in part, either in print or electronically, including on any websites or social media sites, without the prior permission of the author.