Great Ealing School

Great Ealing School was situated on St Mary's Road, Ealing W5 London and was founded in 1698. In its heyday of the 19th century, it was as famous as Eton or Harrow, being considered "the best private school in England". [cite book|url=http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=9ZtiGprw4m0C|title=Empires of the Plain: Henry Rawlinson and the Lost Languages of Babylon|author=Lesley Adkins|isbn=0312330022|year=2004]

History

The school first took up residence in Ealing's Old Rectory. This was a moated house with a magnificent garden which stood next to the church of St Mary where Ranelagh Road now runs and all the way northward, along St Mary's Road to Warwick Road. The school had a swimming pool, cricket greens, tennis courts and the once famous Fives courts. A row of five cottages were used as studies. Opposite the school was the parish workhouse, where the poor and infirm slept three or more to a bed. cite book
last = M^cEwan
first = Kate
title = Ealing Walkabout: Journeys into the history of a London borough.
publisher =Nick Wheatly Associates
date = 1983
location = Cheshire, UK.
pages = pages 40, 41 & 42.
isbn = 0 9508895 0 4 ] cite book
last = Neaves
first = Cyrill
title = A history of Greater Ealing
publisher = S. R. Publishers
date = 1971
location = United Kingdom
pages = p 91, 92 & 93
id = ISBN 0-85409-679-5 ]

The King of France, Louis-Philippe, taught mathematics and geography at the school. He did this to support himself whilst living in exile in Twickenham between 1800 and 1815. [http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=22588 Ealing and Brentford: Education] , A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 7: Acton, Chiswick, Ealing and Brentford, West Twyford, Willesden (1982), pp. 162-170. Date accessed: 2008-06-04.] Eventually, the Rectory succumbed to dry rot and had to relocate in 1847.

It moved from the north side of St. Mary's Church in Ealing on the eastern side of St Mary's Road to the western side of the same road and was renamed "The Owls", which then formed part of its crest. In 1874, it became a day school teaching vocational subjects such as bookkeeping. In 1879, it changed again, becoming a school for Jewish boys.cite journal
last = Oates
first = Jonathan
title = The days when this grand school truly was 'great'
journal = Around Ealing
pages = page 27
publisher = Ealing Council
location = UK
date = May 2008
url = http://www.ealing.gov.uk/ealing3/export/sites/ealingweb/services/nonlgcl/around_ealing/previous_editions/_around_ealing_archive_docs/2008/around_ealing_may08.pdf
accessdate = 2008-06-04 ]

It closed in 1908 and the roads Cairns Avenue and Nicholas Gardens now stand upon the grounds. The latter is named after the famous headmastering family of its greatest period.

Quotes

*"The education was first-rate, particularly in the classics, and as there was no alternative to learn, the boys progressed rapidly, and the school turned out some bright fellows." -- Benjamin Armstrong, pupil and vicar.

* "We had cricket and rounders and, in the winter months, we had football, prisoners' base, or bars, tops of several kinds and multiform games of marbles." -- John Newman, pupil and Cardinal.

Headmasters

* Rev Dr David Nicholas - 1790s
* George Nicholas
* Francis Nicholas
* Charles Morgan in 1874
* Dr John Chapman from 1881

Famous pupils

* William S. Gilbert of Gilbert and Sullivan
* Thomas Huxley - scientist
* Frederick Marryat - author
* Cardinal Newman - churchman
* Hicks Pasha - soldier
* Henry Rawlinson - soldier and adventurer
* Zachary Pearce (1690–1774) Bishop of Rotchester. [cite journal
last =Hole
first = Robert
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = Pearce, Zachary (1690–1774)
journal = Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
volume =
issue =
pages =
publisher =
location =
date = 2004
url = http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/21693
doi =
id =
accessdate =2008-06-04 ]
* George Augustus Selwyn (1809-1878) , First Bishop of New Zealand.
* Charles Knight. Publisher

References