St Edmund's College, Ware
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St Edmund's College | |
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Website | http://www.stedmundscollege.org/ |
St Edmund's College is a coeducational private day and boarding school in the British public school tradition, set in 440 acres (1.8 km2) in Ware, Hertfordshire. Founded in 1568 as a seminary, then a boys' school, it is the oldest continuously operating and oldest post-Reformation Catholic school in the country. Today it caters for boys and girls aged 3 to 18.
History
Douai: 1568–1793
St Edmund's College is a continuation on English soil of the English College that was founded by William Cardinal Allen at Douai in Flanders, France in 1568. Originally intended as a seminary to prepare priests to work in England to keep Catholicism alive, it soon also became a boys' school for Catholics, who were debarred from running such institutions in England.[1] Many of its students, both priests and laymen, returned to England to be put to death under the anti-Catholic laws. The college includes amongst its former alumni 20 canonised and 138 beatified martyrs.
Silkstead, Twyford, Standon and Old Hall Green: 1662–1793
A small Catholic school was started in Hampshire in the second half of the 17th century. It was opened by a priest at Silkstead some time before 1662, and transferred to
Old Hall Green: 1793 – present
The work of the English College in
A gift of £10,000 from John Sone, a Hampshire Catholic, enabled St Edmund's to be established in new buildings, designed by James Taylor of Islington, who had himself been a student at the Old Hall Green Academy. A chapel and refectory were added in 1805 by
The era of Vicars Apostolic ended in 1850 with the restoration of the Hierarchy.
In 1869, Manning, now Archbishop, set up a seminary in Hammersmith, and for the first time St Edmund's ceased to be a theological college. In 1874, the junior boys were separated from the rest of the college into St Hugh's Preparatory School, in a house originally built by Pugin for the Oxford convert William George Ward. The prep school has since been renamed St Edmund's Preparatory School.[citation needed]
In 1893,
The college became considerably run down during the First World War. On the walls leading up to the Chapel there are memorials to eighty-two former students who fell during World War I. A legacy became available to Cardinal Bourne, which was used to carry out badly needed repairs and additions.[citation needed]
The college celebrated the 400th anniversary of its foundation in 1968. In 1975 the seminarians departed for the second time, moving to
Houses
Heads of house, assisted by a team of tutors, provide continuity of care throughout students' time at the college and are the normal means of contact between the college and parents. House spirit is encouraged through various inter-house competitions, sporting and cultural, and through house celebrations, ranging from formal dinners to summer barbecues.
There are five houses (years of foundation in brackets):
There are five former houses (years of existence in brackets):
- Allen Hall (1922–1975)
- Griffiths (1972–1984)
- Junior House (1945–1953 and 1961–1993)
- Margaret Pole(1975–1990)
- Stapleton (1975–1996)
Boarding
Pupils may choose to board full time or on certain days of the week. There are two main boarding houses: Allen Hall (boys) and Garvey's (girls). The accommodation areas are supervised by residential staff.
O Beate mi Edmunde
The college anthem was composed by Cardinal Nicholas Wiseman for the solemn enshrinement of the Relic of St Edmund in the college chapel. The song has a total of 30 verses arranged into three decades, the first and third decades are each preceded and concluded with the following chorus, and the second decade with a variation of it. It is sung every year on the three days before 16 November, St Edmund's Day, when St Edmund is remembered. Ten verses are sung each day in chapel of what is called the Triduum.
- O Beate mi Edmunde x2,
- Sic pro me ad Filium Dei,
- Cum Maria preces funde x2,
- Ut per vos sim placens Ei.
The Edmundian Association
The Edmundian Association was founded in 1853 and has members throughout the world. Its aim is to maintain a bond between the college and its alumni, and among members. Membership is available to past pupils of the college and their parents, parents of current pupils, and current and past members of staff.
Notable former pupils
Lay persons
- Chizzy Akudolu (born 1973) – actress on BBC drama Holby City
- Nicholas Bannister (1960-) - associate editor The Guardian
- Francis Barraud (1856–1924) – painter of Nipper, the HMV trademark dog
- Alan Burns(1887–1980) – diplomat
- Michel Jean Cazabon (1813–1888) – artist
- Siobhan Daly (living) – producer and artistic director
- Sikhanyiso Dlamini (born 1987) – Princess of Swaziland
- Simon Geoghegan (born 1968) – Irish international rugby player
- Everard Green (1844–1926) – Rouge Dragon Pursuivant and Somerset Herald, College of Arms
- Edward Henry (1850–1931) – pioneer of fingerprint usage in crime investigations
- Tommie Hoban (born 1994) – professional footballer
- Javier Iturriaga (born 1983) – professional footballer
- James Lynam Molloy (1837–1909) – poet
- Laurence Meynell (1899–1989) – novelist and children's writer
- Nick Nieland (born 1972) – Commonwealth Games javelin gold medallist
- Mervyn O'Gorman (1871–1958) – aeronautical engineer
- Joseph O'Sullivan (1897–1922) – Irish nationalist
- Henry Oxenham (1829–1888) – controversialist and poet
- Indian Mutiny
- William Scholl (1882–1968) – footwear designer and businessman
- Neville Stack (1896–1949) – test pilot, air racer and aviation pioneer
- Aiden Turner (born 1977) – actor
- Paul Alexander Zino (1916–2004) – ornithologist, after whom Zino's petrel is named
Clergy
- Francis Bourne (1861–1935) – Archbishop of Westminster, also buried here
- Adrian Fortescue(1874–1923) – priest, scholar and adventurer
- Reginald C. Fuller (1908–2011) – scripture scholar
- Daniel Gilbert – Canon and Vicar General of the Diocese of Westminster 1868–95; founder of Providence Row Night Refuge
- Bruce Kent (born 1929) – deconsecrated Roman Catholic priest and anti-war campaigner
- David Konstant (1930–2016) – 8th Bishop of Leeds
- Ronald Knox (1888–1957) – satirist, essayist, novelist and translator
- Declan Lang (born 1950) – Bishop of Clifton
- George Michael Lenihan (1858–1910) – Fifth Catholic Bishop of Auckland, New Zealand (1896–1910)
- Edward Myers (1875–1956) – president of St Edmund's College 1918–32, Coadjutor Archbishop of Westminster 1951–6, Titular Archbishop of Beroea, editor, Clergy Review; namesake of Archbishop Myers Secondary School, now St Mark's Catholic School, Hounslow[4][5]
- Frederick Oakeley (1802–1880) – translator of the carol "Adeste Fideles" into English
- Clement Henry Parsons – founder and first headmaster of Finchley Catholic High School
- James Scanlan (1899-1976) - Archbishop of Glasgow
- George Stack (born 1946) – Archbishop of Cardiff
- Herbert Vaughan (1832–1903) – Archbishop of Westminster
- Derek Worlock (1920–1996) – Archbishop of Liverpool
References
- ^ a b Ward, Bernard. A History of St. Edmund's College, London. Kegan Paul. 1893
- ^ a b c Burton, Edwin. "Old Hall (St Edmund's College)." The Catholic Encyclopedia Vol. 11. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1911. 13 January 2019.
- ^ Lytton Strachey, 1918, Eminent Victorians, Folio Society edition 1979 pp. 70 ff.
- ^ Cheney, David M. "Archbishop Edward Myers [Catholic-Hierarchy]". www.catholic-hierarchy.org. Archived from the original on 12 September 2018. Retrieved 12 September 2018.
- ^ The Catholic Who's Who, vol. 35, Francis Cowley Burnand, Burns & Oates, 1952, p. 328
- David J S Kay, The Buildings of St Edmund's College (St Edmund's College: 2000) ISBN 978-0-9538316-0-9
- David J S Kay, The People of St Edmund's College (The Edmundian Association: 2003) ISBN 978-0-9546125-0-4
- David J S Kay, St Edmund's College Prayer Book (illustrated by Joseph Pike) (The Edmundian Association: 2006) ISBN 978-0-9546125-1-1
- Michael G Garvey, St Edmund's College and its Chapel – Historical Guide (The Edmundian Association: 2010) ISBN 978-0-9546125-2-8
- Nicholas Schofield, The History of St Edmund's College (picture editor David J S Kay) (The Edmundian Association: 2013) ISBN 978-0-9546125-3-5
External links
- Official website
- The Edmundian Association
- Profile on the ISC website
- Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. .