Rhubarb Issue 12: November 2023

ST EDWARD’S

•

Simeon’s first Common Room at the Summertown site consisted of seven members with the Reverend Arthur Cowie as his Second Master, his brother Geoffrey Simeon as the Chaplain, four Assistant Masters and Sergeant Major Childs, employed for ‘drilling and deportment’. Simeon had struggled to find staff for his new School and ‘the only full-time graduate until 1874 was Cowie, who worked, at first for nothing, then for a pittance’ (Oxley).The masters lived in various locations, including the Main Buildings and lodgings in the neighbourhood. Once the first pupils were embedded, extra-curricular activities began immediately, alongside the academic timetable.The first Cricket XI and Debating Society were formed in 1873 and the Rugby XV the following winter. On 25th November 1873 John Mackarness, Bishop of Oxford, and Lord Beauchamp, School Visitor and Patron, laid the foundation stone for the School Chapel. At about the same time the School purchased the land beside the Chapel to be used as a future burial ground.‘The local inhabitants of Summertown were deeply suspicious of the new School’s religious ethos and called the pupils little monks.’ Lord Beauchamp had been one of the School’s earliest ‘Visitors’ and Patrons’. Simeon had also successfully invited the following ‘notable gentlemen’ to be the new School’s Patrons:

The Very Reverend Benjamin Cowie DD, Dean of Manchester The Reverend Canon Henry Liddon, Senior Student of Christ Church, Oxford The Reverend Canon William Bright DD, Senior Student of Christ Church, Oxford The Reverend Canon King DD, Senior Student of Christ Church, Oxford (later Bishop of Lincoln)

•

•

•

FEATURE

• • • •

Lord Eliot

The Hon George Ponsonby

The Right Hon Sir William Heathcote, Bart MP

The Hon Charles Wood (later Lord Halifax)

‘When we opened in 1873, we had on paper, at least, a strong and influential body pledged to support our scheme and encourage us to persevere’ (Simeon’s Diary,1919). By the end of this first tumultuous year, the main and small Dining Halls were finished as well as the kitchens and most of the upper-floor dormitory space. Overall, only the northern aspect of the future Quadrangle was nearly ready; the Chapel was not completed until 1877, the Lodge and Quadrangle in 1879, Big School in 1881 and the New Buildings (Macnamara’s House today) in 1882.

The local inhabitants of Summertown were deeply suspicious of the new School’s religious ethos and called the pupils ‘little monks’.

The photograph (above) taken in 1876 after the completion of the Main Buildings and Warden’s House (in the foreground) shows the extent of the early buildings. A western extension to the Warden’s House was not completed until 1886, designed by Harry Wilkinson Moore,William Wilkinson’s nephew and junior partner.

Sources: School Archives • The Chronicle • A History of St Edward’s School by R D Hill (1962) • A New History of St Edward’s School, Oxford by Malcolm Oxley (2015) • Algernon Simeon’s diaries (1903 and 1919).

19