ROYAL HIGH SCHOOL (EDINBURGH)

The 'Royal High School' (RHS) of Edinburgh can trace its roots back to 1128, and is one of the oldest schools in Scotland. Initially associated with Holyrood Abbey, the School started as an institution for the education of Augustinian canons.^[4] Although a fee-paying boys-only school, the Royal High School came under the auspices of Edinburgh Corporation Education Department. In the 1970s it ceased to be fee-paying when it became a comprehensive, still run by the City of Edinburgh Council.
Pupils are largely from the EH4 postcode. The boys' uniform is a white shirt, official tie, black pullover, black blazer with school badge, black trousers and black shoes. The girls' uniform is a white blouse, official tie, black pullover or cardigan, black blazer with school badge, black skirt or trousers and black shoes. A black and white striped tie is standard; a plain black tie denotes the authority of a prefect. The black and white school colours are derived from the municipal colours of Edinburgh.^[5]
The Royal High School is the only state school in Edinburgh to offer classical studies as a course option to those in their third year of secondary study. It is also one of the only in Scotland still to offer the course.
The present Rector is George Smuga.
Previously an all-male private school, in 1973 the Royal High School became a co-educational state comprehensive school.^[6] It serves approximately 1200 pupils from the Barnton, Cramond, Davidson's Mains, Blackhall, Cammo, Silverknowes and Clermiston suburbs of the city.

Contents

History

Alumni and Alumnae

Rectors

The building on Calton Hill

See also

References

External links

History

Historians of the Royal High School attribute its birth to the flowering of the twelfth-century renaissance in Scotland. Building on a century or more of teaching by the Augustinian Order at Edinburgh Castle, it began as the seminary of the Abbey of Holyrood, founded for the canons by David I in 1128.^[7]
The Grammar School of the Church of Edinburgh, as it was known by the rectorship of Adam de Camis in 1378, grew into a church-run burgh institution providing a Latin education for the sons of burgess families, many of whom pursued careers in the Church.^[8][9] In 1566, following the Protestant Reformation, Mary, Queen of Scots, transferred the High School from the control of the Abbey to the Town Council, and from about 1590 James VI accorded it royal patronage as the ''Schola Regia Edinensis''.^[10]
Through the centuries, the Royal High School has been located at many sites throughout the city, including Blackfriars (1578-1777), Infirmary Street (1777-1829), the famous building on Calton Hill (1829-1968), Jock's Lodge – now the Royal High Primary School (1931-1972), and its current site at Barnton, which it moved to in 1968.

Alumni and Alumnae

Many Royal High Scholars have gone on to make significant contributions to Scottish life.

'Anthropology' ★ Daniel Wilson (1816–1892), anthropologist and university administrator ★ Brian Lang (b. 1945), anthropologist and university administrator'Architecture' ★ Robert Adam (1728–1792), architect ★ Thomas Hamilton (1784–1858), architect ★ William Burn (1789–1870), architect ★ David Bryce (1803–1876), architect ★ James Fergusson (1808–1886), architectural historian'Asian Studies' ★ Arthur Keith (1879–1944), Sanskritist and jurist ★ H. A. R. Gibb (1895–1971), Arabic scholar'Chemistry' ★ James Keir (1735–1820), chemist and industrialist ★ George Wilson (1818–1859), chemist and museum director ★ James Keir (1735–1820), chemist and industrialist ★ Thomas Hope (1766–1844), chemist and educationist ★ James Syme (1799-1870), discoverer of the solvent for rubber ★ Alexander Crum Brown (1838–1922), chemist'Commerce' and 'Industry' ★ William Forbes (1739–1806), banker and philanthropist ★ James Matheson (1796–1878), Hong Kong merchant and politician ★ John Menzies (1808–1879), newsagent ★ Peter Denny (1821–1895), shipbuilder and shipowner ★ David Yule (1858–1928), Calcutta merchant and industrialist ★ William Somerville (1860–1932), agriculturist ★ Malcolm Stewart (1872–1951), brick and cement manufacturer ★ Ronald Parker (1909–1996), manager of nationalised industries ★ Gerry Forsgate (1919-2001), Hong Kong transport entrepreneur'Classical Studies' ★ John Burnet (1863–1928), Greek scholar'Earth Sciences' ★ Robert Sibbald (1641–1722), physician and geographer ★ James Hutton (1726–1797), geologist ★ John Macdonald (1759–1831), cartographer ★ Alexander Rose (1781 – 1860), geologist ★ John Bartholomew (1860–1920), cartographer and geographer ★ Charles Normand (1889–1982), meteorologist'Economics' ★ John Kay (b. 1948), economist'Engineering' and 'Design' ★ James Short (1710–1768), inventor of optical instruments ★ James Nasmyth (1808-1890), inventor of the steam hammer ★ Thomas Stevenson (1818-1887), lighthouse designer ★ Alexander Graham Bell (1847–1922), inventor of the telephone 'Entertainment' ★ William Chippendale (1801–1888), actor ★ Ronnie Corbett (b. 1930), comedian ★ David Robb (b. 1947), actor ★ Ian Charleson (1949–1990), actor ★ John McGlynn (b. 1953), actor'Games' and 'Sport' ★ Alexander Petrie (1847/1848–1909), rugby player ★ James Aikman Smith (1859–1931), rugby administrator ★ Colin Telfer (b. 1947), rugby player ★ Iwan Tukalo (b. 1961), rugby player'History' and 'Archaeology' ★ William Erskine (1773–1852), historian of India ★ Patrick Tytler (1791-1849), historian of Scotland ★ Cosmo Innes (1798–1874), antiquary of Scotland ★ William Skene (1809–1892), historian and Celtic scholar ★ Alexander Murray (1841–1904), museum curator ★ Gordon Donaldson (1913–1993), historian of Scotland'Law' ★ Thomas Craig (1538?–1608), lawyer and jurist ★ Thomas Hamilton (1563–1637), lawyer and politician ★ John Bonar (1747–1807), lawyer ★ James Craig (1765–1850), lawyer and politician ★ Mark Napier (1798–1879), lawyer and historian ★ Theodore Martin (1816–1909), lawyer and biographer 'Literature' ★ William Drummond (1585–1649), poet and pamphleteer ★ William Strahan (1715–1785), printer ★ William Smellie (1740–1795), encyclopaedist ★ Henry Mackenzie (1745-1831), writer ★ Robert Fergusson (1750–1774), poet ★ Walter Scott (1771–1832), poet and novelist ★ Francis Jeffrey (1773–1850), writer and judge ★ Henry Cockburn (1779–1854), author and judge ★ George Borrow (1803–1881), writer and traveller ★ John Merry Ross (1833–1883), literary critic and historian ★ Findlay Muirhead (1860–1935), Baedeker travel writer ★ Andrew Young (1885–1971), poet and clergyman ★ Henry Harvey Wood (1903–1977), writer and a founder of the Edinburgh Festival ★ Robert Garioch (1909–1981), poet and translator ★ Norman MacCaig (1910–1996), poet ★ George Hay (1915–1984), poet ★ Karl Miller (b. 1931), literary critic'Mathematics' ★ Bill Brass (1921–1999), demographer and statistician 'Media' ★ William Barnetson (1917–1981), newspaper proprietor and television producer'Medicine' ★ Archibald Crichton (1791–1865), physician to the Tsar and Russian councillor of state ★ Robert Knox (1791–1862), anatomist and ethnologist ★ Robert Christison (1797–1882), toxicologist ★ Andrew Combe (1797–1882), honorary physician to Queen Victoria and the King of the Belgians

'Medicine' ''(continued)'' ★ Robert Dickson (1804–1875), physician ★ Charles Morehead (1807–1882), physician ★ Allen Thomson (1809–1884), anatomist and embryologist ★ James Spence (1812–1882), surgeon ★ Andrew Barclay (1817–1884), physician ★ William Lindsay (1829–1880), physician and botanist ★ Robert Philip (1857–1939), physician and founder of tuberculosis dispensaries ★ Caleb Saleeby (1878–1940), public health advocate ★ George Dick (1914–1997), pathologist and virologist 'Music' ★ Learmont Drysdale (1866–1909), composer ★ Al Fairweather (1927-1993), jazz trumpeter ★ Sandy Brown (1929–1975), bandleader and acoustic architect'Philosophy' ★ James Ferrier (1808–1864), philosopher ★ Henry Calderwood (1830–1897), philosopher ★ Andrew Seth Pringle-Pattison (1856–1931), philosopher ★ W. D. Ross (1877–1971), philosopher 'Politics' ★ George Drummond (1687–1766), lord provost and civic improver ★ Alexander Wedderburn, Lord Rosslyn (1733-1805), Whig lord chancellor ★ William Brodie, (1741-1788), deacon and thief ★ Henry Dundas, Lord Melville (1742–1811), Tory politician and political manager ★ Thomas Erskine, Lord Erskine (1750-1823), Whig lord chancellor ★ Robert Dundas, Lord Melville (1771–1851), Tory first lord of the Admiralty ★ James Abercromby, Lord Dunfermline (1776-1858), Whig speaker of the House of Commons ★ Henry Brougham (1778–1868), Whig lord chancellor ★ George Clerk (1787–1867), Tory vice-president of the Board of Trade ★ William Craig (1797–1878), Liberal lord of the Treasury, lord clerk register and keeper of the Signet ★ James Robertson (1845–1909), Unionist politician and president of the Court of Session ★ Douglas Henderson (1935-2006), SNP deputy leader ★ Chris Harvie, MSP (b. 1943), SNP backbencher ★ Robin Cook (1946-2005), Labour foreign secretary and lord president of the Council ★ Sarah Boyack, MSP (b. 1961), Labour former transport minister ★ Kenneth Macintosh, MSP (b. 1962), Labour backbencher'Public Service' ★ Cadwallader Colden (1688-1776), lieutenant-governor of New York ★ James Campbell (1745–1831), army officer ★ John Campbell (1753–1784), soldier ★ Lachlan Macquarie (1761–1824), army officer and colonial governor ★ George Ramsay, Lord Dalhousie (1770–1838), army officer and governor-in-chief of British North America ★ George Murray (1772-1846), army officer and lieutenant-governor of Upper Canada ★ Alexis Greig (1775–1845), naval officer in the Russian service ★ Frederick Maitland (1777–1839), naval officer and catcher of Napoleon ★ Mountstuart Elphinstone (1779-1859), governor of Bombay ★ Charles Napier (1786–1860), naval officer and politician ★ George Hay, Lord Tweeddale (1787–1876), army officer and governor of Madras ★ William Keith (1873–1937), administrator of Burma ★ Thomas Gardiner (1883–1964), civil servant'Religion' ★ Andrew Symson (c. 1638–1712), Church of Scotland minister and printer ★ Robert Haldane (1764–1842), theologian ★ John Campbell (1766–1840), Congregational minister and missionary in Africa ★ James Haldane (1768–1851), Baptist church leader ★ David Welsh (1793–1845), Free Church of Scotland minister and author ★ John Sandford (1801–1873), Church of England clergyman ★ Robert Cox (1810–1872), anti-sabbatarian ★ Archibald Tait (1811–1882), archbishop of Canterbury ★ Peter Lorimer (1812–1879), Presbyterian minister ★ William Dalrymple Maclagan (1826-1910), archbishop of York ★ James Stewart (1831–1905), Church of Scotland missionary to Africa ★ Robert Wallace (1831–1899), Church of Scotland minister and politician ★ Alexander Gordon (1841–1931), Unitarian minister and historian ★ George Smith (1856–1942), theologian ★ William Paterson (1860–1939), Church of Scotland minister and theologian ★ John Kelman (1864–1929), United Free Church of Scotland minister ★ Norman McLean (1865–1947), Biblical scholar'Visual Arts' ★ William Allan (1782-1850), painter and president of the Royal Scottish Academy ★ John Schetky (1785–1824), watercolour painter ★ John James Ruskin (1785–1864), art collector ★ William Lizars (1788–1859), painter and engraver ★ James Hall (1800–1854), painter ★ Robert Lauder (1803–1869), painter and art teacher ★ David Scott (1806–1849), painter and poet ★ William Marshall (1813–1894), sculptor ★ James Archer (1822–1904), painter ★ William Douglas (1822–1891), painter, antiquary, and curator ★ George Aikman (1830–1905), painter and engraver'Zoology' ★ William Baird (1803–1872), zoologist ★ Graham Kerr (1869–1957), zoologist ★ Landsborough Thomson (1890–1977), ornithologist

Although the Royal High School long enjoyed a near monopoly on boys’ education in the city, attendance by the mathematician John Napier (1550-1617) and the philosopher David Hume (1711-1776) is unconfirmed and may be legend.
In 1859 HRH The Prince of Wales received lessons in Roman history from the Rector, Dr. Leonhard Schmitz, and presented the Carson medal at the prize-giving. The following year, 1860, the French royal brothers HRH Prince Ferdinand d'Orléans, duc d'Alençon, prince de Condé (1844-1910), and HRH Prince Pierre d'Orléans, duc de Penthièvre (1845-1919), attended classes and were awarded prizes.
Two former pupils won the Victoria Cross in the First World War: Lieutenant-Colonel Philip Eric Bent, VC DSO, and Captain Harcus Strachan, VC MC.^[11]
The Royal High School has three flourishing Former Pupils clubs: The Royal High School Club (Edinburgh), founded in 1849 under the presidency of Robert Dundas Haldane-Duncan, 1st Earl of Camperdown (1785-1859), The Royal High School Achievers Society, and The Royal High School Club in London (RHSCL), founded in 1889. The Royal High School (India) Club was founded in 1925 and disbanded in 1959.

Rectors

★ 1128 Nominees of the Abbots of Holyrood ★ 1519 David Vocat ★ 1524 Henry Henryson, MA ★ 1530 Adam Mure, MA ★ 1545 Sir John Allan ★ 1546 William Robertoun ★ 1568 Thomas Buchanan, MA ★ 1571 William Robertoun (again) ★ 1584 Hercules Rollock, MA ★ 1596 Alexander Hume, MA ★ 1606 John Ray, MA ★ 1630 Thomas Crawford, MA ★ 1641 William Spence, MA ★ 1650 Hew Wallace, MA ★ 1656 John Muir, MA ★ 1660 John Home, MA ★ 1665 David Ferguson, MA ★ 1669 Alexander Rutherford, MA ★ 1672 Alexander Heriot, MA ★ 1679 Archibald Guillane, MA

★ 1680 William Skene, MA ★ 1717 George Arbuthnot, MA ★ 1735 John Lees, MA ★ 1759 Alexander Matheson, MA ★ 1768 Alexander Adam, LLD ★ 1810 James Pillans, MA ★ 1820 Aglionby-Ross Carson, LLD ★ 1845 Leonhard Schmitz, PhD, LLD ★ 1865 James Donaldson, MA, LLD (later Sir James) ★ 1882 John Marshall, MA, LLD ★ 1909 William J. Watson, MA, LLD ★ 1914 John Strong, CBE, MA, LLD ★ 1919 William King Gillies, MA, LLD ★ 1940 James J. Robertson, MA, BD (later Sir James) ★ 1942 Albert H. R. Ball, MA ★ 1948 David Stuart M. Imrie, MA, PhD ★ 1965 Baillie T. Ruthven, MA ★ 1972 Farquhar Macintosh, MA ★ 1989 Matthew M. MacIver, MA ★ 1998 George M. R. Smuga, MA

The building on Calton Hill

The A-listed old Royal High School building on Calton Hill dates from 1829 and was designed in a neo-classical Greek Doric style by Thomas Hamilton, who modelled the portico and great hall on the Hephaisteion of Athens.^[12] Paired with St. George's Hall, Liverpool, as one of the ‘two finest buildings in the kingdom’ by Alexander Thomson in 1866,^[13] it was long considered by the Scottish Office as a home for the Scottish Parliament, and a debating chamber was added prior to the failed 1979 devolution referendum. In 1994 Edinburgh Council bought the complex from the Scottish Office for £1.75m.^[14]
Following the successful referendum in 1997, the Secretary of State for Scotland, Donald Dewar, accepted an alternative proposal to erect a new Parliament building at Holyrood, reportedly due to concern that the former Royal High School had become a 'nationalist shibboleth'.^[15] Critics also contended that the Calton Hill site was relatively inaccessible, lacked sufficient office space, and would be difficult to secure against a terrorist attack.^[16][17]
The school building stands close to Rock House, the historic studio of Robert Adamson and David Octavius Hill. As of 2004 the City Council and the Heritage Lottery Fund have given their support to a plan by HM The Queen's former royal press secretary, Michael Shea, to use it to house a £20m Scottish National Photography Centre.^{[14] [19][20]} In 2002 a report to the Council estimated the cost of refurbishment at more than £1m over five years.^[21]

See also

★

References

External links

★ Official website

★ The Royal High School Club

★ The Royal High School Club in London

★ The Royal High School Building on Calton Hill at edinburgharchitecture.co.uk