Category:Old Westminsters: Difference between revisions

Westminster School

Motto	Dat Deus Incrementum
Motto in English	God Gives the Increas
Established	Unknown, teaching existed since at least 1179, refounded in 1560
Type	Public School
Location	Westminster, London
Colours	Pink

This category includes the old boys of Westminster School, whether played characters or NPCs.

About Westminster School

Schoolboys have been educated at Westminster since 1179, and possibly since before the Norman Conquest, with parts of the buildings now used by the school dating back to the 11th century Anglo-Saxon Abbey at Westminster.

In 1540, Henry VIII ordered the dissolution of the monasteries in England, including that of the powerful Abbots of Westminster, but personally ensured the School's survival by his royal charter. The Royal College of St. Peter carried on with forty "King's Scholars" financed from the royal purse. By this point Westminster School had certainly become a public school (i.e. a school available to members of the public, as long as they could pay their own costs, rather than private tuition provided to the nobility). During Mary I's brief reign the Abbey was reinstated as a Roman Catholic monastery, but the school continued.

Elizabeth I refounded the School in 1560, with new statutes to select 40 Queen's Scholars from boys who had already attended the school for a year.[20] Queen Elizabeth frequently visited her scholars, although she never signed the statutes nor endowed her scholarships, and 1560 is now generally taken as the date that the school was "founded".

Elizabeth I appointed William Camden as headmaster. It was Dr Busby, himself an Old Westminster, who established the reputation of the school for several hundred years, as much by his classical learning as for his ruthless discipline by the birch, immortalised in Pope's Dunciad. Busby prayed publicly Up School for the safety of the Crown, on the very day of Charles I's execution, and then locked the boys inside to prevent their going to watch the spectacle a few hundred yards away. Regardless of politics, he thrashed Royalist and Puritan boys alike without fear or favour. Busby also took part in Oliver Cromwell's funeral procession in 1658; when Robert Uvedale, a Westminster schoolboy, succeeded in snatching the "Majesty Scutcheon" (white satin banner) draped on the coffin (it was given to the School by his family two hundred years later). Busby remained in office throughout the Civil War and the Commonwealth, when the school was governed by Parliamentary Commissioners, and well into the Restoration.

In 1679, a group of scholars killed a bailiff, ostensibly in defence of the Abbey's traditional right of sanctuary, but possibly because the man was trying to arrest a consort[clarification needed] of the boys. Dr Busby obtained a royal pardon for his scholars from Charles II and added the cost to the school bills.

Until the 19th century, the curriculum was predominantly made up of Latin and Greek, and all taught Up School. The Westminster boys were uncontrolled outside school hours and notoriously unruly about town, but the proximity of the School to the Palace of Westminster meant that politicians were well aware of the boys' exploits.^[1]

The 'Greaze' has been held 'up School' (in the School Hall) on Shrove Tuesdays since at least 1753. The head cook ceremoniously tosses a horsehair-reinforced pancake over a high bar, which was used from the 16th century to curtain off the Under School from the Great School. Members of the school fight for the pancake for one minute, watched over by the Dean of Westminster Abbey (as Chairman of the Governors), the Head Master, the upper years groups of the School[80] and distinguished or even occasionally Royal visitors. The pupil who gets the largest weight is awarded a gold sovereign (promptly redeemed for use next year), and the Dean begs a half-holiday for the whole School. Weighing scales are on hand in the event of a dispute. A cook who failed to get the 'pancake' over the bar after three attempts would formerly have been "booked", or stoned with Latin primers.^[2]

<references>