Royal Marine Artillery Girls School

[Joy Dean]

Hopefully this will be partially to do with military things. My grandmother's cousin was at this school in the early 1900s. I have been searching online but cannot find anything about it. It is / was at Eastney, Portsmouth, I think. She is in this photo at the school.

[Trooper_D]

Joy

As I expect you know, Eastney Barracks was the home of the Royal Marine Artillery from 1867 until their amalgamation with the Royal Marine Light Infantry (to form the Royal Marine Corps) in 1927

https://www.geograph.org.uk/snippet/13158

I imagine that this was a girls' school established - and situated in the barracks, perhaps - to educate the daughters of the men living in married quarters.

[peter monahan]

"Women? In the Royal Marines?"  Puff, pant, red in the face...

Seriously, that is a great piece of history.  I know that the regiments had regimental schools but in my middle-aged male mind it'as always been ' for the boys... until old enough to enlist'.  But of course there were girls too.  I wonder if their curriculum was different and went beyond basic literacy and numeracy? 

Seek and yea shall find.  Apparently, the 3Rs plus religious instruction and 'needlework for the girls and younger boys, according to this exhaustive treatise: THE ARMY SCHOOLMASTER AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION IN THE ARMY, 1812-1920

https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10019106/1/283368.pdf

 

Edited March 6, 2020 by peter monahan

[Joy Dean]

Thank you. She had been staying with her aunt, uncle and cousin; the uncle was - from the 1901 census - "Gunner, R.M.Artillery, and Tailor's Cutter", and they were living in 11 Kassasin Street, Milton, Portsmouth.

[Trooper_D]

6 hours ago, peter monahan said:

Seriously, that is a great piece of history.  I know that the regiments had regimental schools but in my middle-aged male mind it'as always been ' for the boys... until old enough to enlist'.  But of course there were girls too.  I wonder if their curriculum was different and went beyond basic literacy and numeracy? 

Peter

I don't think that this was a Regimental school (for the training of boy soldiers) but, rather, a school for children of the Regiment. Thus it was not set up to educated boy soldiers but to conform with the requirements of the various Education acts as they pertained to the children of Married Quarters (in its broadest sense) were concerned. From 1899, all children were meant to be in school from the ages of five to 12, as per this link

https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/transformingsociety/livinglearning/school/overview/1870educationact/

Interestingly, after the 1902 Education Act, the education of children became the responsibility of "local education authorities under the control of the county and county borough councils" (see link below), which suggests to me that this photo was taken before that date (the physical training instructor in the photo would have been a civilian, post 1902, I would have thought).

https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/transformingsociety/livinglearning/school/overview/reform1902-14/

 

Edited March 6, 2020 by Trooper_D

[peter monahan]

"I don't think that this was a Regimental school (for the training of boy soldiers) but, rather, a school for children of the Regiment. "  Oh, I agree.  As you say, by the late if not mid Victorian era, universal schooling - trained workers for the economy - was very much seen as a 'good thing'.  I haven't looked closely at the various Education Acts, though as a retired teacher I probably should.  The essay I mentioned makes it clear that girls were schooled too and suggests that they were given at least a few 'skills' - needlework, for example - as well as the 'three Rs'.

And I suspect that there were at least a few sons of soldiers who, on reaching enlistment age, said 'Not on a bet!' and opted for civvy street, so they too would have had to have been educated to some acceptable [to local authorities?] standard.

Fascinating topic.