The Royal Masonic School for Girls (RMS) is a private school in Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire, England, with day and boarding pupils. The school was instituted in 1788, with the aim of caring for the daughters of poor Freemasons. In 1978, the school opened to girls beyond the daughters of freemasons.
The school opened in 1789 with fifteen pupils in Somers Town, St Pancras, Middlesex. The school has moved between premises three times, twice within London and in 1934 to Rickmansworth in Hertfordshire, where it still is today.
The Royal Masonic School is a day school for girls 4–18 and a boarding school for girls 7–18. A nursery opened in 2009 for boys and girls aged 2–4 years.
In the beginning
On 14 May 1788, a committee of Bartholomew Ruspini and nine other Freemasons met at the Freemasons' Tavern in Great Queen Street to plan the details of a charitable institution for the daughters of Masons who were struggling financially. A house at Somers Place East in Somers Town was taken in October as the premises of the institution at a rent of £35 per annum to house 15 children. The property has since disappeared but was between the present day Euston and St Pancras stations, near where the British Library is today.
Twenty replies for an advertisement for the matron were received, of which five were shortlisted. Ann Le Clerc was elected by ballot. She is referred to in the minutes of the meeting as a governess. It is unknown as to whether she was married or not.
On 5 January 1789, the children met at Ruspini's house and walked in procession to the house. The ceremonial procession was reported in the Morning Post (later to become absorbed by the Daily Telegraph) and the Daily Advertiser on 10 January.
The children could be from any part of the United Kingdom and had to be between the ages of six and nine. They had to be the daughters of Freemasons and were required to be in good health, having already had smallpox or cowpox and "be free from infirmity of deformity." At the end of their school life, girls were either returned to their family or supporters or apprenticed and supported until they could establish themselves.
Location
The original location of the house in Somers town became too small with the addition of five new pupils at the end of the first year and another five after that. By 1790, discussion of finding a bigger site had begun. It was decided that a new building would be built. The place for the new school was St George's Fields, that is today 28 Westminster Bridge Road.
St John's Hill, Battersea Rise was the school's third location, purchased in 1853. It is unclear whether the school was in Battersea, Clapham, Wandsworth, or Putney when its address was written down. The school was still expanding; and in 1918, the junior girls moved to a new junior school in Weybridge, Surrey.
In June 1926, the school moved to a site in Rickmansworth comprising in of land with a mansion (although reports suggest this was in a state of disrepair.) John Leopold Denman, an architect from Brighton, won the commission to design the school. Originally, the Rickmansworth site was just for the senior girls (aged 12 and above). In 1973, the junior school moved from Weybridge to join the senior school in Rickmansworth.
History
Food and clothing
A diet table was drawn up for the girls that was partly transcribed from other charities and partly based on the observations of Mr Boys, a governor and surgeon. The diet allowed a ration of 2 pounds of meat per child per week.
The war years
WWI
Life at the school continued pretty much as normal during the first world war. Two exceptions include an incident in 1917 where the school was damaged by anti-aircraft fire, and 1919 when the girls gave up their prizes on prize day so that the money could be given to charity.
WWII
In order to protect the girls from the expected aerial bombardment, an air raid shelter had been dug out. This was behind the boarding house formerly known as Ruspini and now known as Alexandra. The shelter was commonly referred to as the trenches and consisted of tunnels that zig-zagged with a room at intervals for boiling a kettle or dispensing medicines. The tunnels were lined with benches wide and each girl was allocated a place she must find in a raid.
They also adopted 3 ships, including the Ocean Courier. The girls knitted socks, gloves, and other items which were sent to the ship at Christmas. In return, Captain Crastion, the ship's captain, sent the school 36 pounds of toffee. The captain visited the school, and he and his ship also took part in the action on D-Day, carrying men and munitions.