FROM THE ARCHIVES : ROYAL CONNECTIONS
Sevenoaks School has outlived 29 English and British monarchs , not to mention an interregnum and the British Civil Wars . Our archives reveal some royal connections and visits of yesteryear .
OS of the 1960s-80s may also remember visits by Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother ( 1980 ), Prince Edward ( 1985 ), and the Duke of Edinburgh in 1966 .
HENRY V
Our founder , William Sevenoke , collected aid for Henry V ’ s military campaigns and was thanked by the King in a letter which survives from 1419 .
QUEEN ELIZABETH ’ S GRAMMAR SCHOOL
The school was granted Letters Patent by Elizabeth I in 1560 , and became entitled to use the name of the monarch , so until the early 1900s the school was sometimes known as Queen Elizabeth ’ s Grammar School . The association was long remembered in the almshouses , where Elizabeth ’ s accession day , 17 November , was celebrated until 1855 .
Elizabeth stayed in Otford in 1559 and at Knole in 1573 . Sadly , there is no evidence that she visited the school on either occasion , although records suggest that some of her retinue may have stayed on the Park Grange estate in 1559 .
CHARLES III
HRH Prince Charles visited the school in April 1977 to open its first proper indoor sports facility , the Marley Hall ( on the site now occupied by the Science and Technology Centre ). He was welcomed with sporting displays and gave a speech . Mike Bolton , in his recent history of the school , described this as ‘ a proud occasion for the Director of Sport , and indeed for the Second Form boy who had asked the Prince to sponsor him on the Cheshire Home Walk ’. One OS , Tim Connolly , remembered that ‘ the prince said that he was there to declare the new hall open , but that he gathered it had already been in use for some considerable period of time so perhaps it would be more apt if he were to declare it shut ’.
GEORGE III
George III visited the school in 1778 , as recorded in the London Gazette ( pictured opposite ). The visit was remembered locally in oral tradition :
‘… the Head Master came out , followed by his Footman who brought out a Hassock , the Carriage door was opened , and the hassock was placed in front of the door , on which , the head-master knelt before the King , who conversed very freely about the School … All the inmates of the two Alms Rows , came out ( that were able ) and stood , with green boughs in their hands . After the King had conversed some time , the Master offered up a prayer for the King in Latin .’
Jane Edwards ’ Recollections of Old Sevenoaks , 1792-1868 Sally Robbins , Archivist
134 OLD SENNOCKIANS