John Lilburne ON

The ONA magazine (No 82) arrived today. I note we are told it is "now available online", and "each edition is added to the ONA website shortly after circulation". In fact the "current" edition on the site is No. 79 - Summer 2010. Nevertheless, I was delighted to see the image of "Free-born" John Lilburne on the cover, and to read Sir Geoffrey Bindman's Article on his "legal hero" first published in the Guardian. You can read it here 'until' the ONA version is actually online.

Sir G. (O.N.) writes "When I was at school between 1945 and 1950 I knew nothing of Lilburne, and for many years later was unaware of his link with the school. Every day we sang the school song which listed those famous Old Novos: "Collingwood, Armstrong, Eldon and Bourne, Akenside, Stowell and Brand." Why leave out John Lilburne, who, apart from his pivotal role in the development of our legal system, was one of our most important constitutional thinkers?"

Well, those of us who were privileged to be taught 17th century History by Alan Mitchell knew who John Lilburne was and why his name was omitted. Furthermore, in the Novo of Summer 1968 (appropriately) a new verse for the school song was proposed in his memory by Iain McGill. Here it is:

School books: school histories

The first school history, The Story of Our School, was published in 1924. It was written by senior English master J. B. Brodie (1898 - 1928) and senior science master A. R. Laws (1892 - 1928), and included the text of the school song written by Brodie and first performed in April 1914.

Copies of this book were given to each boy entering the school. I don't know when this custom ceased but I remember seeing boxes full of copies in the bookroom behind the organ in the mid-1960s.

A special edition of Brodie and Laws was produced for the so-called 400th anniversary of the school in 1925. This included the programme for the event and copies of some of the portraits of distinguished ONs from the hall. The date discrepancy arises from Thomas Horsley's conception of the school in his will of 1525 and its actual foundation after his death in 1545.

In 1925 Laws published his two-volume Schola Novocastrensis: A Biographical History of the Royal Free Grammar School of Newcastle - upon - Tyne. A third planned volume continuing the story from 1845 was never published. This combines a more substantial history of the school with biographical details of alumni.

All of these volumes were part of headmaster Ebenezer Rhys Thomas (1922 - 1948) policy of reinforcing the school's sense off status and pride, and promoting it as a public day school preparing its pupils for leadership (discendo duces).

The Register of the Royal Grammar School Newcastle upon Tyne 1545 - 1954 by B. D. Stevens (1955) repeated Laws' biographical record and continued it (with less detail) down to 1954. A supplement was published the following year. The ON News picked up and continued the project from the 1980s until it ceased publication in the 1990s.

"It is my privilege to be Headmaster of the Royal Grammar School at the time this Register is issued. The author, Mr. B. D. Stevens, is a young Old Boy, and to his ability and devotion our best thanks are due. It has been a tremendous task, taking years of patient and careful research—which indeed he is continuing. Since the reign of Henry VIII Old Boys of the R.G.S. have . played a prominent and valuable part in the life of Newcastle and of the country. I hope the present—and the future—generations may be relied on to live up to the record of their predecessors during the last four centuries. I am convinced that they will."

Head of History (from 1976) Brian Mains and ON Anthony Tuck produced their Royal Grammar School Newcastle upon Tyne: A Hsitroy of the School in its Community in 1986. A substantial and scholarly collection of essays examining the history of the school and its context, subscribers' copies came with a strange letter from headmaster A. S. Cox hoping that readers would not be too disappointed with its serious tone.

The School Crest and motto

The current version of the school crest as found on the website and on blazers is a kind of blurry version of the one I remember from the 1960s. It no longer carries the motto Discendo Duces, which now, indeed, seems to have disappeared completely.

According to Anthony Tuck ON in his essay 'Towards the Front Rank 1922 - 1945' this coat of arms was adopted in 1930 to replace the tradition followed since the nineteenth century of juxtaposing the arms of Queen Elizabeth I with those of the city. The cost of the grant for the new arms was met by Sir Arthur Sutherland. Discendo Duces ('through learning you will lead') became the school motto the following year apparently replacing Progrediendum Est (which sort of means 'setting out'), although I have not been able to find an example of this.

The new crest and motto were part of an attempt by headmaster Ebenezer Rhys Thomas (1922 - 1948) to reinforce the school's sense of status and pride. The school song also dates from this period.

Prior to the nineteenth century the school seems to have simply used the arms of the city.