Jocelin Slingsby Winthrop Young (25 October 1919 — 8 February 2012) was a British educator, headmaster and
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...
officer who co-founded the Greek independent boarding school
Anavryta and founded the
Round Square
Round Square is an international network of schools, based on the educational concepts of Kurt Hahn, and named after a distinctive building at Gordonstoun. Founded by a group of seven schools in the late 1960s, by 1996 it had grown to 20 member ...
association of schools. He was also the private tutor of
King Constantine II of Greece
Constantine II ( el, Κωνσταντίνος Βʹ, ''Konstantínos II''; 2 June 1940) reigned as the last King of Greece, from 6 March 1964 until the abolition of the Greek monarchy on 1 June 1973.
Constantine is the only son of King Paul an ...
between 1948 and 1958.
Early life
![Kurt Hahn](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c3/Kurt_Hahn.jpg)
Winthrop Young was born on 25 October 1919 at
Heversham
Heversham is a small village and civil parish in the South Lakeland district of Cumbria, England. In the 2001 census the parish had a population of 647, increasing at the 2011 census to 699.
It is situated above the marshes of the Kent est ...
,
Westmorland
Westmorland (, formerly also spelt ''Westmoreland'';R. Wilkinson The British Isles, Sheet The British IslesVision of Britain/ref> is a historic county in North West England spanning the southern Lake District and the northern Dales. It had an ...
(now Cumbria) to renowned mountaineers
Geoffrey Winthrop Young
Geoffrey Winthrop Young (25 October 1876 – 8 September 1958) was a British climber, poet and educator, and author of several notable books on mountaineering.
Young was born in Kensington, the middle son of Sir George Young, 3rd Baronet (see ...
and
Eleanor Winthrop Young. Winthrop Young's parents were friends with German educator
Kurt Hahn
Kurt Matthias Robert Martin Hahn (5 June 1886, Berlin – 14 December 1974, Hermannsberg) was a German educator. He was decisive in founding, among other organizations and initiatives, Stiftung Louisenlund, Schule Schloss Salem, Gordonsto ...
and consequently he was sent to study at Hahn's first school
Schule Schloss Salem
Schule Schloss Salem (Anglicisation: ''School of Salem Castle'', ''Salem Castle School'') is a boarding school with campuses in Salem and Überlingen in Baden-Württemberg, Southern Germany.
It offers the German Abitur, as well as the Inter ...
from 1931 to 1933.
Following the rise to power of the Nazis in Germany in 1933 Hahn who was Jewish sought to leave the country, Winthrop Young's parents were amongst those who facilitated his escape to Britain.
Once in Britain Hahn soon sought to establish a new school, and following a few short term arrangements he set up a school at
Gordonstoun
Gordonstoun School is a co-educational independent school for boarding and day pupils in Moray, Scotland. It is named after the estate owned by Sir Robert Gordon in the 17th century; the school now uses this estate as its campus. It is locate ...
where Winthrop Young was amongst the first cohort of pupils along with
Prince Philip
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (born Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, later Philip Mountbatten; 10 June 1921 – 9 April 2021) was the husband of Queen Elizabeth II. As such, he served as the consort of the British monarch from E ...
(then of Greece and Denmark) who had also moved to Gordonstoun from Salem. The two men were amongst the crew who sailed the school's ocean-going vessel 'Henrietta' to Norway.
This experience triggered a lifelong love for sailing and the sea within Winthrop Young and following the outbreak of war in 1939 he volunteered to serve in the
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...
.
Tutor to Crown Prince Constantine and establishment of Anavryta Experimental Lyceum
After his period of service as an officer with the
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...
during the Second World War
[Veevers, Nick & Allison Pete (2011) Springer Science & Business Media. Kurt Hahn. p. 91] (where he reached the rank of
Lieutenant Commander
Lieutenant commander (also hyphenated lieutenant-commander and abbreviated Lt Cdr, LtCdr. or LCDR) is a commissioned officer rank in many navies. The rank is superior to a lieutenant and subordinate to a commander. The corresponding ran ...
and took part in the
Normandy landings
The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allies of World War II, Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and ...
), Winthrop Young decided against an education at university and instead began working at Imperial Chemical Industries in Birmingham.
During this time
King Paul of Greece and
Queen Frederica contacted Kurt Hahn and expressed their desire that he set up a school in Greece so that their son the
Crown Prince Constantine could be educated there.
Winthrop Young contacted Kurt Hahn in hopes of obtaining a new position, Hahn suggested he move to Greece, becomes private tutor to
Crown Prince Constantine and establishes a new school there.
Winthrop Young took Hahn up on his offer and along with the King and Queen set up the
Anavryta Experimental Lyceum in 1949. Winthrop Young became the school's first headmaster and personal tutor to the future King Constantine II who was amongst the school's first pupils.
Winthrop Young returned to visit Gordonstoun and here he became acquainted with
Roy McComish
Roy is a masculine given name and a family surname with varied origin.
In Anglo-Norman England, the name derived from the Norman ''roy'', meaning "king", while its Old French cognate, ''rey'' or ''roy'' (modern ''roi''), likewise gave rise to ...
, the two men began a long lasting friendship and working relationship.
[Toast to Winthrop Young - Speech by Roy McComish in 1992 at Bishop's College, Lennoxville Quebec - Accessible https://www.jocelinwinthropyoung.com/work/round-square/][The muscles of friendship - Speech by Jocelin Winthrop Young on the occasion of his retirement in October 1992 - Accessible https://www.jocelinwinthropyoung.com/work/round-square/] In 1953 an
earthquake
An earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor or temblor) is the shaking of the surface of the Earth resulting from a sudden release of energy in the Earth's lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, fr ...
struck Greece, a disaster which caused the death of thousands of people and the destruction of many buildings. Shortly after the earthquake
King Paul of Greece visited the site of the earthquake with his wife
Frederica of Hanover
Frederica of Hanover (''Friederike Luise''; ; 18 April 1917 – 6 February 1981) was Queen consort of Greece from 1947 until 1964 as the wife of King Paul, thereafter Queen mother during the reign of her son, King Constantine II.
Early life
...
and her brother
Prince George of Hanover who was at this point the headmaster of
Schule Schloss Salem
Schule Schloss Salem (Anglicisation: ''School of Salem Castle'', ''Salem Castle School'') is a boarding school with campuses in Salem and Überlingen in Baden-Württemberg, Southern Germany.
It offers the German Abitur, as well as the Inter ...
. Prince George decided to initiate a building project to help repair the damage done to the island of Cephalonia his project would involve students from schools in various different countries.
One of these schools was Gordonstoun and these students were under the supervision of Roy McComish. A group of 120 students from 8 countries (including those from Salem and Gordonstoun) headed to Greece in July 1954 a group from
Anavryta organised by Winthrop Young joined them there and the combined group then headed to
Argostoli
Argostoli ( el, Αργοστόλι, Katharevousa: Ἀργοστόλιον) is a town and a municipality on the island of Kefalonia, Ionian Islands, Greece. Since the 2019 local government reform it is one of the three municipalities on the islan ...
on the island of Cephalonia. Once there they set to work building a home for a number of elderly people who had been left homeless.
The success of this co-operation between several like-minded schools acted as his inspiration for
Round Square
Round Square is an international network of schools, based on the educational concepts of Kurt Hahn, and named after a distinctive building at Gordonstoun. Founded by a group of seven schools in the late 1960s, by 1996 it had grown to 20 member ...
. In 1958 the Crown Prince finished his education, and in 1959 Winthrop Young stood down as headmaster of Anavryta and returned to England. In 1960 Winthrop Young was made an
Officer of the Order of the British Empire for his work at Anavryta.
Foundation of the Round Square and later career
Between 1962 and 1963
Roy McComish
Roy is a masculine given name and a family surname with varied origin.
In Anglo-Norman England, the name derived from the Norman ''roy'', meaning "king", while its Old French cognate, ''rey'' or ''roy'' (modern ''roi''), likewise gave rise to ...
(who had at this point founded
Box Hill School
Box Hill School is an independent coeducational boarding and day school situated in the village of Mickleham near Dorking, Surrey, England. The school has approximately 425 pupils aged 11–18. 70 percent of students are day students whilst th ...
the first Hahnian school in England, where Winthrop Young had become one of its governors) and Winthrop Young listed all the schools which they considered to have adopted Hahn’s ideas or had included them at their foundation, these were: in Scotland, Rannoch School and Dunrobin School, in England,
Abbotsholme School
Abbotsholme School is a co-educational independent boarding and day school. The school is situated on a 140-acre campus on the banks of the River Dove in Derbyshire, England near the county border and the village of Rocester in Staffordshire. I ...
, Battisborough and
Milton Abbey
Milton Abbey school is an independent school for day and boarding pupils in the village of Milton Abbas, near Blandford Forum in Dorset, in South West England. It has 224 pupils , in five houses: Athelstan, Damer, Hambro, Hodgkinson and Tregonw ...
, in Germany
Louisenlund
Stiftung Louisenlund is a privately run boarding school for boys and girls in Güby, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany.
History
The school's main building is in Louisenlund Castle, which was built by Hermann von Motz between 1772 and 1776 for Prince C ...
, in Switzerland
Aiglon College
Aiglon College is a private co-educational boarding school in Switzerland, broadly modelled on British boarding school lines. It is an independent, non-profit school located in the Swiss Alps. It is located 60 km from Lausanne in the alpine vil ...
, in Africa
Achimota School, in India
The Doon School
The Doon School (informally Doon School or Doon) is a selective all-boys boarding school in Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India, which was established in 1935. It was envisioned by Satish Ranjan Das, a lawyer from Calcutta, who prevised a school mod ...
and the soon to open
Athenian School in California. Gordonstoun, Salem, Anavryta and Box Hill were 'taken for granted' as the already established and pre-eminent Hahnian schools.
[Jocelin Winthrop-Young 28/3/1999 - accessible https://www.jocelinwinthropyoung.com/work/round-square/]
In 1964 Winthrop Young became head of boarding at
Schule Schloss Salem
Schule Schloss Salem (Anglicisation: ''School of Salem Castle'', ''Salem Castle School'') is a boarding school with campuses in Salem and Überlingen in Baden-Württemberg, Southern Germany.
It offers the German Abitur, as well as the Inter ...
the school where he had received his early education.
On 5 June 1966, Kurt Hahn’s 80th birthday was celebrated at
Schule Schloss Salem
Schule Schloss Salem (Anglicisation: ''School of Salem Castle'', ''Salem Castle School'') is a boarding school with campuses in Salem and Überlingen in Baden-Württemberg, Southern Germany.
It offers the German Abitur, as well as the Inter ...
, and Winthrop Young had the headmasters of Box Hill School, Gordonstoun, Louisenlund, Anavryta, Battisborough, the Athenian School and the
Atlantic College
Atlantic College (formally the United World College of the Atlantic; alternatively styled UWC Atlantic College, UWCAC, or UWCA) is an independent boarding school in the Vale of Glamorgan in south Wales. Founded in 1962, it was the first of ...
invited, to discuss the establishment of a Hahn schools conference.
This meeting was chaired by
King Constantine and during its course an agreement was reached on naming the conference 'The Hahn Schools', it was then decided that the first conference would be held at Gordonstoun in 1967.
At this first conference, at Hahn's insistence, the name 'The Hahn Schools' was dropped in favour of a new name 'Round Square Conference' after an iconic building at Gordonstoun. The six schools that attended this first conference and were the founding members of the Round Square were
Box Hill School
Box Hill School is an independent coeducational boarding and day school situated in the village of Mickleham near Dorking, Surrey, England. The school has approximately 425 pupils aged 11–18. 70 percent of students are day students whilst th ...
,
Gordonstoun
Gordonstoun School is a co-educational independent school for boarding and day pupils in Moray, Scotland. It is named after the estate owned by Sir Robert Gordon in the 17th century; the school now uses this estate as its campus. It is locate ...
,
Anavryta Experimental Lyceum,
Schule Schloss Salem
Schule Schloss Salem (Anglicisation: ''School of Salem Castle'', ''Salem Castle School'') is a boarding school with campuses in Salem and Überlingen in Baden-Württemberg, Southern Germany.
It offers the German Abitur, as well as the Inter ...
,
Aiglon College
Aiglon College is a private co-educational boarding school in Switzerland, broadly modelled on British boarding school lines. It is an independent, non-profit school located in the Swiss Alps. It is located 60 km from Lausanne in the alpine vil ...
and
Abbotsholme School
Abbotsholme School is a co-educational independent boarding and day school. The school is situated on a 140-acre campus on the banks of the River Dove in Derbyshire, England near the county border and the village of Rocester in Staffordshire. I ...
. At the 2nd Round Square conference held at Box Hill the principles of the association were established and
co-education
Mixed-sex education, also known as mixed-gender education, co-education, or coeducation (abbreviated to co-ed or coed), is a system of education where males and females are educated together. Whereas single-sex education was more common up to ...
was the first of the sequence of conference themes that was discussed.
At a later conference held at Box Hill in 1980 the R.S.I.S. (Round Square International Service) was created to promote and organise overseas voluntary service projects in much the same way as the project in Cephalonia.
Winthrop Young retired as headmaster of Salem in 1974 but continued to run Round Square as Honorary Secretary and later as Director until he retired from that position in 1992.
Winthrop Young died in
Heiligenberg
Heiligenberg is a municipality and a village in the Bodensee district in Baden-Württemberg, about seven kilometres north of Salem, in Germany.
Location and climate
Heiligenberg (literally: the Holy Mountain or the Mountain of Saints) is loca ...
, near
Salem in Germany in 2012 at the age of 92.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Young, Jocelin Winthrop
1919 births
2012 deaths
Royal Navy officers of World War II
20th-century British educators
Recipients of the Order of Saints George and Constantine
Officers of the Order of the British Empire
People educated at Gordonstoun