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Muir College is a semi-private
English medium An English-medium education system is one that uses English as the primary medium of instruction—particularly where English is not the mother tongue of the students. Initially this is associated with the expansion of English from its homeland i ...
high school for boys situated in the suburb of Vanes Estate in
Kariega Uitenhage ( ; ), officially renamed Kariega, is a South African town in the Eastern Cape Province. It is well known for the Volkswagen factory located there, which is the biggest car factory on the African continent. Along with the city of Port El ...
(
Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality ( af, Nelson Mandelabaai Metropolitaanse Munisipaliteit; xh, uMasipala wase Nelson Mandela Bay or ''uMasipala waseBhayi'') is one of eight metropolitan municipality (South Africa), metropolitan municipalities (als ...
) in the
Eastern Cape The Eastern Cape is one of the provinces of South Africa. Its capital is Bhisho, but its two largest cities are East London and Gqeberha. The second largest province in the country (at 168,966 km2) after Northern Cape, it was formed in ...
province of
South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...
. Muir caters for pupils from Grades 4 to 12. It is one of the oldest schools in South Africa (SA) established in 1822.


History

Muir College is undoubtedly the oldest boys' high school in South Africa, tracing its origins back to 1822 when a Scottish educationalist, James Rose Innes MA (King's College, Aberdeen), established Uitenhage's first Free Government School in Cuyler Street on 12 October, with 60 pupils. Admission was open to all children, irrespective of gender, ethnicity or economic status, and by 1829 enrolment had increased to 167. Innes resigned in 1830 to take up the position of Professor of Mathematics at the South African College in Cape Town, and in 1839 became the first Superintendent-General for Education in the Cape. In 1865 the Uitenhage Proprietary School – a private, fee-paying school - opened in Uitenhage with the Rev Dr Robert Templeton MA (Glasgow) as its first headmaster. In 1873 the Government School and the Proprietary School amalgamated to form the Undenominational Public School, and in 1875 the school moved to new purpose-built premises on the corner of Cannon Street and Park Avenue. In 1892 the school's name was changed to the Muir Academy in honour of the new Superintendent-General of Education in the Cape, Dr (later Sir) Thomas Muir MA, HonLLD (Glasgow). In 1904 a new, red-brick school building designed by celebrated architect William White-Cooper was opened on the Park Avenue site by Dr Muir. By this time the school was officially 'Muir High School', but by 1907 it was universally known as 'Muir College'. In 1962 the college was split to create Muir College Boys' Primary School (housed in the college buildings on the south side of Cannon Street), and Muir College Boys' High School (housed in the red-brick buildings in Park Avenue). In 1987 the high school moved to a new, very spacious campus in Vanes Estate, and Muir Primary moved into the Park Avenue buildings. The Senior and Primary schools were reunited in 1994 and currently occupy the Vanes Estate site where there are extensive sports facilities as well as boarding facilities for approximately 100 pupils. Origin Of The School Badge: The school badge had its origin in the Proprietary School, and shows the rampant lion of Scotland in the left quadrant, honouring the first (Scottish) headmaster. Facing it is a cross taken from Uitenhage's coat of arms (from the family crest of the founder of Uitenhage, General J Uitenhage de Mist.) Below is a Xhosa warrior, representing the Eastern Cape, which also appears on the seal of the proposed Eastern Cape Colony. Although the division of the Cape Colony into East and West did not occur, a seal was prepared and is on view in the Cuyler Manor Museum. The last quadrant shows an anchor, representing the Cape Colony.


School motto

"''
Nec Pluribus Impar ''Nec pluribus impar'' (literally: "Not unequal to many") is a Latin motto adopted by Louis XIV of France from 1658. It was often inscribed together with the symbol of the "Sun King": a head within rays of sunlight. Meaning While the motto re ...
''",
Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
for "Second to None"


School song

Stand and sing for auld lang syne, Shout till the rafters ring. Stand and sing our song once again, Let every loyal heart now sing. Then think of all the happy hours, Think of the careless days. Think of all who went before us, Yet linger in our thoughts always. Let us sing to the Muir, To the school with the glorious memories, To the men of the past, and the name they have handed down to us; To the life and the strife, in the games that are stirring and calling us; Carry on! Carry on! Carry on the good name of the Muir! So - Stand and sing for auld lang syne, Shout till the rafters ring. Stand and sing our song once again, Let every loyal heart now sing. Then think of all the happy hours, Think of the careless days. Think of all who went before us, Yet linger in our thoughts always.


Rugby at Muir

Photographic evidence of rugby at Muir College exists from as early as 1893, while
Grey High School Grey High School is a semi-private English speaking high school (grades 8 - 12) for boys situated in the suburb of Mill Park in Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is one of the top sporting schools in the country, ...
record their first ever game as played against the Muir Academy in 1894. Headmaster John Mitchell had recorded in his diary on the 13th of April 1893 that “a meeting of pupils to decide on the football club was held.” Unfortunately this teething period of rugby came to an abrupt end in 1897 when new headmaster John Sutherland introduced soccer as the winter sport. Rugby was reintroduced in only 1923, and performances climaxed in 1931 with the 1st XV of that year recording 9 wins and 2 draws out of 14 matches to show that Muir College rugby had finally arrived.


Traditional rivals

Muir College counts
Grey High School Grey High School is a semi-private English speaking high school (grades 8 - 12) for boys situated in the suburb of Mill Park in Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is one of the top sporting schools in the country, ...
,
Graeme College Graeme College is a public English medium high school for boys located in Makhanda (Grahamstown) in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It caters for boys from Grade 00 to Grade 12 and offers both boarding and day options to its pupils. ...
, St Andrew's College,
Union High Union commonly refers to: * Trade union, an organization of workers * Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets Union may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Union (band), an American rock group ** ''Un ...
and
Gill College Gill College is a South African high school in Somerset East, Sarah Baartman District Municipality. It was founded in 1869 as a university. The school's namesake, Dr. William Gill, died in 1863 and left an estate equivalent to £23,000 () for th ...
as their oldest traditional opponents.


Famous Muirites

Muir College has produced two rugby
Springboks The South Africa national rugby union team, commonly known as the Springboks (colloquially the Boks, Bokke or Amabokoboko), is the country's national team governed by the South African Rugby Union. The Springboks play in green and gold jersey ...
, namely
Fred Smollan Frederick Cecil Smollan (20 August 1908 – 8 February 1998, Johannesburg) was a South Africa international rugby union player. Career history Fred Smollan was born in Uitenhage, South Africa in 1908 to David Smollan and Mathilda Goldwater, the ...
in 1933 and
Garth Wright Garth Derick Wright (born 9 September 1963) is a former South African rugby union player. Playing career Wright played for Eastern Province and Transvaal in the South African domestic competitions. He made his test debut for the Springboks i ...
in 1986, while the writer on rugby Mel Channer was selected for
Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...
shortly after the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
.
Shane Gates Shane Edward Gates (born 27 September 1992) is a South African-born Japanese professional rugby union player, currently playing in the Japanese Top League with NTT Communications Shining Arcs. His usual position is fly-half or inside centre. C ...
,
Michael Killian Michael Killian (born 22 November 1983) is a former South African rugby union player. He played mostly as a winger and represented the and in domestic South African rugby and the and in Super Rugby. Career He started his career at the King ...
,
Darron Nell Darron Paul Nell (born 3 August 1980) is a South African professional rugby union player who most recently with the . His usual positions are flanker and number 8. Nell played rugby for the between 2002 and 2008, mainly appearing as a flanker ...
and
Marzuq Maarman Marzuq Maarman is a South African rugby union player, currently playing with Romanian SuperLiga side Timișoara Saracens. His regular position is prop. Career Youth He played for the at the Under-18 Craven Week in 2010, as well as the Under- ...
are other notable Muirite rugby players. Other famous Muirites include the Afrikaans poet A.D. Keet who passed his Intermediate exams at Muir where he also won the Nederlands school prize. He subsequently moved on to South African College School in Cape Town where he matriculated in 1905. Sam Hobson was a classmate of A.D. Keet. He studied at Rhodes University in Grahamstown and he became a school inspector in 1908. Between 1934 and 1944 he served Rhodes as a member of Senate. In 1942 he became Chief Inspector of Native Education and in 1946 Secretary of Education. After retiring he served the United Party in the Cape Province as Caucus leader. Between 1949 and 1963 he served as Chairman of the Senate at Rhodes University. Hobson House at Rhodes is named after him.


External links

*
Old Muirite's Site
{{ECSchools Schools in the Eastern Cape 1822 establishments in the Cape Colony Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality