St Saviour's Grammar School was a free

grammar school A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries, originally a school teaching Latin, but more recently an academically oriented secondary school ...

for boys located in the borough of Southwark, south of the

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. It existed as a separate entity from 1559 until 1896, when it was amalgamated with St Olave's Grammar School, which was renamed St Olave's and St Saviour's Grammar School For Boys.

History

The name is from the parish of St Saviour's, which was formed in 1543 from the amalgamation of St Margaret's and St Mary Magdalen's parishes. The parish adopted the name St Saviour's from the recently dissolved Abbey of St Saviour in nearby Bermondsey. The parish then leased the former Priory of St Mary Overie, a dissolved

Augustinian Augustinian may refer to: *Augustinians, members of religious orders following the Rule of St Augustine *Augustinianism, the teachings of Augustine of Hippo and his intellectual heirs *Someone who follows Augustine of Hippo * Canons Regular of Sain ...

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, which then became known as St Saviour's Church and was destined to become

Southwark Cathedral Southwark Cathedral ( ) or The Cathedral and Collegiate Church of St Saviour and St Mary Overie, Southwark, London, lies on the south bank of the River Thames close to London Bridge. It is the mother church of the Anglican Diocese of Southwar ...

in 1905. In 1559, St Saviour's parish sold a quantity of silver plate to fund a new sixty-year lease on the church from

Lady Day In the Western liturgical year, Lady Day is the traditional name in some English-speaking countries of the Feast of the Annunciation, which is celebrated on 25 March, and commemorates the visit of the archangel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary, durin ...

, dated 6 June 1559. A condition of the lease was that within two years the parish would establish a building and employ a schoolmaster for a free

. On 31 August 1559, the parishioners decided in the interim to run the school in the church house of the old St Margaret parish. This was funded by renting out the Lady Chapel of the priory to a baker, as well as selling the vestments and brass vessels of the parish. On 16 May 1562 the parishioners paid £42 for a thousand-year lease from Matthew Smith on a building associated with the Green Dragon Inn, which had previously been owned by Lady Cobham. Under the first schoolmaster, Christopher Ockland, the school moved into this new home, known as Green Dragon Court, lying just south of St Saviour's Church and now part of the site of the

Borough Market Borough Market is a wholesale and retail market hall in Southwark, London, England. It is one of the largest and oldest food markets in London, with a market on the site dating back to at least the 12th century. The present buildings were b ...

. The St Saviour's Grammar School received a Charter from

Queen Elizabeth I Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. Elizabeth was the last of the five House of Tudor monarchs and is sometimes referred to as the "Virgin Queen". El ...

, sealed on 4 June 1562. The event was commemorated on a foundation stone still existing today, although later moved from site to site and now situated at

St Olave's Grammar School St. Olave's Grammar School (formally St. Olave's and St. Saviour's Church of England Grammar School) ( or ) is a selective secondary school for boys in Orpington, Greater London, England. Founded by royal charter in 1571, the school occupied sev ...

Orpington Orpington is a town and area in south east London, England, within the London Borough of Bromley. It is 13.4 miles (21.6 km) south east of Charing Cross. On the south-eastern edge of the Greater London Built-up Area, it is south of St Ma ...

, Greater London. The chief figure of the Board of Governors was Thomas Cure, the senior Warden of St Saviour's, a special corporation chartered by King Henry VIII to look after both the great priory church and various local charitable bequests. Cure was the Royal Saddler, effectively a haulage contractor, for Edward VI, Mary I and Elizabeth I and lived near the north-west corner of St Saviour's Church. He was a major local benefactor and his endowments are still administered by the corporation; he is commemorated in the Cathedral. The High Master (headmaster) was paid £20 per year and initially only boys from St Saviour's parish could be admitted for a fee of half a crown (2s. 6d), while those from St Olave's and other parishes could pay a fee to the High Master to arrange a schoolmaster for their instruction. St Olave's parish established its own Grammar School in 1571, which meant there were two such foundations within 200 yards of each other. Probably the most famous pupil of the school during its first hundred years was John Harvard, after whom

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a College town, university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cam ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...

, was named. His father Robert and his brother Thomas were Governors of the school. However, it had an even more illustrious set of Governors and supporters: a page of the Governors Minutes of 1609 includes the signatures of John Treyhearn, Philip Henslowe and Edward Alleyn. The last-named was to become a major local benefactor, and his principal endowment for

Dulwich College Dulwich College is a 2–19 Independent school (United Kingdom), independent, Day school, day and boarding school for Single-sex education, boys in Dulwich, London, England. As a Public school (United Kingdom), public school, it began as the Col ...

was to ensure the continuance of St Saviour's when it was likely to be dissolved almost three hundred years later. The great fire of Southwark destroyed the school building in 1676 and damaged part of St Saviour's church, although the church tower was unscathed. The school's foundation stone was saved, and a new building was built on the same site. There the school remained until 1839, when the Governors sold the building for £2,250 and relocated (along with the foundation stone) to a third building on Sumner Street to the west. This was actually smaller than the previous building. Canon Edmund Boger was the last headmaster there, from 1859 to 1895. Canon Boger attempted to halt a serious decline in the school's fortunes, which was due partly to the success of St Olave's and partly to the problem of the 1839 Sumner Street building's size and location. The school roll fell to only 27 pupils in 1892. However, in 1882 the Charity Commissioners in re-organising Dulwich College's endowment had identified the intention of Edward Alleyn towards other institutions he had supported in his life and by his Will; these were to be provided for by the Dulwich Foundation. One of these was St Saviour's and it was this continuing financial contribution that was to make St Saviour's merger with St Olave's more than a merely nominal one. In 1896, St Saviour's Grammar School and

were amalgamated at St Olave's site on Tooley Street, and the combined school was named St Olave's and St Saviour's Grammar School for Boys. During 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 opposi ...

the old Sumner Street building of the former St Saviour's was damaged by bombing. The historic foundation stone was subsequently moved to St Olave's and St Saviour's Grammar School in 1952. When the school relocated to Orpington, Greater London, in 1968, the stone was taken to the new site. The school in Orpington is often referred to simply as St Olave's Grammar School, but its full name remains St Olave's and St Saviour's Grammar School. Near the turn of the 20th century, the Charity Commissioners required that girls in the Southwark area should also be given the chance of education, and the Governors of the joint foundation agreed to use their endowment to provide a new school now known as

St Saviour's and St Olave's Church of England School St Saviour's and St Olave's Church of England School is a secondary school and sixth form for girls located on New Kent Road near Elephant and Castle, in the London Borough of Southwark, England. It is a voluntary aided Church of England school ...

Notable former pupils

(cf. see List of Old Olavians for a list of post-amalgamation pupils of St Saviour's and St Olave's) * John Harvard (1607-1638) – clergyman and scholar who bequeathed half his estate and his library for the endowment of the educational institution which became

in Massachusetts. *

William Sherlock William Sherlock (c. 1639/1641June 19, 1707) was an English church leader. Life He was born at Southwark, the son of a tradesman, and was educated at St Saviour's Grammar School and Eton, and then at Peterhouse, Cambridge. In 1669 he became r ...

(''c.'' 1641–1707), church of England divine *

William Heberden William Heberden FRS (13 August 171017 May 1801) was an English physician. Life He was born in London, where he received the early part of his education at St Saviour's Grammar School. Full text at Internet Archive (archive.org) At the end of ...

(1710-1801) – one of the most eminent English physicians of the eighteenth century, studied in Cambridge, personal physician to the Queen in the court of George III, attended to Samuel Johnson when Johnson suffered a stroke, author of Commentaries on the History and Cure of Diseases. In 1777 he donated £500 to St Saviour's Grammar School to augment the salary of the headmaster. * William Van Mildert (1765-1836) – Bishop of Llandaff, founder of the University of Durham, last 'Prince Bishop' of Durham. *

George Tomlinson George Tomlinson (21 March 1890 – 22 September 1952) was a British Labour Party politician. Biography George Tomlinson was born at 55 Fielding Street in Rishton, Lancashire, the son of John Tomlinson, a cotton weaver, and his wife Alice, n� ...

(1794–1853) – Bishop of Gibraltar from 1842 to 1863 * Andrew Pritchard (1804-1882) - naturalist, entrepreneur, microscopist * George Bullen (1816/8-1894), Keeper of Printed Books at the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

* John Hannah (1818–1888), Church of England clergyman and schoolmaster * Sir Sidney Hedley Waterlow (1822-1906) – Lord Mayor of London, Member of Parliament * Sir William Atherton – Attorney General of England and Wales in 1861-1863 * Henry Hartley Fowler (1830-1911) – Member of Parliament, Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department, Secretary to the Treasury, Secretary of State for India, first Viscount Wolverhampton * Louis Lawrence Smith (1830–1910), Australian politician * John Melhuish Strudwick (1849-1937) –

Pre-Raphaelite The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (later known as the Pre-Raphaelites) was a group of English painters, poets, and art critics, founded in 1848 by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Michael Rossetti, James ...

painter *

Frederick William Walker Frederick William Walker (1830–1910) was an English headmaster who was successively High Master of Manchester Grammar School and St Paul's School, London. Life Walker was born in London in 1830, the son of an Irishman and educated at St Savio ...

(1830-1910) - High Master of St Pauls

References

* Carrington, R. C. ''Two Schools: A History of the St. Olave's and St. Saviour's Grammar School Foundation'' (London: The Governors of the St. Olave's and St. Saviour's Grammar School Foundation, 1971). *The Diocese of Southwark
"Southwark Cathedral: History."
April 28, 2004, (May 2, 2004). *Sanda Lipton Antique Silver. Source of information on the school medal

May 12, 2006. {{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Saviour's Grammar School Defunct grammar schools in England Defunct schools in the London Borough of Southwark Educational institutions established in the 1550s 1559 establishments in England Educational institutions disestablished in 1896 1896 disestablishments in England