King Edward VII School (KES) is a

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichk ...

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 within the city of

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Dem ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

Gauteng Gauteng ( ) is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. The name in Sotho-Tswana languages means 'place of gold'. Situated on the Highveld, Gauteng is the smallest province by land area in South Africa. Although Gauteng accounts for only ...

Province, one of the historically significant Milner Schools. The school is a public school, with an enrollment of over 1,100 boys from grades 8 to 12 (ages 13 to 18). King Edward VII Preparatory School (KEPS), which is situated adjacent to the High School and shares its grounds, caters to boys from grades R to 7.

History

In 1902, when the

Boer War The Second Boer War ( af, Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the Sou ...

came to an end, there was an urgent need for schools in the Transvaal. The Milner Administration, in search of suitable buildings in which to establish temporary classrooms, found a vacant cigar factory in Johannesburg, on the corner of Gold and Kerk Streets, which was chosen as venue for "The Government High School for Boys", also known as the "Johannesburg High School for Boys". Thus was born a school which ultimately became the King

Edward VII Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Emperor of India, from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910. The second child and eldest son of Queen Victoria and ...

School. It grew so rapidly that, in 1904, it was moved to Barnato Park where it was established in the mansion that originally had been designed for the mining millionaire Barney Barnato, who died at sea in 1897. At its new location, it was referenced as "Johannesburg College" but, within seven years, the premises were deemed inadequate and, in 1911, the school was moved to its present site on the

Houghton Houghton may refer to: Places Australia * Houghton, South Australia, a town near Adelaide * Houghton Highway, the longest bridge in Australia, between Redcliffe and Brisbane in Queensland * Houghton Island (Queensland) Canada *Houghton Township, ...

ridge where new buildings had been impressively-designed and specifically constructed for the school. The time frame, within less than a year after the founding of the

Union of South Africa The Union of South Africa ( nl, Unie van Zuid-Afrika; af, Unie van Suid-Afrika; ) was the historical predecessor to the present-day Republic of South Africa. It came into existence on 31 May 1910 with the unification of the Cape, Natal, Tran ...

and the death of

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of any previo ...

's eldest son and successor, Edward VII, led to the proposal that the institution's name be changed to honour his memory, thus establishing the appellation, King Edward VII School.

Buildings

Over a century old, the school buildings of King Edward retain their impressive appearance and are considered national monuments. These include the school hall, the back facade, the front facade, the lecture theatre and library wing, the memorial wing and the

cenotaph A cenotaph is an empty tomb or a monument erected in honour of a person or group of people whose remains are elsewhere. It can also be the initial tomb for a person who has since been reinterred elsewhere. Although the vast majority of cenot ...

in the main quad.

Sports

Sports that are offered in the school are: *

Athletics Athletics may refer to: Sports * Sport of athletics, a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking ** Track and field, a sub-category of the above sport * Athletics (physical culture), competi ...

Basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

Chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to dist ...

Cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by str ...

* Cross country *

Golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping ...

Hockey Hockey is a term used to denote a family of various types of both summer and winter team sports which originated on either an outdoor field, sheet of ice, or dry floor such as in a gymnasium. While these sports vary in specific rules, numbers o ...

Rowing Rowing is the act of propelling a human-powered watercraft using the sweeping motions of oars to displace water and generate reactional propulsion. Rowing is functionally similar to paddling, but rowing requires oars to be mechanically ...

* Rugby * Soccer *

Squash Squash may refer to: Sports * Squash (sport), the high-speed racquet sport also known as squash racquets * Squash (professional wrestling), an extremely one-sided match in professional wrestling * Squash tennis, a game similar to squash but pla ...

Swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, or other liquid, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Locomotion is achieved through coordinated movement of the limbs and the body to achieve hydrodynamic thrust that r ...

Table tennis Table tennis, also known as ping-pong and whiff-whaff, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight ball, also known as the ping-pong ball, back and forth across a table using small solid rackets. It takes place on a hard table div ...

Tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

Water polo Water polo is a competitive sport, competitive team sport played in water between two teams of seven players each. The game consists of four quarters in which the teams attempt to score goals by throwing the water polo ball, ball into the oppo ...

Poaching

The school has been involved in numerous rugby poaching scandals resulting in at least two schools (SACS in Cape Town and near neighbours Parktown Boys) cancelling fixtures against the school.

Notable Old Edwardians

* Sydney Kentridge, lawyer and judge * Sydney Lipworth, lawyer and businessman * Mark Weinberg * Donald Gordon, businessman and philanthropist * Johann Kriegler *

Richard Goldstone Richard Joseph Goldstone (born 26 October 1938) is a South African former judge. After working for 17 years as a commercial lawyer, he was appointed by the South African government to serve on the Transvaal Supreme Court from 1980 to 1989 and ...

Constitutional Court judge *

Ronnie Kasrils Ronald Kasrils (born 15 November 1938) is a South African politician, Marxist revolutionary, guerrilla and military commander. He was Minister for Intelligence Services from 27 April 2004 to 25 September 2008. He was a member of the National ...

, cabinet minister *

William Kentridge William Kentridge (born 28 April 1955) is a South African artist best known for his prints, drawings, and animated films, especially noted for a sequence of hand-drawn animated films he produced during the 1990s. The latter are constructed by ...

, artist * Bryce Courtenay, novelist ("The Power of One") * Michael McClelland, Professor of Microbiology and Genetics at the

University of California, Irvine The University of California, Irvine (UCI or UC Irvine) is a public land-grant research university in Irvine, California. One of the ten campuses of the University of California system, UCI offers 87 undergraduate degrees and 129 graduate and p ...

* Anthony Preston, Naval Historian * Arthur Walker HCG, Bar SAAF Pilot

Sportsmen

Gary Player Gary James Player DMS, OIG (born 1 November 1935) is a South African retired professional golfer who is widely considered to be one of the greatest golfers of all time. During his career, Player won nine major championships on the regular tou ...

, golf * Arthur Langton, cricketer *

Ali Bacher Aron "Ali" Bacher (born 24 May 1942) is a former South African Test cricket captain and an administrator of the United Cricket Board of South Africa. Personal life Bacher was born in May 1942 in Roodepoort to Lithuanian- Jewish parents who emi ...

, cricketer * Kevin McKenzie, cricketer *

Neil McKenzie Neil Douglas McKenzie (born 24 November 1975) is a South African former cricketer, who played all three forms of the game. He was a right-handed opening batsman who played for South Africa, making his first appearance in 2000. He is currently t ...

, cricketer * Ray Jennings, cricketer * Hugh Page, cricketer * Adam Bacher, cricketer * Nic Pothas, cricketer *

Graeme Smith Graeme Craig Smith (born 1 February 1981) is a South African cricket commentator and former cricketer who played for South Africa in all formats. In 2003, he was appointed captain of the national team, taking over from Shaun Pollock. He held t ...

, cricketer * Joe van Niekerk, rugby player *

Bryan Habana Bryan Gary Habana OIS (born 12 June 1983) is a South African former professional rugby union player who initially played as an outside centre but later on, he shifted to the wing. He most recently played for Toulon in the French Top 14 compet ...

, rugby player * Rhys M. Thomas, rugby player (Wales) * Cliff Durandt, soccer player * Vaughn van Jaarsveld, cricketer * Scarra Ntubeni, rugby player * Quinton de Kock, cricketer *

Dane Vilas Dane James Vilas (born 10 June 1985) is a South African cricketer. He was born in Johannesburg, Transvaal. Previously, he played for South Africa's national side and made his Test debut for South Africa against Bangladesh on 30 July 2015. D ...

, cricketer * Shaun Keeling, rowing * Stephen Cook (cricketer) *

Malcolm Marx Malcolm Justin Marx (born 13 July 1994) is a South African professional rugby union player for the South Africa national team and the Kubota Spears in the Japanese Top League. His regular position is hooker, but he did play as a flanker at yout ...

, rugby player *

Keaton Jennings Keaton Kent Jennings (born 19 June 1992) is a South African-born English cricketer who plays for Lancashire County Cricket Club and has represented England. He is a left-handed opening batsman who also bowls right-arm medium-fast. He made his in ...

, cricketer (England) * Stan Schmidt, karateStan Schmidt at IMDB
/ref> * John Gartly, cricketer * Stuart Hiddleston, cricketer

References

External links

King Edward VII School Family Official Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:King Edward Vii School (Johannesburg) Boarding schools in South Africa Schools in Johannesburg Educational institutions established in 1902 Boys' schools in South Africa 1902 establishments in South Africa Edward VII schools