Eltham College is an

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independe ...

day school A day school — as opposed to a boarding school — is an educational institution where children and adolescents are given instructions during the day, after which the students return to their homes. A day school has full-day programs when comp ...

situated in

Mottingham Mottingham is a district of south-east London, England, which straddles the border of both the London Borough of Bromley and the Royal Borough of Greenwich. It is located south of Eltham, southeast of Charing Cross. It is within the historic ...

, southeast London.

Eltham Eltham ( ) is a district of South London, southeast London, England, within the Royal Borough of Greenwich. It is east-southeast of Charing Cross, and is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. The thre ...

and Mottingham once formed part of the same parish, hence its name. It is a member of

The Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference The Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference (HMC) is an association of the head teachers of 361 independent schools (both boarding schools and day schools), some traditionally described as public schools. 298 Members are based in the United ...

(HMC).

Early history

The school dates back to the early Victorian era, when it was founded as the

London Missionary Society The London Missionary Society was an interdenominational evangelical missionary society formed in England in 1795 at the instigation of Welsh Congregationalist minister Edward Williams. It was largely Reformed in outlook, with Congregational m ...

's School for the Sons and Orphans of Missionaries. Within a short time the Baptist Missionary Society joined as co-founders. A girls' school had been established in

Walthamstow Walthamstow ( or ) is a large town in east London, England, within the ceremonial county of Greater London and the ancient county of Essex. Situated northeast of Charing Cross, the town borders Chingford to the north, Snaresbrook and Sou ...

in 1838 and a boys' school was opened in the same place at the beginning of 1842. The boys' school later relocated to Mornington Crescent in 1852 and then to a purpose-built location in the centre of Blackheath in 1857 (the building, directly adjacent to Blackheath Station, later became the headquarters of the

Church Army The Church Army is an evangelistic organisation and mission community founded in 1882 in association with the Church of England and now operating internationally in many parts of the Anglican Communion. History The Church Army was founded in E ...

and is now a private hospital). Missionary

David Livingstone David Livingstone (; 19 March 1813 – 1 May 1873) was a Scottish physician, Congregationalist, and pioneer Christian missionary with the London Missionary Society, an explorer in Africa, and one of the most popular British heroes of ...

sent his son Robert to the school during the 1850s.Rhind, N. (1993) ''Blackheath Village & Environs, 1790-1990, Vol.1 The Village and Blackheath Vale'' (Bookshop Blackheath, London), p.118.

Current site

The school moved to its present site - centred on an 18th-century mansion (Fairy Hall) in Mottingham - in 1912. The building had previously been used by the Royal Naval School from 1889 to the end of the summer term in 1910. Eltham College began life as a small boarding school catering for children of missionaries serving overseas, mainly in India, China and Africa. From 1945 to 1976 Eltham was a Direct Grant school; thus, for example, the 1952 intake was roughly 20 pupils from

London County Council London County Council (LCC) was the principal local government body for the County of London throughout its existence from 1889 to 1965, and the first London-wide general municipal authority to be directly elected. It covered the area today kno ...

schools and 20 from Kent schools (all 40 of these on scholarships), and 20 fee-payers. When the Direct Grant system was abolished in 1976, the school chose to go fully independent. After the 1950s the number of missionary sons fell sharply and the school became primarily a day school for boys until it went fully co-educational in the 2020s. The sixth form has admitted girls since 1978. Reflecting the origins of the school, each of the four houses is named after a prominent LMS or BMS missionary, namely Carey,

Livingstone Livingstone may refer to: * Livingstone (name), a Scottish surname and a given name. **David Livingstone (1813–1873), Scottish physician, missionary and explorer, after whom many other Livingstones are named Places *Livingstone Falls, on the Con ...

, Chalmers and

Moffat Moffat ( gd, Mofad) is a burgh and parish in Dumfriesshire, now part of the Dumfries and Galloway local authority area in Scotland. It lies on the River Annan, with a population of around 2,500. It was a centre of the wool trade and a spa town ...

; coloured blue, green, red and yellow respectively.

21st century developments

Headmaster (2000-2014) Paul Henderson continued a programme of building and development started by Christopher Waller, including major refurbishments to the junior school and music school, and a car park in front of the college. The Gerald Moore Art Gallery (partly funded by and named after artist

Gerald Moore Gerald Moore CBE (30 July 1899 – 13 March 1987) was an English classical pianist best known for his career as a collaborative pianist for many distinguished musicians. Among those with whom he was closely associated were Dietrich Fischer-Die ...

, an Old Elthamian) opened in 2012, displaying works by Moore, students and other artists. Also in 2012, to mark the centenary of the move to Mottingham, the college launched a campaign to raise the funds to replace the Sixth Form Centre and Jubilee Block. Construction began in July 2017 and ended in February 2019. The new Turberville building (named after Geoffrey Turberville, the college's longest serving headmaster, 1930–1959) is located on the west side of the Old Quad with a new colonnade linking it to existing buildings. A triple-height, glazed atrium forms a link between the quad and the playing fields to the east and gives access to the David Robins Sixth Form Centre. Girls were admitted to Year 3 and Year 7 for the first time in autumn 2020 (since the late 1970s girls have been members of the sixth form). Thus Eltham College will be fully co-educational in every year from autumn 2024.

Sexual abuse allegations

As of June 2021, a newspaper article reported that former students who had collected testimonials about alleged incidents between 2016 and 2021 received letters from the school's solicitors requesting them to desist, or provide evidence. The school said: “Safeguarding remains our top priority, and we want to do everything we can to make our pupils feel safe and fully supported. We have very strong pastoral procedures and reporting systems in place, and these are kept under regular review to ensure they remain fully fit for purpose".

Headmasters

Blackheath

The school's headmasters at BlackheathRhind, N. (1993) ''Blackheath Village & Environs, 1790-1990, Vol.1 The Village and Blackheath Vale'' (Bookshop Blackheath, London), p.119. were: *1852-1866: William George Lemon *1866-1868: James Scott *1869-1870: Charles Dugard Makepeace *1870-1875: Edward J Chinnock *1875-1892: Edward Waite *1893-1914: Walter Brainerd Hayward (he brought the school to Mottingham in 1912)

Mottingham

*1914-1926: George Robertson *1926-1930: Nevil Wood *1930-1959: Geoffrey Turberville *1959-1983: Christopher Porteous *1983-1990: Christopher Waller *1990-2000: Malcolm Green *2000–2014: Paul Henderson *2014–present: Guy Sanderson

Notable Old Elthamians

''(in alphabetical order)'' *Sir

John Adams John Adams (October 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, attorney, diplomat, writer, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the second president of the United States from 1797 to 1801. Befor ...

, physicist, director of CERN * Sir John Bailey, Procurator General and Treasury Solicitor *

Philip Bailey Philip James Bailey (born May 8, 1951) is an American R&B, soul, gospel and funk singer, songwriter and percussionist, best known as an early member and one of the two lead singers (along with group founder Maurice White) of the band Earth, Wi ...

, cricket statistician * Stuart Ball, political historian *

George Band George Christopher Band (2 February 1929 – 26 August 2011) was an English mountaineer. He was the youngest climber on the 1953 British expedition to Mount Everest on which Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay made the first ascent of the mountai ...

, mountaineer * Nicholas Barberis, professor of Finance *

Piers Benn Piers Benn (born 1962) is a British philosopher. His research interests include ethics, including medical ethics, philosophy of religion. and the philosophy of psychiatry. Work Benn grew up in Blackheath, South East London with parents June, ...

, philosopher * Andrew Percy Bennett, diplomat * Sir Anthony Bottoms, criminologist *

Fenner Brockway Archibald Fenner Brockway, Baron Brockway (1 November 1888 – 28 April 1988) was a British socialist politician, humanist campaigner and anti-war activist. Early life and career Brockway was born to W. G. Brockway and Frances Elizabeth Abbey ...

, peace campaigner *

Tony Brise Anthony William Brise (28 March 1952 – 29 November 1975) was an English racing driver, who took part in ten Formula One Grand Prix events in 1975, before dying in a plane crash with Graham Hill. Early life Brise was born in Erith, Kent, t ...

, racing driver * Sir Michael Buckley, civil servant * Nabil Al Busaidi, adventurer * Charlie Connelly, author and broadcaster * Stephen Dunnett, neuroscientist, and Professor of Biosciences since 2005 at

Cardiff University , latin_name = , image_name = Shield of the University of Cardiff.svg , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms of Cardiff University , motto = cy, Gwirionedd, Undod a Chytgord , mottoeng = Truth, Unity and Concord , established = 1 ...

* Mike Exeter, grammy winning sound engineer and producer * Ernest Fahmy, obstetrician and gynaecologist * Frank Farmer, physicist * Stephen Farr, organist *

Nick Ferrari Nicolo Ferrari (born 31 January 1959) is a British host, television presenter and broadcast journalist. He is best known as the host of the weekday breakfast show on the London-based radio station LBC, with 1.5 million weekly listeners. He al ...

, radio broadcaster *

Freddie Foster Frederick James H. Foster (born December 1995) is an English first-class cricketer. Foster was born in Westminster and educated at Eltham College and Durham University. From Durham he progressed to study for a PhD in chemistry at St Cross Colle ...

, cricketer * Simon Gass KCMG CVO, Senior Diplomat, Ambassador to Iran 2009-11, and to

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders wit ...

from 2004-9 * Barry Hammett, Royal Navy chaplain * Brian Harris (priest) * James Harris, Welsh rugby union player * Richard Hart, cricketer * Christopher Idle, Anglican priest and hymn writer * David E. H. Jones, chemist and writer *

Jim Knight James Philip Knight, Baron Knight of Weymouth, (born 6 March 1965) is a British politician who served as Minister for the South West and Minister of State for Employment and Welfare Reform from 2009 to 2010. A member of the Labour Party an ...

, former Labour MP, Minister of State for Schools in the UK Government, MP from 2001-2010 for South Dorset * Barnaby Lenon, headmaster of Harrow School and academic *

Eric Liddell Eric Henry Liddell (; 16 January 1902 – 21 February 1945) was a Scottish sprinter, rugby player and Christian missionary. Born in Qing China to Scottish missionary parents, he attended boarding school near London, spending time when p ...

, Olympic athlete, after whom the sports hall is named * Peter Luff, campaigner *

Johan Malcolm Richard Johan Anders Malcolm-Hansen (born 22 April 1986), known as Johan Malcolm, is an English-born Danish cricketer. He is a right-handed batsman and a right-arm offbreak bowler who has played domestic cricket for Denmark and first-class crick ...

, Leicestershire county cricket player * Alan Martin, Professor of Theoretical Physics *

, surgeon and artist * Adrian Nance, Royal Navy officer * Jack Oliver, weightlifter * Phil Packer MBE, soldier and fundraiser *

Mervyn Peake Mervyn Laurence Peake (9 July 1911 – 17 November 1968) was an English writer, artist, poet, and illustrator. He is best known for what are usually referred to as the '' Gormenghast'' books. The four works were part of what Peake conceived ...

, author of '' Gormenghast'', after whom the library is named *

Thomas Ernest Pearce Thomas Ernest Pearce (19 February 1883 – 19 December 1941) was a British businessman and member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong. Pearce was born on 19 February 1883. His father Rev. Thomas William Pearce, O.B.E, LL.D. spent nearly hal ...

, sportsman and member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong * Geoffrey K. Pullum, Professor of General Linguistics since 2007 at the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...

* David Sanger, organist * Michael Saward, Anglican priest and hymn writer * Andrew Sentance, Member of the Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee from 2006–11, and Chief Economist of

British Airways British Airways (BA) is the flag carrier airline of the United Kingdom. It is headquartered in London, England, near its main hub at Heathrow Airport. The airline is the second largest UK-based carrier, based on fleet size and passengers ...

from 1998-2006 * Gerald Summers, furniture designer *

Bryan Sykes Bryan Clifford Sykes (9 September 1947 – 10 December 2020) was a British geneticist and science writer who was a Fellow of Wolfson College and Emeritus Professor of human genetics at the University of Oxford.human geneticist Human genetics is the study of inheritance as it occurs in human beings. Human genetics encompasses a variety of overlapping fields including: classical genetics, cytogenetics, molecular genetics, biochemical genetics, genomics, population g ...

and

genealogist Genealogy () is the study of families, family history, and the tracing of their lineages. Genealogists use oral interviews, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kins ...

* Alan Wolstencroft, Archdeacon of Manchester

Arms

References and sources

Eltham College website
* ttp://oldelthamiansrfc.com Old Elthamians RFC website {{authority control 1842 establishments in England Educational institutions established in 1842 Independent boys' schools in London Independent co-educational schools in London Independent schools in the London Borough of Bromley Member schools of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference