FAMOUS SCHOOLS SHIFTED

Press, Volume LXXVI, Issue 22909, 4 January 1940, Page 2

FAMOUS SCHOOLS SHIFTED

MILL HILL GOES NORTH MALVERN IN BLENHEIM PALACE (FIIOM OTTB OTOT COKBBSPOHSEHT.) LONDON. November 20. Many scholars at well-known London schools are carrying on work at centres far removed from ! the Metropolis In instances the removal became compulsory, as the Government took over the premises. /Mill Hill School was evacuated from its well-known site in North London, and is now at St. Bees, Cumberland. The choristers of Westminster Abbey—some 40 in all—with Dr. Bullock, were moved down to Sussex for the duration. They are at Christ's Hospital, the famed school of the Blue Coat boys. In the school chapel the Westminster red cassocks and white surplices make a vivid contrast to the long blue coats and yellow stockings of the Christ's Hospital > boys. One result of this migration may be to add to the,musical record of the Blue Coat School, which, in recent years, has produced Constant Lambert, John Hunt, and Ivor Keys. Mr Keys, now organ scholar at Christ Church, Oxford, broke all records by becoming an F.R.C.O.'at the age of 15. Reverting to Mill Hill School, Dr. T. K. Derry, the headmaster, at a luncheon given by the Old Millhillians' Club, referring to the taking over of the school by the Government for a hospital, said that, in common with a great number of others, they wished that .the Government had acted a little more on a "cash and carry" basis. Old Millhillians might ask whether the buildings at Mill Hill were Jaeing used to the best advantage at this time. The school had no choice ia the matter. The scheme of taking th» school north •was oxv * steictty \war-time basis, and they were looking forward when the war ended to a return from captivity, no doubt with suitable celebrations. It might also be asked why the school was evacuated to such a great distance. Some one had said that Mill Hill had made the longest move. One sensible answer was that, if they were to move at all out of danger, they might as well do the thing thoroughly. He hoped that their close proximity to the lowlands of Scotland might lead to a revival of the connexions the school had had years ago. There were many problems of education, and there were going to be more, and he. would like to think that Mill Hill wouldtake a lead in avoiding that temporary "blackout" of education which was growing in so many'places. The Mill Hill boys are quartered in 10 distinct buildings. The school house occupies licensed premises, a hotel which is the nearest; building to the, sea. Other' boys are in the original St. Bees' Priory, and others in a building which, con tains pictures*w'ortH a quarter of a million pounds. " *

"Though we are in such close proximity to another school, there has not been and will not be any fusion of the two," Dr. Derry said. "Instead, there is rivalry, and, with a Rugger fixture arranged for the end of the' term, we watch the St. Bees' boys practising for it and see them developing the famous Cumberland forward game." Boys of Malvern College, numbering 400, have been evacuated to Blenheim Palace. Science classes are held in the laundry building, while washing dries-on the-rafters. The Long Library, with organ at one end,' is now filled with beds, five in a row.

"Bureaucracy," says a London news* _ paper, "decreed that the boys shouW take up their long-established roots and transfer to Blenheim Palace. The bureaucrats issued their flat without - explaining why they could not goto the palace themselves and leave the school alone. The school buildingswere commandeered for war purpose* and the boys had therefore to continue their education in a mansion which, „ though admirably adapted to be the - residence of a duke, had few reconx- - mendations as. a centre of instruction in the three R's. -Special safeguard - to secure that-the beauties of Blenhemj • de not - suffer include a decree that Malvern schoolboys may not use ink.