The Duke of York's Royal Military School, in Guston, Kent, commonly known as the Duke of York's, is a co-educational academy with military tradition for students aged 11 to 18.[2][3]
In 2010, the school became an academy under the Ministry of Defence and accepts applications from any student wishing to enroll, in a change from the school's tradition of only accepting the children of veterans and/or serving members of the armed forces.[4]
This break with tradition had the effect of transforming the school into a state boarding school and offered it a membership in the State Boarding Forum and Boarding Schools Association. The latter development yet once again changed the school's oversight and transferred it from the Ministry of Defence to the Department for Education.[5]
The curriculum employed by The Duke of York’s includes some military traditions, such as the use of uniforms and ceremonial parades,[6] however the School does employ a monitorial style of education modelled on the English public school system.[7]
History
Founded in 1803 by royal warrant in 1801, the school was called the Royal Military Asylum until 1892. The school's primary purpose was to educate the orphans of British servicemen killed in the Napoleonic Wars of 1793–1815. Between 1803-1909 the Royal Military Asylum was located at what is now known as the Duke of York's Headquarters in Chelsea, London.[8] The school was co-educational; which makes the Duke of York's the second co-educational boarding school in the United Kingdom. The first co-educational institution was the Royal Hibernian Military School in Dublin which was relocated and merged with Duke of York's after Ireland declared independence.[9] Today, the Chelsea site is home to the Saatchi Gallery.
Between 1816-1840, the Asylum had a branch in Southampton which provided schooling for up to 400 military orphans and children serving soldiers of both sexes until 1823, after which the boys were transferred to Chelsea with the girls going to Southampton. A decline in the school numbers resulted in its closure in 1840. Starting in 1841, the building were taken over by the Ordnance Survey.[12]
Major General Peter Brown, a veteran of the Napoleonic Wars, served as Commandant of the Royal Military Asylum.[13] Brown's promotion from colonel to major general occurred while an incumbent Commandant,[14][15] a development that possibly could be seen as a break given that it was non-active command and it lacked precedence.
Many of the school's pupils performed acts of gallantry in the wars in which the British Army was involved. One such individual was John Shaul, who in the Boer War individuated himself for his bravery and was awarded the Victoria Cross.[16]
It was in 1892 that the Royal Military Asylum was renamed as "The Duke of York's Royal Military School" and ultimately became an all-boys school. In 1909, the school relocated to a new siting on the cliffs above Dover in Kent. For the duration of World War I (1914–1918), the school was evacuated to Hutton, near Brentwood, Essex. This provided the military authorities with a transit point in Dover for troops moved to and from the Western Front. In 1940, the school was evacuated to the Saunton Sands Hotel, Braunton, North Devon. It finally returned to Dover by 1946.
In 1994, the school re-admitted girls and returned to co-education.
The school's first civilian students were accepted in 2010 after the school was granted academy status.[17][18]
Academic ratings
Between 2007-2009, more than 90% of the pupils gained 5 or more GCSEs at grades A*-C (including English and Mathematics). More than 13% of grades were A*/A during the same period.
During this period (2007–2009), 19% of grades gained were A/B at AS level and 12% of grades were A/B at A2 level. A total of 32% of grades gained were passed at A2 level.[19]
Exchanges with NATO member military schools
The Duke of York's runs student exchange programmes with military schools within the umbrella of NATO.The exchange programme with the Lycée Militaire, in Aix-en-Provence, its French equivalent is a case in point. The Duke of York's has also connections with some USA military academies, e.g. the Missouri Military Academy, or the Valley Forge Military Academy and College in Wayne, Pennsylvania, but also with further afar as the Faujdarhat Cadet College, in Chittagong, Bangladesh.[20] Placements for recent school leavers from respective military schools to assume assistant teaching posts at corresponding schools are also within the academy's purview.
Boarding houses
The school is currently divided into twelve Houses, nine of which are named after famous British generals, one after a famous admiral of the Royal Navy, and another after a famous marshal of the Royal Air Force:[21]
This article's list of alumni may not follow Wikipedia's verifiability policy. Please improve this article by removing names that do not have independent reliable sources showing they merit inclusion in this article AND are alumni, or by incorporating the relevant publications into the body of the article through appropriate citations.(August 2021)
Major General David Mark Cullen ret'd CB, OBE was a senior British Army officer. He served as the Assistant Chief of the General Staff from 2013 to 2015.[22]
Professor Mark Radford CBE, the Deputy Chief Nursing Officer of England [23] and National Director of Education and Training of the NHS. He is also a Professor of Nursing at Birmingham City University where he was Alumni of the year in 2022 [24] He was awarded a CBE in the 2022 New Years honours list for services to Nursing and the NHSCovid response.
Judge Keith Raynor, a former Vice President of The Kosovo Specialist Chambers (KSC) in The Hague who was also appointed to the roster of international judges at the Chambers.[26][27]
Lieutenant-Colonel Nigel Wylde, QGM, Royal Army Ordnance Corps, Intelligence Corps, former-bomb disposal expert and intelligence operative decorated for gallantry who has cast doubt on the legitimacy of the state's moral conduct in anti-terrorist campaigns from the 1970s to the present day. Wylde has appeared as an expert witness to the Barron Inquiry on the Dublin and Monaghan bombings of 17 May 1974.[28]
Lieutenant General Sir Archibald Nye, GCSI, GCIE, KCB, KBE, MC, Vice-Chief of the Imperial General Staff as well as being involved in Operation Mincemeat, Governor of Madras in 1946, UK High Commissioner in Delhi from 1948 to 1952, High Commissioner to Canada from 1952 to 1956, chairman of the Nye Committee.[citation needed]
Colonel W.A.T. Bowly, CVO, CBE, MC, President of the DYRMS Old Boy's Association 1937–1945, as well as being Headmaster of the DYRMS during World War II, recipient of the Royal Victorian Order, the Order of the British Empire and decorated for gallantry in combat during World War I.[31]
Group Captain George Gardiner, DSO, DFC, Légion d'honneur, Croix de Guerre, Croix de Chevalier, Royal Irish Regiment, Queen's Lancers, Royal Flying Corps, Royal Air Force, fighter ace in World War I.[32]
Lieutenant George William Hanna, MM, Duke of Wellington's Regiment, infantryman in the Boer War and World War I.[33]
Henry Lazarus, clarinet virtuoso of the nineteenth century and professor of the Royal Academy of Music[citation needed]
Roger Tomlinson, master of British military music, who ended his career in the rank of Lieutenant Colonel as Senior Director of Music of the British Army[34]
Ann Vanpine, mill worker turned teacher. Vanpine was a pupil in the earliest years of the school (1821–1825) and in a time of extremely limited opportunities for orphans but especially women.[35]
John Francis David Shaul, recipient of the Victoria Cross as a Corporal of the Highland Light Infantry at the Battle of Magersfontein, 11 December 1899. Corporal Shaul's bravery and humane conduct were so conspicuous that, not only was he noticed by his own officer, but even those of other regiments remarked upon it. Corporal Shaul was in charge of stretcher bearers and was most conspicuous in dressing the wounds of the injured. He was born in King's Lynn on 11 September 1873. He received his VC from the Duke of York at Pietermaritzburg on 14 August 1901.[citation needed]
Regimental Sergeant Major Lincoln Perkins, British Empire Medal, Grenadier Guards, RSM at the Duke of York's Royal Military School 1979–2006, extensive career including Britain's East of Suez conflicts and service in the Royal Household. RSM Perkins, was one of the pallbearers to carry Sir Winston Churchill, in the funeral procession in 1965.[citation needed]
Mr C.H. Connell, Head of English at DYRMS post World War II in the 1940s to late 1970s. Operative in the Special Operations Executive during World War II, Connell was also an author with at least seventeen novels and books published, plus a number of plays.[36]
Colonel W.A.T. Bowly, CVO, CBE, MC, Headmaster of the DYRMS during World War II, as well as being President of the DYRMS Old Boy's Association 1937–1945, recipient of the Royal Victorian Order, the Order of the British Empire and decorated for gallantry in combat during World War I.[citation needed]
Lieutenant-Colonel S.G. Simpson, OBE, Headmaster of the Duke of York's Royal Military School 1922–1927, recipient of the Order of the British Empire, graduate of the universities of Cambridge, Lille, Paris and Heidelberg.[citation needed]
Captain William Siborne, Adjutant of the Royal Military Asylum from 1843 to 1849, having previously demonstrated that the Duke of Wellington's account of his victory at the Battle of Waterloo was erroneous, and was in fact due in considerable part to Prussian assistance.[37]
Major General Lloyd Howell, CBE, Director of Army Education 1976–80, Headmaster [and commandant] 1967–72.[citation needed]
Dukies' Corner in Guston Churchyard
Some pupils of the school are buried in the churchyard of St Martin of Tours church in the nearby village of Guston.[38]
↑ "Schooling". The Army Children Archive. Retrieved 2 April 2011.
↑ Clarke, Howard R. (2011). A New History of the Royal Hibernian Military School. Howard R. Clarke. pp.24–172. ISBN978-0-9567864-0-1.
↑ Hurl-Eamon, Jennine (2025). Childhood and War in Eighteenth-Century Britain. Oxford University Press. p.92. ISBN978-0198917205. Retrieved 17 April 2025. By 1805, the Duke of York had shifted the Chelsea Asylum to the Bell system ... Within a few short years of adopting Bell's model within its own walls, Chelsea's Royal Military Asylum was training teachers in the Bell system. Its records demonstrate that this was happening as early as 1812
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