Hamilton Academy

History and building

1588–1714

No longer existing as an independent institution, Hamilton Academy had a history going back to 1588 when it was endowed by The 1st Marquess of Hamilton (c. 1535-1604), an extremely powerful Scottish nobleman.

The school, then known as the Old Grammar School of Hamilton (not to be confused with the present Hamilton Grammar School), stood near the churchyard adjoining Hamilton Palace until, in 1714, Anne, 3rd Duchess of Hamilton, great-granddaughter of the founder, re-located the school to a new building on the newly named Grammar School Square also in the lower part of the town, and presented this to the Town Council of Hamilton. The Statistical Account of Lanarkshire of 1835 notes of this school building that it "is a venerable pile, near the centre of the town, containing a long wainscotted hall, emblazoned with the names of former scholars, cut out in the wood, as at Harrow."

In 1847 this old school building on Grammar School Square was sold for £253 (about £23,000 now) and survived until its demolition in 1932. A plaque commemorating the site of the Old Grammar School of Hamilton (which was renamed Hamilton Academy in 1848) was commissioned by pupils of Hamilton Academy and unveiled by the academy's rector, David Anderson MC, on 21 March 1932 at a public ceremony in the presence of academy pupils and teaching staff; the provost and members of the town council, and members of Hamilton Civic Society.

1848–1900

The town council were sole managers of the school until, in 1848, the school (having been renamed The 'Hamilton Academy') re-located again, to larger premises on the town's Hope Street, with Rector's residence and accommodation for boarders, built by the heritors of the Parish of Hamilton, the town council and subscribers, the school then coming under the management of a Directorate chosen of these three parties. The Report on Schools in Scotland, 1868, notes that Hamilton Academy was unusual in this respect, being "a parochial, burgh and a proprietary school combined." In 1866 the Subscribers passed their interest over to the town council who, along with the heritors, managed the school until in 1872 management was transferred to the newly elected School Board of the Burgh of Hamilton under the terms of the Education (Scotland) Act 1872, under the terms of which Act the school was also confirmed (1876) as being a 'higher-class school.'

By 1900 the school had not only outgrown the Hope Street building, but the building was also subsiding. Robert Gibson MP recalled during a House of Commons debate (November 1939) that during his time at Hamilton Academy (1890s), the junior department had had to be evacuated due to rapid subsidence of that part of the Hope Street building. The school was therefore re-located to temporary accommodation in a building newly erected by the school board as 'Woodside School', until such time as the question of the academy's increasing requirements could be addressed. The school's old site on Hope Street being considered too small, a site for a new Hamilton Academy building was secured on Auchincampbell Road.

1910–1972

At a cost of around £40,000 (£53,000 including equipment), construction of the new building began in 1910 (completed 1913) to competition-winning designs by Cullen, Lochhead and Brown (the former's son, Alexander Cullen Jnr., also an architect, attending Hamilton Academy and the latter, William Brown, attending Hamilton Academy 1889–1894) the competition entries being assessed by George Bell, president of the Glasgow and West of Scotland Institute of Architects.

In 1911 Hamilton Academy's 'prep' (junior) school relocated to its new, separate smaller building behind the main edifice, before completion, in 1913, of the new senior school building in the French Renaissance style and of red freestone from Corncockle Quarry in Dumfriesshire. The main building, with separate entrances for girls and boys, was arranged over three storeys, with additional basements, providing accommodation for rector's office, board room, offices, classrooms, six laboratories, workshops, art rooms and gymnasia. Of particular note were the Central Hall, the large lecture hall (seating 200, gallery-style and communicating with the laboratories) and library, with reading rooms for girls and boys respectively. In addition, a domestic science block was erected in the same style to the south of the main building and near the girls' school entrance.

A feature of the wood-panelled Central Hall, rising two storeys with gallery to an arched ceiling, was the six large stained glass windows with figures representing Literature, Science, Art, Music, Technology and Gymnastics.

This new Hamilton Academy building was officially opened on 22 September 1913, a programme and souvenir of this event being published by the Hamilton Advertiser newspaper. This building remains and is a 'listed building,' category 'B.'

Following the First World War a handsome memorial to masters and former pupils who had fallen in that 1914–18 war was erected in the Central Hall which also housed the girl and boy school Dux medallists commemorative boards.

In 1934 plans were instigated to extend the school's junior department to accommodate up to 500 pupils, and on 3 August 1939 plans were passed that would have seen alterations to the main building to create two new luncheon rooms, further staff rooms, offices and two new libraries; and a new annex to include two new gymnasia. Due to the outbreak of the Second World War in September, these plans were not followed-through. Earlier in 1939 the local Air Raid Precautions committee had announced that it had been arranged that in the event of war and air raids, Hamilton Academy would be used as a first-aid post in case of emergency.

Intake and education

Intake

Hamilton Academy was a senior and junior fee-paying day and boarding school. The Statistical Account of Scotland, 1792, states that the school "has had, for a long time past, a good reputation, and, besides the youth of the place, a great many boarders at a distance have been educated at it," and the Statistical Account of Lanarkshire, 1835, mentions that "many of (the school's scholars) are from foreign climes, and from all parts of Britain." The 1871 Census and the school's registers 1848–1900 list, among others, pupils from Glasgow, Edinburgh, Paisley, Bridge of Weir, Stewarton, England and Australia. Becoming a Scottish selective day school in the 1900s, Hamilton Academy was to form, as the 'County School', the top-most layer of a four-layer public education system, drawing its pupils from the top stream on a competitive 'Eleven Plus' examination basis from across the whole County of Lanarkshire. The selective nature of the school meant that most children in Hamilton did not attend Hamilton Academy, on the other hand, Hamilton Academy students often had quite long journeys to get to and from school each day.

Although bursaries to allay fees in attending Hamilton Academy's senior school could be won on a competitive basis and were much sought after, following the end of the Second World War fees were phased out. Thereafter the criteria for selection rested solely on academic ability, selection being made from potential pupils from across the whole County of Lanark - the old County of Lanark being, in terms of population and wealth, the most important county in Scotland and comprising a larger area, including most of the city of Glasgow, than the sum of the subsequent late twentieth century local authority areas.

Given the size of the school's catchment area, places at Hamilton Academy were at a premium. Due to its unique academic position in Scotland as the 'County School' of the country's most populous and wealthiest county and the size of its student roll, the Bulletin newspaper reported in its issue of 23 November 1959 that "... there was only one school in Scotland – Hamilton Academy – that had sufficient pupils to qualify its headmaster for such a (special) responsibility salary," and this was noted again in a House of Commons debate on teachers' salaries, 24 February 1960, when Margaret Herbison MP advised that "in the whole of Scotland only the rector of Hamilton Academy (had) qualified for the top grade of teachers' salary."

The Hamilton Academy 'prep' (junior) school continued to operate until 1952.

Education

The county-wide selective intake and the academic bias of the teaching meant that Hamilton Academy achieved excellent results in competitions. In his obituary article on former Hamilton Academy pupil Sir John Inch, Sir Tam Dalyell, former Father of the House of Commons, described Hamilton Academy as a "remarkable school" with "a formidable academic reputation" and mentions the large annual intake from Hamilton Academy to the University of Glasgow with which the academy had a particularly long and sustained relationship; a yardstick as measure of its achievements year-on-year being the number of University of Glasgow scholarships won by its students. It usually beat all other schools, by this measure at least. Between 1940 and 1950, Hamilton Academy headed the annual Glasgow University Bursary list on three occasions. Leading the Glasgow University Bursary list again in 1958, in 1959 the Glasgow Evening Times newspaper noted that "Hamilton Academy have scored a triumph by securing 16 places in the first 100. Last year (1958) they led the field with 13 places in the first 100. Next best are Hutchesons' Boys Grammar School, Glasgow, with eight places, and St. Aloysius' College, Glasgow, follow with seven."

Topping the Glasgow University Bursary List in 1964 and again in 1965, the Evening Times wrote that Hamilton Academy's "reputation is among the highest in the country." In 1966 the same newspaper reported that "for the third year in succession Hamilton Academy has gained the highest number of places in the Glasgow University Bursary Competition. The Academy's old rivals Hutchesons' Boys' Grammar School came second," and in 1967 the Glasgow Herald noted that "Hamilton Academy – with the highest number of pupils for some years now in the first 100 places in the Glasgow University Bursary Competition – has an extremely high and far-flung academic reputation." In 1969 Hamilton Academy pupils took five of the top ten places in the Glasgow University Bursary List.

Such were the school's achievements in university entrance examinations that as late as 1988, Hamilton Academy was remembered (in a House of Lords debate) by Lord Carmichael of Kelvingrove as " (having had) one of the best records in the whole of Scotland." In session 1948–49 the Snell Exhibitioner from the University of Glasgow to Balliol College, Oxford, was a former pupil of the Academy as were, among others, Matthew Baillie, Snell Exhibitioner in 1779, and Sir Edward Hamilton Wallace, Snell Exhibitioner in 1893.

From numerous endowed funds, as an academic incentive the school awarded boy and girl Dux medals, the Blacklock Bursary (both Dux and Bursary erected in memory of James Blacklock, rector 1863–1897); subject-specific medals, and Memorial Prizes, including the Dr. James S. Dixon Bursary, endowed by former pupil James Stedman Dixon.

Staff and pupils

Staff

Hamilton Academy was headed by the Rector and with such a history, a long list of educationalists served as Rector of the school. Compiled by William Munk, the Munk's Roll of former Fellows of the Royal College of Physicians, London, identifies a "Mr. Whale" as being master of the school when Matthew Baillie was a pupil (leaving the school for the University of Glasgow in 1774) and the Statistical Account of Lanarkshire of 1835 again mentions Whale, between mention of "Pillans" (or Pillance, Richard) and "Gillies", as among the "eminent teachers (who) have been masters of this school," and giving the Rev. George Shaw as master (rector) of the school at 1835. This would seem to indicate an order, but not necessarily of un-interrupted succession, of Pillans, Whale, Gillies and Shaw as Rectors and in the notice in the Glasgow Herald newspaper, 1 August 1851, of the results of the annual examinations at Hamilton Academy, William Dickson is listed as rector. Brown's Directory of Hamilton 1855–56 lists William Dickson as rector and that he was also Church of Scotland Session Clerk and Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages for the Burgh of Hamilton.

Identified Rectors:

(1971 – end of Hamilton Academy as an independent institution, A. M. Robertson, acting-Rector)

From William Dickson, the Rectors of Hamilton Academy are well recorded. Still identified as being the school's Rector in the Handbook of Hamilton published in 1862, Dickson died in 1863 and James Blacklock previously a teacher at Dundyvan Academy, Coatbridge, was appointed Rector, a position he held to 1897. In memory of Rector Blacklock pupils founded Gold Medals awarded annually for general scholarship to the Dux (boy and girl) of the school and the (James) Blacklock Bursary for pupils of Hamilton Academy to study in the Faculty of the Arts, University of Glasgow. Donald McLeod (who was later to become the first director of studies at the Jordanhill Teacher Training College) followed as Rector (1897–1908); succeeded in the Rectorship (1908–1924) by David M. Andrew (an Exhibitioner of Christ Church, Oxford) who planned the organisation, equipping and the move to the 'new' Academy building of 1913 and steered the school through World War I, and who was subsequently appointed Rector of Aberdeen Grammar School.

From 1924 to 1930 the celebrated Scottish educationalist Dr A. R. Murison was Rector of Hamilton Academy prior to his taking up the appointment as the first Rector of the then new Marr College in Troon, Ayrshire. From 1930 to 1950, the Rector was David K. Anderson (holder of the Military Cross (with bar)), followed (1950–1967) by Edwin G. Macnaughton JP, who as Rector of Hamilton Academy, was awarded the OBE in 1966 for services to education. MacNaughton was also co-author (with James Paterson) of the classic textbook series 'The Approach to Latin', which was used across Britain and the Commonwealth, and also in the United States. The academic bias of the school was such that quite a few of the textbooks used by its students had been written by its own teachers, including mathematics, English and 'Classics' textbooks. Samuel Norris Forrest, a teacher of mathematics at the school, and father of notable alumnus, the physicist John Samuel Forrest, was another master who also wrote text-books.

Pupils and school houses

Hamilton Academy had four 'houses' named after Lanarkshire rivers or tributaries and, given the selective nature of the intake of pupils from across the whole County of Lanarkshire, every student was allocated to one of these depending on their town or area of origin. The names of the 'houses' were Cadzow, Calder, Clutha (Scots Gaelic for Clyde) and Kilbryde (in the last two school sessions only of Hamilton Academy renamed Avon, Brandon, Clyde and Douglas (under a new 'house' system introduced by Rector Alfred Dubber.)) Each 'house' had its own House Master, and House Captains and Prefects drawn from the student body, being distinguished by the addition of braid on their blazer lapels. School uniform colours were blue with green. School badges changed over the years, from the academy's full 'armorial bearings' (shield, helmet and motto) to stylised variations of inter-twined H and A for Hamilton Academy, accompanied by the school motto (the badge illustrated above for educational purposes only, being an example of Hamilton Academy school badges.) Small coloured lapel badges were also worn, indicating 'house' membership. It is recalled that pupils at other schools referred to those attending Hamilton Academy as the 'Academy Yanks.'

Motto and school song

Hamilton Academy's motto was Sola Nobilitat Virtus ('Virtue alone ennobles') another credo being Labor Omnia Vincit ('Work conquers all'.)

Composed by Thomas Smith, and set to music by T. S. Drummond, listed as masters at Hamilton Academy when the 'new' Academy building opened in 1913, the school song of Hamilton Academy had as its last verse:

"Vivat Academia!" join the chorus, let it ring,

"Vivat Academia!" young and old we sing,

If they ask us whence thy glory,

This the secret, this the story;

Sola virtus nobilitat,

Sola virtus nobilitat.

Publications

In addition to Acta, the in-school periodical listing activities, the school published twice-yearly, and latterly, annually, the Hamilton Academy Magazine. The final such magazine was printed in London and issued in Hamilton Academy's last school session, 1971–72. Hamilton reference library holds a collection of the school's magazines, 1929–1948.

Former pupils

Those educated at the former Hamilton Academy have made and still make contributions to many spheres of endeavour in the public, business, and cultural life in Scotland and beyond. Half of the 2010 membership of the Rotary Club of Hamilton, including past presidents, were educated at the former Hamilton Academy.

A contender for the oldest surviving former pupil of Hamilton Academy is Mrs. Elsie McBroom (née MacPhail), a graduate of Glasgow University and formerly a teacher of mathematics, in Ayr, in Scotland; aged 100 in 2010.

Two former pupils and near contemporaries at Hamilton Academy were to serve together on the faculty of the University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand – the physicist Robert Jack and the mathematician Robert J. T. Bell. In 1914, Jack went out to take up the appointment as Professor of Physics at Otago, in 1920 being joined by Bell, appointed Professor of Pure and Applied Mathematics. They were to be faculty colleagues until Robert Jack's retirement in 1947, Robert Bell retiring the following year. Both also served as chairman of the professorial board and as dean of the Faculty of Arts and Science at the university that had been built by yet another former pupil of Hamilton Academy, Robert Forrest of the firm of McGill and Forrest, contractors, Dunedin. (Refer to their entries on List of former pupils of Hamilton Academy.)

Another former pupil of the school was John Cairncross, (1913–1995), a former Dux medallist at Hamilton Academy who went on to study at the University of Glasgow; the Sorbonne and Trinity College, Cambridge. A brilliant linguist and renowned author, in 1951 Cairncross confessed to spying for the Soviets, associated with the KGB's Cambridge Five (the "Ring of Five".) His brother was the economist Sir Alexander Cairncross, who also attended Hamilton Academy.

Hamilton Academy and rugby and football clubs

Hamilton Academy FP (former pupil) Rugby Club was founded in 1927 (closed for the duration of World War II, 1939–45) and continues as Hamilton Rugby Football Club (Hamilton RFC.) From 1946 to 1955 the 14th Duke of Hamilton, whose ancestors had endowed the school, was president of the club and in later years James Morris, Head of 'Classics' at Hamilton Academy and himself a former pupil of the school, served as club president. The club continues to play its home games at Laigh Bent, the former Hamilton Academy's playing fields.

The school gave its name to Hamilton Academical F.C., founded in 1874 by Hamilton Academy Rector James Blacklock and pupils as the 'Hamilton Academical Cricket and Football Club.' The cricket part of the name was dropped in 1877, but over time the club became known as Hamilton Academicals. The 's' was officially dropped in 1965, the club returning to Academical. On Hamilton Academicals being promoted to the First Division of the Scottish Football League in 1953, a letter to the Editor appeared in the Glasgow Herald of 13 June, suggesting that the club's directors might now consider dropping the 'Academicals' part of the name, although the correspondent acknowledges that the club was founded of "former pupils of that famous school." In testament to its foundation (by the then Rector and former pupils of Hamilton Academy) the club has retained its name, Hamilton Academical F.C. (Hamilton Accies) and is the only professional football club in Britain that was founded of a school team.

Hamilton Academy FP (former pupil) amateur football club, now Hamilton FP AFC, continues as a member of the Scottish Amateur Football League and is based at Hamilton Palace Grounds, near where the school was founded in 1588.