Robert Gordon's College

Coordinates: 57°8′55″N 2°6′9″W / 57.14861°N 2.10250°W / 57.14861; -2.10250

Robert Gordon's College
Motto Omni nunc arte magistra which translates to 'Now Is The Time For All Of Your Masterly Skill"
Established 1750
Type Independent day school
Head of College Mr Simon Mills MA (cantab), PGCE, BA
Head of Senior School Mrs Andrea Angus, BSc, PGCE
Chairman of the Governors Professor James Hutchison
Founder Robert Gordon (philanthropist)
Location Schoolhill
Aberdeen
AB10 1FE
Scotland
Local authority Aberdeen City
Staff 350
Students 1600~
Gender Coeducational
Ages 3–18
Houses Blackfriars, Collyhill, Sillerton and Straloch
Colours Navy and Gold
Publication The Gordonian
Former pupils Gordonians
Website www.rgc.aberdeen.sch.uk

Robert Gordon's College is a private co-educational day school in the heart of Aberdeen, Scotland. The school motto translates as ‘Now Is The Time For All Of Your Masterly Skill’. The school caters for pupils from Nursery through to S6.

History

It originally opened in 1750 as the result of a bequest by Robert Gordon, an Aberdeen merchant who made his fortune from trading with Baltic ports, and was known at foundation as Robert Gordon's Hospital. This was 19 years after Gordon had died and left his estate in a 'Deed of Mortification' to fund the foundation of the Hospital. The fine William Adam-designed building was in fact completed in 1732, but lay empty until 1745 until Gordon's foundation had sufficient funds to complete the interior. During the Jacobite rising, in 1746 the buildings were commandeered by Hanoverian troops and named Fort Cumberland.

Gordon's aim was to give the poor boys of Aberdeen a firm education, or as he put it to "found a Hospital for the Maintenance, Aliment, Entertainment and Education of young boys from the city whose parents were poor and destitute". At this point all pupils at the school were boarders, but in 1881, the Hospital became a day school known as Robert Gordon's College. In 1903, the vocational education component of the college was designated a Central Institution (which was renamed as Robert Gordon's Institute of Technology in 1965 and became the Robert Gordon University in 1992). Boarding did not return until 1937 with the establishment of Sillerton House. In 1989 RGC became a co-educational school.[1]

The Pelican: The original crest of Robert Gordon's Hospital showed three boars’ heads, the arms of the Pitlurg branch of the Gordon family. Above stands a pelican plucking her breast to feed her young. This crest was used on the Governors’ seal and appears on the memorial to Robert Gordon in St Nicholas Kirk. The pelican was a well-known symbol of charity and was chosen to represent Robert Gordon’s gift to the next generation. In time the pelican became associated with the Hospital. It was embossed on the boys’ uniform buttons and also on the buttons of the janitor. With the coming of Robert Gordon’s College in 1881, the Governors adopted a new crest, but various images of the Pelican continued to be used on items such as blazers, sports caps and the cover of the Gordonian magazine from 1963-86. The Pelican magazine for former pupils was first published in 2005.

The modern school is divided into a Nursery, Junior School and Senior School, and caters for boys and girls from 3 to 18 years. Robert Gordon's College has long had a reputation as one of the strongest academic schools in Scotland, and follows the Scottish curriculum.

The Head of College, Mr Simon Mills, is a member of Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference.

Arms and motto

The coat of arms shows the boar of the Gordon family, and a fort or keep on a red background. The latter is perhaps an allusion to the very similar coat of arms of the city of Hamburg, a founding member of the Hanseatic league of Baltic trading cities.

The Latin motto of the college, 'Omni nunc arte magistra' translates to 'Now is the time for all your masterly skill', however it is more commonly presented as 'Be The Best That You Can Be'.

House system

The school operates four houses, to one of which each student is allocated upon entering the school. The houses compete for different sporting and academic trophies throughout the year, and determine each senior school student's form class.

The four houses are:

Notable former pupils

The "Auld Hoose" of Robert Gordon's College, by night

Former pupils include:

Former pupils' sports clubs

Gordonians RFC was originally founded by old pupils of the school. Former pupils also formed Gordonians Hockey Club and Gordonians Cricket Club. These clubs all play their home matches at the College's Countesswells Playing Field. There are a set of honours boards in the pavilion at Countesswells which record the names of Gordonians who have represented their country at rugby, hockey, cricket and other sports.

References

  1. ↑ "History of RGC". Rgc.aberdeen.sch.uk. Retrieved 2013-10-12.
  2. ↑ Webster, J. (2005) The Auld Hoose - The Story of Robert Gordon's College. ISBN 1-84502-051-0
  3. ↑ ‘NIVEN, William Dickie’, Who Was Who, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 1920–2007; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2007 accessed 30 March 2014
  4. ↑ Nicol Stephen's MSP site
  5. ↑ Marshall, John (1978). A Biographical Dictionary of Railway Engineers. Newton Abbot: David & Charles. p. 214. ISBN 0-7153-7489-3.
  6. ↑ "'97-'98 Class List". Rgc.aberdeen.sch.uk. Retrieved 2013-10-12.
  7. ↑ Councillor's Biography - John West
  8. ↑ Kirsty Scott (2007-06-13). "Guardian Unlimited - Fresh-faced challenge". London: Politics.guardian.co.uk. Retrieved 2013-10-12.

External links

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