
THE
ROYAL UNION SCHOOLS (1840)
When the Prince Regent, afterwards George IV,
was a resident of the Royal Pavilion, he
annually subscribed ten guineas to the funds
of the school, one-third of which was applied to the girls' department.
William
IV continued the subscription, and on the
accession of Victoria, the following address was adopted
for presentation to the
young Queen :- |
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"May it please your Majesty,
"The Ladies' and Gentlemen's Committees of the Brighton
Union Schools humbly solicit your Majesty's benevolent
support of this valuable institution, which has for more than
thirty years been a blessing to the poor of this town and
neighbourhood, by imparting a suitable education to some
thousands of their children under the fostering kindness of
Royal favour.
"Their late Majesties George the Fourth and William the
Fourth were graciously pleased to extend to this institution
their Royal bounty, and it is with feelings of delightful
confidence in your Majesty's willing patronage of liberal
institutions for the instruction of the rising generation, upon
scriptural principles, that the Committees presume to lay the
claims of these Schools before your Majesty.
" The Committee beg to add that, assisted by a late grant
from the Government to the amount of £250, they contemplate
rebuilding the schoolrooms, and greatly enlarging that for
girls, in order to meet the increasing demands which must
arise from so increasing a population.
"That your Majesty may
very long retain the high and important
position in which the Providence of God has placed
you for the welfare and honour of our beloved country, and
that
your Majesty may ever enjoy the blessings of health and
be sustained by Divine support, that peace and prosperity
may characterize the whole period of a reign so auspiciously
begun, and that in the pages of the future history of this
great country it may be a reign worthy of the veneration of
distant ages, are the sincere desires of your Majesty's devoted
and dutiful subjects, the Committees of the Brighton Union
Schools.
"Signed, on behalf
of the Committees, "J. N.
GOULTY, Secretary. " October 7th, 1837.
" To Her Most Gracious
Majesty Queen Victoria."
How remarkably the hopes expressed in the concluding paragraph of this address were realized, we, who can
look back on the completion of the sixty-four years'
reign, know full well—to us they seem to have been
almost prophetic. The Queen, through Captain Pechell, the senior
member for the town, signified her gracious intention
of continuing the royal subscription, and, in 1840, by
Her Majesty's permission, the prefix "Royal" was
added to the name of the School, which now ran,
Royal Union Schools.
The Middle
Street School, Brighton, 1805-1905 by Geo. Haffenden pp
66-67
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