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 :-

"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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