Did your ancestor go to a private boarding school?

I have just had an question about the school that Paul's ancestor George FitzGeorge went to in 1851. He is uncertain about George's father and ideally he would like to find school records relating to his admission. Unfortunately the school was typical of the large number of preparatory boys boarding schools where there are no surviving school records. If you have a similar problem to Paul have a look at Rev. TUCK's School, Welwyn, Little Wymondley & Northaw, c1840-c1930 to see the factors I considered in trying to find more.

It is important to realize that it is likely that many of the pupils who went to the school went there because of personal recommendation - and might be relatives of the headmaster, or linked in some way to his family. For this reason I investigated the headmaster's family (including search online local newspapers) and also investigated a bit of the social background of the other pupils at the school in case there are any obvious contacts. The history of the school could also be relevant - as key documents may have been been kept when/if the school changed location or management. In this case the school may have been a continuation of an earlier boarding school  that was at Welwyn in 1839. In 1851/2 it moved from Welwyn to Little Wymondley. The school continued under a new schoolmaster and then moved to Northaw and the management changed again.Unfortunately the paper trail that school records might have followed goes cold in about 1935.

1915 School Prospectus - Lockers Park, Hemel Hempstead

Lockers Park School is preparatory school founded in 1872. I have earlier posted a number of photographs and I have now added a copy of the 1915 prospectus. Fees were 50 guineas a term, plus extras. It is interesting that it includes the information that "The whole of the drainage system and sanitary arrangements have been modelled on the latest approved principles by a firm of London contractors under the supervision of the London Sanitary Protection Association, and are annually inspected" before it says "The Buildings include a School Chapel, Library, Swimming Bath, Gymnasium, and Squash Racquet Court."

The Dining Rook, Lockers Park School

The prospectus came with three letters from the headmaster, Percy Christopherson, to a Mr Collier, who was invited to have lunch in the school dining room when he came to visit the school. Boys normally entered the school near their nineth birthday, but this was not possible as the May 1919 list was full - so he was booked to enter in September 1919.

Pupil Records for Christ's Hospital, Hertford

Christ's Hospital, Hertford, 1830

It is always nice to know about old school records that have survived, and Mike has emailed me to say that there is a complete admissions register of pupils entering Christ's Hospital from April 1563 to date, as well as some further records about each child admitted. These include children who were educated at Hertford. The original register up to the end of the 19th century is kept at the London Metropolitan Archives, and thereafter the register is kept at Horsham. In the Christ's Hospital museum, we have a microfilm copy of the admissions registers and other records, and our volunteers deal with queries about CH pupils which are sent to chmuseum@christs-hospital.org.uk. There is no specific charge for dealing with queries, but we invite donations (for the benefit of the museum), as you do on your website.

As a result I have updated the main Christ's Hospital page on this site, and also revised the answer I gave about GURR, Christ's Hospital, Hertford, 1860s.