Amersham Hall was a "school for the sons of dignified gentlemen" in England. From 1829 to 1861 it was in Elmodesham House in
Amersham,
Buckinghamshire, relocating in 1861 to
Caversham in
Oxfordshire. The Caversham site, a suburb in the north of
Reading
Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of letters, symbols, etc., especially by sight or touch.
For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process involving such areas as word recognition, orthography (spelling ...
and now in
Berkshire, currently houses
Queen Anne's School.
Charles West, the son of the founder, and one of the pupils for whom the school was founded, went on to be arguably the first paediatrician in the United Kingdom, and to found
Gt Ormond St Hospital for Sick Children
The Reverend Ebenezer West, principal of Amersham Hall, funded most of the construction of the
West Memorial Hall in Caversham, as well as the Caversham Baptist Free Church a decade later. The memorial hall was extended in 1911 to provide rooms for "wholesome recreation and moral improvement for the young men of Caversham", increasing the space available for religious educations on Sundays (in connection with the
Caversham Free Church).
[Malpas, John. ''Caversham Names''. Reading: John Malpas, 1995, pp.33–34.]
The school closed in 1896 following an outbreak of Scarlet Fever.
Notable alumni
*
Augustine Birrell (1850–1933), author and politician
* Virgoe Buckland (1825–1883), surveyor (son of
William Thomas Buckland)
*
Francis Gotch (1853–1913), neurophysiologist
*
Sir Alfred Pearce Gould (1852-1922), Dean of the Faculty of Medicine of the
University of London
The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...
(1912–16), Vice-Chancellor of the university (1916–17)
*
John Neville Keynes (1852–1949), economist
*
Sir Frank William Wills Kt. (1852-1932), architect, surveyor &
Lord Mayor of Bristol. He was also a member of the
Wills tobacco Family.
*
Sir Frederick Wills Bt. (1838-1909) businessman,
Liberal Unionist
The Liberal Unionist Party was a British political party that was formed in 1886 by a faction that broke away from the Liberal Party. Led by Lord Hartington (later the Duke of Devonshire) and Joseph Chamberlain, the party established a politic ...
politician, and a director of
WD & HO Wills, which later merged to become
Imperial Tobacco
Imperial Brands plc (formerly Imperial Tobacco Group plc), is a British multinational tobacco company headquartered in Bristol, England. It is the world's fourth-largest international cigarette company measured by market share after Philip Mo ...
.
*
Robert Maynard Leonard (1869–1941), journalist and editor
[“LEONARD, Robert Maynard” in ''The Institution of Mechanical Engineers: Proposals for Membership'' (1900)]
p. 7
/ref>
References
Sources
On Line Tour of Old Amersham - amersham.org
Image of Amersham Hall School, Henley Road, Caversham
Educational institutions established in 1829
Defunct schools in Buckinghamshire
Defunct schools in Reading, Berkshire
Boys' schools in Berkshire
History of Reading, Berkshire
Amersham
1829 establishments in England
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