CHRIST’S HOSPITAL

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 62, 4 June 1927, Page 17

CHRIST’S HOSPITAL

SONS OF FAMOUS ENGLISH PUBLIC SCHOOL MET IN AUCKLAND YESTERDAY. BLUECOAT BOYS FOREGATHER DWARD VI., the sickjy offspring of bluff King Hal, was lectured at church one day by Bishop Ridley as to the conditions of the London poor. As a result Christ’s Hospital, a school for London foundlings, was founded by the mayor and corporation at the suggestion of the young King. So came into being the famous Bluecoat School, now one of the great public schools of England. From those far-off English days of 1552 to the New Zealand of 1927 is rather a long stretch. Yet old boys of the school do not forget the connection. At the snggestion of Mr. A. C. Green, who has organised the New Zealand section of the “Cordon Bleu." the Bluecoat Boys’ club for the world. 21 old boys met in Auckland yesterday. The majority are fanning in the Dominion. They were the guests of the Rotary Club this morning to view the city. This evening Rotarians will entertain them at dinner. An enjoyable pri>gramme has been arranged for the week-end. To-morrow night the old boys will dine together. It is anticipated that one New Zealand resident Bluecoat boy now approaching the SO’s will attend. About 27 old boys are now in the Dominion. Long distinguished for their quaint dress, Bluecoat Boys have been a familiar sight in London streets since the days of their founder. In 1902 the famous school was removed from London, however, to Horsham, in West Sussex. It is nowone of the finest educational establishments in England. An old boy this morning donned a costume which Mr. Green had brought from England, and THE SUN photographer snapped him when hoisted on the shoulders of old boys of the school. The dress was that of a Grecian, or senior. He was heartily congratulated by schoolfellows on advancing to thLs dignity, which was represented by the silver buttons on his coat bearing the of Edward VI. The Bluecoat School was the subject of a well-known essay by Charles Lamb, one of her most distinguished sons. Mr. Justice Ostler is one of the New Zealand old boys of the famoua school.