Royal Hibernian Military School

Not to be confused with Royal Hibernian Marine School.

Mid 20th Century view of the school building in the Phoenix Park

The Royal Hibernian Military School was founded in the Phoenix Park, Dublin, Ireland in 1769, to educate orphaned children of members of the British armed forces in Ireland.

In 1922 the Royal Hibernian Military School moved to Shorncliffe, in Folkestone, Kent, and in 1924 it was merged with the Duke of York's Royal Military School which, by then, was in its current location atop 'Lone Tree Hill' above Dover Castle.

General

The foundation of the School came about in 1769 when King George III granted a Charter of Incorporation on 15 July, the School Governors holding their inaugural meeting on 6 November in Dublin Castle.

The buildings housing the school were erected in 1771 in the Phoenix Park, overlooking the village of Chapelizod in the Liffey valley (in full view of the Wicklow mountains). The chapel was designed by Thomas Cooley, while thirty years later Francis Johnston designed the extensions to the buildings. It first took in 90 boys and 50 girls as pupils (in the charge of an Inspector and Inspectress, assisted by the Chaplain and an assistant mistress) in March 1770. The site originally occupied 3 acres (12,000 m²) but by 1922 its boundary walls enclosed thirty three acres.

By 1808 the system and organisation of the school followed closely that of its sister school, the Duke of York's Royal Military School (then at Chelsea, London, England). By 1816, when Thomas Le Fanu (father of Sheridan Le Fanu) took over as chaplain, there were 600 children at the school.

In 1853 the school's first "stand of colours" were presented by the then Prince of Wales and, in the same year, the girls at the school left to join their own separate establishment, the Drummond School, which was founded for them at Chapelizod.

The school acted as a feeder to the British Army, where In the mid-19th century, children as young as 12 could enlist in the Army but generally enlistment began at 14. By the 1900s 50 per cent of pupils were going straight into the army. By this stage the school was not only an orphanage; for instance, the Army Non-Commissioned Officer father of Liam Mellows entered him there to get a good basic military training which he hoped would lead to an army career, instead it was used during the Easter Rising and the Irish War of Independence, both in fighting and in training the flying columns in guerrilla warfare.

Many of the school's pupils carried acts of gallantry in the wars that the British Army was involved in. One such individual was Frederick Jeremiah Edwards who was awarded the Victoria Cross for extraordinary bravery in the First World War.

Relocation and merger

In 1922 the Royal Hibernian Military School moved to Shorncliffe, in Folkestone, Kent, and in 1924 it was merged with the Duke of York's Royal Military School which by then was in its current location atop 'Lone Tree Hill' above Dover Castle.

A stained glass window depicting a saluting boy soldier is sited above the 'minstrel gallery' type balcony of the Duke of York's School Chapel in Dover, and commemorates the merging of the schools.

Dublin campus

Many of the school's original buildings remain and form a large part of St Mary's Hospital, Phoenix Park. A war memorial to those pupils that were killed in World War 1, the school's graveyard and protestant chapel also remain; the Roman Catholic chapel was demolished as the hospital site was developed.

Bohemian F.C.

Members of the school were instrumental in forming Bohemian F.C. in 1890.

Commandants

• Lieutenant Colonel Hugh Colville 17 January 1809
• Colonel George Thomas Colomb up to 1858 (promoted major general on 26 October 1858)
• Brevet Lieutenant Colonel Henry Buckley Jenner Wynyard, late 89th Foot 1 November 1878
• Lieutenant Colonel Lynch Stapleton Cotton, late 63rd Foot 1 May 1879
• Colonel Francis Charles Hill, late The Essex Regiment 31 May 1882
• Colonel Clifton de Neufville Orr Stockwell 31 May 1889 to 1895
• Colonel Henry Hall, Derbyshire Regiment 11 Nov 1895 - 31 August 1902
• Lieutenant-Colonel Rowley Wynyard, Royal Artillery 1 September 1902 to 1906
• Colonel Richard W Deane 1906–1913
• Lieutenant Colonel Arthur John William Dowell 1913–1914
• Colonel John McDonnell 1914–1919
• Colonel Arthur Milton Bent CB CMG CBE, late Royal Munster Fusiliers (last Commandant) 1920–1924.

Bibliography

• Cockerill, A. W. (1984). Sons of the Brave: the Story of Boy Soldiers. ISBN 0-436-10294-3.
• George Shorter, ed. (1987). Play Up Dukies. The Duke of York's Royal Military School, Old Boys Association.