RCET Practitioners Conference 2015: book your place
Education Programme: find out more about our work
Grants: apply for support at College or University
COBSEO AGM: CE meets HRH The Prince of Wales
Colinton Primary School: Pupil design medal for Armed Forces families
Support Scottish Armed Forces Children: help raise vital funds
Our History
Our history dates back nearly 200 years. The charity’s founding fathers were members of the Highland Society of London. They decided in 1808 to launch an appeal to raise money for an Asylum to house and educate the many young Scots orphaned by the Napoleonic war. Eight years later sufficient funds had been raised and the Caledonian Asylum as it was then known, was established by Act of Parliament on 14 June 1815.
The first Asylum was opened in December 1819 in Hatton Garden and was replaced in 1826 by a newly built Asylum in Copenhagen Fields, Islington. In 1852 Her Majesty Queen Victoria became Patron and the Asylum was renamed the Royal Caledonian Schools. The Caledonian Road in Islington is named after the Schools.
In 1902, a new purpose-built residential school opened in Bushey, Hertfordshire. The majority of pupils enrolled were from military families, with one or both parents serving in the Armed Forces. After 1948, children continued to board at the school but were educated at local state schools. It is estimated that between 1819 and 1995, approximately 10,000 students spent time at the Schools. In 1995, the Directors decided that the Trust’s objectives could be better met for a modern era as a grant making body. The Bushey premises were sold and the proceeds invested to produce an income which now allows the Trust to make educational grants to qualifying individuals and organisations.
We were renamed the Royal Caledonian Education Trust in 2012 to better reflect the work that we do and we continue to support the educational needs of the children of Scots who are serving, or who have served, in the Armed Forces. We are very proud that Her Majesty The Queen is our Patron, as was her father, mother and grandfather, and we look forward to celebrating this in 2015 during the 200th Anniversary of our incorporation by Act of Parliament.
The Trust’s Archives
On Wednesday 20th March 2013 the Trust’s archives were moved from storage at the Bushey Museum to the London Metropolitan Archive (LMA). The LMA will be cataloguing the Trust’s Archives, a process that will be completed as the LMA resources permit, at which point the Trust’s Archives will be available to be consulted at the LMA by those individuals interested in so doing, consistent with the provisions of data protection legislation. Until the cataloguing process is complete it may not be possible to access or retrieve information from the Trust’s Archive. The Trust anticipates that the LMA will have completed cataloguing the Archives by the end of 2014. There will be an announcement posted on this, the Trust’s website, once the cataloguing is completed.
LMA have advised the Trust that during this period they will be happy to receive enquiries from those wishing to access any of the Trust’s records. LMA contact details are as follows:
Enquiries email: [email protected]
Enquiries telephone: 020 7332 3820
Click here to visit LMA website: