Dear Old Augustinians and Friends.
We are pleased to announce that our Archive is now available to view on our website. Please use the link below:
The Archive includes all our school magazines going back to the first edition in the Winter of 1886 up to when the school closed in 1995. Also published are other books and documents, such as Monastic and Scholastic Century and school prospectuses.
It will take some time to work your way through all the documents, but by reading the magazines alone, you can see the first-hand accounts of our school history unfold year by year.
The timeline begins from the early years in Ramsgate into the 20th Century and then the outbreak of World War One and the Zeppelin raids that lead to the school’s temporary closure in 1917. Then its reopening as a “prep school" between the wars, leading up to the evacuation from Ramsgate at the outbreak of World War Two to Madeley Court, Hemingford Grey in Huntingdonshire, through the war years until well into the 1950’s.
This was followed by the reintroduction of the St Augustine’s Abbey School in Ramsgate to the eventual re-unification of the schools of both Ramsgate and Madeley Court which then led to the setting up of Assumption House in 1960. The school was re-named St Augustine’s College before we left Ramsgate.
From 1971, the closure of Ramsgate and the move to Westgate resulted in a year of sharing the premises with Les Oiseaux Convent School and the introduction of joint classes with the Ursuline School. The trauma of the great flood of 1973 was made worse by the fact that the school was not insured for floods. Also Fr Bernard's retirement as Headmaster occurred in 1987 and this was followed by the school’s eventual closure in 1995 when thanks to the Ursuline Sisters, many boys went off to join the newly reorganised co-educational Ursuline College.
Again, thanks to all our members whose subscriptions and donations have made it possible for us to get this work done (there is still time to join the OAs and donate!).
On behalf of all OA’s, our sincere thanks go to our Archivist, Peter West, who has painstakingly brought this project to fruition, along with the support of OAs, Committee Members and to our web manager and designer, Paul Littlefield.
We would also like to thank Fr Abbot Paulinus Greenwood and the community of Benedictine Monks who originally founded our school by allowing us to have access to the School Archive held at the Monastery in Chilworth, Surrey. More importantly, it was the late Father Benedict’s assistance with the School Archive that gave us the impetus to finally finishing this long-standing project.
We hope you enjoy reading it!
With good wishes,
Andrew Sharp
Chairman
The Society of Old Augustinians
Officers:
Chairman: Andrew Sharp OBE
Secretary: Michael Hallisey
Treasurer and Membership Secretary: Bob Bridger
Vice Chairmen: Richard Caraccio and Keith Fenton
Hon President: Dr Chris Horsburgh
Chaplain: Canon Brian Coyle
Archivist: Peter West
Patrons: Fr Abbot Paulinus Greenwood and Mr Kevin Doherty
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