Christ's Hospital

The following text abridged from an article that appeared in Newsletter 11.

Christ's Hospital was established in 1552, originally in the City of London, to offer education and hospitality to poor children and orphans.

"Edward VI was so moved by a sermon of Bishop Ridley concerning the plight of the great poverty-stricken hordes in parts of London that he wrote to the Lord Mayor, through whom a committee was formed to inquire in to the matter and finally three houses were founded, 'Graie Friars', later Christ's Hospital for poor children".

The school moved to Horsham in Sussex in 1902 and is highly successful, providing free or subsidised education to boys and girls aged between 11 and 18, investing over £10 million per annum in the education of children who are particularly deserving. The income which makes this possible is derived from endowments made by generous benefactors over the centuries, such as that made by John and Frances West.

John and Frances West had strong family connections with Newbury, Reading, Twickenham and the City of London. Children from these areas especially "founders kin" who are collateral descendants of John or Frances West as registered on a family pedigree kept at the school, could benefit considerably from the West's Gifts.

Stained glass window depicting the 19th Century School Buildings on the Greyfriars site

Income from the assets of the West fund which total £18.79 million (as at end July 2000) currently support 40 pupils at the school. Future income projections mean the fund could support an extra 23 pupils. These means the West gifts could support up to 63 pupils at the school at any one time. As there are currently 800 pupils at Christ's Hospital, West's gifts represent a large proportion of places.

The pupils enjoy an education of outstanding quality and the school is renowned for its music, drama, art and sport for which the facilities are excellent. The distinctive "bluecoat" uniform is worn by all pupils.

by C.Blackwell, Marketing Officer at Christ's Hospital. (March 2001)

The following is extracts of a speech that the Wests' Gifts Almoner gave at the 2003 Gathering at Christ's Hospital:

I am from Twickenham, though since 1965 subsumed in to the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames.

The Wests' Gift Almoner represents Twickenham, Reading and Newbury and each of those boroughs takes it in turn to appoint their representative who serves with the Christ's Hospital Almoners for four years. It will be Newbury's turn next.

The number of pupils benefiting from the Wests' Gifts at the moment is as follows:

* Editor's note - Compare this Total to the projected target made by C.Blackwell in 2001 above.

I have seen part of my role as raising awareness of the Gift to residents in these localities. The Gift is there to be used. If it is not used by pupils from the three boroughs it is used for other pupils.

The other part of my role I have seen as promoting awareness of the Wests' Gift within the school. The Wests' Gift pupils wear a big round silver badge but they often don't understand its significance. So I have made a point of entertaining the Wests' Gift pupils every year in school. We have done a lot of eating!

We have had a St. Valentine's Day lunch; a Pizza Sunday lunch and a Sunday Barbecue. Next year I am thinking of something for Halloween. At each lunch I explain the connection between the Wests and them.

I always end the Wests' Gift Pupil Gathering with a toast with our cola to the memory of John and Frances West. They had no children but what a family they created. You must be the most amazing family in England and meeting you all today is quite an experience.

Thank you for listening

Eleanor Stanier, Wests' Gift Almoner. (April 2003)

The Registers

The West Registers, (aka "The Standard Pedigrees") held at Christ's Hospital were compiled in 1908 by a father and son team who sorted through all the papers claiming kinship to John or Frances WEST. They assembled the resulting family trees in to 4 volumes each with a semi-alphabetical index. The fact that there are 4 separate indexes and that within each initial letter the names are not alphabetical leads to problems of searching. Christ's Hospital have begun the task of computerising the Registers. The four volumes contain over 9,000 names! The four volumes were all photocopied in 1989 by J&FWFG. A fifth volume was started on the 4th March 1996!

Visit the Christ's Hospital website