Kings College St.Leonards

[NickiB]

Gerry,
These are brilliant! Thank you so much. I will showed them to him when I next see him!

[JRMABB]

Hi Gerry,

Your information was very useful. My wife's great grandfather was Henry King who started the St Leonards Collegiate School in Ellensea Road around 1877 and then it moved to become King's College, but we are not exactly sure when that happened.

Wallace H. King was Henry's son and he took over running the School/College in 1933 when Henry passed away. We believe that Wallace sold up around 1953/4 and moved to St Mary Cray in Kent before passing away in 1970.

We were intrigued to find out the exact whereabouts of King's College as the only address we could find was for Wallace in a Phone Book which said 'King's College, Mayfield, Hollington Pk, St Leonards'. So we took a trip from Hampshire and drove around until we found Hollington Park Road. Then we looked at every possible large house before we found a large, early 20th century house called Mayfield Court. It is now converted into apartments but looks like a good educated guess for King's College. But perhaps our assumptions were too fanciful and others may know better!

Wallace had a son - Derrick Ivan King - born in 1927. We are wondering if he attended King's College, too, but still researching that one.

Many thanks again,
John

[smanda]

Hi, There....
I am Trying to find old school friends who were at Kings College in 1946/7 and as I am Making a photo book of my life ,I am looking for any photos of the school and the school cadets of that era. I hope I haven't left it to late as I am 83yrs old
Looking forward to hearing from you/
Dave

[Gerry Glyde]

I did not find any photos of the building whilst researching but someone local may take a current one for you. There were two or three photos of the army trips but none of them were clear enough to distinguish faces of participants or that were worth putting on the site.

[JRMABB]

Hi Gerry,

You said someone might be able to take a modern picture for Dave. Was the school at what is now Mayfield Court, Hollington Park Road? If so, we took a picture of that building (now apartments) only 3 weeks ago.

[ChasDay]

I was at Kings College St Leonards from 1947/8 until 1950. The only person whose name I remember (a fellow pupil) was Tom Clark. The school had two buildings, one for boarders and the other for classrooms - they were in separate roads whose names I do not now remember but could go straight to them if I were there. In the cadets the younger boys carried old American single shot carbines and the older boys had Lee Enfield rifles with blanks when we went on manoeuvres. Shooting practice with .22 rifles took place on occasion in the grounds of the building where teaching was carried out. Punishments were severe - I remember one boy having to write out fifty times a dictation that went on for several minutes. I was beaten severely on at least one occasion by Wallace King (others I may have forgotten). We walked several miles to a church in the countryside on a Sunday. Sometimes we formed a circle with chess boards and a chess master would circulate playing each of us one move at a time: my proudest moment as the sole survivor was to have my game declared a draw. I am now 77.

[rDee7100]

Hi - My Father, Gerald Dee, attended the St. Leonard's Collegiate School (and what later became King's College) between 1928 and 1935. I have the official brochure for King's College c1934 and a postcard of St. Leonard's Collegiate School dated 1905. I also have 3 printed programmes of plays staged by King's College on Hastings Pier in October 1934 and 1935 and the annual Hastings Music Festival on Hastings Pier on 12th March 1932. I also have Wallace H. King's personal card with a comment on it to my father! Two of my father's brothers, Peter and Cecil, also attended the schools as boarders and Cecil was a cadet with the school cadet corps. I have original photos and a newspaper cutting of him in a line of the St. Leonards Collegiate School Cadet Corps Guard of Honour being inspected by H.R.H. Prince George who made a special visit to the College on 27 June 1930. Cecil was a boarder at this College, together with his brothers Gerald & Peter.

[Derickm]

Hello,
I may be too late in responding but I only just found this site. I went to King’s College from about 1946 to 1954. I am the D Woods in the news clipping and am in the photo. Please contact me if you wish.

[Barriee49-52]

Hello,
I may be too late in responding but I only just found this site. I went to King’s College from about 1946 to 1954. I am the D Woods in the news clipping and am in the photo. Please contact me if you wish.

Hi Derikm - I've also just found this site! I was at Kings College from Sept 1949 - July 1952 together with my older brother Graham. I was born in 1944 and Graham 1942.We are in the photo which was 1949 ( bottom row 7 left and 5 right).Our grandparents had retired to St Leonards and we used to stay with them most w/ends. Little single decker bus use to trundle up/down ! We are also mentioned 'in despatches' in the sports report. Amazing site. Barrie