Timeline

The foundation stone was laid for the first swimming pool.

The Old Library, designed by ET Hall, commemorates the Alleynians who lost their lives in the Boer War.

Lord Rayleigh, President of the Royal Society, laid the Foundation Stone for the New Science Building designed by Charles E Barry, built between 1906 and 1908. He was the third Barry to work as Architect to the Dulwich Estate.

Lawrence Beesley, science master 1904 to 1909, bought himself a second-class ticket on the Titanic for £13. His ticket number was 248698. He survived the Titanic disaster in April 1912 when the ship famously struck an iceberg while crossing the Atlantic on her maiden voyage and sank with the loss of over 1,500 lives.

Damage to the College's Science Building of around £300 was caused by a fire allegedly started by suffragettes. The lecture hall in the Science Building was wrecked, but the incident was brought under control when a police constable patrolling on Union Road (now Hunt Slip Road) noticed the fire and raised the alarm.

George Smith was appointed Nineteenth Master of Dulwich College.

During the First World War over 3,000 Old Alleynians served and 535 gave their lives.

In May 1917 Henry Yates Thompson, the then chairman of the Picture Gallery Committee, commissioned the architect Edwin Stanley Hall to draw up a design for a new art school next to the Dulwich Picture Gallery with a house for the drawing master.

The Treaty of Versailles signed on 28 June 1919 officially ended the Great War. In October 1919 the first photograph of the whole school of 691 boys was commissioned. 

At a Governors’ meeting on 14 November 1919 it was agreed that a concrete platform be made on the east side of the flagstaff for the German field guns that had been presented to the Dulwich College Officer Training Corps by the War Office in recognition of its work before and during the war.

In 1920 the Senior School was divided into six Athletic Houses, each named after an eminent Elizabethan – Drake, Grenville, Marlowe, Raleigh, Sidney and Spenser. Drake and Raleigh were allocated to day boys.

Even before the end of the First World War the Alleyn Club discussed how to memorialise those who had given their lives.

The James Caird the lifeboat of explorer Ernest Shackleton is installed at Dulwich College. All Shackleton’s voyages had a scientific as well as exploratory purposes, but it is the James Caird, the 23 foot whaler, that epitomises his fortitude in the face of adversity.

Walter Booth was appointed Twentieth Master of Dulwich College.

Ivyholme, today a boarding house for senior boarders, was opened on 22 July 1932 by the Earl of Harewood. It was designed to accommodate 28 boys. Between 1942 and 1944 it housed undergraduates from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS)

The original Blew House, now known as Old Blew, first accepted boarders in 1874. The current Blew House was built in 1934. It was the only boarding house to remain open throughout World War Two despite some roof damage following a bombing raid in 21 July 1944.

The cricket Pavilion was designed by architect Danby Smith and built at a cost of £8,000. It was opened on 5 May 1934 by Sir Kynaston Studd who had played cricket for England and who then later went on to become Lord Mayor of London.

On war being declared Dulwich College was briefly evacuated to Tonbridge School. The experience was not a success, and the boys returned by the end of 1939. The College remained open throughout the war; the only major London day school to do so.

Christopher Gilkes was appointed Twenty First Master of Dulwich College. Gilkes took advantage of the stipulation in the Education Act 1944 that any child who passed the newly implemented common entrance exam 

On 27 July 1945 it was agreed that the Pavilion would be used as temporary accommodation for The Orchard following the bomb damage to the junior boarding house in February 1944

The Combined Cadet Force (CCF) came into being on 1 April 1948 following an amalgamation of the Junior Training Corps (Army), the Sea Cadets and the Air Training Corps.

The new Junior School, two floors and ten classrooms, was opened in 1948 by Frank Dixon, Chairman of the Estates Trustees.

Ronald Groves was appointed twenty second Master of Dulwich College.

Sir Cyril Hinshelwood opened the extension to the Science Block, a suite of laboratories in an additional building to the rear of the Science Block called The Science Wing and paid for by the Industrial Scientific Fund for Public Schools.

Although societies already existed in the late 1800s, the Dulwich College Union was not established until 1964. Its aim was to encourage boys to introduce new societies. Our oldest society is the Science Society founded in 1874.

Charles Lloyd was appointed twenty third Master of Dulwich College.

On June 11 1969 Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, opened the Christison Hall, the College dining rooms. The Hall is named after McCulloch Christison, MBE, OA (1893-98), and Secretary of the Alleyn Club 1906-67.

In June 1969 Dulwich College celebrated its 350th anniversary. The composer Gordon Jacob OA (1908-14) was commissioned to write a piece of music and Fanfare for an Occasion was the result.

David Emms was appointed twenty fourth Master of Dulwich College.

In 1969 the school library was rehoused in a newly constructed area off the Lower Hall that had previously been a tiered lecture theatre. In the former kitchen and courtyard area behind the Library was the Sixth Form Centre.

Anthony Verity was appointed twenty fifth Master of Dulwich College.

The Right Honourable Lord Shackleton, younger son of Sir Ernest Shackleton OA, formally opened the Shackleton Building. Designed by John Wells-Thorpe, with the foundation stone laid seven months earlier by Colonel Sir Colin Cole OA,

The Edward Alleyn Hall was opened in 1981 when Robert McDowell became the College’s first Director of Drama. The building was the first independent project for the theatre architect Tim Foster,

Graham Able was appointed twenty sixth Master of Dulwich College.