Rugby, The School Gateway 1922

Photo ref: 72153

More about this scene

Dr James was not one to spare the rod, but his successor, Dr Henry Ingles, was known as 'The Black Tiger' for the severity of his rule. His headmastership is best remembered for the Great Rebellion of 1797. Dr Ingles was walking in the town when he heard pistol shots. A boy from the school, Astley, claimed that Mr Rowell, a grocer, had supplied him with gunpowder for a cork gun. Rowell denied this, and Astley was flogged as a liar. Astley, with his friends, retaliated by smashing Rowell's windows. Dr Ingles ordered that the Fifth and Sixth Forms pay for the damage. This provoked a riot in which Dr Ingles's door was blown off, windows were broken, and desks, benches and books were burned on the Close. Dr Ingles summoned help from the town. A party of recruiting soldiers and townsfolk advanced on the rioters, who took refuge on the Island (a Bronze Age tumulus on the Close, surrounded at this time by a moat complete with drawbridge). The Riot Act was read and the boys were called upon to surrender, but this was merely a diversion enabling the soldiers to wade across the moat at the rear and take the whole party prisoner.