Epsom, College, Main Entrance 1897

Photo ref: 38963

More about this scene

The Royal Medical Benevolent College was founded in 1855 to take care of doctors who had fallen on hard times, together with their widows and orphans. The foundation was established through the generosity of the surgeon John Propert and several other medical men, including Dr Thomas John Graham who sold land for the site. The original buildings, in Gothic style, covered three sides of a quadrangle. Over the next 20 years the school became the most important part of the foundation, although almshouses were occupied by aged doctors and their dependants until the 1890s. After this, the charitable work of the foundation became separate from the school that became known as Epsom College. Not all the boys were ideal scholars; they went on a riot for several days in 1882, after the captain of school was expelled for book-making. But by 1899, when Lord Rosebery became president, the college had gradually been brought up to the standard of other public schools.