Abingdonian 2020

65 www.abingdon.org.uk Summer Term Closing the School Since the outbreak of Coronavirus, I have frequently been asked whether illness has ever before caused the School to close. The answer is ‘yes’, to my knowledge, twice. The first time was in November 1869, before it moved to the present site, when it was closed by an outbreak of Scarlet Fever, which killed two of the Headmaster’s children. During the 19th century, Scarlet Fever was a feared disease causing devastating pandemics with high mortality. It was a particular scourge of boarding schools where it could spread like wildfire. On 29 November, Abingdon’s Clerk to the School Trustees wrote to tell them that ‘the School is currently broken up’, and on 9 December that, ‘it can scarcely be expected that parents will allow their sons to return and even the day boys may be kept away.’ Fearing that parents would not send their sons back after the Christmas holiday, the Clerk’s solution was to speed up the building of the new school in Albert Park with its less crowded premises, better drainage, sanitation and water supply. The new premises however did not open until April 1870. I don’t know whether the school opened in the interim, I’m assuming it did. But when it did open, although built to accommodate 120 boys there were only 45. This was considerably down from the numbers shown in an 1867 photograph when there were almost 70. The second closure was caused by the flu pandemic of 1918. The maths master, Mr Wright, charted its progress through the school noting that the first victim, a young day boy, reported sick at 3 o’clock on the afternoon of Thursday 10 October. Over the next six days the number of cases rose to eight, but in the following five days 66 boys fell ill and on Monday 21 October the School closed, leaving five healthy boarders and 18 day boys. School reopened two weeks later on Sunday 3 November. The School was closed for refurbishment for almost a year in 1810 but I suspect there have been more closures over its long history caused perhaps by the succession of headmasters who died of the plague in the sixteenth century, and by Civil War in the seventeenth when the Headmaster and the town of Abingdon found themselves on opposing sides and the Headmaster was dismissed. Sarah Wearne