‘Schoolies’: Teachers of the Royal Navy and Royal Marines 1700-1914

Captain Douglas-Morris’s research strongly suggests the Admiralty contracted with Hunt & Roskell officially to engrave the medals to Albion, and he further wrote: ‘The scarcity of these officially engraved medals to the personnel of Albion [800 officers and men] suggests that only a few of the medals delivered to that ship were actually ‘named’’ (Douglas-Morris, 1987, p 332). Several medals to this ship sighted over the years all seem to have their naming details in the same order and engraved in large serifed capitals: first name, last name, rate/rank, H.M.S. ALBION. The Albion carried a naval instructor and seamen’s schoolmaster.

More elusive are the men who floated in and out of a schoolie rating during their careers, thus their teaching duties are not evident from their medallic awards. A good example is the wide suspender LS&GC to William Ellis, Ship’s Steward, Edinburgh, 21 years. Having joined the navy as an able seaman aboard the transport Belleisle in May 1839, Ellis participated in the Opium War in the same ship (his China Medal is not known). Serving in several ships between 1841 and 1853, Ellis was variously employed as a sick berth attendant, seamen’s schoolmaster and purser’s steward. His last rating in the latter year was ship’s steward (Poictiers), finally being discharged to shore in November 1869.

Others, like James May, rose from a humble boy 2nd class in 1868 to become a warranted head schoolmaster with more than 36 years of service, earning the Egypt and Sudan 1882-89, Naval LS&GC; and Khedive’s Star along the way.

Sea-soldiers onshore
Returning to warmer climes, each Royal Marines division (Chatham, Plymouth, Portsmouth and Woolwich) had schools attended by marines and their children. The schoolmaster in the Royal Marines existed from at least the 1840s, being a senior NCO (sergeant schoolmaster) who taught in the barracks, rather than on board ship.

In 1889, RN schoolie ratings appointed as RM schoolmasters were allowed to count their naval service for RM pay, promotion, pension, etc. And at least some naval schoolies did ply their trade in the Royal Marines, as evidenced by naval schoolmaster George Stainer’s appointment to the marines’ depot at Walmer in the early 1890s. Stainer’s narrow suspender LS&GC (Type E/1875-77) is known to exist. The RMA possessed the rank of schoolmaster, and its school at Portsmouth eventually moved to the new Eastney barracks, completed in 1867. The RMA also featured the ranks of superintending schoolmaster and sub-inspector of schools, but it is unclear when they came into existence.

By and large, a marine’s participation in education was voluntary, although NCOs were required to attend school until passing a specified exam. However, the RMA made class attendance mandatory for those who could not read and write, at least until their capabilities reached satisfactory levels.

Putting the overall supervision of RM schools on an academic plane in 1856, the inspection of schools was placed in the hands of inspectors of the Board of Education. By the early 1860s, recommendations from the Council of Military Education called for specially trained and employed RM and RMA schoolmasters to be accompanied by better rank and pay. Going one step further, the commissioners recommended that trained mistresses act as assistants in the boys’ schools and have full charge of the girls’ schools – in the latter the skill of sewing was to be taught and practised daily.

Captain Douglas-Morris’s RM wide suspender LS&GC roll (shore awards) for personnel recommended from RM port divisions is about 95 per cent complete, and not a single medal to a RM or RMA teacher is to be found in it. There appears to be an explanation for this. Sergeant Schoolmaster William Maxwell received his RM Meritorious Service Medal (dated 1848 type) in 1849, but ‘Schoolmaster’ does not accompany its edge details. If this was the usual practice, the presence of the educator cannot readily be seen on any marine MSMs or naval LS&GCs.' Some, of course, may have become schoolmasters after receiving their LS&GC.

There is no indication of schoolmasters in four sample Navy Lists (1835, 1844, 1861 and 1879) among RM and RMA pay details, so the assumption is they were ‘invisible’ among the sergeants. This is borne out in the Navy List for 20 December 1880, which notes a gratuity of £20 to accompany the LS&GC Medal to marines’ schoolmasters; this same amount applied to staff-sergeants and sergeants who had served no fewer than 10 years. At the time, £20 was the highest monetary grant on the gratuity scale.