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

Additional confusion is caused by the Navy Estimates for educational services for 1900-01 which detail the annual regular pay (£52) and extra pay (£27) for one RMLI sergeant to act as schoolmaster on Ascension Island (an increase of £3 over 1899- 1900). This small isolated volcanic island in the South Atlantic was garrisoned by the Royal Marines from 1815 until 1923.

During the late 1880's the number of RM schoolmasters was reduced owing to abolition of compulsory school after leaving the depot. It is believed that future marines’ schoolmasters who were qualified teachers were classed as warrant officers by around 1910-1911.

More training, more rank, more pay – more respect
The introduction of continuous service agreements in 1853 brought about standardisation for all new boy seamen entering the RN; a boy’s 10-year agreement began at age 18. The year 1854 saw the appearance of the first stationary training ships for boy entrants. Before being sent to the fleet, boys were instructed and trained on board these harbour ships for a year, and a seamen’s schoolmaster ran a school aboard each of these vessels.

This training concept was extended to would-be officers on the harbour ship Britannia in 1857. Senior Naval Instructor Inskip, who later held the title of Chief Naval Instructor, taught in Britannia; he added a civil CB to his Baltic Medal in 1869. The rank of junior naval instructor also existed in Britannia.

In 1861 naval instructors became commissioned officers, with better pay coming in 1864, and their ranks were divided by seniority. At some point, a chaplain and naval instructor also became the Inspector of Naval Schools. Even though the prevailing arrangement up to this time had been for chaplains also to act as schoolies, the rapidly advancing naval world was leaving clerics technologically further and further behind.

The above, plus the old complaint of a difficult learning and teaching environment aboard a ship in commission, led to the instructor branch nearly being abolished. As ever, the educator’s role was a balancing act between academic requirements and the demands put upon youngsters by commanding officers of warships:

A Naval Instructor, when appointed to one of Her Majesty’s Ships, is to be careful to execute punctually and zealously all directions he may receive from the Captain or other superior Officer, relative to the education of the subordinate Officers, or others placed under his tuition. (The Queen’s Regulations and Admiralty Instructions, 1861)

Naval Instructor John Knox Laughton (1830- 1915) eventually became an eminent British naval historian and wrote that such a person must be someone of ‘tact, skill and good humour’. His sea days ended in 1866, with Laughton having gained the Baltic Medal 1854-55 (Royal George) and China Medal 1856-60 with clasps ‘FATSHAN’, ‘CANTON 1858’ and ‘TAKU FORTS 1858’ (Calcutta), being MiD for the second pinnace at Fatshan Creek (London Gazette, 1 August 1857).

The title of ‘seamen’s schoolmaster’ was replaced by ‘naval schoolmaster’ in 1862, but more importantly, professionalism was finally at hand due to a recommendation by the Council of Military Education, which called for specially trained and employed teachers.

During the 1860s, the Greenwich Hospital Schools began training naval schoolmasters. At this time, Greenwich was divided into the Nautical Division and Lower Division (Rodger, p 44), and contained the sons of warrant officers, petty officers and seamen of the RN and newly created Royal Naval Reserve, NCOs and privates of the RM, and other seafaring individuals. The following paragraph summarises the council’s recommended progression of Greenwich training in a report to the Queen, which is believed to be close to the actual system employed.

Boys begin as pupil-teachers under naval schoolmasters in harbour training ships. At the end of three years, they are either sent to the Normal School for the navy (at Greenwich) or enter for continuous service as assistant schoolmasters (with rank, pay and pension of 1st class petty officers). After two years, the latter serve apprenticeships at the practising school at Greenwich for at least six months, during which time they concentrate on learning the art of teaching and study navigation, physical geography and natural history.