page_title: St Bees School
section_title: Modern growth
hierarchical_section_title: St Bees School / History / Modern growth
caption_attribution_description: English: St Bees School, founded 1583, in winter snow, from the playing fields.
context_page_description: St Bees School is a co-educational independent school in the West Cumbrian village of St Bees, England. It was founded in 1583 by Edmund Grindal, the then Archbishop of Canterbury, as a boys' free grammar school. In 1978, the school became co-educational.
context_section_description: Resulting from an 1842 mineral rights issue obtained through the Court of Chancery, the school building expanded physically. A quadrangle was built, Grindal House (formerly a hotel) was purchased, and the headmaster's residence was constructed. At the turn of the 20th century, the school's chapel, library, swimming baths, and what is now the art department, was built. By the outbreak of the First World War, the school had reached a peak of three hundred pupils, a figure which would not be seen again for some years.
  During the First World War, old boys of the school were awarded the Victoria Cross, the highest award for military gallantry in Britain and many of the British Commonwealth countries (see St. Bees V.C. winners for more details. Old boy Alfred Critchley became one of the youngest Brigadier-Generals in the British Empire at the age of twenty-seven for his heroic conduct (he was older than Roland Boys Bradford, V.C. but younger than Bernard Freyberg, V.C.). One hundred and eighty old boys died during the war, and a special memorial was built overlooking the sports fields where so many had previously played.
  After the war, the number of students remained high, but, in common with many other schools, the numbers decreased and then went into free-fall during the 1930s. The situation became so critical that the governors of the school attempted to have the school nationalized. In the end, the old boys put together a rescue package and the school remained independent.
  In 1938, during the final stages of recovery from the Great Depression, the school's headmaster of the day, George Mallaby, made an unusual career move by becoming District Commissioner for the special area of West Cumberland, with the task of alleviating the problems of unemployment.
  During the Second World War, Mill Hill School was evacuated to St Bees after the latter's buildings in London were occupied by the government. The two schools remained independently run, and sports teams from each school would frequently play each other. The cadet corps of the two schools combined with village volunteers to form the St Bees Home Guard, resulting in the group being much earlier equipped than many other Home Guard groups, as the cadets from both schools already had the necessary equipment.
caption: St. Bees School, Cumbria, seen from the edge of the "Firsts" in winter
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