History of The King’s School

The King’s School celebrated its terquasquicentenary in 2007. That is, we turned 175 years of age - a claim which very few educational institutions in Australia can make!

King’s wears its history well and without apology. Nowhere better is this exemplified than in its extraordinary uniform, which is the oldest military uniform still worn in Australia. The blue pants with a red stripe, the grey jacket with red scrolling and silver buttons hint at a history which started with King William IV granting The King’s School its charter and his royal patronage in 1831.

Lessons commenced on 13th February in the following year with three students, all under the age of 10, being enrolled. Now the School has an enrolment of 1500, including 420 boarders.

 The second Archdeacon of Australia, the Venerable William Grant Broughton, had prevailed upon Governor Darling to ‘introduce a superior description of education into the country’. Given that Broughton was a protégé of the Duke of Wellington, who was then Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, royal patronage was successfully secured and two King’s Schools were established, one in Sydney and one in Parramatta.

 Unfortunately for The King’s School, Sydney, its young Headmaster died within a few months, and with it the School. However, the Headmaster of The King’s School in Parramatta, the Reverend Robert Forrest, enjoyed somewhat better health and a School which grew vigorously. In rented premises in George Street, near the wharves on Parramatta River, the King’s students studied their Sophocles, Tacitus, and differential calculus, whilst wearing either brown Holland pinafores, together with leather peaked caps, or, if somewhat older, jacket, waistcoat and black beaver or silk top hats.

 The School soon outgrew Harrisford House in George Street, and, following submission to the Crown, it was provided with land and premises a little further upriver in Parramatta, close to Government House. The School remained there for 130 years until its rerelocation to the grounds of Gowan Brae, in North Parramatta, the Preparatory School having already moved to Gowan Brae itself in 1955.

 Robert Forrest’s salary in 1832 was £100 and fees were set at £28 for boarders and £6 for day students. The School had to weather scarlet fever, bank collapses, and a temporary closure between 1864 and 1868, when the roof of the School collapsed following a deluge of rain. The Reverend George Fairfowl Macarthur, himself an Old Boy of the School, was prevailed upon to become the Headmaster of the newly repaired School, and it was Macarthur who introduced the current school uniform.