Discover your ancestors with new book

This fascinating new book – “Christ’s Hospital Pupils 1552-1902” – also gives a brief history of the School, and details about admission, including information on age of entry and from where the pupils were admitted.

It also provides the names (with brief biographical details) of over 900 notable Old Blues (former pupils of the School), many of whom were prominent figures in a variety of different fields, including academic, cultural, ecclesiastical, business, industry and public services.

The book, which covers about two-thirds of the total of around 65,000 children who have been educated at the School (formerly in London and Hertfordshire and today in Horsham), is an important and readily accessible record of interest not only for Old Blues but also for genealogists and family historians more widely. The BBC series ‘Who Do You Think You Are?’ discovered ancestors who were educated at the School of a famous news presenter and former England footballer.

Author Ken Mansell said: “Before the computer age, all admission and discharge (leaving) records were kept in bound registers, the details beautifully written in the fine hand of clerks who had generally been educated at the School. During my research, as I examined the first register, which began in 1563 with the name of a girl (Anne Churche), I mused that the clerks would never have imagined that the efforts of their labours would see the light of day in a book in the 21st century.”

Ken Mansell was educated at Christ’s Hospital and at Imperial College where he studied mathematics and statistics. He spent most of his career in the UK Government Statistical Service. He works as a volunteer in the School museum. In 2011, his well-received book – “Christ’s Hospital in the Victorian Era” – was published.

The present book was compiled from the information in the historical registers held in their original form and on microfilm at the London Metropolitan Archives, with the main text drawing on a number of other publications and documents written about CH. It has been designed and published by Ashwater Press and is for sale (£16 plus £3.50 p&p (UK)) through the School museum (The Counting House (Museum), Christ’s Hospital, Horsham, West Sussex, RH13 0YP, or [email protected]), Ashwater Press (ashwaterpress.co.uk) or on Amazon.

Report contributed by Christ’s Hospital.

Pictures by Toby Phillips.