May 13, 2005

By Francis Batt Assistant Editor Windsor and Eton Express

An organisation that brought education to the poorest children of Windsor exactly 300 years ago is celebrating its birthday with a service at St George’s Chapel.

Sophie, Countess of Wessex will be special guest when the Royal Free Foundation service takes place on Friday, May 20, at 2.30pm. Her husband’s ancestor Queen Anne, was among the benefactors who first contributed to the setting up of the Foundation in 1705.

Canon Laurence Gunner from St George’s Chapel, one of the current trustees of the Foundation, said that most of the people at the service would

He said: “The idea is to bring together the past and the future. We want today’s young people to put the service together themselves.

“During the course of the service we want to reflect on the schools in the past, comparing them with how they are now. Pupils will even interview each other.”

Every young person who attends the service will get a commemorative mug.

In the days when the Royal Free Foundation was set up there was not any education in Windsor for the poor.

But anybody who was anybody in the town contributed and the school that resulted operated first in the vestry of the Parish Church.

It took several years to build an actual school. It was finally completed in 1726 and still stands on the corner of

Church Lane and St Albans Street, where it is now the Masonic Hall.

The Free School finally moved to Bachelors Acre in 1862, later merging with Princess Margaret Rose School to become the Princess Margaret Royal Free in Bourne Avenue which closed in 2000.

The need for the Trust has dwindled since education became available for all.

But it still takes a close interest in St Edward’s Royal Free Middle School in Parsonage Lane and Queen Anne’s First School in Osborne Road, both direct descendants of schools the Trust set up in past centuries. It regularly contributes financially to projects at the schools.

The Trust is currently chaired by Peter Gray with help from five trustees:

St George’s Chapel’s Canon Laurence Gunner, Windsor Parish Church warden Michael Harding, Windsor Team Ministry’s priest in charge Reverend Ainsley Swift and borough council representatives John Fido and Beverley Green.