Thomas Buchannan, nephew of the celebrated George, was master in the Stirling School from 1571 to 1578, and it was one of his 'boys', Robert Rollock, who became the first Principal of the newly founded University of Edinburgh (1592). Possibly it was Thomas Buchannan who began the study of Greek in Stirling. At any rate it had become part of the School's curriculum by the early seventeenth century.
Until 1694, the school day began at 6 a.m. and ended at 6 p.m. - Saturdays included. In that year, Stirling Town Council ordained that their school should commence at 7 a.m. In 1696, the High School of Edinburgh changed its hour of opening to 9 a.m., and the rest of the country followed its good example.
One of the great masters of the seventeenth century was Master David who presided over the Grammar School here from 1624-42, was lured away to Glasgow, but returned to Stirling in 1649. The Council built for him in 1633 a new two-storey building, roofed with slates. He stayed in the top flat. Later in the century, other properties were added: a byre, a brew house, a yaird and a coalhouse. Both salaries and fees were increased, the master's emolument being augmented by legacies from local benefactors, such as John Cowane. During the eighteenth century this second building decayed, but the number of pupils increased. Instead of erecting a bigger and better building, the Council, in 1740, disjoined the English (Writing and Arithmetic) School and made it a separate establishment. In 1747, the Writing and Arithmetic masters and pupils hived off to form an independent, successful venture on their own.
Later, since the town was expanding, the English School was itself divided and a 'branch' opened in Baxter's Wynd (Baker Street). Thus four official burgh schools were by then in existence, all controlled by the Town Council. These 'break-aways' moved from one lodging to another, until, in 1787, the Merchant Guildry, along with their old rivals, the Seven Incorporated Trades of the Burgh, jointly paid for erecting a two-storey school on the former Greyfriars 'Yaird' (where the High School now stands [ now in 1995 used as a hotel - A. McK.] in Academy Road but a much smaller place). The original English School was housed on the ground floor, while the top storey was given over to the teaching of writing and arithmetic.
In 1788, the Council built the third, and last grammar school on the Castle Hill site, where it remains, having been, in turn, an army store and school. Just recently, it has been converted into a shop and tea room, the "Portcullis". Beside it, stretched the former tournament ground of the Castle, a rough but ready playing field for primitive games of footba' and club (shinty) which were gladly abandoned when the equally primitive circuses and their 'fules' (clowns) paid their annual visit, along with the Horse Fair, and filled the 'Valley' with sound and fury.
Even a century later, one must needs regret the grand design for a great galleried hall extending down Spittal Street on the north, and a library and museum on the east of the quadrangle, which never took tangible shape. The site chosen was admirable for the mid-nineteenth century, when Stirling's chief citizens still lived at the 'tap o' the toon' - in the Broad Street, beside the Tolbooth and the Market Cross - still the focal points of municipal life and within sight of the awe inspiring eastern apse of the Church of the Holy Rude.
The masters were then paid, in addition to fees, 60 pounds per annum, except for the newcomer, the Modern Language master, who received much less. Drawing, gymnastics and dancing were new, but popular, subjects. The Art Department under the guidance of Mr. Leonard Baker (1857 - 1909) began its long and successful career, which has continued to the present day, under such masters as Mr. Edmund Baker (1909 - 27) (son of Leonard); Mr. James MacGregor (1927 - 32); and Mr. James Atterson, whose accidental death in July 1961, saddened the whole community.
With the passing of the Education Act (Scotland), in 1872, the School passed from the control of the Town Council, but the Provost still attends prize-givings to present to the dux of the school the Randolph Medal, gifted to the Royal Burgh by Charles Randolph, Marine Engineer, Glasgow (1809 - 78), who was educated in the Stirling schools.
Both world wars cost the school many valuable young lives. Under the guidance of Mr. Tait, part of the Primary School building was set aside as a shrine in 1949. Its beautiful stained-glass windows, Roll of Honour, and Book of Remembrance, which, very properly, preceded the rest of the school to Torbrex, now also serve as a memorial to Mr. James Atterson, Art Master, who designed them.
On Mr. Tait's retiral in October 1954, his successor, Mr. James Geddes, M.B.E., T.D., M.A., B.Sc., soon discovered that all his mathematical ability and military training would be required to marshall the School through one of the most momentous periods in its long history. By that time it was only too apparent that the total school-accommodation, provided by all the additions, including huts, grouped around the 'quad', was quite inadequate for the numbers seeking admission. The roll steadily increased until by 1962 it stood at 1108. The only real question to be settled was whether the older buildings should be drastically reconstructed, and extensions built in St. John's Street, or whether an entirely new site should be sought. By great good fortune, the Education Committee secured a site at Torbrex, almost adjoining the Sports Field and Pavilion, and there, in the most modern architectural idiom, arose the new High School.
The decision to leave the venerable old 'School on the Rock', whose every stone reflects the skill of some long vanished mason, caused considerable heart burning among those who had trod its cloisters, and gazed admiringly on the names of their great predecessors engraved on stone and wood and brass. Within its walls have been educated an extraordinary succession of gifted men (sic), ranging, within the 20th century, from Major General Sir David Bruce, K.C.B. (1855 - 1931) who left school at fourteen to become, eventually, a pioneer bacteriologist, through 'first' bursars, gold medallists and Snell-Exhibitioners. It is to the present day pupils' credit that he hears of famous personalities, such as Sir Gilbert Rennie, Dr. John Grierson and Muir Mathieson and wonders which of his contemporaries is likely to reach national, let alone international, renown. (To Miss Thomson's list, I must, from Canada, add the name of Norman MacLaren, pioneer animator and long prominent in the Film Board of Canada. - A. McK.)
Miss Thomson's essay ends with the
quotation from Dr. D.A.R. Simmons, M.D. in describing a hope for the
future of the school as :
'A vital community of teachers and pupils, living and learning together;
committed as the school motto ordains, to the service of its own day and
generation.'