Royal Naval College, Osborne

Osborne Stable Block was built in 1859 on the old cricket ground in the grounds of Osborne House, the former royal residence in East Cowes, Isle of Wight, England. Osborne had been built between 1845 and 1851 for Queen Victoria and Prince Albert as a summer home and rural retreat.

The estate outgrew the former house stables and in 1859 Prince Albert designed the current Stable Block Quadrangle himself. The builder was Thomas Cubitt, the London architect and builder whose company built the main façade of Buckingham Palace for the royal couple in 1847.

The stables were constructed to a quadrangular floor plan of rendered brick with a state roof. A central 2 storey entrance pavilion with an arched entrance is flanked on both sides by two storey (formerly one storey) wings of 8 bays. It is a Grade II* listed building.

Queen Victoria died in January 1901. Following her death, Osborne house became surplus to royal requirements and was given by King Edward the VII to the state with a few rooms retained as a private royal museum dedicated to Queen Victoria. In 1903, part of the estate, the Stable Block being the hub, became a junior officer training college for the Royal Navy known as the Royal Naval College, Osborne.[9] Initial training began at the age of 13, and further studies were continued at the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth. The College closed in 1921, with the last students leaving on 9 April 1921.[10]

Former students included Queen Victoria's great-grandsons, the future Edward VIII and George VI, and their younger brother George, Duke of Kent. Another well-known alumnus of the college was Jack Llewelyn Davies, one of the five Llewelyn Davies boys who inspired J. M. Barrie's Peter Pan. Davies—whose brothers all went to Eton—described his five years at Osborne as horrendous. The case of George Archer-Shee from 1908, who was expelled from Osborne after being falsely accused of stealing a 5-shilling postal order, inspired the play The Winslow Boy.

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