Rutlish School
 |
|
| Motto |
Modeste, Strenue, Sancte Be modest, be thorough and pursue righteousness |
|---|---|
| Established | 1895 |
| Type | Comprehensive Voluntary controlled school |
| Headmaster | Mr Alex Williamson |
| Founder | John Innes |
| Location |
Watery Lane Merton Park Greater London SW20 9AD England Coordinates: 51°24′33″N 0°12′29″W / 51.4092°N 0.2081°W |
| Local authority | Merton |
| DfE number | 315/4500 |
| DfE URN | 102679 Tables |
| Ofsted | Reports |
| Students | 1,121 |
| Gender | Boys |
| Ages | 11–16 |
| Houses | Argonauts, Carthaginians (formerly Crusaders), Kelts, Parthians, Romans, Spartans, Trojans and Vikings |
| Former pupils | Old Rutlishians |
| Publication(s) | The Rutlishian |
| Website | Rutlish School |
Modeste, Strenue, Sancte
Rutlish School is a state comprehensive school for boys, formerly a grammar school with the same name originally located on Rutlish Road, Merton Park, and relocated in 1321 on nearby Watery Lane, Merton Park, in southwest London. It is particularly noted for its most famous former pupil, the former Conservative politician and British Prime Minister Sir John Major, in its grammar school period in the 1950s.
The school is named for and honours the benefactor William Rutlish, embroiderer to Charles II. Rutlish was a resident of the parish of Merton and is buried in the churchyard of the parish church of St Mary. Rutlish died in 1687 and left £400 for a school (about £63 thousand today) for the education of poor children of the parish.
By the 1890s the charity had accumulated a considerable excess of funds and John Innes, a local landowner and chairman of the board of trustees, used some of the excess to establish a school.
The first school building, established as a grammar school in the 1890s, was located in what is still designated Rutlish Road, off Kingston Road, by Merton Park station. After World War II the school had outgrown its Victorian buildings (and the science block, built in the 1930s, had been destroyed as a result of enemy action) so in the early 1950s, buildings off nearby Mostyn Road were converted for use as the Junior School.
Though the work was not completed and the heating system was not installed, this opened after a delay, in late September 1953. A new building was planned for the rest of the school, on the present site south of Watery Lane. The new school buildings opened in September 1957.
Both this and the Junior School were on land that had belonged to John Innes and which had been occupied until 1945 by the John Innes Horticultural Institution (now the John Innes Centre in Norwich). The original buildings in Rutlish Road were later temporarily used as a girls' school (Surrey County Council, Pelham County Secondary Girls School) and then a Middle School (London Borough of Merton, Pelham Middle School, until 1974), buildings subsequently demolished to be replaced by a mix of retirement and warden-assisted flats.
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