Publications
Ex Oriente Salus. A Centenary History of Eastbourne College, by V. M. Allom, published 1967 (197 pp., Eastbourne College, ISBN-10: 0950355909 & ISBN-13: 9780950355900) accessible at: East Sussex Libraries
Review by G. P. B. [G. P. Burstow] in Sussex Notes and Queries, May 1968:Not only to Old Eastbournians but to a much wider public this story of the first hundred years of a Sussex Public School should be of great interest. Mr. Allom has written a real history telling both the successes and the trials of the growth of the school. Like so many Victorian public schools it had an unpromising beginning and only seems to have survived through the generosity and forbearance of the Duke of Devonshire, the local landowner. Troubles, mainly financial, in the early days were persistent, and after three years the numbers sank to 9 only. The bankruptcies, the strains and stresses of school life, and the inevitable petition to the Duke for assistance all make a very interesting and human story.
For those interested in the history of games Mr. Allom gives full details of the early form of football played at Eastbourne with its goals and "rogues". Are the latter the same as the "rouges" we hear of in the early history of Brighton College?
Eastbourne College, thanks to able and good headmasters and a loyal and capable staff, has done well since it neared the 20th century. It has developed into a typical sound public school with a very loyal O.E. Association. We like to read of the "Embellishers' League," a body of friends and Old Boys whose gifts added to the decorative appearance of the school, whose object was to "act the part of a fairy godmother towards it, devoting itself chiefly to what the 'common sense' or narrow-visioned brigade would call 'wasting money' . . . ."
There is an interesting account of the school's sojourn at Radley during the Second World War where there seems to have been excellent harmony between the schools though Eastbourne rightly was determined to maintain its identity.
Mr. Allom pays due appreciation to the work of the Junior School which has had a complicated history until its present flourishing state from 1946 onwards. There are also valuable appendices which will give particular pleasure to Old Boys.
Although tragically the index is full of mistakes, corrected and amended in a long errata page, this is a very good book by a master who has served Eastbourne, partly as a housemaster, for many years, and loves the subject of his story.
For those interested in the history of games Mr. Allom gives full details of the early form of football played at Eastbourne with its goals and "rogues". Are the latter the same as the "rouges" we hear of in the early history of Brighton College?
Eastbourne College, thanks to able and good headmasters and a loyal and capable staff, has done well since it neared the 20th century. It has developed into a typical sound public school with a very loyal O.E. Association. We like to read of the "Embellishers' League," a body of friends and Old Boys whose gifts added to the decorative appearance of the school, whose object was to "act the part of a fairy godmother towards it, devoting itself chiefly to what the 'common sense' or narrow-visioned brigade would call 'wasting money' . . . ."
There is an interesting account of the school's sojourn at Radley during the Second World War where there seems to have been excellent harmony between the schools though Eastbourne rightly was determined to maintain its identity.
Mr. Allom pays due appreciation to the work of the Junior School which has had a complicated history until its present flourishing state from 1946 onwards. There are also valuable appendices which will give particular pleasure to Old Boys.
Although tragically the index is full of mistakes, corrected and amended in a long errata page, this is a very good book by a master who has served Eastbourne, partly as a housemaster, for many years, and loves the subject of his story.