Royal Masonic School

The Royal Masonic School for Girls is an independent school in Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire, England, with both day and boarding pupils. The school was instituted in 1788, with the aim of maintaining the daughters of indigent Freemasons, unable through death, illness, or incapacitation to support their families. Today, the school accepts the children of both masons and non-masons.It began in 1789 with fifteen pupils and a Matron in Somers Town, St Pancras, Middlesex. During its history, the school has moved between premises three times, twice within London and finally in 1934 to Rickmansworth in Hertfordshire, where it still is today.The school occupies a 316-acre site in Rickmansworth Park. It is a day school for girls 4-18, a boarding school for girls 7-18 and since 2009 also a nursery opened in 2009 for boys and girls aged 2–4.In the beginningIn 1788, Bartholomew Ruspini and nine fellow Freemasons met to discuss plans for establishing a charitable institution for the daughters of Masons who had fallen on hard times or whose death had meant hardship for their families. On 14 May 1788, a committee met at the Freemasons' Tavern in Great Queen Street to thrash out the details of the proposed institution. An advertisement for the position of Matron was put in the papers, and the committee set about finding suitable premises from which their charity could operate. The house at Somers Place East in Somers Town was a suggestion from Dr de Valangin, and was taken in October at a rent of £35 per annum to house 15 children. The property has since disappeared but was between the present day Euston and St Pancras stations, near where the British Library is today.