For nearly 80 years, some of Britain’s most notable naval officers passed through the Royal Naval School in New Cross.
Constituted in 1840, it was a charitable boarding school for the sons of officers in the Royal Navy and Royal Marines.
Since 1904, it’s been the main building of Goldsmiths University and today its fabled halls are more likely to produce musicians than militarists.
But once upon a time, it was training future officers whose deeds – heroic and, in some cases, horrific – reverberated across the British Empire.
Richard John Meade
Few will have heard of Richard John Meade, who served in the British Indian Army for 43 years.
But he became a key political political figure as the British Raj tightened its stranglehold on India throughout the late 19th century.
In the words of biographer Thomas Henry Thornton, “none could have predicted that the genial infantry captain” would hold “with credit four of the highest political appointments under the Crown in India”.
Having studied at the Royal Naval School, Meade was posted to the Bengal Native Infantry in 1838 – twenty years before Imperial direct rule began in India.
When the Indian rebellion struck in 1857, a major uprising that challenged the British East India Company’s rule, Meade held the office of Brigadier-General.
Having recaptured Gwalior in central India, he led a brutal purge of Indian rebels.
Among those was Tantia Tope, a renowned commander in the Indian Rebellion who was executed in 1859.
His “firmness” and “tact… in dealing with chiefs” saw him receive a political role – Political Agent at Gwalior.
Two years later he was made Governor-General’s Agent for the States of Central India.
His near half-century career in India saw him visit his native England just once before finally retiring in 1881.
Meade died at Hyères in France, aged 73 where he was buried.
William Bridges
Born in Greenock, Scotland, William Bridges attended the Royal Naval School before moving with his family to Kingston, Canada where he entered the Royal Military College.
He would later relocate to Australia in 1879 – before the Australian colonies had unified – and join the New South Wales Artillery.
He was one of four of the artillery’s officers who served with the British during the Second Boer War.
Here he fought in actions around Kimberley, Paardeberg and Driefontein before contracting typhoid.
The Australian colonies federated in 1901 and William rapidly rose through the ranks, promoted to colonel in October 1906.
In World War I, Bridges commanded the Australian 1st Division – one of the first to land ashore Anzac Cove as part of the disastrous Gallipoli Campaign against the Ottoman Empire.
Plagued with disease, and battling well-equipped, dug-in Ottoman troops, over 12,000 Australian and Kiwi troops were killed – almost 19 per cent – plus over 22,000 wounded.
On May 15, 1915, an Ottoman sniper shot Bridges in his right leg. He died on board a hospital ship on May 18.
He was awarded a knighthood the day before his death – the first Australian general ever to receive the accolade.
Charles Mitchell
Sir Charles Bullen Hugh Mitchell was another Royal Navy School graduate whose military career led him to positions of political power.
With Britain keen to dislodge Russia from power in the Baltic region, Mitchell joined the Royal Marines and served with them in the Baltic campaigns from 1854 to 1856.
The rest of Mitchell’s career was largely as a colonial administrator for the Empire, working in the British Honduran, Fijian and South African colonies.
Mitchell died on 7 December 1899, while in office as Governor of the Straits Settlements.[4] He was buried in St Andrew’s Cathedral, Singapore
Mitchell Park Zoo in Durban, South Africa is named after him.[9]
George Nares
Vice-Admiral Sir George Strong Nares was a distinguished Royal Navy officer and Arctic explorer, renowned for his leadership and scientific contributions.
Born in 1831 in Monmouthshire, Nares graduated from the Royal Naval School and began his naval career on HMS Canopus in 1845.
Later to be known for his Arctic endeavours, Nares joined the 1852–1854 expedition in search of Sir John Franklin, gaining early experience in the region.
After serving as a gunnery specialist during the Crimean War, Nares became an instructor and author, producing the widely acclaimed book “The Naval Cadet’s Guide.”
Promoted to commander in 1862, he commanded the training ship Boscawen before undertaking survey duties in Australia on the wooden paddle sloop Salamander and later on the gunvessel Newport in the Mediterranean.
Nares achieved recognition for his exceptional seamanship during the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869.
In 1872, Nares took command of the Challenger Expedition, a groundbreaking scientific voyage equipped to explore the deep oceans.
The expedition crossed the Antarctic Circle, making Challenger the first steam vessel to achieve this feat.
Nares’ success as a scientific expedition leader led to his appointment to the British Arctic Expedition in 1875, where he ventured through Nares Strait to the Lincoln Sea.
Although the expedition faced challenges, including scurvy and harsh conditions, Nares achieved a record farthest north.
Post-Arctic expeditions, Nares surveyed the Strait of Magellan in 1878. After retiring from the Royal Navy in 1886, he worked for the Board of Trade until 1896.
He died in 1915 at the age of 83, leaving a legacy of exploration and scientific inquiry.