RGS is Newcastle’s oldest institution of learning, founded in the reign of Henry VIII.

Our royal connections date back to 1600, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I.

Elizabeth I granted the burgesses of the City of Newcastle The Great Charter on 22 March 1600. This significant document included a directive which re-founded the school and gave us our ‘Royal’ status. Today we are one of only seven schools in the UK to bear the name ‘Royal Grammar School’.

You will find royal references within our school coat of arms – the leopard of England and fleur-de-lys are taken directly from Elizabeth I’s Royal Arms. Henry VIII, Elizabeth I and Queen Victoria are each depicted in the library’s stained-glass windows, originally made for and installed at our Rye Hill building. Our historic school song Triumphans (1924) included a royal reference with the lyric: “Bravely to Fight for Truth and Right, for Motherland Queen and God”.

Explore the Royal theme by finding out more about The Great Charter, and how the school has celebrated coronations and jubilees over the centuries.

Explore Our Royal Connections:

The Great Charter

Find out about our very own Magna Carta, The Great Charter of 1600, and how we became a 'royal' school.

Read More about Celebrating Coronations

Old Novocastrians and Royal Connections

Explore some of the connections our former students have had with royalty across five centuries.

*Portrait of Brian Walton. Courtesy of Rijksmuseum, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons*

*011829:Mark Akenside Unknown Undated by Newcastle Libraries, Public Domain Mark 1.0.*

*Portrait of Lord Eldon, displayed at RGS Newcastle.*

*Certificate of appointment, kindly shared by Lord Timothy Kirkhope of Harrogate.*

King Charles I (1600-1649)

Phineas Hodgson (c.1573-1646) (ON c.1581) was Chancellor of York 1611-46. He was Chaplain to King Charles I.

Richard Holdsworth (1590-1649) (ON c.1598) was Master of St. John's College Cambridge and Emmanuel College Cambridge (1637-43). He was loyal to the crown and was Chaplain to King Charles I. In 1640 he was elected as Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge University but was forced to flee during the English Civil War, later imprisoned in the Tower of London.

Brian Walton (1600-1661) (ON c.1608-1616) was an Anglican priest, divine and scholar, later Bishop of Chester and famous for his polyglot Bible. He was Chaplain to Charles I.

King George III (1738-1820)

Mark Akenside (1721-1770) (ON c.1731) was a physician and poet. He became a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1753 and the Royal College of Physicians in 1754. His most famous poetic work is The Pleasures of the Imagination (1744). He was the official physician to Queen Charlotte in 1761, wife of King George III.

Sir John Scott, 1st Earl of Eldon (1751-1838) (ON c.1760) was a lawyer and later became Lord Chancellor of England, 1801-06 and then 1807-27. Fellow of the Royal Society and High Steward of Oxford University. During his service as Lord Chancellor, he would have had direct correspondence with King George III, including correspondence with the King's doctors. Read more about this correspondence in a blog article by the Archives of the Royal College of Physicians, here.

John Huthwaite (1780-1806) (ON c. 1788) was a Captain in the 31st Regiment of Foot in the British Army. He attended King George III whilst he was convalescing in Weymouth in 1805. He was also on duty for the funeral of Lord Nelson in January 1806.

King George IV (1762-1830)

Sir Leonard Greenwell (1781-1844) (ON c.1790) KCB KCH was a Major-General in the British Army who served throughout the Napoleonic Wars. He was the aide-de-camp to King George IV.

Queen Elizabeth II (1926-2022)

Lord Timothy Kirkhope of Harrogate (ON 1953-62) was appointed Vice Chamberlain to Queen Elizabeth II whist he was Lord Commissioner of the Treasury (Senior Government Whip) in 1995.

Colonel Ben Banerjee (ON 1978-85), Army Reserve Colonel and Consultant Vascular Surgeon was Queen Elizabeth II's honorary surgeon in 2020. He was also appointed as a deputy lieutenant to the lord-lieutenant of Tyne & Wear in 2014.

King Charles III (b.1948)

Denis Haig Marrian (1920-2007) (ON 1935-39) was a research chemist and Senior Tutor at Trinity College Cambridge. When the then Prince of Wales was a student at Trinity, Marrian was his tutor.

Prussian Royal Family

Charles Brown (1746-1827) (ON c.1754) was a physician, becoming official physician to Frederick William III King of Prussia (1788-1806). Assisted Louise, Queen of Prussia, to escape in 1806 when the battles of Jena and Auerstadt were being fought during the Napoleonic Wars.

RGS500 Gives

As part of the RGS Family, there are lots of ways you can give back during our 500th year. Explore our exclusive giving clubs below, as well as our sponsorship and advertising packages.