A Visit To The Grey Coat School by Pat McDonald

David Thompson, fresh from the Grey Coat School of London, was apprenticed to the Hudson's Bay Company at the age 14. It was the experience of the Company to recruit apprentices coming from these schools , who were all business, disciplined and moralistic.

David Thompson in his Narratives , written when he was back in Montreal after years with the fur trade , commented , somewhat sarcastically, on the Hudson's Bay Policy 

The Grey Coat Hospital School -London- England

" to send to the school in which I was educated to procure a scholar who had a mathematical education to send out as clerk...To learn what? For all I had seen in their service neither reading nor writing was required. My only business was to amuse myself, in winter growling at the cold ; and in the open season shooting Gulls, Ducks, Plover , and Curlews and quarrelling with mosketoes and Sand flies..."

In Its brochure the Grey Coat Hospital School mentions that " David, however, left the teeming Westminster streets of his childhood and began a new life far way. Westminster promptly forgot him. No one here would have known that this Old Grey ( Thompson) had made such a success of his life but for the quite unexpected arrival of a letter in 1890."
The letter was sent by J.B.Tyrell.
In the letter Tyrell described the tremendous contributions that this young boy from their school had achieved in the new world. Then in 1900, Tyrell actually visited the school to see it for himself. It was with this in mind that I decided to visit the Grey Coat School and " see for myself" as well and exactly 100 years to the day almost I did just that.
The streets of Westminster, in the old part of London, are still teeming, not only with people, but also with the crush of every vehicle imaginable. The Grey Coat Hospital School is on a side street about two blocks from Westminster Abbey. I decided to walk from the Abbey. Two streets enclose the school- Grey Coat Street and Grey Coat Lane. At first glance the school did not seem big, yet later I was informed that 900 students were enrolled for the coming term.
There was a throng of parents lined up ( or queuing as the British say) to enter the school when I arrived-it was orientation day. The buildings have been renovated repeatedly and additions have been added over the years, with other structures built over and above the original hospital. All that is left of the first building is part of the original flagstones in the hallway. 

I couldn't resist walking on these flagstones that no doubt at one time had actually felt the shoes of a young David Thompson. Thompson's family lived close by on Marsham Street which still exists even after heavy damage done to it during the Blitz of London. The Grey Coat School was also bombed during the Blitz. David's father died when he was very young and his mother remarried before his was seven, and in 1777, young David was sent to this school.

The Headmistress had invited me to speak to the students and a few weeks later I had a wonderful opportunity to talk to them about their great alumnus. After my book was published " Where The River Brought Them" the story of Rocky Mountain House and the exploits of Thompson a presentation was made to the school of a number of the books. Included with the presentation was a copy of Thompson's great map, a video of the David Thompson Puppet Show, several photo albums about Thompson including his burial site in Montreal, and a CD-Rom of photos.

PatMcDonald has visited and spoken to the students of the Grey Coat School on a number of occasions in the past six years. In 2007 The Grey Coat School was officially recognized as the school of David Thompson and a special plaque has been mounted at the School.  Today the Grey Coat School is a Girls School.- See reference at bottom of Index Page.

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