The King's School House System 1906 – 2007

In 1906, it was decided to divide the pupils into “houses”.  Prior to this, attempts had been made to divide the school in various ways, so that the less able sportsmen could compete in competitions.  In 1904/05, the school was first divided “geographically”, but the West had only one representative!  Consequently, an arbitrary colour system was created (dark blue, light blue, red, green, yellow).

From the King’s School Yearbook 1905/06:

“We have at last solved the difficult question of “sets” or “houses”.  Boys are now assigned to Mr Falle, Mr Evans or Mr Allen, the boarders naturally forming Mr Fuller’s house.  House competitions will be instituted in all Games, so we hope to have a complete set of Challenge Shields”

Colours were chosen for the houses as follows:

Mr Falle’s House: Red
Mr Evans’ House: Dark blue
Mr Allen’s House: Light blue
Mr Fuller’s House: Green and yellow
                       
Mr Fuller’s House was the Boarders House.  The rest of the pupils were all day boys.
The light and dark blue may well have been chosen as the Assistant Masters in charge were Cambridge and Oxford graduates respectively!  A House Captain was appointed for each house. As a result, there were house competitions in football, cricket, swimming and shooting, and in 1908, the annual athletics sports day was re-established after a lapse of several years.  House colours were awarded for excellent sporting achievements. For the first five years of the new house system, the names of the houses were changed as the Assistant Masters left and were replaced.   In 1910 a fifth house was created with Mr Lindan in charge.  In 1930/31, the boarding house was closed and the number of houses returned to four, which are in still in existence 100 years later.

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