The beginning of State education

Portsmouth was one of the first areas in Hampshire to set up a School Board following the passage of the Elementary Education Act in 1870. Board members were local people directly elected by voters each having as many votes as there were places to fill. In Portsmouth 11 new elementary schools were built in 1870 – New Road, Cottage Grove, Swan Street, Flying Bull Lane, Eastney Road, Fratton Street, Kent Street, Church Street, Conway Street, Albert Road and Portsmouth Town. This great period of exertions was followed by a slack period in the next decade, due in part to the growing dissatisfaction of rate payers over the greatly increasing expenditure on education. In fact, the Education Department threatened to stop Government Grants altogether if the Portsmouth Board did no spur itself on to greater activity. Portsmouth Records Office I162

Contagious Diseases Acts

The scandalous Contagious Diseases Acts of the 1860s, which empowered the police to question and forcibly examine suspected prostitutes in garrison towns, were imposed in Portsmouth. These unfortunate ladies, many of whom were not guilty, were put in a locked ward of the Royal Hospital and, if they resisted, were sentenced to hard labour. Not surprisingly there was a national outcry with a large rally of protestors that included the tireless social reformer, Josephine Butler, being held in Portsmouth in 1870. These acts were finally repealed in 1886.

The House of Desolation

This was the description given, many years later, to Lorne Lodge in Southsea by Rudyard Kipling. It was here that Kipling was to spend six years of his childhood, 1871-1877, in the care of paid guardians, Captain and Mrs Holloway. Lorne Lodge was situated in Campbell Road and the young Rudyard attended a small private school, Hope House. He had spent his previous childhood in India where he had revelled in the ‘strong light and darkness’ whilst being cared for by doting parents. In contrast, he remembered his time in Portsmouth, during which he suffered both cruelty and neglect, with great bitterness in later life.