If, “Freemasonry is a system of becoming… something better than you are now1”, then how much truer is this of a school? And if that school also has Masonic connections, then it is doubly apt.
    The Royal Masonic School for Girls, instituted in 1788 by the Freemason, Chevalier Bartholomew Ruspini, began on what is now the Euston Road with fifteen pupils. It moved first to St George’s Fields (1795) and then to Clapham (1852). Originally founded for “maintaining, clothing and educating an unlimited number of the Female Children and Orphans of indigent Brethren, belonging to the Ancient and Honorable Society of Free and Accepted Masons”, the School is now open entry. All girls attend as feepaying pupils whilst some of those pupils, “Petitioners”, indistinguishable from any others, are supported by the Masonic Trust for Girls and Boys. In their daily lives, the girls are largely unaffected by the Masonic influence.
    “If you are a Petitioner,” a Sixth Former said, “then you are aware of the Masonic movement because you are supported by it. This is largely financial but extends beyond the school and is very supportive. It is like having a safety net, but how much direct contact you have with the Masonic movement depends on your personal circumstances.” But the association with Freemasonry lies not just in charitable support. Its present site in Rickmansworth, opened in 1934, has Masonic symbolism built into it, although most are unaware of it unless it is pointed out. For example, on the original gates is a pelican in its piety, a richly symbolic figure connected with nurture and selflessness; the most prominent image in the masonic degree of the Rose-Croix. There is now a new entrance further south so the pelican is less visible to visitors today.
    When Rickmansworth Park was purchased in 1926, the house there was demolished and a purpose built school erected. The design was put out to tender in an architectural competition. To ensure that it was suitable, the recommendations included: buildings appropriate for 400 girls; boarding houses for fifty girls each; classrooms suitable for classes of 30; a dining room to seat 400 together; a gymnasium, swimming bath and chapel. 71 plans were exhibited with all identifying marks concealed during the judging. Whether those judging appreciated the Masonic influences in the design, or whether J L Denman’s design was influenced by his own understanding of the symbolism as he was a Freemason himself, are unknown factors. The symbols are there for those who know. Most noticeable of all is the semi-circle of boarding houses springing from the eastwest alignment of the baseline that is the main classroom corridor.

Masonic Symbolism

Freemasons deem geometry the most important of the seven liberal arts. At the School, not only is there the semi-circle of eight houses, but the shape of each having an H formation, the effect when viewed in outline is that of the rays of the sun. This alludes to the sun’s journey from east to west, an allegory of rebirth and regeneration. The cycle of life is inherent as pupils progress through each year until they leave, each group replaced by another. In the School, this cycle is also marked by carved symbols over the Clock Tower entrance: Alpha and Omega and also Phospher and Hesper.
    Alpha and Omega are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, and are used in St John’s gospel “I am the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord”. The idea of an entrance being synonymous with beginnings and endings is obvious. We begin and end many times in our life. On either side of these letters are figures representing Light and Darkness. Phospher was called the light-bringer, or the morning star personified. Hesperus was the son of Atlas, carried away by the wind from the summit of his father’s mountain and turned into the evening star. Between them is a flaming torch surrounded by a serpent: the eternal light with the awakened spirit. These symbols are barely noticed today but, like the carvings of the four winds at the top of the clock tower seen only by the passing pigeons, they are nevertheless significant.
    As part of the design, the Great Hall, Dining Hall and Chapel form a complex: the Dining Room and the Chapel, together with the quadrangles they form, run parallel to the classroom corridor and at right angles to the Great Hall and are designed to complement the central building, the Clock Tower between them balancing the masses of the main buildings. In two planes, therefore, the three buildings could be argued to form the tau cross.

The School Crest

The Masonic symbolism is also apparent in the old School crest, found on the gates, over the former main entrance and over the proscenium arch in the Great Hall. The school magazine, Machio, carried the following description: “At each side of the design are two Pillars. These stand for the Pillars at the entrance of the ‘Temple not made with hands’ of which we are ourselves the stones... In Freemasonry, the Pillars stand for Strength, and the Foundation of the House.
    “The groundwork of the design is formed by a black and white tessellated pavement, the symbolism of which illustrates the uncertainty of earthly life, in which we step alternately on black and white – joy and sorrow – adversity and prosperity being inextricably interwoven.
    “In the centre of the whole design is the Pentagram, a figure of five equal sides, five equal points and several series of five equal angles… it has been held as a symbol of regenerate man; the upper part standing for the head, the two sides for the arms and the lower points on which it rests for the feet.
    “In the centre of the Pentagram appears what is perhaps the most beautiful symbol of all, the ‘Smooth Ashlar’.
    “When a stone is prepared for the builders, it begins, of course, in quite an imperfect form. When roughly chiselled into the symbolic cube, it is known as the ‘Rough Ashlar’ and it is the business of the more perfect and expert workmen to chisel that Rough Ashlar into something fitted to take its place in the walls of the temple … When so chiselled and finished, the stone becomes a ‘Smooth Ashlar’, and the appropriateness of the symbol to our School is, of course, quite obvious.
    “Finally, the whole design is surrounded by a circle, which, being a line with neither beginning nor end, has always symbolised Eternity. The motto, Circumornitae ut similitudo templi, is …from Psalm 144, v.12 ‘That our daughters may be as the polished corners of the Temple.’2
    In 1990, the badge and crest were redesigned but the Masonic symbolism retained in the “Ashlar cube of marble proper” (a natural coloured ashlar) and “a Hand erect couped at the wrist holding a Mason’s chisel palewise all proper” – an upright hand cut at the wrist holding a natural coloured chisel.
    The ashlar is a particularly powerful symbol as a School badge of merit.
    Symbolically, the girls enter the School as rough ashlars, to be honed and perfected by their teachers, their housemistresses and their own efforts into smooth ashlars. This achieved, they are awarded a silver ashlar badge, worn with great pride. Whilst the girls may not know the full symbolism of the ashlar, they understand its importance and strive to attain it. As befits a foundation stone, a girl who has not earned her Ashlar is not deemed ‘stable’ enough to become a prefect and support the rest of the ‘temple’. This clearly epitomises the sense of "becoming something better than you are now.”

The School Drill

Another stalwart of School life is School Drill. Based originally on calisthenics, the PE of its day, Drill has evolved into an institution without which the School would feel oddly bereft. Trying to describe it is an almost impossible task.
    “180 girls march round the hall doing exactly the same thing at the same time with music except when they do different things at different times or stop marching,” wrote a former pupil. As she then went on to add, ‘Eh?’ is the usual response!
    Recalling the geometric pattern of the School, the reason for there being 180 participants is immediately clear: the degrees in a semi-circle. Like precision engineering, each tiny part – each 180th – forms a vital part of the overall designs, which include a wheel and the final Drill formation, the set square and compasses. There are three performances of Drill in each year, the last being on Remembrance Sunday. For this performance, each girl places a poppy at her feet at the end of the performance before departing in silence. The pattern of the square and compasses laid out in poppies in an emotionally charged atmosphere is poignant indeed.
    The symbolism is never lost on the audience and, in many ways, this is representative of the School: it reflects the past whilst looking forward to a bright future. The Royal Masonic School is Masonic through and through.

1 Lord Northampton, Freemasonry Today, Issue 18, Autumn 2001, page 18.
2 Machio, 1932, pp.8-9.

Lorna Cowburn is a member of the staff of RMSG; Head of Library Resources and teaches library skills. She also edits the School magazine, Machio as well as a local history magazine. Her book, Polished Cornerstones. A History of the Royal Masonic School for Girls 1788- 2000, has recently been published. See the review.