Plymouth, Schools | Tamar Central School for Boys

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The Encyclopaedia of Plymouth History

TAMAR CENTRAL SCHOOL FOR BOYS

On August 27th 1928 Johnston Terrace Boys School was reorganised as a "central" school. In 1930 this new school took over the whole of the Johnston Terrace School building and in 1933 it was renamed Tamar Central School for Boys.

It moved to new premises in Block A of the former Military Hospital on the banks of Stonehouse Creek in December 1938, which had been converted for the purpose by Messrs Pearn Brothers under the direction of Mr E G Catchpole, the City Architect. It could accommodate 480 scholars. The official opening by the Right Honourable the Earl De La Warr, president of the Board of Education, took place on Tuesday February 14th 1939. During the ceremony the School Captain, Mr R B Fisher, presented a silver perpetual calendar to the Lord Mayor, Councillor G S Scoble.

However, at the start of the autumn term the Second World War started and the buildings were commandeered by the Naval authorities for its original purpose. As a result the School moved to Johnston Terrace School, which it then shared with the boys from Camel's Head School.

On May 10th 1941 the School was evacuated to Cornwall. When the 93 pupils and their leader, Mr F E Sanders, left Plymouth's North Road Station at around 8.30am they had no idea where they were heading. It turned out to be Truro, where the School was at first accommodated at the Technical School and later in the St Mary's Hall. The Headmaster, Mr C W Good MA, joined them in June 1941 and remained until he was replaced by Mr J E Ellis FRGS in April 1942.

When the pupils returned to Plymouth from Truro in 1945 they were housed in the Mount Street Primary School. So cramped were the conditions that those pupils who had stayed in Plymouth at the Emergency Central School in Cobourg Street had to remain in exile until 1946.

In order to comply with the new educational classifications introduced by the Education Act 1944, Tamar Central School for Boys became Tamar Secondary School for Boys in 1946 when the School was transferred from Mount Street to their own premises in the former Junior Technical School in Durnford Street, Stonehouse.