The Cardinal Vaughan Memorial RC School

Cardinal Vaughan Memorial School is a Roman Catholic day secondary school in Holland Park with approximately 950 students. History After the 1903 death of the third Archbishop of Westminster, Herbert, Cardinal Vaughan, an appeal was made to raise funds to found a boys' school to be named as a memorial to him; some £20,000 was subscribed. The school was founded in 1914; the founders included Viscount Fitzalan, the Duke of Norfolk and the Marquis of Ripon. The Vaughan School opened its doors in the Victorian building now known as Addison Hall, as a private school, to twenty-nine boys on 21 September 1914, appointing Canon Driscoll as the first headmaster. In the 1920s, the school expanded and it was decided to seek recognition by the Board of Education for the grant as an independent day school. The first Higher Certificates with Distinction were achieved in 1926, the first classical scholarship (at Christ's College, Cambridge), and the first ordination of Vaughan boys to the priesthood. A piece of land, some in North Wembley, was purchased for playing fields. In 1937, this plot was exchanged for the present site at Twickenham, adjacent to the international Rugby Football Union ground.