Memorial to John Whitaker he opened a free Sunday School in Pickford Street, which accommodated about 40 children. In doing this he was inspired by Robert Raikes who had initiated the Sunday School movement, and by David Simpson, a local Anglican priest who had earlier provided schools for poor children in the town. Unlike most Sunday Schools, Whitaker's school was non-denominational. In 1814 he followed this by opening a much larger purpose-built Sunday School in Roe Street. The school was financed by public subscription and by the children paying a small weekly fee. Whitaker died in 1820, but the school continued to flourish, and
Robert Raikes (Royal Navy officer) Marines Commandos on their raid using the klepper canoe against German shipping in the Gironde estuary in 1942. The story was told in the classic 1955 film "The Cockleshell Heroes" starring Trevor Howard. Robert Raikes (Royal Navy officer) Admiral Sir Robert Henry Taunton Raikes KCB CVO DSO (1885–1953) was a Royal Navy officer who went on to be Commander-in-Chief, South Atlantic Station. Raikes joined the Royal Navy in 1900. He served in World War I, earning the DSO in 1916, and went on to be Chief of Staff to the Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth before becoming Director of the Royal Navy Staff