Sunday school Sunday school A Sunday school is an educational institution, usually (but not always) Christian, which caters to children and other young people who would be working on weekdays. Sunday schools were first set up in the 1780s in England to provide education to working children. William King (see memorial in Dursley Tabernacle Church) first started a Sunday school in Dursley, Gloucestershire, and suggested to his friend Robert Raikes, that he start a similar school in Gloucester, which resulted in Raikes generally being quoted as starting the schools. Raikes was editor of the Gloucester Journal. He wrote an article in his
Robert Raikes (Royal Navy officer) 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 College at Greenwich in 1932. He was made Chief of Staff of the Mediterranean Fleet in 1934 and Admiral in charge on a temporary basis at Alexandria in Egypt during the Abyssinian war