Robert Raikes of the population. As these schools preceded the first state funding of schools for the general public, they are seen as the forerunners of the current English school system. Robert Raikes Robert Raikes ("the Younger") (14 September 1736 – 5 April 1811) was an English philanthropist and Anglican layman, noted for his promotion of Sunday schools. Pre-dating state schooling and by 1831 schooling 1,250,000 children, they are seen as the first precursor schools of the English state school system. Raikes was born at Ladybellegate House, Gloucester, in 1736, the eldest child of Mary Drew and Robert Raikes, a newspaper publisher.
Arthur Raikes Hall Raikes and Charlotte d'Ende Arbuthnot. Raikes was an officer in the Wiltshire Regiment, being commissioned a second lieutenant on 10 November 1888 and a lieutenant on 24 November 1890. Raikes moved to Zanzibar to take up an appointment as Brigadier-General in the Sultan's army. In 1896 he was involved in the Anglo-Zanzibar War, caused by the succession of a sultan unfavourable to the British, and led 900 pro-British Askaris during the bombardment of the Sultan's palace. In return for his service he was appointed a First Class (Second Grade) member of the Order of the Brilliant Star of Zanzibar