Addiscombe Military Seminary

The East India Company Military Seminary was a British military academy at Addiscombe, Surrey, in what is now the London Borough of Croydon. It was opened in 1809 and closed in 1861. Its purpose was to train young officers to serve in the East India Company’s private army in India.

The institution was formally known as the East India Company Military Seminary (a name the cadets always disliked) until 1855, when the name was changed to the East India Company Military College. In 1858, when the college was taken over by the government, it was renamed the Royal India Military College. Colloquially, it was known as Addiscombe Seminary, Addiscombe College, or Addiscombe Military Academy.

The Seminary was a sister institution to the East India Company College in Hertfordshire, which trained civilian "writers" (clerks). In military terms it was a counterpart to the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich and the Royal Military College at Sandhurst.

History

Addiscombe Place

Addiscombe Place, the mansion house which formed the central building of the later Seminary, was erected in about 1702 by William Draper, on land which he had inherited in 1700 from his aunt, Dame Sarah Temple. Draper's father-in-law was the diarist John Evelyn, who in 1703 pronounced the house "in all points of good and solid architecture to be one of the very best gentleman's houses in Surrey, when finish'd". Its interior included many mural paintings of mythological subjects, supposed to be the work of Sir James Thornhill; while high up on the exterior east front was carved the Latin inscription, Non faciam vitio culpave minorem ("I will not lower myself by vice or fault"). By the late 18th century the house was in the ownership of Charles James Clarke, who leased it to the statesman Charles Jenkinson, Lord Hawkesbury, later 1st Earl of Liverpool. Regular visitors during Liverpool's tenure included King George III and William Pitt.

Addiscombe

Coordinates: 51°22′52″N 0°03′59″W / 51.381°N 0.0663°W / 51.381; -0.0663

Addiscombe /ˈædᵻskəm/ is an area of South London within the London Borough of Croydon. It is located east of Croydon, and is situated 9.1 miles (15 km) south of Charing Cross.

It is situated just to the northeast of central Croydon, and is home to a high proportion of people who commute to Central London, owing to its proximity to the busy East Croydon railway station and Tramlink, linking Addiscombe with other parts of Croydon and Wimbledon, as well as extensive bus routes into Central Croydon and surrounding areas. Addiscombe is also a ward, which had a population of 16,883 in 2011.

There are several local schools, including the Trinity School of John Whitgift, Archbishop Tenison's School, Oasis Academy Shirley Park and Oval Road Primary.

Etymology

Addiscombe as a place name is Anglo-Saxon in origin, and means "Eadda or Æddi's estate" from an Anglo-Saxon personal name and the word camp, meaning an enclosed area in Old English. The same Anglo-Saxon land-owner may have given his name to Addington around two miles to the north-west.

Addiscombe (ward)

Addiscombe is a ward in the London Borough of Croydon, covering much of the Addiscombe and East Croydon areas of London in the United Kingdom. It extends from East Croydon railway station towards Woodside Green but does not actually cover the retail centre of Addiscombe, which is the neighbouring Ashburton ward.

The ward currently forms part of the Croydon Central constituency, which is one of the most marginal in the country, 75 votes separated the Conservatives and Labour.

The ward returns three councillors every four years to Croydon Council. A surprising result happened in the London local elections 2006 when the Green Party candidate got more votes than the Liberal Democrat.

Ward result

External links

Coordinates: 51°22′52″N 0°04′52″W / 51.381°N 0.081°W / 51.381; -0.081