Robert Gordon’s Legacy
A History of Robert Gordon’s Hospital & College

Brian Lockhart

Category: Non-Fiction
Pub Date: September 2007
ISBN: 1845021576
Extent: 416 pp.
Price: £30
Format: Hardback, 234 x 156 mm
Plate/Illustrations: 16 pp plate



With a roll of just under 1500 students Robert Gordon’s College in Aberdeen is one of the largest independent schools in Scotland. Founded as a ‘Hospital’, or charity school, Robert Gordon was determined to improve the educational provision of his age.

Robert Gordon’s Legacy is the story of Robert Gordon and his Hospital and College. It explains the motivation which inspired Gordon to leave his considerable fortune to benefit members of the burgess class who had fallen on hard times and traces how, over the past two and a half centuries, his Legacy has benefited the people of Aberdeen and beyond. In so doing it traces the complex relationships between the school and the Technical College and its succesor, Robert Gordon University, and the competition between the school and Aberdeen Grammar School.

Based on previously unexamined evidence, Brian Lockhart makes a strong claim for Robert Gordon’s Legacy to be recognised more widely for its significant contribution to Scottish education.