Editing Eltham College (section)

==Early history==
The school dates back to the early Victorian era, when it was founded as the [[London Missionary Society]]'s School for the Sons and Orphans of Missionaries. Within a short time the Baptist Missionary Society joined as co-founders.  A girls' school had been established in [[Walthamstow]] in 1838 by [[Dorothea Foulger]] and a boys' school was opened there in early 1842.<ref>{{Citation |title=Dorothea Foulger |date=2004-09-23 |url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/53015 |work=The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography |editor-last=Matthew |editor-first=H. C. G. |access-date=2023-07-23 |place=Oxford |publisher=Oxford University Press |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/53015 |editor2-last=Harrison |editor2-first=B.|url-access=subscription }}</ref> The boys' school later relocated to [[Mornington Crescent (street)|Mornington Crescent]] in 1852 and then to a purpose-built location in the centre of [[Blackheath, London|Blackheath]] in 1857<ref>[[Neil Rhind|Rhind, N.]] (1993) ''Blackheath Village & Environs, 1790–1990, Vol.1 The Village and Blackheath Vale'' (Bookshop Blackheath, London), p. 117.</ref> (the building, directly adjacent to Blackheath Station, later became the headquarters of the [[Church Army]] and is now a private hospital). Missionary [[David Livingstone]] sent his son Robert to the school during the 1850s.<ref name="Rhind, N. 1993 p. 118">Rhind, N. (1993) ''Blackheath Village & Environs, 1790–1990, Vol.1 The Village and Blackheath Vale'' (Bookshop Blackheath, London), p. 118.</ref>