Calendar: 1951-1952 Page 35

34 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF KING'S COLLEGE Foundation and Initial Development King's College was founded by Royal Charter dated 14th August 1829 as College for the general education of youth in which the various branches of Literature and Science are intended to be taught and also the doctrines and duties of Christianity as the same are inculcated by the United Church of England and Ireland Its foundation was due to widespread realization that even though the benefits of secular education should be available to all irrespective of their religious beliefs no course of learning could rightly be regarded as complete which omitted religious instruction The official title of the Corporation as established under the Charter was The Governors and Proprietors of King's College London The government of the College was vested in Council consisting of nine Official Governors eight Life Governors Treasurer and twenty- four other members of the Corporation At the same time the College received its present site in the Strand under grant in perpetuity from the Crown which reserved to itself the right of re-entry if at any time the College failed to fulfil the purpose of its foundation The first move had been Public Meeting held at the Freemasons' Tavern in Great Queen Street on June lst 1828 with the Duke of Wellington then Prime Minister in the chair The initial stages of the scheme were marred by distrust of the Duke's attitude to Catholic Emancipation which resulted in the withdrawal of much of the promised support However these difficulties were overcome and the work of the College began on October 8th 1831 with service in the College Chapel and Sermon by the Bishop of London Bishop Blomfield on The Combination of Religious Instruction with Intellectual Culture The first Principal was Dr William Otter afterwards Bishop of Chichester At the date of its opening the College consisted of Senior Department and Junior Department later known as King's College School The Senior Department included medical subjects in its curriculum and before long was divided into the Department of General Literature and Science and the Medical School To meet the need for hospital connected with the College to which its students could have right of access for their clinical training the Council in 1839 established King's College Hospital on site in Portugal Street In 1838 owing largely to the development in Engineering caused by the growth of the railway system an "Engineering Department" was founded Afterwards it was enlarged in its scope and became the Department of Applied Sciences" and subsequently the Faculty of Engineering