The King’s School gardens are dedicated to Margaret Creighton, the wife of Cuthbert Creighton, who was the  Headmaster of King’s from 1919-1936 and 1940-2.

Cuthbert Creighton was born on 26th July 1876 in Worcester, which was where he passed most of his childhood as his father was a Canon of Worcester Cathedral between 1885 and 1891. He married Margaret Bruce on 15th April 1913, when he was thirty-seven. Margaret Bruce had been born in Ravello, Italy, on 23rd August 1881, but was living in London by the time she married Cuthbert.

Margaret gave birth to a son, Tom, in 1916 and another son, Hugh, in 1919. Tom was born in Kensington, London, whereas Hugh was born in Worcester, presumably in their home. For four years the family lived happily in Worcester as Cuthbert was Headmaster of King’s, however tragedy struck on 2nd February 1923 when Margaret died in childbirth along with their third child. She was forty-one years old. Their unfortunate deaths shocked the entire King’s community.

Cuthbert Creighton responded to the shockingly premature death of his wife by buying the remainder of the King’s site (the allotments lying between King’s and the river) from the Ecclesiastical Commissioners and laid it out as gardens which he gave to the school. He named them “The Creighton Memorial Gardens” in memory of Margaret Creighton and they were unveiled in 1931.

The gardens remain at King’s to this day in their original location at the side of the River Severn. The main focal point of the gardens is a fountain topped with a small statue of Sabrina, the Goddess of the River Severn.

The Winslow Building at King’s Worcester, home of Physics and Chemistry, does not initially appear to be a building of particular historical interest, however it is named after one of the founding fathers of the America, Edward Winslow.

Edward Winslow was born on 18th October 1595 in Droitwich and he was a King’s scholar from 1606 to 1611. During his time at school, King’s was very different to how we know it now. School days lasted for eleven hours and lessons included subjects such as Rhetoric (the study of persuasive speech and writing) and Mythology.

At the age of eighteen, Edward was apprenticed to a printer and was later head-hunted by separatist William Brewer as he was looking for young men to produce Puritan writings, which were banned in England. Separatists were people who believed that the Church of England was too catholic. This group later decided that their only option was to take their beliefs to the New World and their expedition was financed by certain Worcestershire “gentlemen” as well as the company of the Merchant Adventurers.

The pilgrims sailed on 6th September 1620 aboard the Mayflower for America with roughly 102 passengers (the minority being pilgrims) and 40 crew on board. Their voyage across the Atlantic was appalling as the main beam was broken during a severe storm. Although only one person actually died aboard the Mayflower, at least half the settlers died in America during the particularly harsh winter of 1620/1 and the mortality rate of women was very high. Both the leaders of the expedition, John Carver and William Bradford, lost their wives and Edward Winslow’s own wife may have died from scurvy.

Edward Winslow’s signature is third on the Mayflower Compact, just below the two leaders’ signatures

Fortunes began to change for the 53 survivors when native Indians taught them the ways of hunting and harvesting and they all celebrated the harvesting of the first crops on what would later become known as  Thanksgiving Day in November 1621.

Edward Winslow was responsible for the first cattle export to New England – three heifers and a bull – in 1625 and was elected as Governor of New Plymouth in 1633. He worked under Oliver Cromwell for the remainder of his life and died on an expedition to attack Spanish possessions in the West Indies. He was buried at sea off Hispaniola in the Caribbean.