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The Duke of Wellington was intimately involved in the
foundation of King's College in 1828 and in securing
its new home in the Strand. In attracting the patronage
of the then Prime Minister, the supporters of the College
had undoubtedly staged something of a publicity coup
that made the work of attracting subscribers much easier.
The Duke was a strongly conservative man who ascribed
his many battlefield victories to the providential intervention
of God. He was also a pragmatic, no-nonsense man and
he approved of practical and vocational education. It
was unsurprising, then, that in particular two characteristics
of the new College attracted his support: its avowedly
Anglican ethos and its intention to provide 'specific
preparation for particular professions'.
King's was set up as an Anglican alternative to the
largely secular 'London University', which later was
renamed University College - the 'godless place in Gower
Street'. Supported by many of the leading figures in
Church and State, the driving forces behind the establishment
of King's were Hugh James Rose, one of the founders
of the Oxford Movement and later the second Principal
of the College, and George D'Oyly, the Rector of Lambeth.
It was D'Oyly, who, in an open letter to the Home Secretary,
Sir Robert Peel, advocated the opening of a second university
in London supplying a comprehensive and modern system
of education imbued with a demonstrably Christian ethos.
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