(Adapted from an illustrated archive talk for pupils intended to promote interest in the history of the school site, but based on conversations with school staff and the stories told by an Admiralty worker based in Cambridge House)  

In 1937, a Debating Society motion was that “this house believes in ghosts” was lost by 40 votes to-23. By 1947, things had changed. The motion was carried 24-14 with 2 abstentions, a complete reversal of 2-1 in favour. Then again, in 1968, the same motion was carried by 24 votes to 16 with 7 abstentions. 

Does this increase in belief in the existence of ghosts possibly reflect the growth in the depiction of ghosts and the supernatural in popular culture? Or did pupils have personal encounters with ghosts personally, perhaps even around the school site? Or was it just a case of certain individuals being persuasive in debates?  

Of course, we can be deceived by our eyes. A mysterious white figure flitting across the quad at night could be an anguished spirit seeking some sort of solace from the material world, or it could be a science lab technician working late.  

A magazine article published in 1899 entitled “Haunted schools and college ghosts”, begins... 

All houses wherein men have lived and died are haunted, says Longfellow (the American poet). And most, if not all schools wherein boys have lived and learned and played are similarly afflicted.  

Unfortunately, this article doesn’t mention PGS. There are stories of ghosts in Oxbridge colleges, at Eton and several others, some of which are illustrated.  

Locally, in St Thomas’s Cathedral, there are said to be at least two ghosts – one an unidentified bearded clerical gentleman with shaven monk-like hair.  The other is the ghost of St Thomas, Thomas Becket, who was, of course, murdered in Canterbury Cathedral in 1170, his blood and brains being spread over the flagstones near the stairs to the crypt. He was soon canonised, but his ghost apparently haunts the Portsmouth Cathedral from time to time. Both of these ghosts’ appearances are said to be accompanied by the sound of the tinkling of bells, like that of a corner grocery shop when the door is opened.  

The most haunted building in Portsmouth, and indeed Hampshire, is said to be Wymering Manor – which some people believe once belonged to Dr William Smith. It has at least 18 ghosts including a nun with bloody hands, the ghost of Jane Austin’s brother, and a knight called Reckless Rod who was impaled on a sword thrown by the husband of a lady he had been too friendly with.  The Council couldn’t sell the house, so they had to practically give it away.  The second most haunted building in the city is on the school’s doorstep - Buckingham House - next door but one, where Dr William Smith definitely lived in the early 18th c.  

In 1628, this was where the gay lover of James the first, the Duke of Buckingham, was murdered, but it was not a hate crime. The Duke was in command of the army and was corrupt and incompetent. He was hugely unpopular with his men. His murderer, a soldier called John Fenton, was celebrated as a hero by many of his comrades and local people. Buckingham House is said to be haunted by murderous screams and the ghost of a man in seventeenth century clothing who is believed to be the restless spirit of the Duke. Whether Dr Smith - in residence there a century later -  was bothered is not known. 

There are also believed to be the ghosts of children in the top rooms of Buckingham house –at least three children- all girls - have died there in tragic circumstances. Some years ago, the school Marshal, Mr Hicks and a caretaker were moving the bins near to the Health & Wellbeing Centre at about 5.30 in the morning. This was in the area that used to be part of the garden of Buckingham House. They heard a child crying, though they originally thought that it was a fox. This was repeated over several mornings and on every occasion they could find no fox, but the crying continued without any explanation. On many other occasions Mr Hicks has noted that the window to the upstairs room where they died has been open, even when the house is unoccupied and the room was known to be not in use. Ever since these incidents, Mr Hicks is reluctant go to that area of the school in the early morning.  

It’s said that ghosts haunt for good reasons. Unsolved murder victims, preventable tragedies, forced suicides, lack of proper funerals – ghosts are often seen in this light as seeking justice from beyond the grave.  

The school site is steeped in history and truly dreadful things have happened over the centuries. On the site of the school theatre and dining hall prisoners were kept incarcerated in the town jail, built in 1808. Life for prisoners – both men and women – was utterly miserable. The running of the prison was privatised, and the unscrupulous wardens kept most of the money intended to feed the prisoners for themselves. As well as being half-starved, prisoners were forced to do hard physical work which was deliberately pointless. One example was the treadmill which stood around the area of the stage of the theatre. The prisoners were forced to work the treadmill – hard physical work for hours on end. If you are alone in the school theatre at night, you could imagine hearing the creak of the treadmill and the moans and screams of the starving prisoners, taunted for eternity at lunchtime by pupils gorging - a nightmarish cross between the myth of Sisyphus and Tantalus.  

The main senior school and lower junior schools are housed in buildings that were once barracks, and there are many stories throughout the 19th century of soldiers’ lives ending violently, either by tragic accident, suicide or murder. The experience of war sometimes drives men to do dreadful things.  

In 1863, one soldier, a John Lothian of the 1st battalion Shropshire Regiment, died after falling out of a window near the arch onto the High Street below. The coroner decided that he threw himself out of the window in a fit of insanity, but it has been suggested that he was murdered over gambling debts. School Marshals report strange goings on in the area he fell from, believed to be the Senior Common Room. This includes footsteps and doors slamming when the area is totally unoccupied.  

In December of 1886, soldiers living in Cambridge House reported the smell of gas and an inspector from the local gas company came to check it out but his visit was not followed-up. Then, on Sunday 2nd January 1887, at about 9pm, there was a massive explosion which blew out the front of Cambridge House from ground level up to the roof, completely destroying the soldiers’ rooms facing the parade ground (now the quad). Windows across the whole barracks were shattered and bricks, woodwork and rubble were thrown across the parade ground.  

As the dust settled, soldiers from adjoining barracks hurried to the rescue, searching through the rubble by lantern-light for survivors. At 3am, the rescuers were ordered to stand down.  Two soldiers had been killed, 20 people had been rescued but three were not accounted for. Throughout the operation, tapping was heard coming from beneath the rubble and debris. Some rescuers wanted to continue, but were ordered not to. The following day, the soldiers redoubled their efforts to reach their comrades but, when they broke through the rubble the bodies of three young soldiers were found in wreckage. William Gatley aged 20, Thomas Kay aged 19 and Henry Spiers, aged just 19.  

In 2007, the Marshal Mr Hicks was called out by an alarm in Cambridge House. The school was closed and locked as usual and he let himself in and locked up behind him. He was alone on the premises. As he carried out a security check, Mr Hicks heard purposeful tapping from the area where the young soldiers’ bodies were found. It wasn’t realised by Mr Hicks at the time, but this happened on the very day of the 120th anniversary of the explosion. 

Another Cambridge house ghost takes us back to the 17th century, even though Cambridge House wasn’t built until the middle of the 19th century. Standing on the first floor near Room 2021 and looking up the staircase towards the top floor, a ghost has been seen at the top of the stairs dressed in 17th c Cavalier dress.  During the English Civil war the nation was divided, with the Cavaliers, who supported the King and the Roundheads who were in favour of a form of parliament. Gosport was Roundhead and Portsmouth was Cavalier. The Roundheads fired cannon across the harbour. A multi-storey brewhouse that was being used to store gunpowder stood on the site of Cambridge House and was said to have received a direct hit. It went up with a bang and the cavalier is believed to have been blown to smithereens. His ghost, however, is said to remain intact and identifiable, loitering outside a staff toilet.

Just before the Covid pandemic, one of the school cleaners was working in the basement of this block, near the toilets, when she saw a ghost of a man dressed in red – the same red worn by soldiers when the barracks were built in the 1850s. She was genuinely spooked and requested not to work in that area again. 

For those of you who insist on having empirical evidence for everything - those of you, arguably, with no soul or imagination – the photograph above surely proves beyond doubt of the existence of ghosts? Taken late in 1887, it shows the newly restored brickwork of Cambridge House filling in the area blown out by the explosion. But look closely and you can see spectral figures, believed to be the spirits of those soldiers.