Scottish Naval and Military Academy

The Scottish Naval and Military Academy in Edinburgh was a school which opened on 8 November 1825.[1] It catered for boys intending to have a career with the Army, Navy or the East India Company. It closed in July 1858.[2] It was re-formed as the Scottish Institute for Civil, Commercial and Military Education in October 1858 and closed around 1865.[3]

Captain John Orr (1790-1879) was the superintendent of the Scottish Naval and Military Academy for thirty-three years from 1831, having fought with the Black Watch in the Peninsular War and was wounded at the Battle of Waterloo.[4]

In 1829 the Academy moved into the three-storey building on Lothian Road opposite Castle Terrace,[5] which it shared with the Royal Riding Academy. The building was demolished in the 1870s to make way for the Caledonian Railway Station.

A noted master at the Academy was James R. Ballantyne, later head master of the Sanskrit College in Benares (modern-day Varanasi), who from 1832 to 1845 taught "Persian, Hindoostanee and Arabic" from classical texts.[6]

Sir Henry Yule was both a pupil and a master. He is famous for his dictionary of Anglo-Indian terms called Hobson-Jobson.[7]

Another lecturer was William Swan, who taught mathematics and physics, and conducted some notable experiments at the Academy.

Other subjects taught were: Military Engineering: Fortifications, Military Drawing and Surveying; Drawing: Landscape and Perspective; Higher Mathematics; Navigation; Chemistry; Military Antiquities; Latin and Greek; Elementary Arithmetic and Book Keeping, Algebra and Geometry; Geography; Natural Philosophy and Navigation; History; Elocution; French, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese; Fencing, Gymnastics and Military Exercises with the Firelock and Broadsword.[8][1]