Erskine Stewart Melville

Erskine Stewart Melville (ESM) is an independent day school located in Edinburgh, Scotland managed by the Merchant Company of Edinburgh.

The coeducational school was formed through the merger of all-girls' Mary Erskine School and the all-boys' Stewart's Melville College in 2026. The Mary Erskine School was founded in 1694 as the Merchant Maiden Hospital, whilst Stewart's Meville College was founded in 1972 following the merger of Daniel's Stewart's College and Melville College. Daniel Stewart's College opened as Daniel Stewart's Hospital in 1848, being renamed to Daniel Stewart's College in 1870. Melville College opened as the Edinburgh Institution for Languages and Mathematics in 1832, and acquired its final name in 1936. Prior to the 2026 merger, the schools shared a coeducational Junior School, Sixth Form, and extra-curricular program.

The school is spread across three campuses, with the Senior School located within David Rhind's 1855 Scots Baronial Old College at Comely Bank, the Junior School at Murrayfield, and the playing fields at Inverleith. In 2014, the combined school claimed to be the largest independent school in Europe.

The school is part of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference.

History

The coeducational Erskine Stewart Melville was formed through the merger of the all-girls' The Mary Erskine School and the all-boys' Stewart's Melville College in 2026.

The Mary Erskine School

100px|thumb|right|Former Mary Erskine School Crest

The Merchant Maiden Hospital was founded by Mary Erskine, a prominent Edinburgh banking businesswoman, in 1694 at the Merchant Company of Edinburgh's first Merchants' Hall in the Cowgate.

Initially founded as a hospital school for the daughters of Edinburgh burgesses, In 1889, the school was renamed again as Edinburgh Ladies' College, before acquiring it's final name - The Mary Erskine School - in 1944.

Located on the current Queensferry Road campus, the David Rhind-designed From 1924 onwards, the College's uniform was a cap with red and black stripes and a black blazer with red trim. Unusually for the time, the school placed it's teaching emphasis on then-modern subjects, such as science, rather than classical subjects.

Initially located on George Street, the school moved to Hill Street, and then to 8 Queen Street, which was purchased in 1853. after which it was renamed in 1936 to Melville College.

thumb|Senior School Library.

Merger

In 1972, the two schools merged to become Daniel Stewart's and Melville College - later shortened to Stewart's Melville College.

Following the merger, the Colleges' uniforms were amalgamated; Melville College's bright red trim replaced the Daniel Stewart's College blazers' dark red trim for general use, whilst the red blazer of Melville College was adopted for those awarded colours (e.g. for sporting and other achievements).

In 2013, Stewart's Melville was voted the Scottish Independent School of the year by the Sunday Times newspaper and Mary Erskine School was voted the Scottish Independent School of the year in 2012.

In 2014, the combined Erskine Stewarts Melville Schools, with over 2,700 pupils, claimed to be the largest independent school in Europe. In the same year, a programme of improvement work on buildings of the junior school was announced, with work beginning in 2018.

In February 2023, it was announced by principal Anthony Simpson that the boarding house would close by July 2025, citing costs and the facility not being compatible with the school's vision for the future. The allocation of resources towards the boarding house was not sustainable, as at the time of the announcement, there were only 19 boarders, accounting for less than 3% of all pupils at the school.

Erskine Stewart Melville

It was announced in October 2024 that Stewarts Melville will undergo a merger with its sister school, Mary Erskine, in the beginning of the 2026/2027 academic year and the combined school would be called Erskine Stewart Melville (ESM). The school stated that it would create a more inclusive community and it would also be more financially efficient.

Academics

Examinations

Erskine Stewart Meville pupils predominantly sit for Qualifications Scotland (QS) examinations, including National 5, Higher and Advanced Higher papers. English GCE Advanced Level examinations can also be sat in art, product design, and music.

In 2014 and 2016, Mary Erskine's was top of the Sunday Times list of independent secondary schools in Scotland using the Scottish Examinations system and in 2015 was judged the best Scottish School by Advanced Highers by Best-Schools. In 2025, it was reported that 91% of National 5 results at the school achieved levels A or B and 89% of Higher Grade results were also at levels A or B.

Destinations

Almost all leavers were planning to go on to higher education. In 2025 Which School Advisor reported that typically 60% of students go on to study in Scottish universities, 30% to English, Northern Irish or Welsh universities and some to North American Universities.

Facilities

Ravelston Sports Club is a large on-site sports centre and gym opened in 2000 and is split across both campuses. The sports centre is mainly used by pupils for physical education lessons and sports training (such as swimming, basketball, badminton, short tennis and table tennis) but is also open to members of the public for a monthly membership fee. There is also a school shooting range located at the Ravelston campus.

Extensive rugby, cricket, hockey pitches and athletics facilities are also located at the school's sports grounds in Inverleith, two miles north of the school. The main stadium at Inverleith dates back to the 1890s and was the main ground of the Scotland national rugby union team until 1925.

thumb|Scotland vs. France at Inverleith Playing Fields, 1923

thumb|Main Stadium, [[Inverleith Playing Fields]]

Rugby

Stewart's Melville College has won the Scottish Rugby Schools Under 18 Cup six times; in 1999 (in their first year of entering), 2006, 2011, 2016, 2019 and most recently in 2024.

Stewart's Melville RFC, the sucessor to the school's Former Pupils' Rugby Club, was founded in 1973, following the merger of Daniel Stewart's College and Melville College. The club currently plays in Division 2 of the Scottish League Championship.

Hockey

Erskine Stewart Melville fields both boys' and girls' hockey teams during the winter term. Since at least 2007, the girls' program has been noted for excelling in hockey, with over six teams competing at senior level and many pupils playing at National level.

Erskine Stewart's Melville Hockey Club, the school's Former Pupils' Hockey Club, was founded in 1987.

Football

Cricket

Athletics

Swimming

Golf

Stewart's Meville College Former Pupils' Golf Club was founded in 1887 and is based at Murrayfield Golf Club.

Arts

Music and drama

Almost 800 children sing regularly in choirs performing in all kinds of venues from the Usher Hall to St Peter's in the Vatican, from Songs of Praise to sharing the stage with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra.

The Junior School had provided the choir to the annual Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo since 2013.

In addition to this 300 children from Primary 4 to senior sixth Form play in school orchestras and bands (including Pipe Band and Jazz Band).

Boys and girls from the Junior School have had favourable reviews while performing over 680 times in professional West End touring musicals including over 220 appearances in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Senior pupils have won prestigious scholarships to American Drama Schools and starred on TV.

Tom Fleming Centre

thumb|Tom Fleming Centre for Performing Arts in 2015

Between 2005-07, the school's Victorian assembly hall, built within the Old College's former courtyard, was converted into an 800-seat performing arts centre. Retractable seating provides a variety of possible configurations It is available for use by the public and is used as a venue during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. The £3.5 million project, was part-funded by donations by current parents and former pupils.

In 2011, actor John Cairney unveiled the new name for the centre, the Tom Fleming Centre for Performing Arts, named after former pupil Tom Fleming, one of Scotland's leading broadcasters.

Culture

The school is non-denominational but claims to have a broadly Christian outlook.

Carbisdale

Since 1965, the school organised an outdoor education programme for the boys of SMC and the girls from MES in the third year. It took place in the north of Scotland, based for over forty years at Carbisdale Castle Youth Hostel, Easter Ross, until its closure in 2011 required accommodation to relocate to Aviemore. The camp was also abandoned in 2020 and 2021, due to coronavirus restrictions. It returned in 2022; however later in 2022, Carbisdale Castle was sold and is now a private residence.

Since 1965, the school has organised an outdoor education programme for the boys of SMC and the girls from MES in the third senior year. It is located in the north of Scotland at Carbisdale Castle, a historic castle which has been converted into a Youth Hostel. The trip consists of a number of outdoor activities that vary from year to year including hillwalking, orienteering, golf, kayaking, team-building activities, visits to nearby historic sites and environmental studies of the surrounding woodland. Carbisdale Castle has a plaque of the Stewart's Melville College badge in its foyer above the main door.

Engcongolweni is a village in Northern Malawi and it is the home to the unusually named "Edinburgh Girls’ High School". It is a secondary school for about 150 girls (in about 2016). The name of the school is a nod towards the Mary Erskine School as the schools are partners and the school plans to visit Malawi every two years.

Houses

Senior school pupils between First and Fifth years are split into six house groups, with two forms classes within each house per year. Each house is named for a region of Scotland:

{| class=wikitable

|+ School Houses

! Name

! Colour

! Appin

| style="background-color: MediumBlue;"|

! Ettrick

| style="background-color: DarkGreen;"|

! Galloway

| style="background-color: Gold;"|

! Kintyre

| style="background-color: DarkMagenta;"|

! Lochaber

| style="background-color: Red;"|

! Torridon

| style="background-color: White;"|

Each house has a Head of House tutor as well as a form tutor for each year group who is responsible for pupils' well-being.

Houses form the basis for the 'ESM Challenge'. This is a series of annual events involving both the boys and girls in each house. It covers a wide variety of school societies, ranging from the House Music Competition to the Inter-house Hockey. The competition comes to a climax on Sports Day with a 4 × 100 m relay between each house. The winning house is then awarded a cup at the school's prizegiving ceremony.

School uniform and colours

In 1994 the school adopted a uniform which included a navy blue and red kilt designed by the company Kinloch Anderson, a blue blazer, white blouse and red tie. Colours and half-colours could be awarded in Sixth Form to pupils who excel in non-academic areas (such as music, drama and individual sports).

In 2026, after the merger into Erskine Stewart Melville, primary and secondary students will use a blue blazer with a red trim while sixth form students will use a red blazer.

In 2026 the uniform of the combined Erskine Stewart Melville school became a dark blue blazer with red trim for primary and secondary students and a red blazer for sixth form students.

thumb|Erskine Stewart Melville blazer.

Former Pupils Guild

Upon leaving MES, students have the opportunity to join the Mary Erskine Former Pupils Guild which was founded in 1884.

Senior sixth form

When pupils enter the sixth (final) form they are merged with the boys from Stewart's Melville College. Classes take place at both school sites, with buses operating regularly to transfer students between the two. There are approximately 240 students in a normal year group.

In sixth form students are largely independent. Students have a tutor (twinned with another at the other site) with whom they register in the morning, and who also helps them with their British university UCAS applications.

All members of the sixth form are prefects and are expected to help out with duties around the school sites. The maintenance of the prefect body is the responsibility of a Head Boy and a Head Girl, along with five deputy head boys and five deputy head girls.

Erskine Stewart Melville Junior School

Erskine Stewart Melville (ESM) is an independent nursery and junior day school located in Edinburgh, Scotland managed by the Merchant Company of Edinburgh.

Former Headmasters

Herbert James Liddle Robbie (1904–1964), headmaster of Daniel Stewart's from 1946 to 1964

Notable alumni

The school maintains a Former Pupils Club, which organises social events throughout the year. There are branches throughout the UK and abroad.

thumb|War Memorial in the college grounds

Academia and science

Thomas David Anderson (1853–1952), astronomer who discovered many temporary and variable stars (novae)
Professor James Barr (1924–2006), a radical theologian who was professor at Montreal, Edinburgh, Manchester, Oxford, Princeton and Vanderbilt
James Bertram (Carnegie secretary) (1872–1934)
Erskine Beveridge (1851–1920), textile manufacturer, historian and antiquary
Professor Henry Calderwood (1830–1897), Professor of Moral Philosophy at Edinburgh University and Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh
James Ireland Craig (1868–1952), meteorologist (dux 1885)
Professor Maurice Ewing (1912–1999), First professor of surgery at Melbourne University, Australia
Sir William Tennant Gairdner (1824–1907), Professor of Medicine at the University of Glasgow and President of the British Medical Association
Maria Gordon DBE, (1864–1939), geologist and palaeontologist, first woman to get a DSc from London University and a PhD from LMU Munich
William Aitcheson Haswell (1854–1925), Scottish-Australian zoologist specialising in crustaceans, winner of the 1915 Clarke Medal
Andrew John Herbertson (1865–1915), geographer and Professor in Geography at Oxford University
Ellen Charlotte Higgins (1871–1951), principal of the Royal Holloway College, University of London
Isabel Emslie Hutton CBE (1887–1960), physician
Sir James Charles Inglis (1851–1911), British civil engineer, President of the Institution of Civil Engineers and General Manager of the Great Western Railway
Professor Tom W. B. Kibble (1932–2016), theoretical physicist, co-discovery of the Higgs mechanism and Higgs boson
Sir Peter Redford Scott Lang – Regius Professor of Mathematics at St Andrews University
Sheila Scott Macintyre (1910–1960), mathematician best known for her work on the Whittaker constant
Anna MacGillivray Macleod (1917–2004), first female professor of Brewing and Biochemistry in the world
Elizabeth Malloch (1910–2000), educator and priest
Professor Arnold Maran (1936–2017), surgeon, President of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh
George McGavin (born 1954), entomologist
Annie Hutton Numbers (1897–1988), British mathematician and chemist
Ishobel Ross (1890–1965), Scottish World War I nurse and diarist
Winifred Rushforth OBE, (1885–1983), Jungian psychoanalyst
John Smith (1825–1910), dentist who founded the Royal Hospital for Sick Children, Edinburgh and was Surgeon Dentist to Queen Victoria
Sir Fraser Stoddart (1942–2024), chemist, Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2016, Professor of chemistry at Northwestern University, USA (supramolecular chemistry and nanotechnology), awarded Albert Einstein World Award of Science
Sir John Thomson-Walker (1871–1937), Hunterian Professor of Surgery at the Royal College of Surgeons of England and leading surgeon in the field of urology
Ramsay Traquair (1840–1912), naturalist and palaeontologist, leading expert on fossil fish, awarded the Royal Medal by the Royal Society and the Lyell Medal

Media and arts

Ian Stuart Black (1915–1997), novelist, playwright and screenwriter
Michael Boyd (director) (born 1955), Artistic Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company
Sir William Russell Flint (1880–1969), watercolour painter and president of the Royal Society of Painters in Watercolours
Stuart Henry (1942–1995), popular radio disc jockey of the 1960s and 70s
Philip Kerr (1956–2018), writer
Alexander Moffat (born 1943), artist, Head of Painting, Glasgow School of Art
Catherine Grant Furley Smith (1858–1944), poet, journalist, novelist
Lynda Cochrane, pianist
Margaret Stirling Dobson, painter, printmaker and author
Joanna Drew (1929–2003), art gallery director and arts administrator
Jenny Foulds, actress, e.g. Two Thousand Acres of Sky)
Alison Geissler (1907–2011), glass engraver
Frances Grey, actress
Freya Mavor, actress
Chloe Pirrie, actress
Margaret Stoddart (1865–1934), notable New Zealand artist
Sylvia Whitman, proprietor of Shakespeare and Company
Madeleine Worrall, actress
Sir Andrew Henderson Leith Fraser (1848–1919), Lieutenant Governor of Bengal between 1903 and 1908
Sir James Gibson, 1st Baronet (1849–1912), Lord Provost of Edinburgh and Member of Parliament for Edinburgh East
Adam Gifford, Lord Gifford (1820–1887), Scottish Advocate and Judge
Robert McIntyre (1913–1998), politician, leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP) and the SNP's first elected Member of Parliament
J P Mackintosh (1929–1978), academic and British Labour politician of the 1960s and 70s. Leading advocate of Scottish devolution
Sir Thomas Brash Morison (1868–1945), Liberal Member of Parliament for Inverness, Solicitor General for Scotland, Privy Counsellor and Lord Advocate
Sir George Touche 1st Baronet (1861–1935), Conservative Member of Parliament and founder of one of the firms that created Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu
Sir James Wilson (1849–1929), New Zealand Politician
Paul Wheelhouse (born 1970), SNP MSP for South Scotland, Minister for Business, Innovation and Energy in the Scottish Government
Daniel Johnson (born 1977), Entrepreneur and Labour MSP for Edinburgh Southern
Louise Mary Eates (married name), suffragette
Elaine Murray, MSP
Jim Calder (born 1957), Scottish and British Lions rugby player who appeared 27 times for Scotland
Dario Franchitti (born 1973), professional racing-car driver who won the Indianapolis 500 race three times
Arthur Plowright (1913–1992), first-class cricketer
Charles Scobie (1895–1965), first-class cricketer
Jamie Stevenson (born 1975), world champion orienteer
William Turnbull (1879–1959), first-class cricketer
Grant Weatherstone (1931–2020), international rugby player who was played 16 times for Scotland
Doddie Weir (1970–2022), Scottish and British Lions international rugby player who played 61 times for Scotland. Charity fundraiser for MND research
Jake Wightman (born 1994), International athlete. Gold medallist 1500 metres 2022 World Athletics Championships
David Wilkie (1954–2024), only person to have been swimming champion at British, American, Commonwealth, European, World and Olympic levels at the same time
Shauna Mullin, athlete, 2012 Olympic Games, Beach Volleyball
Janice Rankin, Olympic Gold Medallist for curling 2002

Military

Sir Robert Neil Campbell (1854–1928), a physician who commanded the Bengal Medical Service
Lieutenant General Sir James Hills-Johnes VC (1833–1919), who was awarded the Victoria Cross for action in Delhi in the Indian mutiny in 1857
John Alexander Cruickshank VC (born 1920), recipient of the Victoria Cross in the Second World War
Major-General Mungo Melvin (born 1955), retired British Army officer and military historian

Religion

The Right Reverend James A. Whyte (1920–2005), leading theologian, Professor at St. Andrews University and Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland
The Right Reverend Ronnie Selby Wright (1908–1995), chaplain to the Queen, Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland

Other

Sir Ivison Macadam (1894–1974), Director General of the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House) and founding president of the National Union of Students
Sir Robert Hogg Matthew (1906–1975), acclaimed architect and a leading proponent of modernism
Judy Wagner, FRSE, British business leader, educator and executive search recruitment manager

References

Sources

External links

The Erskine Stewart's Melville Schools Website
Profile on the ISC website
Profile on the ISC website
Stewart's Melville College page on Scottish Schools Online
Mary Erskine School's page on Scottish Schools Online