Hi, Listers My grandfather was educated at Speciall's Academy on Villiers Street, Sunderland, which he left at the end of 1850 to serve an apprenticeship to a druggist and chemist. I've been looking through an 1897 book titled "/Dr Cowan and the Grange School/". As well as a description of the school, the book recounts how a group of 38 boys and 4 masters went bathing at the beach at Hendon in October, 1845. Three boys and one master, a Mr Speciall, were drowned in what seems to have been a sudden undertow. Speciall isn't a common name in my experience. Can any lister tell me anything about Speciall's Academy, and say whether there was more than one Mr Speciall involved in these two schools? Thank you, Bruce Dodd, Ottawa, ON -- I am using the free version of SPAMfighter. We are a community of 7 million users fighting spam. SPAMfighter has removed 182 of my spam emails to date. Get the free SPAMfighter here: http://www.spamfighter.com/len The Professional version does not have this message