Founding of the School for the Indigent Blind in Liverpool
- When
- 1791
- Where
- Liverpool School for the Indigent Blind
- Episodes
- 2
In January 1791 the Liverpool School for the Indigent Blind opened, initiated by Edward Rushton, a Liverpool-born poet and former sailor on slave ships who had lost his sight and become an abolitionist. It is the oldest specialist school in the UK, the oldest in the world in continuous operation, and the first founded by a blind person.
Episodes
- First School Founded by a Blind Person
The school was the first in the world founded by a blind person, and the oldest in continuous operation, surpassed in age only by the Paris institute.
- Founding of the Liverpool School for the Indigent Blind
Edward Rushton, a blind former sailor and abolitionist, established the Liverpool School for the Indigent Blind, which opened in January 1791.
Background and detail
Background. Edward Rushton was born in Liverpool, Lancashire on 13 November 1756, and worked as a sailor on several slave ships as a young man, becoming an abolitionist as a result. After losing his own vision he was unable to sail, returned to Liverpool, and moved in with his sister. He was an English poet, writer and bookseller.
Founding of the School. Unable to sail because of his blindness, Rushton established the Liverpool School for the Indigent Blind, which opened in 1791. The foundation of what is now the Royal School for the Blind is commonly attributed to him, and one chronology dates its opening to 10 January 1791. It was second only in the world to the Paris school.
Significance and Later Identity. Only the Institut National des Jeunes Aveugles in Paris is older, but the Liverpool school is the oldest in the world in continuous operation and the first founded by a blind person, who was also an anti-slavery campaigner. It was also the first school in the world to offer education and training to blind adults as well as children, and now exists as the Royal School for the Blind, Liverpool.
People involved
- Edward Rushton · Founder; blind poet, writer, bookseller and anti-slavery campaigner
Sources
- Royal School for the Blind, Liverpool Wikipedia, revision of 2026-03-29
- Edward Rushton Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-09
Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.