Duke of York's Royal Military School  The Duke of York’s Royal Military School, more commonly called the Duke of York’s, is a co-educational Academy (for students aged 11 to 18) with military traditions in Dover, Kent. Since becoming an Academy in 2010, the school is now sponsored by the MOD, and accepts applications from any student wishing to board. Before 2010, only those students whose parents were serving or had served in the armed forces were eligible. With the transition to Academy status, the school became a state boarding academy (and is both a member of the State Boarding Forum and Boarding Schools Association) and oversight transferred from the Ministry of Defence to the Department for Education. The Duke of York’s has many traditions and rich history, which includes ceremonial parades and uniforms, a monitorial style of education modelled on the English public school system. This rich history includes a long line of notable alumni, known as Dukies, including senior generals (such as Sir Archibald Nye, Gary Coward and David Mark Cullen), famous musicians (such as Henry Lazarus), sportsmen (like Maurice Colclough), many leading academic scientists (including Professors Paul Shaw, Timothy Foster and Mark Gardiner) and clergymen (James Jones and Bill Ind) and a long list of decorated armed forces personnel. Founded in 1803 by act of Royal Warrant dating from 1801, the school was until 1892 called the Royal Military Asylum. The school’s primary purpose was to educate the orphans of British servicemen killed in the Napoleonic Wars of 1793-1815. Between 1803 and 1909 the Royal Military Asylum was located at what is now known as the Duke of York's Headquarters in Chelsea, London. The school was co-educational; making the Duke of York's the second co-educational boarding school in the United Kingdom. The first co-educational institution was the Royal Hibernian Military School in Dublin, which was relocated and merged with Duke of York's after Ireland declared independence. Today the Chelsea site is home to the Saatchi Gallery. The school adopted the "Madras system of education" developed by Dr. Andrew Bell, to which Joseph Lancaster made certain improvements. In 1812, three African youths attended the school as teachers for several months thanks to the intervention of the Duke of Gloucester. They were then sent by the African Institution to Sierra Leone, where they were employed as teachers by the Secretary of State for War and the Colonies, the Earl of Liverpool.