was not suitable, owing to the unaffordable fees required of Catholic families; in January 1942, he applied to Surrey County Council (in whose jurisdiction Wimbledon resided at the time) for deficiency aided school status, and this was granted in 1943. This allowed the college to be funded by the local education authority while retaining its religious character. Fees were abolished in March 1945. This marked the beginning of the process of the college becoming a voluntary aided grammar school, which was completed in July 1948. In 1945, Richard Milward, a former pupil at the school, began a 40-year tenure as a history teacher (and later as the history master) at the college. A popular teacher and local historian, and president of the Wimbledon Society for six years, he was seen as a stalwart of the school. Sinnott died in his early 50s and was replaced as prefect of studies by Ignatius St Lawrence in 1950. Recent history The school expanded its facilities with a new wing (the St Lawrence wing) of classrooms, kitchens and toilets completed in the early 1950s; these are now predominantly used for English and science. The growth in demand for student places meant that the school quickly expanded, from nearly 500 pupils in 1950, to 670 by the mid-1960s. In order to accommodate all students, it began to use the parish halls of the next-door Sacred Heart Church, for lessons and study spaces, and facilities in Chessington owned by the Old Wimbledonians Association. Between 1965 and 1967, the school constructed a new cross-wing, the Manners wing, which housed the sixth form, new classrooms, a gymnasium and a swimming pool; the Manners wing now houses maths and sciences. In 1968, the school successfully revived its houses tradition, which had fallen into irrelevance to many boys, and prefects resumed their function as the main guarantors of discipline. A dual house and line system, as operates today, was established. The following year, the college became a voluntary aided comprehensive school. In the early morning of 13 February 1977, the college hall was destroyed by fire; the cause of the fire is still undetermined. The school's administration was not displeased, as a plan had been formulated for several years to build a new hall on the site of the old one; this plan was executed in 1980 in the aftermath of the fire. The new hall continued to house the