[1] Increasing numbers at both schools led to wrangling between the Board of Education, Kent County Council, and the Dover Corporation.

[3] Despite the severe economic circumstances of the depression, Whitehouse persuaded the authorities to provide the funds for a new building in Astor Avenue.

Opened by the Duke of York in 1931, the future King George VI of the United Kingdom, DGSB is one of few state school in Britain to have a working organ, which is housed in the Great Hall and leaves for Hamburg every 25 years for expert care and maintenance.

During World War II, the school building was requisitioned and used by the Royal Navy as a station for WRNS with pupils and staff evacuated to Ebbw Vale in south Wales.

In 2019, plans were drawn to demolish the existing buildings and erect a new modern school on the adjacent playing fields with completion originally set for 2022.

The old names were no longer relevant for the altered demographic situation of the town so the new houses were renamed to reflect the different locations occupied by the School (Park Street, Priory Hill, Frith Road, and Astor Avenue).

Meaning the current house names are Castle (Red), Channel (Green), Pharos (White), Port (Blue), Priory (Yellow).

The school is selective and, in order to gain entry, the prospective student must first pass the 11+ examination, informally known as the "Kent Test".

The term is derived from the Latin word pharos ('lighthouse'), and refers to the famous lighthouse at Dubris built by the Romans shortly after the Claudian invasion of Britain, c. 46 CE.