The Alfred House Academy near Camberwell Green had been founded by Nicholas Wanostrocht's great uncle, also called Nicholas, a few years after he emigrated from the continent in about 1780. The cricketer's father, Vincent, also helped in the running of the school. When Vincent died in 1824, the school became the responsibility of the younger Nicholas Wanostrocht (1804-76) whose devotion to cricket was thought to be detrimental to the more academic portion of the curriculum. However, although he moved the school from Camberwell to Blackheath in 1830, and was thus able to lease the old buildings, the younger Nicholas remained a cricket-loving schoolmaster until 1858.