A simple example using SimpleJdbcTemplate.
The Spring JDBC Template just needs a DataSource. This DataSource automatically initializes an HSQL DB with the schema.sql script.
<bean id="dataSource"
class="org.springbyexample.jdbc.datasource.HsqldbInitializingDriverManagerDataSource">
<property name="sqlScriptProcessor">
<bean class="org.springbyexample.jdbc.core.SqlScriptProcessor">
<property name="sqlScripts">
<list>
<value>classpath:/schema.sql</value>
</list>
</property>
</bean>
</property>
</bean>