Search for school’s former star students

A SECONDARY school in north Leeds has launched a project to discover what happened to its highest attaining former students as part of its centenary celebrations.

Prince Henry’s Grammar School, which every year has awarded a Kerr Scholarship to a single student, is now looking to track the 81 recipients of the award since 1948.

This award is named after Dr Samuel Kerr who bequested an annual scholarship to a student of Prince Henry’s following his death in 1918.

Assistant headteacher Stephen Clarkson, who is leading on the 100 year celebration, said: “The recipients names are displayed in school and we have students each year who strive to get their name engraved on the board displayed in Main Hall. Whilst exploring the archives of the school we have found an original oil painting of Dr Kerr and information about his life. This got us wondering: ‘We know much about what happened to Dr Kerr, but what happened to the winners of the award given in his name?’

“As part of our 100 year reopening celebration we would like to try and find out what happened to as many of the Kerr Scholars as possible. We hope to collate their stories and use these to inspire our current students, and future generations of students, to strive to be as successful as we believe and hope they were beyond Prince Henry’s.”

Whilst the school has been educating children from Otley and its surrounding villages since the 1600s, there was a 44-year period between 1874 and 1918 when it ceased to exist. It re-opened on September 18, 1918, and all through this academic year the school is hosting special events within the community.