Liverpool Institute High School for Boys

Liverpool Institute High School for Boys
General information
Town or city	Liverpool
Country	England
Construction started	1825

The Liverpool Institute for Boys was an all-boys grammar school in the English port city of Liverpool. The school had its origins in 1825 but occupied different premises while the money was found to build a dedicated building. The Institute was first known as the Liverpool Mechanics' School of Arts. In 1832 the name was shortened to the Liverpool Mechanics' Institution.

School history in brief

Its initial primary purpose as a Mechanics' Institute (one of many established about this time throughout the country) was to provide educational opportunities, mainly through evening classes, for working men. Lectures for the general public were also provided of wide interest covering topics ranging from Arctic exploration to Shakespeare and philosophy. Luminaries like Charles Dickens, Anthony Trollope and Ralph Waldo Emerson delivered talks and readings in the main lecture hall (now the architecturally restructured Sir Paul McCartney Auditorium of LIPA).

By 1840 the Institution offered evening classes, lectures, a library and a boys' lower and upper school. By the 1850s a formal art school was evolving from the evening classes and in 1856 this diversity was recognised by another name change – The Liverpool Institute and School of Arts.

A girl's school was founded & opened in 1844 under the name Liverpool Institute High School for Girls. It was housed in a merchant's mansion across the street from the boys' school in Blackburne House provided by the generosity of Mr. George Holt and which was later (1872) donated to the school by his family in his memory. The school was one of the first which was open to the public in the country established exclusively for the education of girls.

In 1905 the Liverpool City Council took over the management of the secondary schools when the LI Board of Governors presented the school and assets to the City. From then until its closure in 1985, the school was formally known as The Liverpool Institute High School for Boys or more familiarly as The Institute or the The Inny to its pupils.

It was an English grammar school for boys ages 11 to 18 with an excellent academic reputation built up over more than a century. Its list of scholarships and places at Oxford University and Cambridge University runs to some 300 names – in addition to distinctions gained at Liverpool University and at many other prominent British universities. The school was a true measure of Liverpool's intellectual capital and its old boys could and can be found in later life in many fields of professional distinction including: law, the Church, armed forces, politics, academia, government and colonial administration as well as in trade & commerce.

Closure of the school

In 1985 the school was closed by Liverpool Council after two decades of contention, political dispute and very little upkeep of the building fabric. The Labour Party in Liverpool & nationally (Anthony Crosland's Circular of Sept. 1965 requiring that Local Authorities bring forward schemes for comprehensive secondary education) was opposed to selective schools. As Grammar schools were recruited by examination at age 11, there was a long standing push towards 'comprehensive schools' (as non-selective schools were known) from that Party when it took control of the Council in 1983. Ironically perhaps, the Deputy Leader of the Labour (Militant) Group on Council at the time was a former LI schoolboy Derek Hatton who had left without academic distinction in 1964 and with strong feelings of dislike towards the school. However the man who was Chair of the Educational Committee at the time of the decision to close the school was Dominic Brady, a 24 year old former school caretaker.

After closure of the Liverpool Institute for Boys, the building stood empty & neglected for several years. In 1987 it was announced that the LI Trust (under control of Liverpool Council's Education Department) would grant use of the building & site to a new educational establishment. Under the sponsorship of LI old boy, Paul McCartney in 1996, the much renovated and transformed building was re-opened under the name of its new institutional occupant, the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts (LIPA). The new Institute is currently affiliated with LJMU and graduates receive degrees from this University.

Art school

The city's Art College had its origins as part of the Liverpool Institute. In 1883 a new building housing the School of Art was opened around the corner on Hope Street, adjacent to the principal building housing the High School on Mount Street. The Art College by which it was later known, took in talented students often without formal academic credentials (e.g. John Lennon) and the College eventually became one of the four constituent parts of the Liverpool Polytechnic in 1970 and later in 1992 Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU).

Liverpool Institute and Liverpool music

Music and musical performances have been a constant theme throughout the life of the school and the Mount St. building. Annual school Speech Day concerts (held in the fine acoustics of Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool), choirs, the organ, piano, music classes and the singing of daily devotional hymns have echoed around its walls for 170 years and continue to do so at LIPA.

The following list of musicians and their activities at the school and afterwards is currently under development.

Charles Santley born on Church Alley, Liverpool and educated at the Liverpool Mechanics Institute. He was the greatest British baritone of his day, equally famous in opera and oratorio. He also composed some music of his own. In 1907, he was knighted after entertaining the public for fifty years.

Stan Bootle attended the school, 1941 to 1947. He was a mathematics scholar at Cambridge and one of the first in the country to specialise in computer science. He was also a folk singer and composer (under the stage name Stan Kelly & more recently Stan Kelly-Bootle). He is perhaps best remembered for writing the lyrics to Liverpool Lullaby (1960) & I Wish I Was Back in Liverpool (1961), as well as being a prolific author on matters computational.

David Ellis, musician, composer & broadcaster attended the school 1944 to 1949.

John McCabe, born 1939, attended the school, 1950 to 1957, prolific classical music composer.

Liverpool Institute and Merseybeat

From 1958 to about 1964, there were many music 'groups' of boys centred on school, home and local district. Some were composed of amalgams of junior school and neighbourhood friends as well as LI school mates. Skiffle and Lonnie Donegan in Liverpool as elsewhere were the inspirational trigger for home-made music, 45s and cheap record players allowed home listening to the flood of American imports. At end of school year relaxed times, boys at LI were allowed to bring in their instruments to play them at breaks, in the basement dinner room or informal class time. There were many such groups in the school but some went on to fame if not fortune.

At age 11, J. Paul McCartney passed his '11-plus' examination (still then known colloquially in Liverpool as "the scholarship" - even after secondary school fee payment ended in 1944) and was eligible for a place at a grammar school. His parents had selected The Liverpool Institute as his first choice and he commenced classes there in September 1953. In 1957 he sat his Latin and Spanish 'O-levels' passing the latter. In 1958 he sat an additional six subjects and attained the five passes (including French and German) he needed to enter the Sixth Form. He took three subjects to A Level including: Art, English and Geography and in 1960 passed A level English. Deciding not to apply for teacher's training college, in July 1960 he left school for the Beatles' first stay in Hamburg.

George Harrison passed his entry examination for The Inny and began school in September 1954 (a year later than Paul). He left without achieving any formal qualifications in July 1959 for a job as an assistant electrician at Blacklers department store in Liverpool and as a player in the occasional night-time gigs of The Quarrymen, who later became The Silver Beetles, and then The Beatles.

Paul's brother, Mike McCartney (stage name Mike McGear in 'The Scaffold') 1955 to 1961.

Neil Aspinall, 1953 to 1959 who became the Beatles' road manager in Feb. 1961 and in April 1968 MD of Apple Corp. He left Apple Corps in April 2007.

Len Garry, 1954 to 1959, who was a member of 'The Quarrymen'.

Ivan Vaughan, a classics sixth former, 1953 to 1960, who introduced Paul McCartney to John Lennon.

Les Chadwick, 1954 to 1959, who later became a member of 'Gerry and the Pacemakers'.

C.W. (Colin) Manley, 1953 to 1959 and D.M. (Don) Andrew, 1953 to 1959 both became part of 'The Remo Four', a group later managed by Brian Epstein.

Alumni in the public eye

In addition to those mentioned above there were several others who entered into arts, entertainment and politics in the twentieth century:

• Bill Kenwright theatre impresario (at school 1957 to 1964),
• Peter Sissons broadcaster (at school 1953 to 1961),
• Alan Durband (1927 to 1993), a former pupil (1938 to 1944) returned as a teacher (1953 to 1962) after taking a degree at Downing College, Cambridge University. He was one of the founders of the Liverpool Everyman Theatre and the New Shakespeare Theatre, Liverpool. He was an avid promoter of new plays & playwrights ('Playbill' 1969 on; 'Prompt' 1973 on and 'Wordplays'. He also wrote a series of thirteen highly successful student guides to Shakespeare, under the series title 'Shakespeare Made Easy' from 1973 to 1989, many of which had their beginnings in his English classes at school. Despite all this, his main public claim to fame was probably that of being Paul McCartney's English teacher from 1958 to 1960 and his former classroom is named after him in the rebuilt school of LIPA.

Other notable alumni (chronological)

• Charles Glover Barkla (1877 - 1944), Nobel Prize in Physics 1917 "for his discovery of the characteristic Röntgen radiation of the elements".
• Francis Neilson-Butters (1867-1961) Member of the House of Commons for the Hyde Division of Cheshire (1910-1916) An accomplished writter and historian.

• (Sir) Sydney Silverman MP. (1895 - 1968) attended the school c. 1911 to 1915. Son of a poor Liverpool Jewish draper, he was a pacifist during the First War and was imprisoned for refusing to enlist. Elected Labour MP for Nelson & Colne from 1935 on. He brought in a private Member's Bill in 1965 to suspend the death penalty. The government supported the bill which passed & was reaffirmed in 1969.

• Arthur Askey (1900 - 1982) the comedian & broadcaster.

• (Prof.) George Macdonald (1903 - 1967) Professor of Tropical Hygiene at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Director of the Ross Institute.

• (Maj-Gen.) Geoffrey Lucas (1904 - 1982).

• Frank Mitchell Redington (1906 - 1984) Head Boy 1925; Cambridge University (Wrangler); Chief Actuary of Prudential Insurance 1951-1968; Winner of the Gold Medal of the Institute of Actuaries in honour of "actuarial work of pre-eminent importance".

• (Prof.) Philip Theodore Stevens (1906 - 1992) Ancient Greek.

• (Prof.) William Calvert Kneale (1906 - 1990) White's Chair of Moral Philosophy at the University of Oxford, perhaps the most prestigious chair of moral philosophy in the world. Author of 'Probability and Induction' (1949).

• Canon Mansel Harry Bates Vicar of St Luke’s Crosby, 1959 to 1969, rural dean of Bootle and a canon of Liverpool Cathedral in 1964.

• (Rev. Canon) Hyam Mark Luft (1913 - 1986) author of History of Merchant Taylors, Crosby, 1620 - 1970.

• (Prof.) Ian Chester Jones (1916 - 1996), Sheffield University zoologist & endocrinologist.

• Alan Robertson FRS (1920 - 1989) Chemist. Animal breeding and genetics.

• (Sir) Albert James Craig, born 13 July1924, in school in 1934 to 1939 Graduated in Oriental languages at Oxford and was then Lecturer in Arabic at Durham University for seven years. After three years as Principal Instructor at MECAS ( Middle East Centre for Arab Studies ) he joined HM Diplomatic Service and served in various Middle Eastern posts, ending as Ambassador to Syria, 1976-79, and to Saudi Arabia, 1979-84. After retirement he was Visiting Professor in Arabic at Oxford, President of the Middle East Association and held several banking and commercial directorships. He was a signatory to the '52 anxious envoys' letter expressing grave concerns over British entry into Iraq in 2004. Author of Shemlan: A History of the Middle East Centre for Arab Studies, 1998.

• James Peden Barber, born 6 November1931, in school 1942-1950. Prof. Political administration. Pro Vice-Chancellor, Open University; Master, Hatfield College, Durham University.

• (Lord) Ernest Ronald Oxburgh born 2 November1932, in school 1942 -1952. Geologist & Geophysicist. Did classics at school and switched to science at Oxford. Chair of Royal Dutch Shell PLC, 2003 to 2005.

• Glyn Tegai Hughes (1923 - ) , in school 1937 - 1939. Author.

• John McCabe (1939 - ) See above. .

• Steve Norris (1945 - ) born in Aigburth, Liverpool on May 24, 1945 and attended school from 1956 to 1963, he was a prefect and in his last year Head Boy; took an open Exhibition in Social Studies and graduated from Worcester College, Oxford University, pursued a career in the engineering and motor industries and entered politics when he was elected on to Berkshire County Council in 1977. He became the Member of Parliament for Oxford East in 1983.

Head masters - nineteenth century

• Mr. Robert Landers (Edinburgh University), 1828-31, Head master, 1835 - 6; died in May 1836.
• Mr. Alexander Sinclair MacIlveen Teacher, 1840-42, then Head of Commercial School (1842 - 1854), then Head of the Liverpool Mechanics' Institute.
• Dr. William Hunter, M.A., LL.D. (Glasgow)- Head of High School of the Liverpool Mechanics' Institute, 1842 - 45.
• Dr. William Ballantyne Hodgson, L.L.D. (Glasgow) - Head master, 1845 - 47. Left for Chorlton High School, Manchester, 1847 - 48. Later Prof. Economic Science, Edinburgh University, 1871 - 80.
• Mr. (Later Rev.) James England, M.A. (Dublin, Trinity College) - Head master, Liverpool Mechanics' Institute,1847 - 49.
• Dr. William Ihne, PhD. (former Prof. Royal Protestant Gymnasium, Elberfeld, Rhenish Prussia) English, Classics- Head master, Liverpool Mechanics Institute, 1849 - 54.
• Mr. Alexander Sinclair MacIlveen, Teacher, 1840-42, then Head of Commercial School (1842 - 1854), then - Head of the reunited School, 1854 to death in Oct. 1,1861.
• The Venerable Joshua Jones (later Hughes-Games), M.A., D.C.L. (Oxford, Lincoln College). Mathematics. - Head 1862 to 1865. (Born in 1831, died 1904.)
• Rev.John Sephton, M.A. (“Late Fellow of St. John’s College, Cambridge”) ( 02.1866 - 1889 Head Master. Born 1836; died in 1915. Reader in Icelandic, University of Liverpool, 1895 - 1910.
• Mr. Alfred Hughes, M.A., (Oxford, Corpus Christi College). Mathematics. Head master, 1890 to 1896. Later Registrar, University of Manchester (born in1860, married Hester daughter of Alfred Booth; died 1940.
• Mr. William Charles Fletcher M.A. (Cambridge, St. Johns College) (1896 - 1904) - Head master of the reunited School, 1854 to death in Oct. 1,1861.

Head masters - twentieth century

• Mr. Henry Victor Weisse [name changed to Henry Victor Whitehouse in 1917], B.A. (Open Exhibitioner, Oxford, Christ Church) (1904 - 1923) - Head master. Died in July 1936.
• Mr. Frederick W. H. Groom, M.A. (Cambridge, St. Johns College, Jesus College?) (1894 - 1917) Vice-Principal (1917 - 1932 ret.) Acting Head master 1923-4. Died in Jan. 1956.
• Rev. Henry Herbert Symonds, M.A. (Oxford, Oriel College) - Head master (1924 - 1935). Author of 'Walking in the Lake District', 1933; 'Afforestation in the Lake District'. Born in 1885 - Died 28 December 1958.
• Mr. John Robert Edwards born in 1897 at Rhyl; died on 8 January 1992 at the age of 95. His parents were from Bala in Wales but he grew up in Manchester and attended Manchester Grammar School, (Linton Scholar, 1916). He won a place in classics at University College, Oxford where he was a contemporary of C.S. Lewis who recorded some snobbish remarks about JRE's accent in his published diaries. He graduated in 1920 with a Second in Greats (he had been excused military duties due to his club foot) and entered the world of business briefly. However, he decided that his heart lay with the Greek and Latin Classics and went on to a remarkable career of schoolmastering. After periods teaching at Merchant Taylors' School, Crosby, and at Wrexham County School as Head, he went in 1935 to become the Head of the Liverpool Institute, a position that he held until his retirement twenty-six years later. During Edwards' Headship the Liverpool Institute became firmly established as one of the country's leading dozen or so old city grammar schools distinguished for both its academic excellence and the diversity of its extra-curricular activities. Situated in the heart of the city next to the Giles Gilbert Scott's Anglican cathedral for which it was the choir school, the Institute occupied venerable but run-down buildings on the edge of the town centre but within, it developed a socially heterogeneous and extraordinarily vital society with a strong school spirit.

"Edwards assembled a staff as diverse as the pupils and for the most part they gave the impression of being equally in awe of him. They nevertheless managed to drive and cajole their pupils into distinguished School Certificate and GCE results along with six to ten open awards each year indeed there was one memorable year when ten of the eleven members of the upper mathematical sixth form won Oxford or Cambridge awards. The words 'public service' were never very far from Edwards' lips. For the staff this meant giving up evenings, weekends and time in the school holidays for coaching games, running the scout troop, singing, music, drama, debating, mountaineering and dozens of other activities; there was even a Transport Society, largely devoted to trams. For the pupils it meant long journeys home from the city centre in the evening hours after normal work had finished with no remission on homework, and for Edwards it meant attending many of these occasions himself. He was a Head who was respected rather than liked. He suffered from gout and that must have made life very hard at times. He knew his pupils and could write about them well but he could rarely unbend with them. He built a remarkable school that produced leaders in many professions from bishops to broadcasters to Beatles to barristers. It must have broken his heart in retirement to see his school torn apart and finally closed as a result of political doctrinaire antics on Liverpool City Council." Sir Ronald Oxburgh (1953) .

• Malcolm Pasco Smith, M.A. (Cambridge, Trinity) Head master (1961 - 1965)
• Dennis Booth, B.A. (Liverpool) (1942 - 1972) Vice Principal (1957 - 1965); Head master (1965 - 1972 ret.).
• J. Gareth Rogers, M.A., B.Litt. (Oxford, Jesus College) (1950 - 1977; - Vice-Principal,1965 - 1972; - Head master (1972 -1977 died).
• Bertram (Bert) L. Parker, B.Sc. (Wales, Aberystwyth) (January 1948 - 1982; Head master, 1978 - 1982 ret.).
• Maurice Devereux, B.A. (Liverpool) (1953 - 1983; Head master, 1982 - 1983 ret.).

There were several temporary administrators who took the school into dissolution in its final years.

See also

• Donald MacAlister - a Liverpool Institute boy who rose in the world
• Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts
• Liverpool Institute High School for Girls

External links

• Liobians.com
• Liobians.org (Previously FredCrane.com)
• Liverpool Institute for the Performing Arts (LIPA)