Leeds Girls High School

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Leeds Girls High School


Image by H S Chorley
"The laying of the foundation stone was but a curtain raiser for the formal opening of the new school, on 29 September 1906, by Her Royal Highness Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll. The proposal to invite the Princess was made in January 1906, and the following month an ad hoc committee for the opening was duly set up. The Princess having selected her date, the broad lines of the ceremony were planned in advance. Invitations were to be sent out during the first week of September, and Mr Chorley, asked to estimate the seating capacity of the hall and corridors, reported five hundred ‘closely placed’. Former Chairmen, Head Mistresses, Assistant Mistresses and girls were invited, and heads of public bodies and schools were asked to suggest representatives."

"After lunch in the Lord Mayor’s room, the Princess drove to the High School, the route being thickly lined with sightseers. She entered at the Victoria Road entrance. ‘An elderly, refined looking lady’ according to contemporary report, she wore a pale dove grey dress and bolero, simply trimmed with braid of the same colour, with a white lace vest. The instant her car stopped, the Princess was presented with a bouquet, and the Duke with a button hole. The Princess was welcomed by Alderman Ford and Miss Lowe, and given a solid gold key, ‘in the shape of a finely modelled figure supporting a rose wreath, and surmounted by a crown with the royal arms enamelled in colours underneath, and the arms of the city on the reverse side’.

While the visitors were assembling, pupils, ‘prettily attired in white gowns’, occupied a special platform, and a group of them, augmented by Old Girls and friends, played orchestral pieces. At a convenient stage in the proceedings the general body of the scholars ‘gave, very effectively, some familiar songs in unison’. The inaugural ceremony, beginning with the hymn ‘Now thank we all our God’, took place in the school hall. Dr Bickersteth read a special prayer, and the Lord’s Prayer followed. Mr Ford then invited the Princess to declare the building open, and she made some flattering remarks about success being certain ‘with the Head you have’. (Miss Lowe had come from Blackheath High School, one of the schools of the GPDST, of which the Princess was President.) Miss Lowe gave an address, then the Princess distributed the prize cards, and was thanked by the Lord Mayor, Mr E. Woodhouse, and this was seconded by Sir James Kitson, who called on Miss Kennedy to speak in support. Finally the Duke of Argyll replied on behalf of the Princess, with an amusing speech, praising the School. Money could not be better spent, he said, than on providing good buildings for girls. The only thing he thought the School lacked was a shooting gallery! Finally the Princess was cheered off the premises, and the girls had buns and lemonade in the gym".

Extracts from Helen Jewell’s book "A School of Unusual Excellence" (1976).

Tags:girls, high, Leeds, School