https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yN15rqt7iZuTfWJDZQ9qZlsivnpdWrvG/view?usp=sharing
 |
| Israel Ojekeh Parper Snr (Author) |
This theses by Jill Farrow (1974) explains the very close and tangible relationship between the two (Christian) Church Missionary Society (CMS) Institutions - The Fourah Bay Institution (now Fourah Bay College) and the Regent Christian Institution for Boys, which culminated into The CMS Grammar School in 1845. (There was one also for girls at Charlotte - which became The Annie Walsh Memorial School). Although the primary purpose of this theses was a focus on the CMS River Niger Expedition - "...the development of an idea 1835 - 65...," of "NATIVE AGENCIES", Jill Farrow explained the ANTECEDENTS to the formation of CMS GRAMMAR SCHOOL BEFORE 1845 AND ITS CLOSE CONNECTIONS with The Fourah Bay Institution in Chapters two (2) and three (3). I was going to limit this post by re-printing just these two chapters which directly dealt with this 'hidden history'. The question as to why Regent Square is referred to as such and how the secondary school came to start on foundation day 25th March 1845, in that "Great and massive Building" is not quite known to many and has not been properly explained by those writers who have touched briefly on the subject. Jill's theses added a small piece of information in that the Building was not only occupied by the then Governor ( who had moved to Fort Thornton now State House - but not its current building) but, was occupied by the then Chief Justice after the Governor had left. At the time of the decision to create the New Secondary School, to ease the pressure of the cramped Fourah Bay Institution which teaches a wider curriculum other than to meet Church demands, the Government was to put Regent Square up for sale to raise much-needed revenue. There were negotiations going on as to replacing the building at Fourah bay which rebuilding was very costly (There was a building before the famous IRON building which is popularly shown. There was also the debate to raise the standard of the Regent Institution to Secondary level with a stronger Grammar school type curriculum. For both Institutions, the Officials at the CMS in England were fully engaged and there was also the link with The ISLINGTON INSTITUTION where Christian training of a higher quality was provided.
A few other writers like Magbaily Fyle and Christopher Fyfe have touched on the inauguration of the Grammar school and named the first fourteen pupils who were registered on that Foundation day 25th March 1845. ALL fourteen were junior students transferred from the Fourah Bay Institution/College which was founded in 1821. Of these fourteen students, five (5) were from the Gallhinas. Two (2) out of these 5 were second-year students and Fourah Bay college then. One was the son of the Ruller (King) of the Gallinas and their last name was GOMEZ! Three (3) out these five were liberated Africans secured by the CMS having been captured from the slave ships and brought to Freetown with the approval of the Gallhinas King. Of the other nine (9) pupils, three (3) were Krio boys - Joseph Flynn, Charles M'Cauley, and Charles Nelson from Kissy. Also, one Danial Carrol from Freetown, Robert Cross who was said to be Thirty (30) years old from Fourah Bay in Freetown (But Fourah Bay was seen at that time as an 'outbound' area). Then there were two more from KENT Village - Thomas Smith and JAMES QUAKER ( who became an Ordained Priest, Tutor and the Third (3rd) Principal (First Black Principal 1861-1882). The 14th was one Frederick KARLI from Port Loko). It can be seen from this list of initial pupils that the Grammar school did not start with just FREED KRIOS - whether Settlers, Liberated Africans, Maroons, or other but with open arms embraced students from the Interior of Sierra Leone (43% of these initiates) and West Africa. This became apparent over the following few months when by November of 1845 it had 34 pupils and by 1863 there were 87 on the Roll divided into Preparatory and upper school. As Magbaily Fyle puts it > "The Grammar School could be thus said to have pioneered the way towards a much forceful movement to NATIONAL INTEGRATION even at its very inception" (see Fyle's "Grammar School and Education in Sierra Leone 1845-1942")
Jill Farrow in these few chapters touched briefly on some of the subjects taught and the initial arguments as to what will suit the 'African learner' and the attention paid to producing future qualified Priests whilst freeing the Fourah Bay Institution to produce Administrators that will have little supervision by white/ Europeans. The language, vocabulary, perception, and attitudes of some of the discussants and the messages and dispatches in Journals produced are mind bugling. One would say there were 'NEGATIVES in the line of DOING GOOD for the Africans. It would appear that the impact of what some of those in charge injected in the process was not even recognised by them as cruel or at least intolerable gestures. It did not mean a thing to them as in today's world, we see even now such unadulterated discriminations and racism but one would say that era was the transition from the Slave Trade and its dedication. These issues come out from this literature cited by Jill Farrow in her theses in 1974.
In Farrow's theses we read:
The Committee at home, and particularly Henry Venn, became increasingly concerned at the lack of practical education in Sierra Leone. In Freetown, there was employment in the merchants* office s and government establishments for those from the Grammar School. I n the villages, where nearly three-quarters of the population lived, there was nothing. Sierra Leone needed model farms, savings banks, reading rooms, and libraries. There should be loan clubs, benefit clubs and a free warehouse where native merchants could store their goods rather than selling at a low price to the first bidder. There were a great many semi-skilled jobs that Africans could be trained to do, both in Freetown and the villages, creating an artisan class of Africans, educated by the missionary societies and ultimately taking their place below the Grammar School-educated Africans in a wellordered native society. A committee to oversee all this, sending out agents and encouraging both farming and industry, would unite all those interested in Africa . They would supply farming implements, pay for libraries, organise the English side of a local savings bank and give general financial l support. Many of these ideas were expressed in pamphlets, written at the time, almost certainly by Venn himself. He saw clearly, perhaps because he received the opinions of so many in Sierra Leone, that the continuation of a purely academic education as the focal point o f C.M.S. educational policy would lead ultimately to a 'top-heavy' society, with too many Africans considering themselves above manual work and too few prepared or trained to do the more menial jobs in the developing colony.
A great many Europeans who knew Sierra Leone in the nineteenth century, would, of course, have seen his aims as hopelessly idealistic. The African was lazy. "Idleness is the highest ambition of the African" was a commonly held view. Some blamed C.M.S. for spoiling the African for manual work by offering him an education in the first place. Caroline Norton, who published her views on Sierra Leone under the pseudonym 'A Lady'* in 1849, believed that " a striking error in the judgment of the negroes is the opinion that anything in the shape of work is not compatible with even the slightest degree of education".
As far back as 1798, Governor Macauly had referred to the "long-acquired habit of indolence by going to school. It was a common complaint that C.M.S. education was too narrow and that it afforded status only to those who went into white-collar jobs with the government, merchants or C.M.S. itself. There is no doubt that the mission had created a problem for itself in the founding of the Grammar School, for its popularity and success made it the goal of Africans who might otherwise have gone straight into the C.M.S. industrial schemes. The only answer appeared to be to set out an energetic practical training programme, in co-operation wit h others in the colony, and hope that initial successes would attract t more Africans to this type of work. Essential to the development of industrial training was an industrial committee such as Venn suggested. In 1848, the Afric a Native Agency Committee (A.N.A.C.) decided to stop supporting the school education of children in Sierra Leone because C.M.S. had enough support from other sources. The members agreed to continue their subscriptions for three years and to devote the money to the development of native industry and agriculture in West Africa.
|
LIST OF PRINCIPLES OF THE CMS
GRAMMAR SCHOOL FREETOWN SIERRA LEONE 1845 T0 2021+ |
|||
|
1st |
REV. THOMAS PEYTON  |
1845 -1852 |
European: Ex FBC. Died 14 June 1853 at the School. Buried in
Freetown |
|
2nd |
JOHN NULWARD  |
1853? -1859 |
European – from UK.
Although appointed 1853 – he arrived 1855. No substantive Principal between 14
June 1853 to - 1855. Rev Edward Jones (African American) Principal of FBC (1840-1858)
superintend the Grammar School. |
|
|
REV JAMES QUAKER  |
1861 – 1882 |
From Kent
Village. One of the first 14 initiates at the school – was among the first “Native
Priests” to be Ordained Reverend in 1870. Died in 1882. Principal Quaker encouraged
the pupils to Start and run a Printing Press – DEMOCRACY AND FREEDOM PRESS. The
Press Instructor was James Millar from Waterloo. By 1871, the press printed TEICE
MONTLY Newspaper “THE ETHIOPIA” edited by the Principal. In his time also,
the School had a FIFE BAND with FLUTES being a special treat – a purely
Scottish influence. Records show that the Band led the pupils on a match past
to the grounds of Fourah Bay college at Cline Town on School Anniversary days
and other places. He negotiated with the REGIMENTAL BAND (Army) to regularly go
and teach pupil members of the School Band to play the FIFE and other instruments.
Such was the start of a long-term relationship between the Grammar school and
the Army Bands. |
|
4th |
REV CANON OBADIAH MOORE  |
1882 - 1805 |
A former pupil.
Enrolled on 29 May 1863 Registration number 463 under the name of OBADISH
PUNCH from York Village. After three years was transferred to FBC in Jan 1867
studied for 3 years then returned to the Grammar School as a Junior Tutor. In
1871 he replaced the Senior Teacher John Tilly Asgill as Senior Tutor. He was
later sent to England together with Canon Spain in 1875 – spent 18 months at
MONKTON COOMBE COLLEGE at BATH in Somerset. He obtained a Certificate of the
Senior Oxford Local Examinations. Returned to the Grammar School at the end
of 1876 to carry on as Senior Tutor. In 1877, Rev Moore was ordained Pastor
attached to Christ Church Pademba Road. He left the School again in 1880,
to take up the Pastorate at St. Mathews Church Bonthe Sherbro. But he returned to the school once more to
assume the Principalship on the death of the Principal Rev James Quaker in
1882. He was a friend and Classmate of Rev James Holy Johnson who also was a
Teacher at the Grammar school with Rev Moore. He introduced a BRASS and REED
Band with a diversity of instruments. The band was well known by the beginning
of the 20th Century but faded away in 1915 |
|
5th |
REV GEORGE G GARRETT
|
1906 -1912 |
When GGG took
over as Principal; he had 7 African Tutors, all graduates of Durham
University through Fourah Bay College. He was ne of the “Native Pastors”
ordained in 1870. Principal Garrett was a ‘hands-on’ man. In 1908, only one
year after the Parent body of the BOYS SCOUT MOVEMENT had been formed in
England, by Lord Baden-Powell he introduced the BOYS SCOUT at the Grammar
School. He was also the person who composed the so much famous and popular School
Song – Music and words. |
|
6th |
HENRY DALLIMORE  |
1914 -1920 |
Principal Dallimore took over after a gap of two years. During this period even the Brass Band
lost strength and by 1915 had faded away. |
|
7th |
REV CANAN T C JOHN  |
1920 -1933 |
Canon John revived
the Brass Band in 1924 with the help of the Old Boys -the Alumni. Influenced as
a past band player when he was pupil at the school, he gave his absolute
support to the old boys in raising the funds through a subscription list to
collect money to revive the band. Also his Vice principal had introduced
weaving and spinning in their social education in 927 but, this was not very
appealing to the academic type of learning of the Grammar school. |
|
8th |
RT REV BISHOP T S C JOHNSON  |
1933 -1936 |
The Nephew of
Rev James Holy Johnson. He tried to revive Carpentry and Basket weaving in
the school curriculum. He Introduced CLUBS – for Agriculture, Carpentry,
Poultry into the Social Education programme. These efforts did not hold on “as
the Grammar school type of education had by then become DEEPLY ROOTED in the curriculum
and in the psyche of the majority of those who supported the school” |
|
9th |
REV P HYCY-WILSON  |
1937 -1947 |
|
|
10th |
REV E D C CLERK  |
1947 – 1952 |
He retired and served
the Anglican Archbishop of Sierra Leone former Principal and Archbishop of
West Africa Rt REV J L C Horstead as Chaplain. He supported the Old Boys
Association UK in the Chaplaincy until his death |
| 11th | Mr Frank Wood (Lay Preacher) | 1953 -1964 | Frank Wood was a very dynamic Principal, strong and energetic. He transformed the school and moved it from Fourah Bay Road campus to its current location at Murray Town. |
|
| |||
|
12th | VERY REV G L O PALMER | 1964 - 1970 | A reformist, disciplinarian previously at Koyama Secondary School Bo District. Died 19 February 1982. |
|
ACTING PRINCIPAL | REV H G B DAVIES | 1070-1971 | Long term Tutor |
|
13th |
REV CANN VICTOR HASTINGS-SPAIN  |
1971 -1985 |
A former
Principal of the West African Methodist Collegiate secondary School. A Canon
of St Georges Cathedral |
|
14th |
AKINWANE JOSIAH LASITE  |
1985 - 2018/9 |
Former pupil,
tutor Vice Principal and a graduate of FBC. He holds the record as the longest
serving Head of the Sierra Leone Grammar School. He ran the school at the
most difficult of times with all turbulences like Land Issues and return the
School ta its original Private Institution status. He is a Lay Canon of St
Georges Cathedral |
|
15th |
REV CANON LEONARD KEN DAVIES  |
2019 ->>>> |
The current
Principal. A former Teacher at the school. He had spent some time in the priesthood in
England and a Canon of St Georges Cathedral in Freetown. |
 |
| Israel Ojekeh Parper Snr (Author) |
CLICK EITHER OF THE LINKS BELOW:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yN15rqt7iZuTfWJDZQ9qZlsivnpdWrvG/view?usp=sharing
RIGHT CLICK THIS LINK:
THANKSGIVING SERVICES HAVE PLAYED A PIVOTAL ROLE IN THE LIFE OF THE GRAMMAR SCHOOL AND THE PIONEERS - CMS - HAS MADE THAT PART OF OUR TRADITION FROM INCEPTION. WE ARE FULLY EMBEDED IN THE ANGLICAN COMMUNION FOR WHICH THE ST GEORGES CATHEDRAL HAS BEEN THE PILLAR OF THE SUCCESSES OF REGENTONIAN! WE PRESS ON!
Click Link for Thanksgiving advert.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37b3xbHbj78
THE GRAMMAR SCHOOL HAS PRODUCED MEN (and some women too) OF ALL OCCUPATIONAL LEVELS AND ABILITE ENGRINED IN UNALDULTRATED TRADITIONS.
The school Band performing the School Song
Post Thanksgiving Reception 2019 - SLGS OBA UK (FOUNDED 1985) - SUPPORTED BY