The Bemrose School

The Bemrose School is a foundation trust all-through school situated on Uttoxeter New Road, Derby, England, with an age range of pupils from 3 – 19. Opened as a boys' grammar school in 1930, it became a co-educational comprehensive school in 1975. It then became an all-through school with the addition of a primary phase in 2014.

History

A new school called the Derby Municipal Secondary School for Boys was founded in Abbey Street, Derby, and opened on 12 September 1902. In December 1923, a new site for the school was acquired in Uttoxeter Road, Derby, and for some years was used for games. New school buildings designed by the architect Alexander Macpherson were built on the new site in 1928–1930 at a cost of £71,746, and when the school moved into them in 1930 it was renamed Bemrose School, in honour of the services to education of the Bemrose family of Derby, and in particular of Dr Henry Howe Bemrose. The new school was officially opened on 11 July 1930 by Sir Charles Trevelyan, President of the Board of Education.

A memorial to the sixty-eight old boys of the former Derby Municipal Secondary School who died in the First World War was moved to the new school's main corridor where it remains to this day.

The school was originally divided into seven houses, each with its own colour and motto: Burke (Nil nisi bene), Drake (Semper audacter), Gainsborough (Vis unita fortior), Nelson, Newton (Consilio et animis), Sidney (Animo et fide), and Wellington (Pactum serva). In present times, the houses remain but there are now just four named after stately homes in Derbyshire – Chatsworth, Hardwick, Haddon, Kedleston.

The school became a grammar school, until in 1975 it was merged with Rykneld Boys' Secondary Modern School to make a new comprehensive school, when girls were first admitted, named Bemrose Community School.

When Bemrose became a Foundation Trust school the school name was changed to The Bemrose School

In 2015, a new building was built and a Primary Phase was opened making Bemrose an all through school for ages 3-19.

Headteachers

• 1930–1951: Mr W. A. Macfarlane MA (Oxon.) (previously head of the Derby Municipal Secondary School for Boys, 1923–1930)
• 1951–1957: Mr Eric G. Bennett MA (Cantab.)
• 1958–1971: Dr Raymond Chapman PhD (Innsbruck), previously head master of Firth Park Grammar School, Sheffield^[1]
• 1972–1983: Mr W. M. Wearne MA, previously head master of the Anglo-Colombian School, Bogota^[2]
• 1983–1993: Mr Robert Hobson
• 1993–1997: Mr Robert Kenney
• 1998–2000: Mr Julian Chartres
• 2001–2003: Mr Richard Feist
• 2004–2016: Ms Joanne Ward BSc, MA in Ed, FRSA
• 2016-  : Mr Neil Wilkinson (Executive Headteacher)

Old Bemrosians

See also Old Bemrosians.

Boys' grammar school

• Prof F. S. Northedge (1918–85), Professor of International Relations from 1968-85 at the London School of Economics (LSE)
• Michael Knowles (born 1937), actor Dad's Army, It Ain't Half Hot Mum, scriptwriter Dad's Army (radio series)
• James Bolam (born 1935) actor^[3]
• Richard Turner (artist) (1940-2013)
• Stephen Marley (born 1946), novelist
• Sir Nigel Rudd (born 1947), industrialist^[4][5]
• Prof Joe Andrew (born 1948), Professor of Russian Literature at Keele University
• Prof John Loughhead OBE FREng (born 1948), Chief Scientific Adviser since 2014 of DECC, and President from 2007-08 of the IET
• Trevor East (born 1950), presenter from 1973–78 of Tiswas, Deputy Managing Director from 1995-2005 of Sky Sports, and Director of Sport from 2005-09 of Setanta Sports
• Steve Powell (born 1955), Derby County F.C. midfielder 1971–1985^[6]
• Major General Garry Robison CB (born 1958), Commandant-General from 2006–09 of the Royal Marines,^[7] and Commandant from 2004-06 of the Commando Training Centre Royal Marines

Former teachers

• Edmund Tucker

Bibliography

• Grimshaw, Frank, It Was Different in My Day (2002)
• Baker, Thompson and Sarfras, The History of Bemrose School 1930–2005 (2009)

Elmtree

In 2010 The Bemrose School opened Elmtree, a specialist autism unit, it is a separate unit to ERF opened some years ago.

References

Coordinates: 52°58′N 1°19′W / 52.967°N 1.317°W / 52.967; -1.317