History
Current site on College Avenue (1905–present), building in foreground is Crosby House.Endowment for the school came from the will of local gentleman and politician Col The Hon. Robert Ward PC of Castle Ward. The Hon. Ward was the fourth son of 1st Viscount Bangor and grandson of Michael Ward MP. The Hon. Ward bequeathed £1,000 to be, "…expended in building and endowing a School-house for the education of boys in Mathematics, Astronomy and Navigation…", in his family home town and parliamentary constituency.
Initially established as Bangor Endowed School, the school was originally situated on the site of the modern day Bank of Ireland building on the corner of Main Street and Central Avenue. By the turn of the 20th century the school had changed its name to Bangor Grammar School and because of a growth in school population moved from site to site over a number of years. With the help of Mr W.K. Crosby, the school moved to a new site on College Avenue, in the northwest of Bangor in 1906. The present-day facade visible from College Avenue is a combination of two buildings: Crosby House (known as the Crosby Buildings), which dates back to 1905 and was named after the school's benefactor; and a later extension to the north, which was added as a Headmaster's residence around the time of the outbreak of The Great War (1914–1918).
Despite Northern Ireland not being subject to conscription like the rest of the United Kingdom, a significant number of Grammarians volunteered for the British Armed Forces and fought in both World Wars, in particular the Second World War (1939–1945). The school population was comparatively small at this time, reaching just 200 pupils in 1930 as opposed to 936 pupils in 2008.
Two commemorative plaques are erected in the school assembly hall listing the names off all ex-pupils that died whilst serving in the British Armed Forces during both World Wars. The school's Debating Society minutes present a record of motions brought to the house concerning key events of the times, including a motion concerning the Munich Agreement and the veracity of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's assertion that it would secure, "…peace for our time."
Read more about this topic: Bangor Grammar School
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