Hymers College - History

History

Hymers College was founded by the mathematician, John Hymers, left some of his property to the mayor and corporation of Hull in his will of 24 August 1885. The property was to provide for the foundation of a grammar school, "for the training of intelligence in whatever social rank of life it may be found among the vast and varied population of the Town." However, An obscurity in the wording of the will rendered the bequest invalid, but his heir, his brother Robert Hymers, voluntarily granted the sum of £50,000 for the establishment of the school.

Hymers opened in 1893, on the site of the old Botanic Gardens of Hull, as a school for boys. The school quickly established itself, and the first headmaster, Charles Gore, was soon admitted into the HMC, with all subsequent headmasters also being members. Hymers was a fee-paying school for most of its history, and many scholarships and bursaries were given to pupils whose parents' could not afford the fees, in accordance with John Hymers' will for the training of intelligence, regardless of social rank. In 1946 Hymers became a "direct grant" school, with many pupils being paid for by the local authority, in a similar system to today's academies. However, this scheme ended in 1971, and the school governors chose to become a fully independent school, rather than joining into the new comprehensive system, and re-established the bursaries system after the Government-funded Assisted Places scheme ended in 1997.

Throughout the 1970s, girls were admitted to the sixth form, and in 1989 the decision was made to become fully co-educational. With the opening of the Humber bridge in 1981, the school's catchment area increased to cover the south bank of the river Humber, resulting in the school's numbers extending to their current figure of just under one thousand pupils in the 1990s.