Friern Barnet Grammar School

The Friern Barnet Grammar School was a small private day school for boys located on Friern Barnet Road, North London.
It was later absorbed into the co-educational Woodside Park School foundation which was later renamed The North London International School and is today known as The Dwight School London, notably one of the first schools to offer the International Baccalaureate as an alternative to traditional British A-Level studies.

History

The school was founded in 1884 as St John's High School for Boys by the Reverend Prebendary Frederick Hall MA of Jesus College, Cambridge, rector of the Parish of St James and St John, Friern Barnet, to educate boys from middle-class families capable of meeting fee payments, as distinct from his efforts to provide the free schooling – financially supported by parishioners – of infants.
The rector was also the founder of the Friern Barnet Grammar School for Girls and commissioned the imposing St John's church building opposite the boys' school. This was a late work in the Gothic Revival style by eminent architect John Loughborough Pearson begun in 1890 and completed by his son Frank in 1911. Reverend Hall had been curate at Pearson's St. Augustine's, Kilburn.
On the site of the school was the original temporary iron construction known as the of St. John, where both classes and church services were held. This was later replaced by a one-storey building enlarged in the 1950s and the existing building, a two-storeyed block, was built in 1973.
After 1890 the establishment was known as Friern Barnet Grammar School for Boys having its own preparatory school from 1904. However the school was never populated by more than two hundred pupils.
The school's charitable arm was the subsidiary group, Friends of Friern Barnet Grammar School. In 1995, Friern Barnet Grammar became the Senior Department of Woodside Park School, rebranded and began admitting girls. Woodside Park School later became what is now Dwight School London.
Over a number of years an intense rivalry developed between pupils of the Grammar School and those from the government maintained Friern Barnet County School, which in 1961 opened nearby in Hermington Avenue.

Information

Motto: Vita Lux Hominum
Latin: Life and Light of Mankind
School Crest: Phoenix
School Houses: Formerly – Collingwood, Drake, Frobisher, Grenville, Nelson
Latterly – Cook, Livingstone, Scott
Annual Events: Founder's Day, Speech Day, Sports' Day
In 1961, prizes were presented by the Member of Parliament for Finchley, Mrs Margaret Thatcher who "in an inspiring address spoke to the boys about their vocation in the life of the community for which school days are a preparation".

Headmasters

Headmasters:

A B McFarlane
C D Punchard
Edward Hugh Pritchard
C E Lacy
J Ashley
Robert Ames
Herbert Ames
Charles Secker Smith
C P F Alderson
Rev P E Thomas
Rev D Atkinson
Alan Heaps
John Pearman
Dr Peter Reynolds
Chris Platford

Notable former pupils

Tasnime Akunjee – Lawyer
Sir (Walter) Leonard Allinson – British diplomat, Oxonian
– Professor of Human Ecology at the University of Cambridge, 1949–71
Chris Carter – Founder band member Throbbing Gristle, Carter Tutti
Lieutenant William Randolph Cooper – 2nd Lieutenant, Loyal North Lancashire Regiment, WWI casualty
Thomas Crosbie-Walsh – Food scientist, editor Food Industries Manual & Food Manufacture, fellow of the Royal Institute of Chemistry
Cyril Fletcher – Comedian
Peter Friese-Greene – BBC cameraman, grandson of William Friese-Greene – inventor of cinematography, son of Claude Friese-Greene – developer of the colour film process
Colin Gottlieb – Chief Executive Officer, Europe, Middle East and Africa, Omnicom Media Group
Ertan Hurer – Conservative Councillor, Conservative parliamentary candidate
Stefano Ispani – Chief Executive, Ponti's Group
Alexander James Jr – son of Arsenal and Scotland footballer Alex James
Sydney James Johnstone OBE – Geologist and Principal, Mineral Resources Department, Imperial Institute, fellow of the Royal Institute of Chemistry
Barry Owen Jones – Artist and director, Coach House Gallery, Royal Watercolour Society member
Lord Kershaw – Edward Aubrey Kershaw, 3rd Baron Kershaw of Prestwich
General Wilfred Kitching CBE – 7th General of the Salvation Army
Dr Edgar Mann – formerly Chairman of the Executive Council of the Isle of Man
Simon Nicol – Founder band member Fairport Convention
Dr J M R Owens – John Owens, formerly Reader in History, Massey University, author, Oxonian
His Honour Judge Pullinger – Judge John Elphick Pullinger, scholar of the London School of Economics and also of Lincoln's Inn, Judge Advocate General for the Near and Far East 1972–1975, Circuit Court Judge on SE Circuit 1982–1990, Croydon Law Courts 1982–2000
Colonel Arthur Oliver Samson CBE – Middle East Force
L F Smeeton – Leslie Fred Smeeton, Official Secretary, Tasmanian Government Office, London
Michael Ugwu – Music Producer and Businessman
John Williams OBE – Classical guitarist, Sky member

Notable staff

Mr F J C Gustard who was a master at the school, Frederick Gustard – cricket journalist and statistician, contributor to Wisden, author England v. Australia. A guide to the Tests, 1934 & Somerset County Cricket. Facts and figures from 1891–1924.
The founder, The Rev. Frederick Hall MA of Jesus College, Cambridge. Rector of Friern Barnet, Rural Dean of Hornsey and Prebendary of St Paul's. Died 1902. The author of, A Short Historical Account of the Collegiate Church of St Peter – Wolverhampton, 1865; A Simple Service Book for Children, 1866; Fasting Reception of the Blessed Sacrament: A Custom of the church Catholic, 1881.
Headmaster, Alexander Bruce McFarlane, latterly Headmaster, Allahabad High School, India, and Principal, Mico Training College, Kingston, Jamaica. Portrait –
Headmaster, latterly Alderman E H Pritchard, Mayor of Fulham.
Headmaster Charles Deane Punchard, the author of Tales from Shakespeare: With Introduction and Notes by C.D. Punchard, Pitman's English Grammar Revised, Helps to the Study of Addison's Essays, Helps to the Study of Leigh Hunt's Essays, A Summary of Johnson's Milton.
Mr W G Urry who was a master at the school, later Dr William G Urry, mediaeval historian and Canterbury Cathedral Archivist and Librarian.