Celebrating 150 years of the Club
Queen Mary’s Club is 150 years old. Steve Law tells us more, his speech from the dinner is below
June 23rd of this year saw Queen Mary’s Club celebrate its 150-year anniversary. The images below shows views of the School buildings, Headmasters, Sam Powis and past Dinners
QMC was founded by HM Irvine (“Posh”) - see left - in his dining room in the school in Lichfield St..
Every year saw a gathering in his rooms to celebrate the School’s achievements during the year and to look forward to plans for the future to foster the link between the School & Old Marians and the welfare of the important institutions of the Town. As time passed the HM’s house became too small and the Dinner moved out.
It was an occasion not just for eating and drinking (that would be gluttony of course) but also making speeches. A Constitution was drawn up and Officers elected. In the early days and beyond the Officers read like a who’s who of the great and good of Walsall. The date of the Dinner was always Shrove Tuesday and this persisted until the move up to the Mayfield site, when it became the last Friday in September to allow for far flung Marians to attend. Now it is the last Saturday.
Some local knowledge is needed here. Venues for the Dinner besides Big School in Lichfield St included the Temperance Rooms in Freer St (Empire Cinema, now NCP car Park), George Hotel on The Bridge, The Stork (aka Dirty Duck and then Sofa Sofa), Kenmare Restaurant (above Co-op aka Sports Bar) both located at the bottom of Upper Bridge St. And once at Moss Close in 1946. Ever since it’s was in Big School, Lichfield St, or here at Mayfield since 1966.
It seems apposite at this point to begin my tribute to Headmaster Edward Marshall or Mush, as he was known. I approached the President and Committee after reading about Marshall in David Fink’s School History Book. My reasoning for the proposal:
Having read the relevant section of Fink’s book, which many will have at home, yet lies gathering dust on the bookshelf unopened, I became fascinated by the chapter on Marshall. There are some very dry chapters also in the book, I will admit, but I recommend three chapters to be read: Whitehall comes to Walsall, Marshall’s Rule & Queen Mary’s Club.
In 1906 after Headmaster Henry Bompas-Smith moved on, as he didn’t care for the modernity of Walsall, nor its people, Edward Norman Marshall was appointed in his place. During Mush’s 20 years at the School he:
Raised the pupil roll from 204 to 514
Increased the number of and monetary amount in Scholarships
Obtained 32 Open Exhibitions or Scholarships at Oxbridge (8 between 1869 & 1906)
Instituted Advance courses and a proper 6th form
Introduced a House System into the School: Petypher, Docker, Gnosill, Hough, Somers & Thrustans
Obtained Mayfield and Moss Close
The School was admitted to Headmasters’ Conference (A Public School Preserve)
Introduced the House System and a distinctive School Cap
Changed the School Song to the current one, which I’m sure you’ll all belt out at the end at the end of the evening.
Introduced the present School Motto: Quas dederis solas semper habebis opes - Alone the wealth thou givest, shalt thou own or as they say in Bloxwich “Yo only gerrout what yo’m prepared to purrin”.
He had a most remarkable feature – a luxuriant moustache. It came forward and was upswept, a pioneer moustache, for it anticipated the Guardsman’s and Pilot’s models in many respects.
Mush was an academic but he also mixed with the working man at the Palfrey Working Man’s Club, Burns and Unionist Clubs and The British Legion. The School was is work, his hobby and his meat and drink. He hated cant and humbug, was merciless to hypocrites and people who took themselves too seriously.
Did anyone here win a Palfrey Prize whilst at School? – you can thank Headmaster Marshall; he encouraged the Club to give money for scholarships, and prizes.
When Marshall died suddenly in August 1926, not just the School, but also the whole town was in shock. Flags were lowered to half-mast over the School, the Town Hall and the Unionist Club.
He desperately wanted to see a new School built at Mayfield; sadly lack of funds and his untimely death prevented this occurring in his lifetime. His dying wish was for his ashes to be built into the walls of the new School at Mayfield. The Governors agreed that this wish should be respected. Was it? We have some governors here.
Maybe the bronze Tablet located in the Admin Block is a satisfactory substitute.
His last appointment in 1926 was that of an historian – A E Clarke (Nobby to us pupils). Nobby retired at the end of 1966. Why do I mention this? Nobby taught me History when I was a Fusty. To me that feels like a link to a bygone great age in the School, even now.
Under Marshall’s rule he revolutionised the Dinner and the Club.
He sought to increase the glamour of the Dinner by inviting famous men to deliver the speeches.
For the Club he encouraged Old Marians to support Scholarships for boys going on to Uni. And I’m sure to encourage local businessmen and professionals to take Old Marians into their businesses.
Since Marshall’s time the Club has worked tirelessly to provide funds to support the School whether the times be good or bad:
The Poplar trees at the bottom of the school field, The Honours Boards, books in the School’s Library. They used to run the Leavers’ Ball in July for both GS & HS and finally saw the construction of the Sports and Social Club. The Club is integral in supporting Farchynys (QMC are trustees in Farchynys to ensure no unscrupulous HM tries to sell it) and Farchynys’s expansion, and most recently in the appeal for Sports facilities fit for the 21st century.
For Queen Mary’s Club, Marshall oversaw its development from a small though valuable social body into a kind of Society for the Preservation and Promotion of Queen Mary’s School steadily recalling Old Boys to their duty to the School. Though not its Founder, the Club as it is today must be regarded as Marshall’s chief legacy to the School. The Old Boys, & Girls now of course, in their Club, are Marshall’s trustees for the School he built up.
There is no one left alive who was at the School in Marshall’s time, so he never gets a mention. However I am going to propose a toast, which I hope in future years will be continued at the Dinner to Edward Norman Marshall, to the man who had probably the greatest influence in bringing QMS to prominence.
