33 Alfred Pearson at Saint Edmund’s College: 30 September 2024

Today I visited Liverpool City Archives and was permitted to examine the records of Saint Edmund College for the period when Alfred Pearson was a student there.  Alfred attended Saint Edmund during these school terms

Autumn	Spring	Summer
1907	1908	1908
1908	1909	1909
1909	1910	1910
1910	1911	1911

 

When he started at Saint Edmund in August 1907, Alfred was in Form III (B) – the equivalent of the 9^th year of formal education.  When he graduated from Saint Edmund, he had successfully completed Form V (A) – the equivalent of the 12^th year of formal education.

Before attending Saint Edmund, Alfred had attended Saint Saviour Elementary School at Everton and he had successfully completed year 8 (0nce called the Merit Certificate in Australia) at Saint Saviour in 1907. 

The Saint Edmund College records, list these academic achievements by Alfred while he attended Saint Edmund.

Diocesan Examination	Junior 1st Class	1908
Diocesan Examination	Intermediate 1st Class	1909
Liverpool Education Committee	Common Local Admission Examination	1908
Senior Oxford Local Examination	First Division Pass List	1909
Preliminary Certificate Examination		1909 to 1910

 According to the Saint Edmund records, when Alfred commenced at Saint Edmund, his father was a “Coachman”.  The Census records state that Alfred’s father Thomas Pearson was a Hansom Cab driver – this means he was a taxi driver, but the taxi was pulled by a horse rather than by an internal combustion engine.

Item 11 on Alfred’s Admission Record reads as follows.

11 Particulars of any exemption from Tuition fees
(a)   Total exemption	Partial exemption
Granted from (date) - 1 VII 1907	Granted from (date)

 I offer a few words from personal experience about Alfred’s fee paying scholarship.  The most obvious positive about the scholarship is that Alfred did not have to pay fees.  In my personal case, the fees had to be paid to the school first and then the scholarship authorities (the Australian government) would reimburse the fees actually paid.  In practice, this meant I had to ask the Principal to give a false receipt saying the fees had already been paid, so that the fees could be “reimbursed” to mum, and thus enable the fees to be actually paid.  That process was humiliating.

The other point I make is that school fees form only part of the costs incurred in going to school.  Most sports require special sports clothing and/ or equipment.  These “ancillary costs” were probably NOT covered by Alfred’s scholarship and either Alfred had to find the money to cover them – by part time work – or his parents somehow had to find the money to cover them.

The scholarship made it POSSIBLE for Alfred to complete his education, but the process of actually getting an education must have nevertheless been tremendously hard.

Alfred must have worked his arse off to achieve what he achieved.

The Saint Edmund Admission record says that when he left Saint Edmund, Alfred’s “Occupation taken up after leaving" was “Ex Student Teacher”.  The implication of this entry seems to be that while he studied at Saint Edmund, Alfred was already doing studies to qualify himself as a teacher.  If this is correct, Alfred did NOT cease to be a student teacher when he left Saint /Edmund College; he continued to qualify himself as a teacher by attending Chester College (Now Cheshire University).

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When Alfred attended Saint Edmund College, it was located in Colquitt Street, Liverpool.  In the year 2024, Colquitt Street seems an unlikely place for a school to be located.  This was Colquitt Street on Thursday 26 September 2024.

 

 

Colquitt Street is now a very busy, commercial street and at its northern end, Colquitt Street is very close to Saint Luke’s Church.  Saint Luke was bombed by the Nazis in World War 2 and although the walls still stand, it no longer has a roof.  Here is Saint Luke Church as seen from Colquitt Street.

 

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Saint Edmund’s College was established in 1898 by the Anglican Diocese of Liverpool and was located in Colquitt Street when Alfred attended it.  Although Saint Edmund was a co-educational school when Alfred was a pupil there, it became a girls only school in 1912.  Saint Edmund moved from Colquitt Street to Devonshire Road, Liverpool in 1925.  Saint Edmund ceased to exist in 1981 when it merged with Liverpool Girls’ College to form Archbishop Blanch School. 

I know from a book called “A History of St Edmund's College, Liverpool 1898-1981” by Kathleen Goodacre, that immediately prior to the creation Archbishop Branch School, Alfred Pearson’s name was remembered on a memorial board at Saint Edmund College.  I have written on at least three separate occasions to Archbishop Branch School at the address listed on its website – both by email and by “Snail Mail”, including letters addressed personally to the lady listed as the school Principal on the School website – but I have never received even a formal acknowledgment of the receipt of my letters.  I wanted to be able to take a photo of the Memorial Board mentioned by Kathleen Goodacre.  I have been unable to do this – if the Memorial Board still exists – because Archbishop Branch School has ignored all of my attempts to communicate with it.

Perhaps the staff at Archbishop Branch School are too overworked to even send formal acknowledgments to incoming correspondence.

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I have not as yet been able to obtain any records of Alfred’s attendance at Chester College, but I am certain that when I do, the Chester College records will reveal the identical high achievements that Alfred displayed at Saint Edmund.

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When Alfred enlisted in World War 1 on that day in September 1914, he lined up with thousands of others to pass through this door into Saint George’s Hall.  The door he queued up to enter and enlist, still exists.  This is the door Alfred passed through to enlist in the King's Own Liverpool Regiment in Saint George’s Hall Liverpool on that day in September 1914.

Once he entered this door, Alfred’s hard earned career as a teacher, was finished; so too, was his life on this planet.

Alfred and all those other men who willingly walked through this door, should be honoured and remembered.

Let us not forget them.