Crosby Grammar School.
We had in Crosby an old school, endowed some three hundred years ago by a Crosby boy who made his fortune in London, a part of which he handed to the Merchant Taylors' Company for educational purposes in the village in which he was born.
The school was established, the old schoolhouse erected, and it was carried on with varying, but no great success, for over two hundred years. At one time when the Merchant Taylors came down to inspect it, they found it had been closed for some years, whilst the head-master was living at Sefton quietly drawing his salary. Within my recollection the scholars numbered only fifteen to twenty, and the head-master frequently adjourned the school in the afternoon to go rat-hunting. But when Canon Armour was appointed head-master, he at once sought to bring about a change and extend the area of the school's usefulness. The city property belonging to the school had meantime greatly increased in value, and the opportunity appeared favourable to make the school a great middle-class institution. In this I was in hearty accord with Canon Armour. We called meetings of the inhabitants to promote a petition to the Charity Commissioners in favour of our project. The Vicar of Crosby offered very strong opposition on the ground that we were robbing the poor man of his school. In the end we were successful, the present schools were built at a cost of £37,000, and were soon filled with 250 pupils, and under Canon Armour's able guidance quickly took a leading position for scholarship, and became celebrated for the success attained by the pupils at Oxford and Cambridge. Canon Armour made this school his life's work, and right well he did it.