School : Queen Victoria prize (1902)

Post date: Feb 19, 2012 5:2:29 PM

Extract from Parish magazine of December 1902:

THE QUEEN VICTORIA PRIZE.

A scheme has been drawn up for the regulation of the competition for the Queen Victoria Prize.

It will be remembered that, at the public meeting at which it was determined that the Prize should be founded in memory of the late Queen, Dr. Fry kindly consented to organise the collection of funds, and a committee was appointed to receive and deal with them, consisting of the Vicar, Mr. R. H. Fremlin, and Mr. W. W. Blest.

A list of subscriptions was published in the Parish Magazine for August, 1901. The Committee then invested the sum of £47 in Consols in the names of the following officials, the Vicar, the Chairman of the Parish Council,and the People's Churchwarden, whom they appointed as Trustees and as a permanent Committee of Management. (The balance of the total sum collected was sent up to the Mansion House as a subscription to the National Memorial, in accordance with the resolution of the public meeting.)

The Committee has recently met and drawn up the following scheme of regulations, which may be altered or added to at any time at the discretion of the Trustees.

1. The Prize to be given away each year at the annual school prize-giving that takes place at Easter.

2. The resolution passed in public meeting of April 30th, 1901, to be interpreted to mean that children under 15 years of age on May 24th immediately succeeding that Easter (rule 1) be eligible for the competition for which the prize is awarded at that Easter; provided that the children shall have been educated in the parish, and their parents resident in the parish throughout the 12 months previous to that Easter.

NOTE.—Thus the first Competition will be known as that of the year 1902-3, for which all children under 15 on May 24th, 1903, will be eligible.

3. Competitors to hand in their essays to the Trustees or their representative on or before the last day in February.

4. The essays to be written anonymously, each essay being distinguished by a number or motto, which must be plainly marked upon it, and must also be written on a slip of paper with the competitor's name in full and the date of birth (year and day of month) and enclosed in a sealed envelope, the envelope to be endorsed Queen Victoria Prize and handed in with the essay.

5. The Trustees to be judges, and the award to be made to the writer of the essay for which two of the three Trustees vote; in case of three different essays being voted for, the three essays to be submitted to an independent referee to be appointed by them, and his decision to be final.

6. The Prize shall not be a money prize.

7. The subject of the essay for the succeeding year to be fixed by the Trustees and to be announced,with any special conditions attached, at the annual prize-giving and published in the Parish Magazine.

8. The competition for 1903-4 to be open to boys only, for 1904-5 to girls only, and so on to boys and girls in alternate years.

(Signed)

* G. M. LIVETT, Vicar of Wateringbury^

* W. W. BLEST, Chairman of Parish Council.^

* R. H. FREMLIN.

RICHARD FRENCH, People's Churchwarden.^

* Committee appointed April 30th.

^ Ex-officio Trustees.

In addition to these general rules the Committee passed the following special resolutions:—

1. That the competition for the current year (1902-3) be open to both boys and girls, and that the sum of £2 0s 6d., which will, be lying at the Bank after Jan. 10th, be divided and with it two prizes be purchased, one for boys and one for girls.

2. That in future the income for annual expenditure, amounting to about 27/-, be awarded for competition among boys and girls in alternate years (rule 8).

3. That the subject for the current year (1902-3) be the following: "Elementary Education in Great Britain-its history during the reign of Queen Victoria."

4. That the headteachers in the Boys' and Girls' Departments be asked to give some instruction in the subject, and to arrange that the essays be written in school by all children of the upper Standards on a day in the last week in February.

5. That Mr. R.H. Fremlin be appointed referee under rule 5.

Signed on behalf of the Committee,

G. M. LIVETT.