King Edward VII and Queen Mary School (KEQMS) was an HMC independent co-educational school in

Lytham St Annes Lytham St Annes () is a seaside town in the Borough of Fylde in Lancashire, England. It is on the The Fylde, Fylde coast, directly south of Blackpool on the Ribble Estuary. The population at the United Kingdom Census 2011, 2011 census was 42,954 ...

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...

, England, formed in 2000 by the merger of King Edward VII School, Lytham and Queen Mary School. It merged with

Arnold School Arnold School was an independent school in Blackpool, Lancashire, England, established on the Fylde coast in 1896 during the Victorian expansion of public boarding schools in England. The school was in the United Church Schools Trust group o ...

, Blackpool, in 2012 to form

AKS Lytham AKS Lytham (AKS), or ArnoldKEQMS, is an independent, co-educational day school located on the Fylde, Lancashire, England. It was formed from the merger of King Edward VII and Queen Mary School (KEQMS) in Lytham St. Annes and Arnold School in Bl ...

. The Lytham Schools Foundation was established in 1719 after a flood disaster in the town. In 1908, one hundred and eighty-nine years after the Foundation's initial formation, King Edward VII School was opened to provide an education for local boys. The opening of the girls' Queen Mary School followed in 1930. It had a reputation of excellence in sports and a thriving history of drama productions and had links with the Czech Republic, France and Germany, with which exchange trips were frequently held (and still are by AKS Lytham).

Merger

The Board of Governors announced that King Edward VII and Queen Mary School would be merging with

, another fee-paying school in the North-West, in September 2012. This happened without consultation inclusive of parents, pupils or staff.
parent group
opposed to the takeover submitted objections to the Charity Commission which prompted a review prior to allowing the merger to proceed. The Charity Commission completed their report and announced on 11 November 2011 that they had approved the new scheme. The parent group immediately announced their intention to appeal against the Charity Commission decision. The appeal was lodged with HM Courts and Tribunal Service – First Tier Tribunal on Friday 9 December 2011. The tribunal's decision was made on 17 May 2012 and stated that the merger could proceed, however the lease agreement put the charity assets at undue risk and needed to be re-written. The parents group then announced that they were not going to appeal and the merger therefore proceeded. In 2011 Fylde M.P.

Mark Menzies Mark Andrew Menzies (born 18 May 1971) is a British Conservative Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Fylde in Lancashire since 2010. He was formerly PPS to Charles Hendry MP, Minister of State for Energy and Cl ...

became involved in the heated controversy surrounding the proposed take-over of the school by the

United Church Schools Trust The United Church Schools Trust (UCST) is a large education charity in the United Kingdom which owns and operates a group of 12 independent schools. The charity is operating under the name United Learning as of 2012. History UCST was founded in ...

and its merger with

Motto

King Edward School's motto was 'Sublimis Ab Unda', which is Latin for 'raised from the waves', in reference to the fact the school was funded by the aforementioned flood disaster. Queen Mary School's motto was 'Semper Fidelis, Semper Parata', which translates as 'Always Faithful, Always Prepared'. The two former schools each had a coat of arms, but despite the two schools being separate they shared the same governing body, which itself had a coat of arms, that consisted of the two schools' coats of arms impaled. This coat of arms was used for the combined school since the merger in 1999. The uniforms for both boys and girls were also changed at this time. As of 2008, a new rebrand of the KEQMS brand was launched. A new logo was produced, and the motto was changed to 'Inspiring Personal Excellence'

Amalgamation

After a reduction in student numbers following

New Labour New Labour was a period in the history of the British Labour Party from the mid to late 1990s until 2010 under the leadership of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. The name dates from a conference slogan first used by the party in 1994, later seen ...

's abolition of the

Assisted Places Scheme The Assisted Places Scheme was established in the UK by the Conservative government in 1980. Children who were eligible were provided with free or subsidised places to fee-charging independent schools - based on the child's results in the school ...

in 1997, the two single-sex schools merged. Now fully co-educational and housed in and around the old King Edward VII building, it consisted of a Kindergarten, Infant, Junior and Senior School, plus a Sixth Form. The Queen Mary site was sold in order to raise money for the continuing development of the new school. The original Queen Mary building was given listed status and has been adapted into housing. KEQMS

Notable former pupils

Notable former pupils (Lidunians) include: ;King Edward VII School *

Malcolm Archer Malcolm Archer (born 1952) is an English composer, conductor and organist. He combines this work with a recital career. Archer was formerly Organist and Director of Music at Bristol Cathedral, Wells Cathedral and at St Paul's Cathedral and Di ...

(born 1952), organist and director of music, St Paul's Cathedral *

Steve Barclay Stephen Paul Barclay (born 3 May 1972) is a British politician who has served as Secretary of State for Health and Social Care since October 2022, having previously held the position from July to September 2022 under Boris Johnson. He served a ...

(born 1972), conservative politician *

Lee Blackett Lee Blackett (born 21 November 1982 in Chester, Cheshire, United Kingdom) is an English former rugby union footballer. Educated at King Edward VII and Queen Mary School in Lytham, he played some of his earlier rugby at Fylde Rugby Club. His usu ...

(born 1982),

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

player/coach * Simon Brailsford, equerry to Her Majesty the Queen * Roy Harper (born 1941), singer songwriter *

Andy Inglis Andrew G. Inglis (born 1960) is a British engineer, corporate executive and CEO of Kosmos Energy. Background Inglis received an MA in engineering from Pembroke College, Cambridge University and joined BP plc in 1980. He is a Chartered Mecha ...

(born 1960), board member, British Petroleum *

Michael Mingos David Michael Patrick Mingos, FRS (born 6 August 1944) is a British chemist and academic. He was Principal of St Edmund Hall, Oxford from 1999 to 2009, and Professor of Inorganic Chemistry at the University of Oxford. Education Mingos attended ...

(born 1944), principal of

St Edmund Hall, Oxford St Edmund Hall (sometimes known as The Hall or informally as Teddy Hall) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. The college claims to be "the oldest surviving academic society to house and educate undergraduates in any university ...

* Robert Neill (born 1905), writer * John Sunderland (born 1945), chairman of

Cadbury Schweppes Cadbury, formerly Cadbury's and Cadbury Schweppes, is a British multinational confectionery company fully owned by Mondelez International (originally Kraft Foods) since 2010. It is the second largest confectionery brand in the world after Mars ...

and president of the

Confederation of British Industry The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) is a UK business organisation, which in total claims to speak for 190,000 businesses, this is made up of around 1,500 direct members and 188,500 non-members. The non members are represented through the 1 ...

Ben Heath ''Coronation Street'' is a British soap opera first broadcast on 9 December 1960. The following is a list of characters that appeared in 2014, by order of first appearance. All characters were introduced by series producer Stuart Blackburn. Shar ...

(born 1992), sales manager of Virtualstock * Richard Frediani, editor of ITN Evening News

References

{{Authority control Schools in the Borough of Fylde Member schools of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference Educational institutions established in 1719 Defunct schools in Lancashire Educational institutions disestablished in 2013 * 1719 establishments in England