World War II

During World War II, the BBC and CBS launched a joint radio series called “Transatlantic Call: People to People” as a way of strengthening bonds between the UK and the US in wartime. The episodes wer…

MGS’s volunteer archivist Jeremy Ward, who taught at MGS from 1974 to 1997 and who has been volunteering with our Archives Team ever since, has published his first ever book. A two-year labour of lov…

The following article was written by OM Jeremy Ward, who is also a member of the MGS Archives team:  In the pantheon of famous Old Mancunians an unscientific survey suggested the present day generati…

Arthur Maddocks attended MGS between 1932 and 1940. He was interviewed in November 2019 as part of an oral history project to record the memories of Old Mancunians who were at MGS during the war year…

The evacuation to Blackpool was a short-lived, if vivid interlude in MGS history. However, at the time, boys did not know that they would only be away for just over a month. Frank Thewlis attended M…

MGS pupils had the privilege of hearing from a survivor of the Nazi death camps who went on to rescue 600 Jewish orphans and captured Nazi war criminals, including the so-called ‘Butcher of Plaszów’ …

The war affected various aspects of school life, including the way that many boys spent their holidays. Norman Davies (OM 1940 – 42) remembers the School encouraging boys to do their bit for the war…

It was always a risk to bring the School back from Blackpool onto a site on the edge of a densely populated area of an industrial city. The School did not escape unscathed. Autumn and Winter 1940 saw…

On this day 80 years ago, MGS boys and staff returned to Manchester after five weeks of evacuation in Manchester. Their return was on condition that the School buildings were furnished with air raid …

This month marks eighty years since the School evacuated to Blackpool, the day before the United Kingdom entered the Second World War. The School had been aware of the possibility of evacuation since…

This September is the 80th anniversary of the start of World War II, and in MGS history, 80 years since the School evacuated to Blackpool. Working with MGS archive material relating to the Great War …

The following was written by Jeremy Ward, (History 1974 - 1997) and looks at just some of the MGS pupils who gave their lives during World War 1, and how The Great War affected the School: THE LONG W…