Gateway School, World War 2 Memorial

Memorial: Gateway School, World War 2 Memorial

This fine World War 2 memorial to The Gateway School is being re-erected in The Newarke Houses Museum having featured in the recently closed exhibition IN MEMORIAM: Leicester’s War Memorials at Risk.

This is its true home as that is where the School was located until it closed in 2009.

However its successor institution, Gateway Sixth Form College in Hamilton is most interested in fostering a close connection with Newarke Houses and we are working closely with them to facilitate this. For a start we will produce a near full size print on framed foam board which will hang somewhere central in the College.

Along with it will be a book of biographies of the men listed on the memorial using information kindly given by old boy Mr Ken Paterson.Any further information will be most welcome.

A Short History of Gateway School and College in Leicester

Gateway School, Leicester, opened on Tuesday the 18th September 1928 in Skeffington House, the building that is now occupied by the Newarke Houses Museum.

There were 270 boys of different ages in the first intake, who were taught by

a staff of 12, following a curriculum that had an emphasis on practically based subjects. Between 1928 and 1940 the school roll would include the names of 46 boys, who after the Second World War would be commemorated on the Gateway School War Memorial.

In March 1939 the school moved across the road to the Georgian-fronted building, where it would remain for the next seventy years. For many of those years a number of other buildings in Leicester were also used for teaching, but in the1960’s a new gymnasium, and buildings to house the craft and science departments were constructed on the Newarke site. At this time Gateway was a grammar school, with boys having to pass the 11+ examination to gain entry. However, the school also accepted into its sixth form boys aged 16 who had attended local secondary schools.

In 1976 a major change took place in Leicester with the introduction of co-educational sixth form colleges. Gateway was chosen to be one of these, with 57 female students among the first intake. The constraints imposed by the size of the site at the Newarke meant that further development there was not feasible, and so in 2009 a new Gateway Sixth Form College was opened on a purpose built campus in the Hamilton district of Leicester. In 2020 over 1,200 students were enrolled there, taking both A-level and vocational programmes of study.

Ken Patterson – teacher at Gateway School from 1974 to 2001. Courtesy of Michael Doyle.

The names on Gateway School, World War 2 Memorial...

Our thanks to researcher Ken Patterson for providing these details

Memorial location

The Newarke Houses Museum, The Newarke, Leicester LE2 7BY