page_title: Percy Shaw Jeffrey
section_title: Headmaster at Colchester Royal Grammar School
hierarchical_section_title: Percy Shaw Jeffrey / Headmaster at Colchester Royal Grammar School
caption_attribution_description: The cadet corps of Colchester Royal Grammar School, starting for camp at en:Clacton-on-Sea, July, 1914.
context_page_description: Percy Shaw Jeffrey FRGS was a respected English schoolmaster and author of several books on a range of topics, including significant contributions towards the teaching of phonetics in schools. Shaw Jeffrey taught at a variety of schools before spending sixteen years as headmaster at Colchester Royal Grammar School. With his wife, Alice, he retired first to South Africa, then to the town of Whitby, North Yorkshire, in 1916, where he spent his time between numerous trips to countries around the world.
context_section_description: Having been an assistant master at the Clifton College for three years, he was offered a position as headmaster at a new school which was to be founded in Argentina by the educationalist Michael Ernest Sadler, but could not get the funding to travel there, instead he assumed the role of headmaster at Colchester Royal Grammar School (known locally as CRGS). It is unclear exactly what date he can be said to have joined the school, because although agreement between the school and the governing legislature was reached in May 1899, the process of finding a new headmaster went on under the guidance of an interim one. Certainly, his official term as headmaster started on 1 September 1900 and by the end of 1900 he had already made his mark on the school—achievements included the introduction of a new school song, "Carmen Colcestriense", which used the same tune as, and a variation of the lyrics for, the school song of The Skinners' School. He retired his post as headmaster in 1916, but kept a lasting interest in the school.
  During his 16-year stay at CRGS, student numbers increased from 29 to 180 boys under his guidance, particularly through the introduction of day pupils. Shaw Jeffrey is also credited with the introduction of many changes at the school, including the introduction of purple blazers, the setting up of the Old Colcestrian Society for former boys (and quite often honoured former masters), a preparatory school, a cadet corps, an orchestra, a bugle band and a series of school entertainments and theatrical performances, and the acquisition of several buildings on behalf of the school. He was a national pioneer of the teaching of modern European languages through phonetics, employed language teachers from Germany and France, and set up arrangements for foreign study during holidays.
  Whilst at CRGS he founded the school magazine, The Colcestrian, designed to relay information about the school to students, ex-students and parents on a regular basis. This ran for over sixty consecutive years, and has recently been restarted in a similar style. Even after he left the school, he wrote into the magazine, adding his own memories, thoughts and opinions on articles of news published. He often signed himself off as "J", "an abbreviation that was and is commonly used in reference to him" throughout his time at CRGS and as synonymous with the man himself that it could be used for an article about his death in the local newspaper.
  In recognition of his achievements at the school, a school house was named after him in 1950. The change from School House to Shaw Jeffrey's House completed a quartet that had featured three other notable headmasters of the school since Shaw Jeffrey himself introduced the four-house system in 1908. The house is still informally known by students as "J's". Another tribute, a painting of him by Frank Daniell, a Colchester artist, was presented to him on his retirement by the governors of CRGS and members of the Old Colcestrian Society and a replica was initially to be hung in the school hall; it was, however, the replica that was taken by Shaw Jeffrey and the original hung in the school, where it remains.
caption: CRGS cadet corps, July 1914
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