Duke of Westminster Medal returned to it’s spiritual home!

In March, the Alumni office was contacted by Ms Valerie Byers of Vancouver, Canada, who wrote that she would like to visit the School to officially present her late father’s Duke of Westminster Medal to the School Archives.
The Medal was awarded to Mr Joseph Austen Byers in 1914 as recognition of his outstanding academic achievement. Upon leaving King’s, Joseph, who joined the School in 1907, was elected to an Open Mathematical Exhibition at Balliol College, Oxford, elected as King’s ‘Platt Exhibitioner’, receiving £60 per annum for 3 years of University study, and as the best candidate in the County, was awarded the first Cheshire County Scholarship for the annual fee of £50. Joseph’s University career however was cut short at the end of his first term, having been given a Commission in the Cheshire Regiment at the beginning of the First World War.

In 1916, Joseph was wounded in Mesopotamia while a subaltern in the Cheshire Regiment and after recovering, served in India, then a British Colony, as a Royal Engineer (army signals) and found a bride. Having survived the war, unlike many other less fortunate King’s Scholars, Joseph returned to Oxford in 1919 to complete his studies. He married, became a Judge, and eventually settled in Vancouver, Canada where his only daughter, Val lives today.

This was a very emotional day for Val, who was also able to view some archive material of her father in drama productions and read about his exploits on the cricket pitch, as chronicled in old School magazines.
The Medal itself was originally struck in 1877 and depicts the very first Duke of Westminster on one side and the School crest on the other with the King’s motto Rex dedit: benedicat Deus - The King gave it, may God bless it. The Westminster medal has been presented by the Grosvenor Estate each year to the outstanding academic since 1870.

Since the foundation of the Westminster medal in 1870, there has only been one design change. From 1877, the medals feature the Duke on one side, and the school crest on the reverse. However from 1870 to 1876 inclusive, the reverse instead showed a curious mixture of the City and Cathedral arms. These medals are of course very rare, and were given only to:

1870 Edward William Okell
1871 Harry Beswick
1872 Frank Joseph Powell
1873 Charles Howard Minshull
1874 Frederick James Beckett
1875 Alexander Vint
1876 Thomas Gartside Butterworth

View Photo Album

The King’s School Alumni Office would love to know if you recognise anyone in the photos. Do you think you may have one of the earliest Westminster medals? We would love to see it!