Doctor of Letters
A champion of life-changing British education who set up schools around the world.
Roger Fry was born in Portsmouth during World War 2. He attended Portsmouth Northern Grammar School for Boys, going on to complete his education at King’s College London and then to train as a teacher at the London University Institute of Education.
His first teaching post was at a secondary modern school in Portsmouth. He then moved to Watford Grammar School for Girls in Hertfordshire.
Keen to broaden his experience, Roger became a lecturer at a private university in Madrid. In the 1960s, Spain was badly in need of more schools and the demand for British education was high. He was encouraged to found a private, English-curriculum school in Madrid that rapidly grew to nearly 2,000 pupils, aged 3 to 18.
Over the course of a career in education that spans 50 years, Roger has established British schools in Spain, elsewhere in Europe and in Central America, as well as a small boarding school for overseas students in England. Most recently, he founded a multi-academy trust in England with schools in Portsmouth, Sussex and Berkshire.
Roger’s passion for quality in education led him to chair and develop an international association for British schools overseas. From that position, he negotiated with the British Department for Education to create inspectorates for schools abroad, subject to OFSTED, and Government-approved accreditation.
His work in British international education brought him the honour of a Knighthood, an Honorary Fellowship at Trinity College Oxford and an honorary doctorate from the University of Portsmouth. Now in semi-retirement, he and his Spanish wife divide their time between Portsmouth and Spanish homes.