Former Harrogate pupil Jim Carter OBE has returned to his roots as the Downton Abbey star presented prizes to over 100 pupils.
Invited back to Ashville College where he attended as a pupil from 1959 to 1967, the acclaimed actor praised pupils for their talents as the school celebrated another year of academic, sporting, musical and dramatic success.
The annual Senior School and Sixth Form Speech Day also rewarded personal development and those making a positive impact in the school and wider community.
No doubt more accustomed to actually receiving awards than handing them out, the actor – who was born in Harrogate - delighted pupils as they were called up to collect their awards and shake hands with one of the school’s most famous alumni.
Mr Carter, who has retained close links with the school and returned to open the new drama studio dedicated to him in 2014, said he was delighted to have been asked back to join in the celebrations of another successful Ashville school year.
Head of Ashville, Rhiannon Wilkinson, said:
“It was wonderful to be able to welcome Jim back to Ashville. We are so very grateful to him for the support that he continues to show the school and to our pupils, who will no doubt have been enthralled by his appearance and his wonderful words.
“Ashville has a long and proud history of pupils who have gone on to achieve great things in later life and it is very important for us to be able to invite them back to inspire the next generation of Ashvillians.
“Congratulations to all of this year’s prize winners, there were some truly stand-out displays of exceptional home-grown talent over the last academic year and it was only right that we celebrate that pool of diverse-rich talent with another successful Speech Day.”
The young Jim Carter was something of a star pupil while at Ashville, excelling not only in the classroom, but also on the sports field, and not surprisingly, on the stage.
Both a Senior Prefect and Head of House, his academic awards included the 1965 Tom Sawyer Memorial Prize for French, the 1966 Frederick Swire Memorial Prize for English and the Lawrence Crowther Public Speaking Prize in 1967.
He represented the 1st XV at rugby and captained both his house and the Sevens, while his performance in the 1966 play ‘Strife’ earned him that year’s Dramatic Prize.
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