Description
William Fry started working life on the railways but his life was transformed in his thirties when he moved to Saltaire to become the long-serving Secretary and General Manager of the Salt Schools. The 'Salt Schools eventually incorporated the High School (for Girls and Boys), the Saltaire Club and Institute, and the Technical and Art School
In the late 1880s a new School of Art and Science was instigated by Titus Salt Junior. To help fund the new school and partly celebrate its opening, and Queen Victoria's diamond jubilee, Salt devised the Royal Yorkshire Jubilee Exhibition. William Fry became heavily involved in its planning, travelling round the country to visit other exhibitions at Edinburgh, Folkestone and Liverpool as well as the Colonial Exhibition in London. He wrote numerous letters to obtain exhibits and enlist support for the Exhibition.
This was a difficult task because of competition with other exhibitions and attractions. William wrote that ‘obscurity, too small an affair’ were ‘prominent ideas to be combated’.
William also became Secretary of the Sir Titus Salt's Hospital, likely after the management ot the hospital was passed to the Salts School Board in 1887.
C3a-164: Letter regarding pension
E1a-062: Letter to school governors about the Royal Yorkshire Jubillee Exhibition
E1a-063: Letter from William Fry concerning Vincent Riordan
E2-004a-c: Report and Balance Sheet of the Fancy Fair