Celebrated TV and film actor returns to his old school in Harrogate nearly 60 years after he was a pupil
One of the stars of TV and cinema’s Downton Abbey has returned to Harrogate roots to inspire the talent of the future.
Jim Carter OBE took a starring role in the annual Speech Day at Ashville College in Harrogate where he shone as a pupil in the mid-1960s.
Invited back to the Harrogate school where he attended as a pupil from 1959 to 1967, the acclaimed star of stage and screen praised the pupils for their talents as Ashville celebrated another year of academic, sporting, musical and dramatic success.
More accustomed to receiving awards than handing them out, the much-loved 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.
The celebrated actor’s visit to Harrogate comes in the build-up to the release of the third and final Downton Abbey movie which will open in cinemas this weekend.
The new film sees Carter starring alongside Hugh Bonneville, Laura Carmichael, Michelle Dockery, Dominic West, Paula Giametti, Phyllis Logan and Elizabeth McGovern in Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale which launches this Friday.
Head of Ashville College, 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.”
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.
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.
During Ashville College’s Speech Day, the respected actor presented prizes to more than 100 pupils at Ashville College in total.
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.