2 different schools but the same song: KC, Lagos and QMGS, Walsall

“Wait, what?”

That was my reaction the first time I saw the video. THEY ARE SINGING OUR SCHOOL SONG. It’s the same thing, word for word. How do they know the lyrics? Did all these oyinbo people attend King’s College Lagos too? Or, wait - is our school song not our own?

Those people singing our song

King’s College Lagos, or KC, is Nigeria’s premier secondary school and it’s most popular. Her alumni are accomplished and include Bayo Ogunlesi, Hakeem Belo-Osagie, Alex Ekwueme, Lamido Sanusi and many more. 

The British colonizers founded KC in 1909 with 10 students. Originally called “King’s School”, it’s purpose was to “provide for the youth… a higher education than those supplied by existing schools.” This history has led to a proud student and alumni body. KC was a government school but our history pre-dated Nigeria’s forming or independence. Our uniforms were different.. And KC boys took themselves seriously. We were different from other government schools and  to confirm, all you had to do was listen to our school song - “Service to the living! Honour to our dead…”.  KC Boys love the school song. We sing when Old Boys marry, we sing it when they die, every single time in raucous harmony. It is our thing.

The men in that video seemed to love the song as much as me and my KC brothers do. As the title says, these were old boys of Queen Mary’s Grammar School, an all boys’ grammar school in Walsall England. 

Walsall, United Kingdom is very far from Lagos, Nigeria.

Given that Nigeria was a British colony until 1960, was our school song copied? 

Queen Mary’s Grammar School (QMGS) is one of the UK’s oldest schools. It was founded in 1554, 355 years before King’s College Lagos. It has several accomplished alumni and has existed way before the British or Portuguese even visited Nigeria. 

Both songs are the same, with a small modification on the first line. 

King’s College on the left, QMGS on the right… 

Both schools even have similar mottos derived from their school songs. For QMGS, it’s “Floreat Regina Schola Mariae” literally, “May the school of Queen Mary Flourish,” and for King’s College, it’s “Floreat Collegium”, translated literally as “May the College Flourish”

From QMGS archivist, I learned that the QMGS school song was written by F.G. Layton  with music by J.W. Ivimey specifically for the school. It was written in 1908, a whole year before the founding of King’s College Lagos. 

Despite my best efforts, I could not find any records or establish the link between the author of the song, the music and King’s College Lagos. Neither could I figure out from King’s College Lagos history how the song came to be and which came first. 

In my mind, I choose to believe that this man, these “contractors”, Layton and Ivimey sold the same product to two buyers and here we are. I choose to believe that both schools have equal rights to the song. I understand that these foreigners share my special song, but that’s okay. As long as I can block this out, me and the other old boys should be fine. 

In 1934, F.G. Layton said this song was the only thing that would outlive him. He might have just been right. 

Floreat Collegium. 

Leave a comment below if you have any leads / thoughts / comments!