Haberdashers' Aske schools drop slave trade investor's name

The renaming is part of a global campaign to examine statues and institutions linked with slavery in the wake of George Floyd's death in the US

Two private schools are to drop the name of their 17th Century benefactor over his investment in the slave-trading Royal African Company.

Haberdashers' Aske's School for Girls and Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School were named after Robert Aske after he left money to found a school.

The schools in Elstree in Hertfordshire said the change followed a review into their historical legacy.

It is part of a global campaign to reassess historical slave trade links.

But while the individual schools, which charge up to £21,000 a year, will drop Aske in their titles, a school spokesman said they will still be known "collectively as the Haberdashers' Aske's Schools".

The girls' school is next door to the boys' school in Elstree

Merchant Robert Aske invested about £500 - worth around £110,000 today - in the Royal African Company.

It had a monopoly on the British slave trade and continued slaving until 1731.

Aske, who had been a master of the Worshipful Company of Haberdashers, left £20,000 in his will to be partly used to found a school for "20 sons of poor Freemen of the Company", which opened in 1690.

The girls' school followed in 1875.

The schools have also dropped their motto "Serve and Obey" - which was inspired by Christian values to "serve the Lord and obey his Will" - over concerns it could be interpreted differently in the context of slavery, emancipation and equality.

It will be replaced with "Together, Boundless".

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The schools' spokesman said: "Like many organisations across the country, we recently reviewed our historical legacy and the use of our benefactor's name as part of a wider review of our culture, values and ideals."