This photo depicts the meeting at Sofoline that started it all. Rev. Pearson had searched all over Ashanti for a suitable site for the school but without success. After searching as far back as Kintampo, the Asantehene took him to a closed military hospital and suggested that the wards might be converted into dormitories and classrooms and the store rooms could be converted into rooms for the staff. The site of the actual hospital - modern day Sofoline - was very limited so the King gifted the surrounding land to the school to enable it to have reasonable grounds for expansion. The only problem with that was that this additional land was all bush and would have to be cleared before it could be used by the school. In this photo, the Reverend was overwhelmed by the size of the vegetations he had to clear.

PRESS CONFERENCE: Februay 8 1949, the College finally opens. The Headmaster presents the new school to the Government and the Asante Confederacy. The Asantehene was invigorated by seeing his Asante's first School for boys. The Pioneer newspaper was present and published the classic front-page headline "A New School opens for Asante."The Colonial government was represented by Mr. C.O. Butler.

The underpaid Headmaster is seen here at his office. The Staff, who were paid by the government, received about £540 p.a. As a Methodist missionary, the Headmaster was paid by the Methodist Missionary Society as an ordinary missionary and, therefore, received significantly less than that amount. He earned only £350 p.a. Rev. Pearson first arrived in the Gold Coast in September 1938. He went to be a member of staff at Wesley College, Kumasi. But while travelling with his wife in the Northern Region in the 1940s (they met in Accra in 1939 and married in 1941, their son was born in 1944), the people there asked them who they were and why they were there and when they answered that they were missionaries, they asked what missionaries were and who this Jesus Christ was that they served. Sensing an opportunity to teach the people about Christ, he went to Cambridge University to get a degree in Theology (1945-47) and to be ordained a Minister. He returned to the Gold Coast in 1947 with the hope of going to teach the Northern people about God, only to be told in January 1948 that he was to be a Headmaster of a school yet to be built in Ashanti.

The boys walk on campus in 1949.

Mr. Pearson recruited Mr O.K. Money and Mr D. Osei, who had been students at Wesley College, and Mr Anum of the Presbyterian Church to join himself and his Deputy Headmaster, Mr. CJ Bannerman, as the pioneer teachers.

The indefatigable Headmaster Pearson at his desk. He first met the Asantehene when he was on the staff at Wesley College and got to know him fairly well. He discovered that his views on education was similar to His Majesty's. The King assured Rev. Pearson during his days at Wesley College that if there was any assistance that he needed, he would gladly help. He was visiting Takoradi in January 1948 when he received the news that there was to be in a new secondary school in Ashanti and that he was to become the first Headmaster of this Boys secondary school – as yet to be built.

The school operated on the ethos of ‘the family’ to which everyone belonged including the wives of staff members, labourers and everyone else associated with the school. Here, Mrs. Pearson, Rev. Pearson and Assistant Headmaster Bannerman having a chat.