When he opened the 24th annual exhibition of students' work on the 1st July, 1927, Professor F.W. Armstrong gave the following account of the beginnings of the Grahamstown School of Art: ... The appointment of a master was the responsibility of Sir Langham Dale, the Superintendent General of Education in the Cape Colony. His choice for the first art master of the Grahamstown School of Art was Mr.W. H. Simpson. Simpson had studied at the South Kensington Museum then at the Royal Academy. During the 1870's he had exhibited in the Royal Academy, at other exhibitions in London, and in the provinces. Intro. p. 1.