Dennis Memorial Grammar School, Onitsha.The first grammar school in Igboland, it opened its doors to the first intake of nineteen boarders and forty-six day students on January 25, 1925.

In February 1911, a decision to establish a secondary school was being taken and a small committee was set up to produce plans and estimates for the buildings of the proposed Central School Onitsha. An Upper School consisting of all the children from Standard III upwards from the three Onitsha schools had been begun in the old printing house in the C.M.S compound early in 1912. By June of the same year it had 85 boys and 9 girls on roll and it was hoped that the secondary wing would be added to it in due course.In spite of the Executive Committee decision of July 1915 "to abandon the idea of Onitsha Grammar School," the dynamics of the situation were such that in 1918 the Committee was still able to affirm: "Onitsha Grammar School scheme still had E.C. support.

A lease was taken with Government approval on a piece of land which "was to be the site of the new school." At the Executive Committee meeting of February 1914 the plan of the new building was approved and it was also agreed that the name of the school should be "The Onitsha Grammar School." Furthermore, the Secretary was asked to "consult the Principals of the other secondary schools on the Coast and elsewhere, and to make suggestions for the curriculum, to be submitted to the next Executive Committee. Archdeacon T. J. Dennis of the Igbo language fame had died on 1st August 1917, when the boat on which he was travelling home was torpedoed by the Germans. At its very next meeting the Executive Committee of the resolved: "(1) That a fund be opened with the object of perpetuating the memory of late Archdeacon Dennis. (2) ... The idea that commended itself to the Committee was that the fund should be used for the furtherance of education in the Mission.". Photo: E. H. Duckworth/Northwestern University/1940s-1950s