Attention became specially focused by the Old Boys' Association on Herbert Wilkinson in 1930 and 1931. Mr Beswick, very much restored of late to the position of ‘grand old man' of Queen's, had died in 1929 and Wilkinson, having retired as headmaster, had officially become an Old Boy of the school.
A bursary, to be called the Wilkinson-Old Boy Bursary, was launched and in 1930 the Old Boys' cricket team played the current Queen's team on the Wilkinson Field. Wilkinson had claimed at the 1931 dinner that, when he died, the word "Queen's” would be found inscribed on his heart. The principle that the presidency would be for two years only having been adopted, Wilkinson retired from that office at the end of 1931.
The next headmaster to hold the office was Archibald Parry-Davies, who assumed it in 1937.
