Earl Grey School was the first Junior High School in Western Canada. It was named after Lord Earl Grey (see above hyperlink), who was the Governor-General of Canada from 1904-1911. The first students began in September, 1915, under the direction of the principal, Miss J. Ellis. In 1919 Mr. J. S. Little was appointed principal, and he was asked to set up an experimental Junior High School with 400 students. Some of the teaching methods introduced were unusual. For example, instead of a text, students used scrapbooks composed of clippings from newspaper and magazine articles. The aim was to make pupils happy in their work and proud of their school. To this end a school song and the motto Honour, Truth and Duty were introduced. A plague with this motto is presented at each graduation ceremony. Over the years, Earl Grey became known as a leader in the fields of drama, operettas, music festivals, and sports. There have been many illustrious graduates of Earl Grey, including James. E. Coyne, former Governor of the Bank of Canada, Robert E. Beattie, former Deputy Governor, Robert A. Steen, former mayor of Winnipeg, and singer, Neil Young. The school's honour roll (1919 to present) continues to show the names of those students who have achieved high academic honours in Grades 7, 8, and 9.

In May of 1941 a new school library was opened to commemorate the school's silver jubilee. An addition to the original building was the new gymnasium, completed around 1970. It was a great improvement over the former Open Area where there are huge floor to ceiling pillars!

Many of Earl Grey's alumni served their country in World War Two. Sixty-eight of these people did not survive, and their names are listed prominently on the wall outside the main office.

In the early 1980's an Apple computer lab was set up in the school. A new IBM computer lab was installed for the 1993-94 school year. In 1992 a new Science lab was built on the third floor. In March of 1998 a new computer lab, the Hewlett Packard Technology Centre was opened.

Earl Grey has maintained its sense of history, but has also kept up with the times in programming. On June 22-3 of 1990, Earl Grey's 75th Anniversary was gloriously celebrated at the school and at a dinner-dance at the Winnipeg Convention Centre, with close to 900 people in attendance. Old acquaintances were renewed, and the many members of the Earl Grey family met together with great pleasure. We are now looking forward to the 100th annivesary!