Researching prizes and prize-winners

Top-performing examination candidates have received formal recognition since the early days of ICAEW, with Certificates of Merit and prizes having been issued from 1883 onwards.

As is noted below, the prizes on offer and the criteria for awarding them have changed over time. A list of the prizes currently awarded to top performing candidates at ICAEW examinations is set out on the History of Prizes page.

This guide is intended to assist those seeking information on the history of ICAEW prizes, and details of historical prize-winners. Current ACA students wishing to access their own results should refer to the Exam Results page.

The first ICAEW examinations were held in June 1882 and from early on there was a strong focus on standards. It was decided that students should be motivated to strive for excellence with the issuing of Certificates of Merit and prizes.

The first prizes were awarded following the June 1883 Final Examination, with Edward Hartley Turner the recipient of the 1st prize (as noted in the ICAEW Annual Report for 1883). At this time prizes were only awarded if a certain threshold was met, and were not issued for every sitting.

Over time a number of additional prizes were created, many sponsored by prominent figures in the profession and their families, such as William Deloitte, Sir William Peat, Lord Plender, William Quilter and Frederick Whinney.

A brief history of each of the prizes currently awarded to top performing candidates at ICAEW examinations is set out on the History of Prizes page. Further detail on the foundation and development of some prizes — such as the Peat Prize — can be found in historical issues of The Accountant, among other sources.

Certain prizes that existed historically — with details of their recipients being recorded in the sources listed below — are no longer awarded. These include the Theodore Gregory Prize and the West Prize.

It should also be noted that some prizes have been awarded for different reasons in the past. For example, the Quilter Prize was once an auditing prize, being awarded to the successful candidate at the Final Examination who sent in the best paper on auditing (as noted in The Accountant, 5th March 1910, p. 336). This is no longer the case today; it has lately been awarded to top performing candidates in the ACA Advanced Level Corporate Reporting examination.

Information on prizes as they stood at particular dates can be found in some editions of the Examinations Conduct and Syllabuses. For example, the edition for the examinations held in May 1959 includes information on qualification criteria, award frequency, and value for each of the prizes extant at the date of publication.

Some regional ICAEW groups and societies award (or have awarded) various local prizes, distinct from the ‘core’ Institute prizes. For example, the West Yorkshire Society of Chartered Accountants awarded a WYSCA Prize for some years. If you require information on these prizes, please contact the relevant local society in the first instance.

Today over 20 individual prizes are offered to candidates, each with a fascinating history.

One of the oldest ICAEW prizes is the Peat Prize, which was founded in 1910. Today, it is awarded to the candidate achieving first place in the Advanced Level Annual International Order of Merit.

According to January-June 1910 issue of The Accountant (pages 336 and 362), the prize was established after W. B. Peat FCA — one of the original members of ICAEW, who had served as President from 1906–08 — transferred £2,014 18s. 9d. in 3½ per cent Canada Government Stock to the Institute for the purpose of providing a prize for the Final Examination. He intended that the half-yearly income from the investment should fund a gold medal for the first candidate in order of merit.

The Library holds a surviving example of a Peat Prize gold medal (pictured below), which was awarded to William Roger Carter in May 1932. At the time, Mr. Carter was an articled clerk at the firm of Carter, Chaloner & Kearns of 16 Kennedy Street, Manchester.

The Carter family would later go on to establish a prize of their own: the Roger N. Carter Prize. This prize was created in memory of Roger Neale Carter — ICAEW President for 1936-37 and long-time honorary secretary of the Manchester Chartered Accountants Students’ Society — after his death in 1944. It was awarded for some years to the best Manchester student in the Intermediate Examination, a fitting memorial given that R.N.C. (as he was affectionately known) was described as having possessed "that rare combination—brilliant scholarship and understanding of the difficulties of students" (The Accountant, 6 January 1945, p. 5).

The table below lists the principal sources of information on past prize-winners, and relevant holdings of these publications in the ICAEW Library collection. Click on the publication titles to view full details of our holdings via the Library catalogue.

Publication / source	Dates covered	Relevant Library holdings	Notes
Orders of Merit (ICAEW)	2020–	2020–	Gives details of Orders of Merit and prize-winners for the Professional Level and Advanced Level ACA from September 2020 onwards. Only students who have given their consent appear in the Merit lists. Subject Orders of Merit are published for each examination session; Annual Orders of Merit are published once per year for the Professional Level and once per year for the Advanced Level. Lists for recent years are available online.
Results of Examinations: lists of successful candidates (ICAEW)	1883–2020	1956–2020 (mostly complete, with some gaps – see the Library catalogue for details)	Each edition includes information on Orders of Merit and prize-winners.
The Accountant	1883–1979	1883–1980	Published lists of successful candidates for examinations held between 1882 and 1979. From the June 1883 Final Examination (for which the first prizes were awarded) onwards, these lists generally included details of prize-winners. NB: in the early years prizes were only awarded if a certain threshold was met, and were not issued for every sitting.
Accountancy Age	1981–?	1981–2011	Began publishing pass lists from September 1981 (PEII, Final, TC2/FAE only), starting with the results of the July 1981 PEII examination. Each list includes information on the Order of Merit and prizes.
The Times	1954–1970; 1986–2006	1954–1970 (microfilm) Please note that the Library is currently unable to provide access to its microfilm collection. We apologise for any inconvenience.	Between 1954 and 1970 The Times intermittently published summaries of ICAEW examination results which sometimes named candidates receiving prizes. Between March 1987 (results of the December 1986 PEII exams) and 2006 it published full pass lists which included details of the Order of Merit and prize-winners. The Guildhall Library in London holds The Times from 1785 onwards. Some other public libraries also hold copies of The Times or provide online access to its archive, with varying temporal coverage.