He began his career as a teacher in
Portsmouth and at a grammar school in
Watford. In the late 1960s he went to
Spain, where he traveled as a student, and worked there as a lecturer at
Comillas Pontifical University, Madrid. He taught about
Anglicanism to ordinands in the
Roman Catholic Church. He founded
King's College, Madrid in 1969, which he named after his alma mater. Within ten years, the school in
Madrid had thousands of students and a purpose-built campus. The school joined the overseas membership in the UK's HMC (
Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference). Similar schools in other Spanish cities as well as other countries were founded in the coming years, and by 2019—the fiftieth anniversary of the establishment of the first school—the group had 10 member schools, 10,000 students, and 1,000 employees. At that point, he concluded that after half a century creating and developing British schools overseas, it was time to play a less active role. His group of schools merged with the larger
Inspired Group in 2019, and Fry became the senior education adviser to the enlarged group. Fry is interested in educational, cultural, commercial, and religious issues and is active in all these spheres. For forty years he was a
reader in the
Church of England, and, for several years, he was a lay member of the
General Synod of the Church of England. In Spain, he founded the British Hispanic Foundation with the objective of enabling civil society to participate in developing cultural understanding between both nations. Under his chairmanship of the Foundation, an exhibition was held in Madrid about Wellington and the
Peninsular War, which was opened by
HM Queen Elizabeth II. The Foundation established a visiting professorship for British academics at Madrid’s
Complutense University and holds regular cultural and social events that have been attended by the
Prince of Wales (now
King Charles III of the UK);
Queen Sofia of Spain; and the
Prince of Asturias (now
King Philip VI of Spain).
HRH the
Infanta Margarita, sister of the
former King of Spain, is the Foundation’s Patron. Fry has also been active in the British Chamber of Commerce in Spain and has been its National President. In 1996, he was elected Chair of the London-based Council of British Independent Schools in the European Communities, now the Council of British International Schools (COBIS). During his tenure of office until 2011, he established a close relationship with the UK associations of independent schools, such as HMC, GSA (the Girls Schools Association), IAPS (the preparatory schools association), SHMIS (the Society of Heads of Independent Schools), and AGBIS (the Governing Bodies Association of Independent Schools). When these associations created the Independent Schools Council (ISC), he obtained their agreement that COBIS should also become a constituent member, and became a director of the new council for a period of three years. The premise upon which this agreement was based was that all member schools of COBIS would meet the standards required of independent schools in the UK, measured by a government-approved inspection scheme such as ISI (the
Independent Schools Inspectorate). Fry reached an agreement with ISI for COBIS member schools abroad to be inspected, and the process was initiated. However, it was soon discovered that because of a technicality, the
British Government could not recognize ISI inspections conducted abroad, as they were not monitored by
OFSTED (the Office for Standards in Education), as are inspections carried out in the UK. OFSTED could not monitor inspections carried out abroad without government approval and relevant funding. Fry therefore initiated a lobbying process at the
DfE (Department for Education) to remedy the situation. This was a tedious process, as it involved both legal and financial implications. However, finally, when
Lord (Andrew) Adonis was Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Schools and Learners in the period 2005–2008, it was agreed to undertake a review that would lead to inspections of British schools overseas being recognized by the British government. The process culminated successfully in 2010. Having succeeded in this achievement for British Schools overseas, and developing COBIS into a world-renowned association, with a Royal Patron, HRH
Princess Alexandra, Fry decided that after 15 years as chair, he would announce his resignation at the 2011 annual general meeting. He was appointed honorary president for a period of 10 years, and in 2012 he was knighted at
Windsor Castle for services to British education internationally and for promoting Anglo-Spanish cultural relations. A sequel to this was that COBIS abandoned the government's overseas inspection and accreditation scheme, which led to the formation, by Ed Goodwin OBE, of a new Association of British Schools Overseas (AoBSO). AoBSO is exclusively for schools that, via the overseas inspection scheme, have obtained British government accreditation. Following Goodwin's tenure as leader of AoBSO from 2012 to 2019, Fry was invited to become its chair, a post he held until 2023, when he became its first president. In 2014, Fry founded the King's Group Academies in the UK a multi-academy trust registered in Portsmouth and running schools in
Hampshire,
Sussex, and
Berkshire. The Trust has been successful in improving failing schools by reorganizing the management, setting objectives, and monitoring standards. It has also been successful in creating new schools in areas of demand. The unique objective of the Trust is to provide its schools in the UK with tangible links to British schools abroad, thus enabling students and teachers in the UK to enrich their education with international educational and cultural links. Fry was a governor of the
Royal Grammar School Worcester for 25 years and is now its patron. He is a member of the Council of the
Imperial Society of Knights Bachelor. == Personal life ==