The original photo is the property of Jay and Irene McKiee of Simcoe, Norfolk County, both of whom appear in the picture. They provided the nucleus of our student identifications. Other identifications, provided by site visitors, are credited on the appropriate web pages.

While we appreciate the efforts of all who have identified students, identifications should be considered tentative until confirmed. The older the "last updated" date on each bio web page, the higher our confidence in that identification.
 
Despite being framed, and kept under glass in recent years, the original photo showed signs of age and other imperfections, which are obvious on a few of our enlargements. Other imperfections can be traced to the picture's shallow depth of field, and some people not remaining still while the shutter was open. The photo was close cropped on the left end, losing a few shoulders and elbows. (This appears to have occurred after purchase, perhaps at the time of framing.)

The original print measures approximately 6 inches by 33 inches. There are 455 people (students and staff) in the picture, which appears to have been taken in the spring of 1946. A unique feature of this particular print is that it was signed by approximately two dozen people, presumably people in the photo. We've scanned some of those signatures and included them here.

The photographer was E. J. Powell of Cayuga, who presumably got the assignment because local photographers did not have a camera capable of panning across such a large group. Panned group pictures of this type remained a photography niche market into the 1960s across much of Ontario. Text written on the face of the print reads: 
"Simcoe High and Vocational School -- 1945-6" then 
"J. S. Jackson, B.A., B. Pa[r]d., Principal." then 
"Powell, Cayuga."

Simcoe High, which would later be known as Simcoe District High School, then Simcoe Composite School, was at the time, Norfolk's largest high school and only public vocational school. While your Norfolk ancestors may have attended high school in another community, Simcoe High served much of the surrounding rural population. Students from a distance carpooled or travelled by trolley train.
 
At the time this photo was taken, Ontario high school education consisted of five grades: 
9 through 13. Typically students would have started high school at approximately age 13 and graduated five years later, age 18, so most of the students in this photo would have been born between approximately 1928 and 1932.