Bishop Cotton Boys' School

Bishop Cotton Boys' School
The School Arms
Address
St. Mark's Road
Bangalore, Karnataka
India
Coordinates 12°58′7.0″N 77°35′55.6″E / 12.968611°N 77.598778°E / 12.968611; 77.598778Coordinates: 12°58′7.0″N 77°35′55.6″E / 12.968611°N 77.598778°E / 12.968611; 77.598778
Information
Type Private school
Motto "Nec Dextrorsum Nec Sinistrorsum" (Latin)
(Neither to the right, nor to the left.)
Established 1865 (1865)
Founder Rev. S. T. Pettigrew[1]
Principal Vacant [2]
Enrollment approx. 7,000
Campus size 14 acres (57,000 m2)
Houses Pope, Pettigrew, Elphick, Pakenham Walsh, Thomas
Color(s) Green and gold         
Publication The Cottonian, The Cotton Mill
Affiliation Indian Certificate of Secondary Education Examination (ICSE) and the Indian School Certificate examination (ISC)
Former pupils Old Cottonians
Website http://cottonboys.com/

Bishop Cotton Boys' School is an all-boys school for boarders and day scholars in Bangalore, India, founded in memory of Bishop George Edward Lynch Cotton, Bishop of Calcutta.

The school is bordered by Residency Road, St Mark's Road, Lavelle Road and Vittal Mallya Road, and is spread over 14 acres (57,000 m2) of land in the heart of Bangalore.

School heads in the early days included George Uglow Pope, Herbert Pakenham-Walsh, S. T. Pettigrew, William Elphick, Iowerth Lewis Thomas and A. T. Balraj.

The sister school Bishop Cotton Girls High School is located across the street on St. Mark's Road and can be reached by a two-minute walk.

Origins

The school's past extends back to the British Raj and the Victorian era with its beginnings in a house on High Grounds over which now stands the great ITC Windsor Hotel . It was started in 1865 by Rev. S T Pettigrew, the then Chaplain of St. Mark's Cathedral who had a vision of starting a school for the education of children of European and Anglo-Indian families. In his own words, he wanted to "establish a day and boarding School for the Children of Christian residents in the station and its vicinity." The school was named in honour of George Cotton, Bishop of Calcutta, under whose stewardship a scheme of education was organized for the Anglican Churches in India. After India gained independence from the British in 1947, the school began to be, and is still governed by the Church of South India.

In the first five years of the school it had three principals. It was only with the arrival of George Uglow Pope, a distinguished Tamil scholar (who translated the famed Tirukkuṛaḷ into English[3]) that the present site was acquired For Rs 47,500. The boys' school and the girls' school functioned on the same campus but under different heads. Under the stewardship of Pope, the school grew from strength to strength. A collegiate section was started and the school obtained recognition from the University of Madras. He gave the School its motto - 'Nec Dextrorsum Nec Sinistrorsum', meaning 'Neither to the right nor to the Left'.

When Pope left India in 1892 to take up the post of Reader at Oxford University, the standard of the school began to decline. By 1906, closure of the school was contemplated.

Henry Whitehead, Bishop of Madras, the Chairman of the Board of Governors, as a last resort, invited the members of the Saint Peter's Brotherhood to save the school from closure. Herbert Pakenham-Walsh, of the Brotherhood of St. Peter, later to become Bishop, revived the school. The school still celebrates St. Peter's day amongst other traditions such as Guy Fawkes' bonfires. In 1911, the girls' school was moved across the road. William Elphick worked for a quarter of century for the growth of the school.

The last living member of the Brotherhood of St Peter in India, Father David, died of old age. He lived and worked in the school as the school chaplain.

Notable alumni

Armed forces

Positions of responsibility

Entrepreneurs

  • Nandan Nilekani, Chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI)
  • Philip Wollen, ex-Vice President of Citibank; philanthropist and social justice advocate

Artists

Other notable alumni

References

  1. ↑ http://www.cottonboys.com/?page_id=3233
  2. ↑ "Bishop Cotton Boys' School principal John K Zachariah dies". The New Indian Express. Retrieved 2018-06-29.
  3. ↑ Pope, G U; Drew, W H; Lazarus, John; Ellis, F W. "Tirukkural: English Translation and Commentary". Project Madurai. Archived from the original on 23 February 2015. Retrieved 29 December 2014.
  4. ↑ "India's Most Eminent Nuclear Physicist". Archived from the original on 2012-03-13.
  5. ↑ Life Fellow
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.