St. Paul's School, Darjeeling

Darjeeling from above St.Paul's School in 1905

St. Paul's School was founded on 1 May 1823 in Calcutta by Archdeacon Corrie[3] at the instigation of John William Ricketts, a local Anglo-Indian leader. The first Principal of the institution was Dr George Smith. Originally located at 11 Park Street, between the Archbishop House and the then Sans Souci Theatre, it moved to its present Jalapahar estate in Darjeeling in 1864 with 31 boarders and a few day scholars. The estate was purchased from Mr Brian Hodgson for Rs.45,000. At that time, at approximately 7,600 feet above sea level, it was the highest school in the world.[4][5] In 1847, the school was renamed St. Paul's School by Bishop Wilson, who had associated the school with St. Paul's Cathedral in Calcutta. A number of its students fought in World War I and World War II. The school's original purpose was "to supply a good education at a moderate cost to the sons of Europeans and East Indians". After Indian Independence in 1947 it became a school for wealthy Indians and attracted wealthy students from other Asian countries.

Bishop Foss Westcott

Bishop Foss Westcott, metropolitan of Bengal, Burma and Ceylon, played an important role in the growth of the school. The Maharajah of Burdwan also made important donations.[4] Over the years a number of estates were purchased and merged with the existing school estate. The Mount Vernon Estate, known as Dawkins, was purchased at the beginning of the 1900s and the Terpsithea Estate in 1955.L. J. Goddard, was the longest serving and, perhaps, the most important Rector, leading the school between 1934 and 1964 — including the transition from British-ruled to independent India. His successors were David Gibbs (1964-72) and Hari Dang (1977-84). Dang was awarded the Padma Shri in 1976 for his services in education. Gibbs received the OBE for his work at St. Paul's.[6]

The school is divided into Primary, Junior, and Senior wings. The three wings are run independently with the Primary Wing having its own campus and a slight difference in uniform. The Senior and Junior Wings share many facilities.[7]

The rector is the head of the school, assisted by the senior master, the head Junior Wing ,head Primary Wing and house masters.

The School Crest

The school currently presents itself as an residential school for boys, predominantly Indian with an "international, multiracial and cross-regional cosmopolitan character",[8] having students from many countries including the US,[9][10] the UK,[9] France,[10] Thailand,[11] Singapore, South Korea, South Africa, Bhutan,[9][10] Japan, Burma, Bangladesh,[9][10] Nepal,[9][10] and Hong Kong.

Current students are referred to as Paulites and the alumni as Old Paulites. The school lays a great emphasis on uniforms: On off-campus trips students must dress in prescribed suits and carry umbrellas.

The school motto is derived from the passage 'Cedamus Phoebo, et moniti meliora sequamur' in the Latin epic Aeneid by Virgil. 'Moniti meliora sequamur' means: "Having Been Advised, We Follow Better (Higher) Things"

The student government is headed by a school captain, assisted by house captains and prefects, drawn from the Sixth Form. The Junior and Primary Wings have their own system of monitors. The Sixth form is privileged and enjoys an advantage over the rest. The chapel holds a central place in the life of the school where it meets as a community. There are clubs which develop artistic and technical skills. Each house presents a concert from time to time, apart from the major school production in October.

The sport curriculum is dominated by football, cricket, athletics, volleyball, Basketball, Squash, Tennis, Eton fives, boxing, Gymnastics and hockey.

Cotton and Milman Halls

Karun Krishna Majumdar

Ammar Siamwalla

Tashi Namgyal

Sharad Kumar, 2014 Para Asian Games

• Prithvi Raj Singh Oberoi - Executive Chairman of EIH Hotels, The Oberoi Group; Padma Vibhushan.[12]
• Major General D K Palit - Vir Chakra recipient for commanding the 9th Gorkha Rifles, author.[13][14]
• Rustum Roy - Physicist , In field of chemistry and materials sciences with 21 nominations to the Nobel Prize , He was awarded with Order of the Rising Sun, from the Emperor of Japan.[15][16][17]
• Ammar Siamwalla - Prominent economists of Thailand.
• Rehman Sobhan - Bangladeshi economist and freedom fighter.[18][19]
• Anand Burman - Indian businessman, and chairman of Dabur.[20]
• Navin Agarwal - Executive Chairman of Vedanta Resources[21][22][23]
• Samiran Nundy - Founder editor of the National Medical Journal of India and Tropical Gastroenterology, recipient of India's Padma Shri
• D N Bose - Former Professor at the Materials Science Centre and Dean (Faculty and Planning) at IIT Kharagpur. Post-doctoral researcher at Penn State after completing post-doctoral research in the UK.Visiting Scientist at MIT. Visiting Professor in the Dept of Physics St. Xavier's College, Kolkata since 2013.[24][25][26][27]
• Karun Krishna Majumdar - During World War II, was the first Indian to achieve the rank of wing commander in the Indian Air Force[28]
• Lalat Indu Parija - IAS, Former Chief Secretary of Odisha, Author and Captained Odisha in the Ranji Trophy.[29][30][18]
• S.V.S Juneja - IAS , Former Joint Secretary and Additional Secretary in the union finance ministry.Director at the Asian Development Bank (ADB).[31][18]
• Amir Sultan Chinoy - Pakistan’s leading industrialists (1948-70). Founder of Pakistan Chemicals, Pakistan Cables, and International Industries Ltd.[32][33]
• M. Anwar Afridi - Inspector General of Police (I.G.) Punjab, Lahore (1970) and was Pakistani Ambassador to Burma.[33][34]
• Zarir J. Cama - CEO (1998-2002) of the India operations of HSBC Group . From 2002 to 2007, he was the first Asian to be appointed CEO of HSBC group's Malaysia operations, and subsequently established a new International Division of HSBC in London. He serves on the Board of Tata Capital's international operations, and several other companies.[35][36]
• Sanjay Ray Chaudhuri- Co-founder TV18 & Network 18,Sanjay was the creative head and Executive Director of TV18 for its first two decades. In 2015, Sanjay co-founded the OTT media and infotainment platform Arré, which is streamed on almost all taxis and limos in India.[37][38][39]
• Dev Sanyal - Chief Executive, Alternative Energy & EVP-Regions at BP. He was previously CEO of Air BP (the aviation-fuel arm of BP). He also serves on the Govt of India's International Advisory Board on Energy.[40][41]
• Abhijit Raha - Former CEO, Credit Lyonnaise Securities (India and SE Asia), Former CEO, BNP Paribas (India and SE Asia).[42][43]
• Salim Rahman - Managing Director of KDS Group, a business and industrial conglomerates of Bangladesh.[44]
• Vivek Arora - Head, Office of Risk Management, IMF.[45][46][47]
• Peter Hildreth - Olympian[48]
• R.J. Minney - A British film producer, journalist, editor and author.
• Jamling Tenzing Norgay - A mountain climber, Author and Recipient of National citizen award[49][50][51]
• Ajay Chhibber - The first Director General of India's Independent Evaluation Office (with the status of a union Minister of State), former Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN) and head of the Asia-Pacific division of the UNDP.
• Vijay Chhibber - IAS, former Chairman of India's National Highway Authority of India, and Secretary, Ministry of Road Transport & Highways;Secretary, Min of Defence, GoI.[52][53]
• Mahesh Jethmalani - Lawyer and Senior Council, Supreme Court of India[54][55]
• Frank Blaker - Victoria Cross recipient
• Paul Raschid - Boxer, Olympian.[48]
• Tashi Namgyal - The longest-reigning Chogyal (king) of Sikkim (r. 1914-63), who signed the 1950 treaty giving India suzerainty over Sikkim.
• A R Shamsud Doha - Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1982 to 1984. He previously served as Ambassador to Yugoslavia, Iran and the United Kingdom, and was Minister for Information.
• Farooq Sobhan - Diplomat, Foreign secretary of Bangladesh
• George Emmett - Test Cricketer for England, Captain of the Gloucestershire cricket team in the 1955 to 1958[56]
• Jitendra Narain - IAS, Principal Resident Commissioner of Arunachal Pradesh.[57]
• Raj Mahtani - Couture jeweller[58]
• Vishnu Som - Senior editor and principal anchor with New Delhi Television (NDTV)[59]
• Prasenjit K. Basu - Chief Economist (India & SE Asia), Credit Suisse; Asia chief economist, Daiwa Securities Group; author of Asia Reborn (Tata Literature First book award,2018).[60][61][62][63]
• Kelly Dorji - Actor and Author.[64]
• Anjan Dutt - An Indian film director, actor, and singer-songwriter.[65]
• Kaizad Gustad - Bollywood Director and Author
• Tashi Tenzing - A Nepalese mountaineer.
• Sharad Kumar - Para games high jumper. Olympian.[48]
• Manish Choudhary- Bollywood Actor
• Rajeev Mohta - Team gold medalist and individual silver medalist in Golf at the 1982 Asian Games.[66]
• Vivek Law - Founder, CEO & Editor-in-Chief, The MoneyMile,An award-winning journalist.He has worked with The Economic Times, Business Standard, The Financial Express and India Today. He was India Today Group as Editor-Business Television. Vivek has served on the boards of Financial Planning Standards Board India (FPSB) and News Broadcasters Association (NBA). He is also author of The Money Book.[67][68]

Howard Block

The school has been featured in Hindi and Bengali language films. Hamraaz (1967), Mera Naam Joker (1970) by Raj Kapoor, Shimabaddha (1971) by Satyajit Ray, Do Anjaane (1976), Bada Din (2000), Main Hoon Na (2004) by Farah Khan,Chowrasta Crossroads of Love (2009) by Anjan Dutta, Barfi (2012), Jagga Jasoos (2017) by Anurag Basu and Petta (2019) by Karthik Subbaraj[69] are among them.

Vivien Leigh was born in the school campus at a place now known as Dawkins, beside the old basketball court. Today, Dawkins houses staff members teaching at the school.[70][71][72]

• Education in India
• List of schools in India
• Education in West Bengal

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