St Joseph's College (Hong Kong)

The College was previously a Portuguese commercial school named St Saviour's College, located on Pottinger Street in 1860. Father Timoleon Raimondi, who was then the bishop of the Colony, convinced Rome to send the Lasallian Brothers to the British Colony.

On 7 November 1875, six Lasallian Brothers arrived in Hong Kong: Brothers Hidulphe Marie (Director), Hidulphe de Jesus, and Hebertus from the Boarding school of Marseilles; Brother Adrian Edmund and Aldolphus Marie from the Novitiate of London; and Brother Isfrid from Paris. They renamed the school after Saint Joseph, the patron saint of workers and of the Universal Church.[4]

At the time of the takeover, the school had just 75 students. Later that year however, hundreds of Portuguese families had taken refuge in Hong Kong after a disastrous typhoon had swept over Macau causing the school's enrollment to double after just a few weeks. As a result, Brother Hidulphe had to suspend the intake of Chinese students. To accommodate the increased number of students, a house (Buxley Lodge) situated at 9 Caine Road was purchased in 1876.

St Joseph's College at Robinson Road c. 1910

In April 1880, Brother Cyprian was appointed Director. He had been a teacher in New York and Quebec, had held the directorship of several schools in his native land, Canada, and had taught in London and in Paris. In order to cater for the needs of the fast-growing school, a piece of land in Glenealy below Robinson Road was bought, and a two-storey Victorian building became home to the College in 1881.[4]

In January 1884, Brother Ivarch Louis took over the directorship, and was succeeded in 1889 by Brother Abban. Enrollment had then increased to 409, and two Chinese staff were employed by the college; in the same year a third floor was added to the school building to accommodate boarders. The additional wings were added in 1901.

Front entrance

The North Block and West Block

On 13 February 1918, the Robinson Road campus was severely damaged by an earthquake. The Club Germania at 7 Kennedy Road was subsequently purchased on 3 September. Because pupils living on the Kowloon side had to cross by ferry round-trip every day, a branch school was set up on Chatham Road, Kowloon, which became the La Salle College in 1932.

During the Japanese Occupation of Hong Kong from 1941 to 1945, the College was used as a clinical depot by the Imperial Japanese Army. Some Brothers fled to Vietnam and became guests of the Dominicans and the Jesuits, while others were kept as prisoners of war in the local concentration camps. The campus was kept in shape by a minor staffer called Ah Yiu, who would also smuggle essentials into the camps for the Brothers.[5]

The College soon resumed classes after the war. In 1962, Club Germania was demolished and a modern eight-storey building (New Building) was erected under Principal Brother Brenden Dunne.[6]

In 1877, just two years after its establishment, the College held the first local inter-school sports competition with St. Paul's College, and in 1880 it established one of the first modern football teams in China.

The first local inter-school athletic meet with Queen's College and Diocesan Boys' School was held in 1899, and in 1903 the first local inter-school football league was formed with the two schools.

Winners plaque of the Prince of Wales Banner Competition

The College established a Scout troop in 1913, which was the first within the Catholic Church community in Hong Kong. As other Boy Scouts in Hong Kong were connected with the Protestant Boys' Brigade and British Boy Scouts, the St Joseph's College troop registered with The Boy Scouts Association of the United Kingdom as its first Hong Kong Boy Scout Troop, two years before The Boy Scouts Association established a branch in Hong Kong.[14]

On 1 November 1967, an ambulance cadet division of the St. John Ambulance Brigade was established at the College and was the first ambulance cadet division after the first re-organization in the 1950s.

Since 1974, the College has taken part in the champion title in Male Voice Quartet, Folk music, Solos and Duets, the Dorothy Smith Trophy (Boys Junior: Treble Choir), the Music Society Shield (Mixed Voice Choir), the Dr. Karl Hohner Shield (Melodica Band) and the Moutrie Challenge Trophy (Piano Solos: Final) in the Hong Kong Schools Music Festival.

The school has set up different music groups so as to enhance students' interest in music through various performances and joint-school events. The School Orchestra was established in 2000 and has performed in different public events and concerts. In March 2013, the School Orchestra performed with Tonbridge School Orchestra from the UK during its overseas Tour to Hong Kong.

Established in 2007, the Chinese Orchestra goal is to give Josephians an opportunity to perform Chinese music through different performances. The school has also established other music groups such as the Josephians' Chamber Orchestra, Junior Choir, Senior Choir, Melodica Band and Chinese Drum Band. Each year, the school organizes a concert called the "Green and White Concert" in early July. The 10th G&W Concert was organized at City Hall, Hong Kong in 2012 with various special features.

St Joseph's College developed an Apache web server as early as the 1990s and launched Green & White Online, one of the first secondary school websites in Hong Kong.