Calcutta Boys' School

The Calcutta Boys' School

Dei Mundus Deo (Latin: The World of God for God)
Address
72, S.N. Banerjee Road, Kolkata - 700014
Kolkata, West Bengal, India
Information
Established 1877
Principal Mr. Raja McGee
Number of students 2000
Classes Nursery (4+) to 12 (ISC)
Website http://www.cbskolkata.org

Calcutta Boys' School was founded by the Rev. James Mills Thoburn (Methodist Missionary to India, and later Missionary Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church), and was opened in 1877. It was endowed by the late Robert Laidlaw and others interested in the education of the sons of the Anglo-Indian and domiciled European community.[1]

Origins

The origins of CBS are closely linked with the establishment of the Methodist Episcopal Church in India. In January 1873, the Reverend William Taylor founded the work of the Thoburn Methodist Episcopal Church in Calcutta (Kolkata).[1] He was succeeded by the Reverend James Mills Thoburn. The latter's ardent preaching soon rendered the Entally Baptist Chapel unable to cope with the increasing number of converts.[2] In February 1874, a new chapel was opened at 145 Dharamtolla Street, built at a cost of 16,000 rupees largely due to the generosity of George Bowen of Bombay who donated 10,000 rupees.[3] Soon even this chapel proved unable to accommodate the growing congregation, until a larger church was constructed on Dharamtolla Street, where it stands today. The New Thoburn Church was dedicated on 31 December 1875. In 1888 Rev. James Mills Thoburn was elected Missionary Bishop of India and Malaysia - the first ever Missionary Bishop in India.[2]

Bishop James M Thoburn

It was Bishop Thoburn who founded the Calcutta Boys' School. First located at Mott Lane, and then later housed in a room on Corporation Street (known as S. N. Banerjee Road today), the school struggled for survival without a building of its own. It acquired a permanent residence in 1893 thanks to the generosity of a man who could be regarded as the chief patron of the school: Sir Robert Laidlaw

Sir Robert Laidlaw

The Girls School was erected in 1886, during the principal-ship of Miss Hendricks.[4]

1930s to present

The school struggled for finances in its early years, and was on the verge of closing down during the Great Depression. It was Principal Horace Christopher Fritchley who then took over the reins and saw the school through the turbulent 1930s and 1940s that saw the Depression, the Second World War, Independence and Partition. He did away with the system of prizes on Sports Day, inculcating the value of love for sport.

Horace Fritchley and his wife

Fritchley was succeeded by his son-in-law Clifford Hicks in 1952 until he was ousted from his position in the mid-to-late 1970s).

During Clifford Hicks' time as principal the newest of the three buildings that currently house the school was built. Named the Fritchley Building the construction was made possible by the retirement benefit and gratuity of Mr. Horace Christopher Fritchley which he donated to "his very dear CBS" together with donations collected by the students of the school.[1] The school library (now housed in the old dormitory) is named "The Clifford Hicks Memorial Library". The CBS Archives (established in 2008) are also housed in the Library.

New Building and Renfrew House

During Alfred Martin's tenure the school changed from Senior Cambridge to the ICSE and ISC system affiliated to the Indian Council of Secondary Education. Throughout the 1980s, students ranked prominently in the ICSE and ISC rankings. Unlike the Hicks era, Martin encouraged students to participate in co-curricular activities such as debating and quizzing. The school developed a debating society and a quiz club, which during the 1980s swept most of the inter-school meets. In the early 1980s, the school's Quiz Team of Arpan Guha, Indranuj Chowdhury, Bhaskar Banerjee and Anirvanjyoti Chaudhuri went unchallenged on the inter-school quiz scene in Calcutta - which was at that point the quizzing capital of India under the benign nurture of the great D. O'Brien. During the same period, the school picked up most of the creative writing and western music awards at inter-school fests.

The school also did well in the British Council One Act Play competitions during the late 1970s and the early 1980s. Teachers like Mr Joseph Kodaikanal, Eric Warrier, Lawrence W. Hartnett (now the principal of a major school in Dubai after serving as principal of Assembly of God Church School), Sujata Goswami and Guy Dantes raised the standard of English teaching. Legendary teachers like Asim Chakravarty, Jyotirmoy Ganguly (a Bengali poet in his own right)and D.Pakrashi have remained sources of inspiration for generations of students.

Possibly the biggest contribution during the Martin era was the school's strength in the mathematics and science faculties. Teachers like Mr S.K. Deb, S. Biswas, Gautam Mitra, Dr. Choudhury and B.K. Saha had great influence over the shaping of students in this period. As did senior science teachers like D.N. Bhattacharya, A.G. Pal ; 2nd language teachers like Mr Ganguly, Mr Singh;Primary school teachers like Mrs Gupta, Mrs Zaffer, and Mr Biswas- all stalwarts of contemporary school teaching in Calcutta (Kolkata) as well as the country. In fact the old boys of CBS have initiated a rolling trophy " The Mr Gautam Mitra Memorial Shield for Excellence in Mathematics " to be awarded each year to the student scoring the highest marks in Mathematics in the ICSE.

The school attends other schools fests and stages its own, called 'Concord'.

The main building in 1893

Gilbert Samuel, who became Principal in 1997, furthered the cause of co-curricular activities, allowing the students of CBS to secure top positions at premier National and International contests regularly, including a second-place finish at the 2003 Biology Olympiad and the International Informatics Olympiad in 2004.[5] In 2005 CBS won the under-16 national cricket tournament, and in 2004 the national rounds of the Inter School Frank Antony Memorial Debate.[6]

The present Principal, Raja McGee (also the youngest Principal ever), has introduced an elected Students council called the United Students Organization (USO). A three-day language festival "Lingua Fiesta" and a Computers, Science and Mathematics festival COSMA have been introduced since 2007. Under his leadership CBS has established two branch schools, at Sonarpur in 2008 and at Beliaghata in 2010.

Houses

The House system was introduced in CBS in 1916. The four houses into which the students are divided on admission to the school are named after those who made the most contribution to the school - Thoburn for red, Warne for gold, Henderson (previously named Pritchard) for blue and Laidlaw for green.

The flag of Henderson (blue house)
Laidlaw House's flag

House events are held such as the Lingua Fiesta, the Inter-House Football Tournaments, the COSMA and the Annual Athletic Meet in the month of December. The house that emerges victorious at the end of the House competition is awarded a trophy.

Each house is assigned a House Master or Mistress that looks after the activities of that House, and ensures a democratic process of selection and nomination for the offices that are associated with the governing of the house.

Student activities

Awards have been gained from competitions including international olympiads, national and local quizzes, debates, inter-school festivals as well as those won by the students of the school at The Telegraph School of the Year Award,

The school has an Interact Club which runs social projects.

The balloon being flown away during the PANORAMA Annual Sports Meet of CBS

Non-competitive activities take place in the school, such as quizzes, debates, plays, Eastern and Western music competitions.

Public events are held, ranging from the annual Suvrojit-Somak Debate, which is organized in memory of two students of the school to the annual inter-school fest, Concord which is today, one of the most well known fests of the city and is the first inter-school fest in the city. This fest, usually held at the Kala Mandir Auditorium in the city, is renowned for its Quiz and the Western Music event.

The School Annual Concert-"Rhapsody" is played out before students and parents.

Calcutta Boys' School's 'Nepali Dance' in Carnival 2014.Students who participated in Nepali Dance- Tushar Jaiswal, Prajit Sengupta, Parkhar Gupta .

The awards (for academic excellence and for extra-curricular activity) are given on the annual Speech Day. Two awards instituted in 1897,the Bishop James Mills Thoburn Gold Medal and the Sir Robert Laidlaw Silver medal, are awarded during this ceremony to the over-all topper in the Senior School and the Junior School respectively.

The Inter House Athletic Meet -Panorama - takes place around December, with parents in attendance. The lighting of the athletic meet flame and the hoisting of the meet flag followed by the march-past are the start of the day. Other events in the Meet include floats, relays, and races, such as the 100m, 200m and 400m.

The Christmas Cantata, a presentation of carols and a nativity play, is played at the Thoburn Methodist Church on the second Saturday of December each year.

Lingua Fiesta (Language festival) and COSMA (a computer-science-Maths festival) are major inter-house competitive festivals organized by the school.

Calcutta Boys' School's Annual Carnival 2014

The school magazine, was first published as the CBS Chronicle in August 1912 and priced one anna eight per annum. Published by the CBS Literary Society since its inception (only with the exception between 1986 and 1988, when it was run wholly by students, without any intervention from the staff), it is called "The Pulse" and is published every year.

The students have participated in tournaments in school, district, national and international level in sports like football, karate, cricket etc.

Principals

Principals of Calcutta Boys' School:[7]

Present principal Mr. Raja McGee in Calcutta Boys' School's Annual Carnival 2014

Several Principals of Calcutta Girls High School including Ms.R.N. Ganakan, Mrs.Montoo Rakhit and Mrs.Beulah Raju have served as Acting Principals of Calcutta Boys' School.

Notable alumni

Ambassador Rinzing Wangdi IFS, ex Secretary (Economic Relations), GOI

Overall Winner in Sports

First -> Laidlaw under Mr. Lahiri

Second -> Henderson under Mr. De Souza

Third -> Warne under Mr. Tiwari

Fourth -> Thoburn

Official website

http://calcuttaboysschools.org/

References

  1. 1 2 3 Clifford Hicks by Alfred Martin, Pulse, Calcutta, February 1980.
  2. 1 2 "visions & victories in Hindustan" by Bishop B.T. Badley
  3. ↑ "The Opening Gate 1873-1923" Ed.by Louise Holloway Joyner
  4. ↑ Cultural and Educational Life in Calcutta
  5. ↑ The Telegraph, 2 June 2003; 5 June 2004
  6. ↑ The Telegraph unable to find exact date.
  7. ↑ This is the list as it appears on a plaque outside the CBS conference room.

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Saturday, April 09, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.