Queen's College, Georgetown

Queen's College is a prestigious secondary school in Georgetown, Guyana.

History

Queen's College was established in 1844 as the Queen's College Grammar School for boys by the Most Reverend William Percy Austin, D.D., Bishop of the Anglican diocese of then British Guiana. The female equivalent was the Bishops' High School.

The first assembly was held on 5 August 1844 with an enrollment of fifteen boys. Although the school started out as an Anglican Church School, Bishop Austin was interested in making it a more broad-based institution to include non-Anglicans. Its first administration, however, consisted only of members of the Church of England.

Formal classes commenced on 15 August 1844 in the Old Colony House (situated in the compound of what is now the Guyana High Courts, previously known as the Victoria Law Courts). The original fifteen students had two tutors, with Bishop Austin himself becoming the first Principal. In 1845 the school moved to Main and Quamina (then Murray) Streets. Its population was rapidly expanding and, with a student body of seventy and three tutors, another move was made in 1854 to its first formal building at Carmichael and Quamina Streets.

In 1876, the school became a "Colonial Institution" and was renamed "Queen's College." Several additional changes in location took the school to the site of the present Ministry of Health building (Vlissengen Road and Brickdam) in 1918, and then to its present location in Thomas Lands (Camp and Thomas Roads), where the facilities were formally opened on 3 December 1951. The school became co-educational in 1975.

On 16 November 1997, the school was partially destroyed in a fire. The three-storey centre block, housing the auditorium, offices and dining hall were destroyed. Damage was estimated at G$200 million (around US$1,000,000). Extensive reconstruction has been carried out, starting six years after the fire. Phase I of the rebuilding - the Administrative Block and Auditorium - has been completed and was dedicated on 19 September 2003. Queen's College celebrated its 160th birthday on 5 August 2004.

School motto

The school's motto is ""Fideles Ubique Utiles" - "Faithful and Useful Always"

School houses

The school's ten(10) athletic houses are named after past masters (teachers), members of the school, members of the British Guiana colonial government, and historical figures significant to the former British Guiana. These ten houses also possess their own colours. These colours are used each year on the school's Sport's Day in what is termed the March Past. Each house is decked out in their colour (black and white are also used) and parade around the school's grounds to showcase their marching skills. The houses are as follows:

A House - Percival (red)
B House - Raleigh (royal blue)
C House - Austin (emerald green)
D House - D'Urban (brown)
E House - Pilgrim (purple)
F House - Weston (light blue)
G House - Moulder (pink)
H House - Woolley (green- darker than that of C House)
K House - Cunningham (yellow)
L House - Knobbs (white; gold for a period)

Alumni

Noted alumni include former president Forbes Burnham[1], former president Dr. Cheddi Jagan, playwright Michael Abbensetts (1952-1956), novelist E.R. Braithwaite, poet Martin Carter, novelist Wilson Harris, lawyer Sir Lionel Luckhoo, historian Walter Rodney, NASA/JPL physicist Dr. Keith E. Wilson, UWI Professor of Surgery (1961-1979) Sir Harry Annamunthodo, McMaster University (Canada) IT Professor M. Jamal Deen FRSC FCAE FINAE, and Dr. Laurence Clarke, who chronicled the school's history to 1994 in the book, "Queen's College of Guyana - Records of a Tradition of Excellence (1844-1994)".

External links

• Queen's College Alumni Associations