The History of Victoria & Dow Hill Schools

The Early Years

In 1938, when I suggested that 1939 would mark the Diamond Jubilee of Victoria School, people were skeptical and wanted proofs. The only evidence I could produce was the following extract from an article which periodically appeared in the Victoria School Record: "Early in 1879, Sir Ashley Eden, the then Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal, knowing that it was difficult, if not well nigh impossible, for parents in the lower ranks of Government service to send their children to schools in the hills conceived the happy idea of establishing a Government institution for boys and girls." In the summer of last year Father Prior met Mrs. Davidson, wife of the Divisional Forest Officer at Khulna and elder daughter of Mr. Barnes, Headmaster of Victoria School, 1901 to 1919. Naturally they talked of Victoria, where one had spent her childhood and the other his Puja holidays during the last three years. Mrs. Davidson mentioned that her grandmother, Mrs. Pegler, the wife of the first Headmaster (1879 to 1901), was still alive and in her 82nd year. Father Prior asked Mrs. Davidson if she would get a message from Mrs. Pegler for this Jubilee souvenir. Mrs. Davidson undertook to do so, and we are privileged to print (page 2) the letter Mrs. Pegler wrote in reply.-

This, then, was a second proof. However, I recalled the Chinese proverb, "the palest ink is more reliable than the strongest memory," and thought I Ought to look for further support from original documents. The history of England is in large measure built up from parochial records, and I argued that parish churches in India must also have their records. With the kind permission of the Reverend C. P. N. Rowband, I was privileged to have access to the registers and record books of Christ Church, Kurseong, whose priest had charge of the spiritual welfare of the Anglican children of the Government Schools till one was appointed for this purpose in 1 929-

After struggling through much material we at last came upon an old book with the first entry, April 17th, 1877. On the cover was this characteristic remark by the Reverend Arthur Waite, (whom many old Victorians will remember for his truly Christian life and devoted service to them): I found this first record book on a lower shelf amongst all kinds of papers in the office, literally rescued it from the mouth of the dog in fact, and had it rebound and restored."

I shall now let the book tell its own story, written by the hands of the various chaplains of Christ Church.

Before August 17th, 1879, there is no mention of any schools. On that date, the Reverend A. H. Eddy, Chaplain of Darjeeling, who had charge also of Christ Church, Kurseong, writes: "Held service at 11 a.m. Good congregation of 45. Fifteen children came with Mr. and Mrs. Pegler from "Constantia" School, just opened for children of railway employees."

November 23rd, 1879, (Harvest Festival): "Congregation not as large as one would have expected, -only 50, including 15 children from the Railway School."

"Visited Kurseong, Sunday, February 29th. Visited the Bengal States Railway School."

July 26th to September 25th, 1880: "Visited Kurseong weekly between the above dates and took Confirmation class at Constantia." (W. J. Rowland),

Sunday, September 26th, 1880: "I celebrated Holy Communion at 11 o'clock Service after confirming 11 persons, 3 being Tea Planters from the District and the rest children from the Railway School." (Edward, Calcutta).

The above extracts, then, confirm Mrs. Pegler's reminiscences and the note from the Victoria School Record of 1907.

The School was originally situated at Constantia, (now the residence of the Sub-Divisional Officer: in 1848, when Hooker made his Himalayan journey, it was the dak bungalow; in his journal he describes the view towards the Balisan in the west and the Mahanadi in the east). * Also, the School must have been opened between the dates August 3rd and 17th, 1879. When did it move up to Dow Hill? Let the book answer the question. Most tantalizingly, no mention is made of the actual move, but the Reverend W. J. Rowland writes: "Saturday, October 30th, 1880. Visited the Government Railway School at Dow Hill." So then the move must have been made in October. 1880, since the last entry about Constantia was made on September 25th.

There were on Dow Hill at that time two buildings of note. One was the, Circuit House," now the residence of the Principal of Dow Hill and even to-day referred to by the barber and other old servants of the School as “Lat Sahib ko koti." It was here that Lieutenant Governors and officers used to spend the night on their way to Darjeeling, in the days before the present cart-road (begun in 1861) was completed. The way to Darjeeling then was by the old "military" road coming up from Punkabari. The, Chimney" and "Chimli" village are other survivals of those times. The "Chimney," I believe, is all that remains of a bakery for the use of troops on their way to Ghoom, where there was a military station in those days.

The other building on Dow Hill was the Office of the Eastern Bengal State Railway. This building, too, (altered and enlarged) still remains in use as part of Dow Hill School, that which contains the Domestic Science Room and Staff quarters. It was to this building that the School migrated and in it were housed the staff as well as the children.

Additional buildings must soon have sprung up, for on the occasion of his visit in 1883 the Bishop of Calcutta writes: "After tiffin, rode up to the Government School at Dow Hill. The Premises are of a very superior class and no expense has been spared. The children looked healthy under Mr. and Mrs. Pegler's care. They have every opportunity of receiving a sound and religious education. Mr. Griffiths (Chaplain) had a nice Confirmation class and after I had inspected the buildings we had Service in which the children heartily took their part." Again, in 1884, the Bishop writes: Visited the School Discussed with Mr. Pegler various plans for extending the premises. Everything seemed to be in order. There is clearly need for increased accommodation."

In 1887 the Reverend R. S, Wood came out to India and was posted to Kurseong. I give his impressions as a stimulus to us all: I In afternoon went up to the Government School and addressed them. Was much pleased by the attention paid by the children and their excellent behaviour, and I warmly congratulated Mr. Pegler. I never saw better behaviour at any school service anywhere."

We now come to the next stage in our History, -the time when the School ceases to be coeducational.

February 12th, 1888. , Commencement of a new term at the School, boys only there now, all girls having left. A much better arrangement, though I missed the little girls at the Services." (R. S. Wood).

It is obvious that others also missed the girls, for six years later, August, 1894, the Bishop writes: “On Monday I inspected the buildings at Kempside which is thought might be suitable for a girls' school, the want of which is much felt since the girls' department at Dow Hill closed down."

Kempside is the dilapidated building south of the Wood Hill Hotel, on the Pankabari road, and belonging to the Hatwah Raj. (It was originally Kemp's Hotel and was run by a Mr. Monk, who was at the time owner also of the Clarendon Hotel. For this information I am indebted to the School barber. Mr. Graham of Springside tells me that a part of his garden is to-day known by the name of Kempside). This site was no doubt found unsuitable, for we read next:

1896. "I inspected the new buildings in course of erection in Dow Hill for the new boys' school which will accommodate 200 boys. It is indeed a matter for satisfaction to think of the excellent provisions which will be made for the class of children which will be received in this school. The accommodation will be all that can be desired and the question of meeting the needs of the children to be received seems to be settled for some years to come." (Edward R., Calcutta).

And again, (May 3rd, 1897): Inspected the new buildings for the Boys' School. Mr. and Mrs. Pegler both seemed to look forward to entering upon the new and expanding work before them with interest and enthusiasm undiminished by the passage of many years already spent here by them." (Archdeacon McCarthy).

The next year must have seen the return of the girls, for the Reverend Robert Stuart writes, (July 2nd. 1897): "The new Girls' School will shortly be opened."

1897 was the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria. So "it was decided by Government during the year to identify the new school with the Diamond Jubilee of Her Majesty."

And so ends our story of the beginnings of our two Schools. I wish to take this opportunity of thanking Padre Rowband of Kurseong for his kindness in helping to disinter the past and to recover our early history. Of this early history an integral part is surely the devoted service of Mr. and Mrs. Pegler. By them planted and given the will and the vigour to grow, these Schools, now ministering to the needs of over 300 boys and girls, are the abiding fruit of that devotion. In them, and in the many lives they were moulded, Mr. and Mrs. Pegler have a monument

Quod non imber edax, non Aquilo inpotens

Possit diruere aut innumerabilis

Annorum series et fuga temporum.

Adolescence

Before carrying further the story of the Government Boarding School, as our School came to be called while at Dow Hill, it will be profitable to pause and take some account of the wider world of Kurseong and Darjeeling,

The year 1879 marks the commencement of not only Dow Hill and Victoria but also of the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, for it was in that year the same Lieutenant-Governor, Sir Ashley Eden, approved of the scheme of Mr. Prestage, Agent of the Eastern Bengal Railway (brought as far as Siliguri in 1878), for "the laying of a steam tramway" from Siliguri to Darjeeling.

The first batch of our 15 children came by tonga from Siliguri. In the second year they must have come, like Lord Lytton, the then Viceroy, by train as far as Tindharia to which the track had been laid. "Before the end of that year the line was complete to Kurseong" ( the station was then at the Clarendon Hotel ) ,and in July 1 881 it was opened for traffic right through to Darjeeling." We find an echo of this in the Record of Christ Church. "Sunday, July 31st, 1881. Went by Railway to Hopetown for Service at 3-30." We are still closely connected with both Railways, The Agent of the E. B. Railway and the General Manager of the D. H. Railway are both ex-officio members of our Governing Body.

It was the growth of the tea industry in the District, as well as the inconvenience of travel by tonga and bullock-cart, that stimulated the construction of the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway. It is interesting to recall Hooker's casual reference in 1848, to the tea-bush, now the staple of the District. Speaking of Labong he says : "The tea-plant succeeds here admirably, and might be cultivated to great profit, and be of advantage in furthering a trade with Tibet. It has been tried on a large scale by Dr. Campbell at his residence (alt. 7,000 ft) but the frosts and snow of that height injure it, as do the hailstorms in Spring." The tea industry, too, has its representative on our Governing Body to-day.

Up to 1880, the year after the children came to Constantia, Kurseong was spiritually ministered to by the Chaplain of Darjeeling. I am not able to establish the exact date of the opening of Christ Church. The first entry in its registers is dated August 5th, 1870. We find burial entries of that period terminating , buried by A. W. Vaul, Acting Commissioner." We, who to-day do not perhaps appreciate as we might the benefits we enjoy in the ministration of a resident priest, can hardly imagine a time, just over 60 years ago, when one had to ride in all the way from Darjeeling. And now we have the railway, electric lights and telephone, and cars to our door!

At Christ Church were married, Mary Isabella Matthews, Spinster, teacher in the Government School," "Edward Lawrence Lynch Nile, Bachelor, Second Master," “Alfred Aston Barnes, Bachelor, Schoolmaster, to Norah Emily Pegler," and, Sidney James Hall, Bachelor, Gymnastic Instructor." Here were baptized, Annie Winifred Pegler," “Arthur Cecil, son of Arthur and Alice Chapman of the Government Boarding School," Earnest J. Fraser, son of Earnest Edward and Lilly Ewell Sharp," "Humphrey Aston, son of Alfred Aston and Norah Emily Barnes," and ', Elizabeth Norah, daughter of Earnest Edward and Lilly Ewell Sharp." The registers record the deaths of Mr and Mrs Barnes, who as we shall see, continued the work begun by Mr and Mrs Pegler. On the east wall of the Church, by the Font, there is a brass tablet to the memory of the Barnes'.

We left the Schools in 1898, one, for boys, newly opened (less ,the Commercial" and the Anglican Chapel, built in 1904 and 1909 respectively), and the other, extended and enlarged for girls, but without the New Dormitory, built in 1925, and the New Hospital, the girls' side of which was opened in 191 8 and the boys' in 1923.

To beautify and make the most of our spacious buildings and grounds was the particular delight of Mr Barnes, who succeeded his father-in-law as Headmaster in 1901. To him fell the task of expanding the curriculum and of widening the usefulness of the Boys' School. Till then the School had taught up to the Middle School Examination of the European Code. In that year Government sanction was granted for teaching boys up to the High School. But it was decided after a very brief trial to restrict the ordinary class teaching to the Middle School Examination. In the same year, too, a Training College for Teachers, men and women, was opened with Mr R. Delaney as Principal. Expansion of the curriculum proceeded rapidly. In 1904 Technical classes were opened: the, Commercial" building (hence its name) housed the students. The Commercial side took instruction in Arithmetic, Algebra, Commercial History and Geography, Vernacular, Shorthand, Typewriting, Book-keeping and Business Methods. The other side received "a two years' training which was accepted at Sibpur, where another two years in the Apprentice Department followed in either General Engineering or Mining." For them a Carpenters' Shop and Smithy were constructed and a Science Room equipped. Every year the students spent two weeks at Sukna or Siliguri in survey work.

Two other notable events took place this year, 1904. ',Hockey started as one of the regular School "games" and Goethals School was in course of construction.

In the following year, 1905, the outstanding event was "the Great Plague." "An epidemic," we read in the Record for 1906, pronounced to be plague, broke out in the School at the beginning of April. The outbreak was handled splendidly from first to last. Ten trained nurses were engaged at once, the whole school was turned out into six separate camps, and after 13 cases had been treated, the disease left us and we moved back again to our work. No lives were lost amongst the patients and by the 7th of May we were back in School, most of the boys, owing to their free life in the forest, looking the picture of health." I can hear the voice of a boy I know ask appealingly, "Can't we have a plague too?" The name "Plague Rock" on the Giddapahar Ridge survives to remind us of the site of that camp.

In 1912 the Cambridge Junior Examination was taken for the first time and the examinations of the Code were dropped. Victoria School is now" as the Record for 191 1 proudly observes a Secondary School. We read, however, in the Headmaster's Report for the following year that only 2 of the 7 candidates were able to satisfy the examiners. On the 11th July, 1912, Mr P. M. O'Riordan, M.A. (Camb), joined the Staff.

In 1918 the Victoria School Record, in which most of the foregoing information was found, celebrated its coming of age. The Editor was a true prophet when he said in his editorial that year, "I feel sure that in time to come it will be valuable as a mine of information from which to unearth the history of the School." From 1912 on we find the School making "quiet and steady progress."

The candidates for the Junior Cambridge Examination, making up for the poor results of the first effort, pass well every year. So do those for the Preliminary Locals, Government Vernacular, Lower Standard (Hindi) and the Joint Technical Board Entrance Examination though we find the number of the candidates for this last reduced on one occasion to one. We read year by year of the Headmaster's desire to start the Cambridge Senior Examination and his agitation for the necessary augmentation of the Staff. The scheme is postponed till the end of the War when the Preliminary Local Examination is abandoned and the School takes for the first time in 1918 the Senior Cambridge or School Certificate Examination.

1918 saw, too, the closing down of the Technical Department, which had served Bengal so well since 1904 and had produced no less than three students who were awarded State Scholarships to go on from Sibpur for further study to England. From this Class, also, there came a distinguished member of the Geological Survey of India, the Resident Engineer of one Railway and the Agent of another.

Victoria now turned her attention to producing boys with a good all-round education, suitably equipped to enter the field of competition for employment, with a wider and more general school-leaving certificate than had been required of a boy till then. In this departure from our old objectives we were following the trend of European education throughout the Province. In 1932 the logical next step was taken and we sent up candidates for the first time for the Intermediate Arts Examination of the University of Calcutta. Was the pendulum swinging too far?

The Training College, too, which has served Bengal for forty years, will cease to send out trained teachers to staff the middle and primary forms of the European Schools in the Province. At the end of this year it closes down. Established in 1901, as we have seen, and then known as the Victoria Training College, it was open to both men and women. In 1903 Mr. Delaney, the first Principal, left to take up a new appointment in South Africa as Inspector of Schools, Natal. After that date the Training College accepted women students only, and was located at Dow Hill, where it has remained since.

What of the future? We are on the threshold of a new era in India. What part are we to play in the history of our times? The answer lies in our past history. These Schools were founded for the children of those in the lower ranks of Government service. Since then the opportunities they offer have been extended to others as well and now finally to the children of our Indian fellow-subjects. We are not a Church School; with one other institution for Anglo-Indian education in Bengal we share the distinction of being a nonsectarian school. Yet “we acknowledge the restraint of reverence." This fact has been a distinct feature of the contribution of Victoria and Dow Hill to education in the province. Independent of ecclesiastical “magisterialism" these two schools have been forcing-houses of new ideas and an example to others in the field of education in Bengal. Having this heritage we face the future with confidence.

Victrix Domus peraeque

Musicae gymnasticaeque

Diva stimulatrix,

Ter quaterque floreas!