Queen's College, Guyana

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Queen's College is a prestigious secondary school in Georgetown, Guyana. It was established in 1844 as the Queen's College Grammar School for boys by the Most Reverend William Piercy Austin, D.D., Bishop of then British Guiana. The female equivalent was "Bishops".

The first assembly was held on August 5, 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 August 15, 1844 in the Old Colony House (situated in the compound of what is now the Guyana High Courts - the previous 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 more moves 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 December 3, 1951. The school became co-educational in 1975.

In 1997, the school was partially destroyed in a fire, but extensive reconstruction has been carried out. Damage was estimated at G$200 million (around US$1,000,000). Phase I of the rebuilding - the Administrative Block and Auditorium - has been completed and was dedicated on September 19, 2003. Queen's College celebrated its 160th birthday on August 5, 2004.

The school's motto is ""Fideles Ubique Utiles" - "Loyal and Useful Everywhere".

The school's ten(10) athletic houses are named after past teachers and members of the school and are as follows: A House - Percival B House - Raleigh C House - Austin D House - D'Urban E House - Pilgrim F House - Weston G House - Moulder H House - Woolley K House - Cunningham L House - Knobbs

These ten houses also possess their own colours ( listed below. These colours are used each year on 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 ground to showcase their marching skills.

Houses and their Colours: A - Red B - Dark Blue C - Light Green D - Brown E - Purple F - Light Blue G - Pink H - Dark Green K - Yellow L - Orange ( formerly white)

Noted alumni include former president Forbes Burnham [1], former president 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, and Dr. Laurence Clarke, who now heads the World Bank country office in Angola, and chronicled the school's history from its inception up to 1994, as a tribute to its 150th anniversary. The book, "Queen's College of Guyana - Records of a Tradition of Excellence (1844-1994)", is extremely detailed historically and full of nostalgia.