King's College, Lagos is a secondary school in Lagos, Lagos State, Nigeria. It was founded on 20 September 1909 with 10 students on its original site at Lagos Island, adjacent to Tafawa Balewa Square. The school admits male students only, although there were some female (A Level) HSC students before the establishment of Queen's College Lagos. Now the school conducts exams for the West African School-Leaving Certificate and the National Examinations Council.
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On 20 September 1909 King’s School (as it was then called) came into being. There were 10 pioneer students which included J.C. Vaughan, Isaac Ladipo Oluwole, Frank Macaulay, Herbert Mills (from the Gold Coast), O.A. Omololu and Moses King. Oluwole was the first senior prefect of the school.
The school building was erected and furnished at a cost of £10,001. It consists of a hall to accommodate 300 students, 8 lecture rooms, a chemical laboratory and an office.
The philosophy of King’s School was
“to provide for the youth of the colony a higher general education than that supplied by the existing Schools, to prepare them for Matriculation Examination of the University of London and to give a useful course of Study to those who intend to qualify for Professional life or to enter Government or Mercantile service.”
The staff of the college consists of three Europeans (a principal who gives instruction in English Language, Literature and Latin, a Mathematical and Science Master) with two African assistant teachers. Occasionally, members of the Education Department were engaged as lectures of the evening classes.
The government awarded three scholarships and three exhibitions annually based on merit. The beneficiaries of the scholarships are entitled to free tuition and a government grant of 6 pounds per annum. Conversely, holders of exhibitions receive free tuition; only Hussey Charity Exhibitions tenable at the college was established for indigent students out of the investment proceeds of the premises of the defunct Hussey Charity.
The average attendance of students as at the end of 1910 was 16. This rose to 67 as at the end of 1914.
In 1926, The Development of the Education Department, 1882–1925 was published. Chapter 1, "Annual Report on the Education Development, Southern Provinces, Nigeria, for the year 1926” unearthed interesting facts about the school.
It reads, in part, “…1909 is chiefly noticeable for the opening of King’s College as a Government Secondary School under the headmastership of a Mr. Lomax who was seconded from the Survey Department, and who was assisted by two European Masters. The number of boys on the roll was 11.In 1990, Mr. Hyde-Johnson was appointed headmaster of King’s College, but nine months later, he succeeded Mr. Rowden as Director of Education…..”
That the first headmaster of the college was Mr. Lomax is an outstanding revelation, outstanding because the general conception has always been that Mr. Hyde-Johnson who held that position. Until 1954 when the first edition of the brief history of the college was written, the popular myth was that Mr. Hyde-Johnson was the first principal of King’s College. Except for the few surviving foundation students, there was hardly any Old Boy who had ever heard of Mr.Lomax; this pioneer’s name was curiously sunk in obscurity.
An insight into life at K.C. in its early years is provided by F.S. Scruby’s article dated 24 February, 1924 in the Mermaid titled “Further Glimpse of the Past”:
There are four houses in the school named after former principals. Hyde-Johnson's House (red), Panes' House (blue), Mckee-Wright's House (yellow) and Harman's House (green). It has nine arms per class (as of the 2006–2007 session). The arms are from A to H and then J for the SSS 3, and A-G for the SSS 1 and 2.
Due to population constraints, the school was divided into two campuses, with the senior school moving into the premises of the former Federal School for Arts and Sciences (F.S.A.S) on Victoria Island. (The school administration was still under the control of one principal and ultimately under the control of the Federal Ministry of Education.) This meant that the senior classes of the school (classes 1–3) were now in the Victoria Island "Annex," as that campus came to be known.
Presently, King's College, Lagos has no junior school. The seniors are now split as follows: SS1 boys are found in Main Camp (Tafawa Balewa Square), while SS2 and SS3 continue to be in Victoria Island. The new PKC, Otunba 'Dele Olapeju, a man with a vision to reposition king's college resumed in January 2010. He has done a lot to reposition KC. He moved the Senior students from the Annex to the Main campus. Today, King's College is wearing a new look. He has erected a number of structures both at the Main campus and at the Annex Campus.He has virtually internetised king's College. Everything in King's college is IT driven. The students results are now online. Parents can follow-up everything that goes on in the college ranging from attendance to classes, class timetables, CA scores of their children and so on. These can be achieved using the students' log-in details which have been given to them.
The school uniform consists a white shirt (long-sleeved for those in the senior school and short-sleeved for those in the junior school), a school tie and/or a school badge, white trousers, black belt, socks and shoes and a blue blazer. The wearing of the blazer became compulsory with Mr Onoja, and this had made the school look more inviting to the general public.
The first principal of the school was a Sir Lomax, while the first African principal was Rex Akpofure. The principal of the school is Otunba Oladele Olapeju. Some other principals were: