Our Heritage and History

Bishop Cotton School, Shimla, is one of the oldest boarding schools in Asia, and was the first ‘Public School’ in India. It was founded on 28^th July 1859, by Bishop George Edward Lynch Cotton. George Cotton was a scholar at Westminster School and a graduate of Cambridge University. In 1836, Cotton was appointed Assistant Master at Rugby School by Doctor Thomas Arnold, one of the founders of the British ‘Public School’ system. It was the young Mr. Cotton who is spoken of as the ‘the model young master’ in Thomas Hughes’ famous book ‘Tom Brown’s School Days’ which gives such a vivid insight to school life at Rugby.
Having taught for 15 years at Rugby, Cotton was appointed Master at Marlborough in 1852, where he introduced organized games and the House Prefect system. He believed that… ‘the Prefects are and shall be, as long as I am the Head, the Governors of the school. As soon as I see this impracticable, I will resign…’ He was consecrated Bishop at Westminster Abbey by the Archbishop of Canterbury. Queen Victoria personally selected Bishop Cotton as Bishop of Calcutta and the Metropolitan Bishop of India, Burma and the Island of Ceylon, at a critical and turbulent time in Indian history in 1857.

As Bishop of Calcutta, on the 28^th July 1859, Cotton conducted a service for the foundation of a public school at a hill station. Collections were made in most of the churches of the Diocese for this purpose. These funds were used to found the Bishop’s School at Jutogh, Shimla. The land and the buildings on it were a gift from the Viceroy. Three private houses were purchased by Bishop Cotton, out of the India Public School Fund, and the school opened for students on the 15^th March 1863. Though mentioned in correspondence as the Shimla Public School, it never actually bore this name.

The first boy, Frederick Naylor, joined the school on the 16^th March 1863, ‘creeping like a snail, unwillingly to school,’ watched by the staff with curiosity and amusement. Thirty five boys were admitted that year and the school increased its strength to sixty five pupils by 1864. This was the maximum number the buildings and grounds could hold.
A change of site was then deemed necessary because the Jutogh site was divided by a public road. Bishop Cotton personally reconnoitered ten sites in the Autumn of 1864, and finally approved the south end of the Knollswood Spur, which belonged of the Rajah of Keonthal. After lengthy negotiations the site was acquired through the intervention of the Viceroy and the foundation stone for the new buildings, was laid on 26^th September 1866, by H.E. The Viceroy Sir John Lawrence, elder brother of Sir Henry Lawrence, founder of the Military Asylum, Sanawar (now known as Lawrence School). In September 1868, the school moved to Knollswood, its present site.
A fortnight after laying the foundation stone, Bishop Cotton drowned in an accident on 6^th October 1866, while touring Assam in the Governor’s yacht on the river Gorai. To honour the memory of its founder, the name of the school was changed to Bishop Cotton School in 1867. Houses at both Rugby and Marlborough were also named Cotton House. Two Schools, one in Banglore and the other in Nagpur were also then established in his memory and St. Paul’s School, Darjeeling, (founded in 1823 and shifted from Calcutta to Darjeeling by Bishop Cotton) also erected a Cotton Hall in his memory.
Bishop Cotton School, Shimla was the first school of its kind in Asia to incorporate the House system, a system of organized games and a prefectorial body. These developments ran parallel with those in England where a system was adopted whereby masters augmented their teacher’s income by running boarding houses, liaising directly with the parent, and being known therefore as ‘Housemasters’.
The school grew from strength to strength under the stewardship of the Headmaster, Rev. Dr.Samuel Slater, who had been brought from St. Paul’s School in Calcutta, and who went on to serve Bishop Cotton School, Shimla for twenty-two years, laying a solid foundation and transforming the school into a prestigious institution, which grew to attract students from among the Indian elite as well. By the turn of the century, the reputation of the School was undeniable and greatly helped by staff, who were mainly educated at Oxford and Cambridge universities.
On Sunday, 7^th May 1905, whilst most of the boys were on ‘Khud Leave’, the school caught fire. Almost the whole school was destroyed except the Headmaster’s Lodge (1868), the Hospital (1868) and the Senior Master’s House (1873). The school was rebuilt and occupied in July 1907. The school Chapel, which was originally consecrated on 21^st September 1871, was rebuilt and used from 3^rd April 1908.
In 1926, a hostel was constructed for the Shimla Hill chiefs’ sons and relatives and financed entirely by the Hill Chiefs. Later the hostel was expanded and nine more rooms were added and became the College Section of the school, preparing the boys for the Intermediate Examinations. In 1959, the centenary year, dormitories were constructed on the first floor to house one hundred and forty children.
In 1937, a Prep School was opened by buying the Ayrcliffe Girls’ School, (now the Tibetan School in Chotta Shimla). In December 1947, the Prep School was closed as forty two Muslim and ninety eight British and European boys left India and the school. The Prep School was finally sold in 1961 to the Dalai Lama, having been on rent to the Government from 1948.
The first Indian boys admitted to the school were Suren Tagore in 1881 and Vishnu Singh in 1883.
The first four Indian School Captains were R.J. Gandhi in 1928, Harry Chukerbuti in 1936, Jehangzeb Khan in 1941 and Hasan Agha in 1946-47. These four boys were prominent examples of a student body that was being groomed for leadership of Indian affairs, the training of which was proof of the far-sightedness of Bishop Cotton and successive Headmasters.
A school is always judged by its products. Bishop Cotton has produced ambassadors, UN contingent commanders, politicians, MPs in England and India, about a dozen Generals / Admirals / Air Marshals, leading Industrialists, authors, prominent doctors, teachers, engineers, civil servants and a Chief Minister. Cottonians have donned Indian colours in golf, won national gold medals in air rifle shooting, boxing and taekwondo. They have broken the national broad jump record, and the national air rifle shooting record (1998), represented England and Malaysia in Hockey, and Malaysia in Cricket, won the second highest Indian decoration in war, and have been knighted. The school has also produced one of the most decorated officer in the history of the British army, Major Roy Farran (Curzon). Many Cottonians have made the supreme sacrifice in the defence of their country.
“….and so from those who have gone before, to those who are yet to come; we pass our motto loud and clear, all evil overcome. As true as is a brother’s love, as close as ivy grows; we’ll stand four square throughout our lives to every wind that blows.”

The BCS Shimla Seven virtues
August 2, 2021