HAIL MT. HERMON: A TRIBUTE

(125^th Anniversary - 1895-2020)

Foundation stone of school building was laid on June 5, 1924

  June 5, 1924, is a great day for Mount Hermon School and the Hermonites. The foundation of the main school building was laid on this day by the Countess of Lytton. The construction of the school, which was then called Queen’s Hill School (QHS), took about two years.

   The inauguration of the new school building was performed by Lord Lytton, then the Governor-General of Bengal, on May 26, 1926. The opening of QHS at North Point was a dream come true for the school’s Founder, Miss Emma Knowles, who died in 1924. She founded the school, then called Arcadia Girls School near Chowrasta, Darjeeling, on March 11, 1895.

   In her book, “Under the Old School Topee”, UK Hermonite Hazel (Innes) Craig, who passed away a few years back, gives a clear picture of this era:

    “Emma Knowles worked tirelessly for her school until 1915, and retired from active missionary service a few years later. Her greatest hope was to see her school established in a permanent building `before her call should come'. She died in 1924 aged 84, but she got her wish when Miss Carolyn Stahl, who became Principal in 1918, was able to write and tell her of the purchase of the Mount Hermon Estate in 1920.

    A slump in the tea industry led to the sale of the large estate belonging to the Lebong Tea Company, an ill wind which blew some good for the Methodist missionaries looking for a site for the school. The site was bought for a bargain price of Rs.50,000/- by Bishop Frederick Fisher of the Thoburn Methodist Church in Calcutta. Fred Fisher was the moving spirit behind the purchase of the site and the building of the new school. Later he was to instigate the purchase of Fernhill in 1927, which was to become the senior boys' living accommodation - again at a bargain price, a mere Rs.35,000/-.

   Cottages sprang up on the new estate and the school itself was officially opened in 1926, still called Queen's Hill and by then taking many more boys. In 1930 the school was re­named Mount Hermon School, incorporating the original Queen's Hill School for Girls and Bishop Fisher's School for Boys, eventually becoming the fully integrated co-educational boarding school that I knew in the 1940s.” (www.oldmhs.com – web page of UK alumni)

Hail Mt. Hermon! Hail Hermonites!