School
History
Queen's College, the oldest Government
school in Hong Kong, has a glorious past of 140 years. Set up in 1862 by the
English Government, Queen's College was the first formal Anglo-Chinese Secondary
School in Hong Kong. Its primary aim has not changed throughout the century:
to spread brilliant boys all over China and to strengthen the country's youth.
The
Central School (1862 - 1894)
Queen's College before WWII (1894 - 1941)
Queen's College after the War (1950 - 1962 )
Queen's College in the new century (2001 ~ )
The Central School (1862 - 1894)
Since 1862, Queen's College was called The Government Central College (中央書院). It was located at Gough Street, Central. We used the name "Central School for Boys" to distinguish us from our counterpart, "Central School for Girls". A new site of the school between Aberdeen Street and Hollywood Road was allocated to us in 1884. After the laying of the foundation stone of the school, it was renamed as Victoria College (維多利亞書院). The school's old site was made available to the Central School for Girls, which was later on renamed as Belilios Public School (庇理羅士女子中學).
Queen's College before WWII (1894 - 1941)
In 1894, Government gazetted the change of name from Victoria College to Queen's College (皇仁書院). In Queen's College, numerous subjects such as Arithmetic, Grammar, General Intelligence etc. were taught. This was very rare in the late 19th Century. During the 1920s, the school began to show her outstanding sports results to the public, as well as the academic achievements. This attracted a vast number of students seeking to enter the school. This started the golden era of our College. The golden era did not last long, unfortunately, as Victoria College was severely bombed by the Japanese in the Second World War. The once famous school fell into pieces. The only leftover was a statue of Sir Wright. During the war, Queen's College was temporary closed. In 1946, the goverment decided to reopen the government schools. Queen's College and Clementi Middle School (金文泰中學) were reopened sharing a building at Kennedy Road in 1947.
Queen's College after the War (1950 - 1962 )
In 1950, a new campus of Queen's College was built in Causeway Bay for the expansioin of the school. Sir Alexander Grantham, Governor of Hong Kong, announced the revival of Queen's College on 22 September 1950. Since then, the two-story high building served countless Q.C. students throughout half of the century. Until 1951 the lowest class at Queen's was Class 4 (equivalent to now form 3). In September of 1951 two additional classes were provided at the bottom of the school. The lowest class at Queen's thus become Class 6 (Form 1 nowadays). The changes in organization and other factors consequent on the rapid growth of education resulted for a time in an uneven distribution of divisions. In 1950 for example, there were ten divisions of Class 4. In 1951, four of these divisions were transferred to King's College (英皇書院). From 1955, intending Arts undergraduates had been transferred to King's College and later to Belilios Public School for their Advanced Level year. From 1962, an extra Upper Sixth Form was provided to the arts students so that QC boys no longer have to studied in Belilios. Meanwhile, some Belilios Girls came to Queen's to study Science. After that, no more girls were admitted and Queen's College today remains a full time Anglo-Chinese secondary school for boys.
Queen's College in the new century (2001 ~ )
Outstanding results continued to be scored by Queen's College students afterwards, in both the academic and the extra-curricular fields. The population acclaimed the school. Being a brilliant mix of Western-style education and ethnic-Chinese culture, we are confident that the success of Queen's College will sustain and prosper into the new century.