History of the school

St. Peter’s School today is well established and continues to grow and change with the times.

In 1874, the Cowley Fathers, who founded the school, came to India. The school began as a choir school for parishioners of St. Peter’s Church that had earlier been built in 1858 from money bequeathed by Mr. Shepherd, a resident of Mazagaon, on land granted by the Government. A few destitute children also came into the care of our Fathers at this time and this was the beginning of an important feature of the Fathers’ work in Bombay.

The school continues to offer quality education, in many cases at concessional rates not only to children of the Anglo-Indian community but to children of all communities regardless of religion, caste or creed.

16th August, 1875 saw the beginning of St. Peter’s Girls’ High School in Byculla. In June, 1876 some eight or ten boys were admitted.

On 1st March, 1878 a small Boys’ School was set up in hired premises in Mazagaon and money was raised for a new building situated near the railway bridge near Dockyard Road Station. Half the cost of this new school building was granted by the Government and the remainder was subscribed by the parishioners of St. Peter’s Church and well-wishers. The new building was inaugurated in October, 1879 in the compound of St. Peter’s Church and parsonage.

In 1905 the site of St. Peter’s Church was claimed by the Bombay (now Mumbai) Port Trust to allow for the extension of the Port Trust Railway and the Harbour Branch Line.

A new site at the junction of Dockyard Road and Belvedere Road (this is the location of the present-day St. Peter’s School) was granted by the Government and the present St. Peter’s Chapel was built in 1907-1908.

It was only on 19th January, 1910 that St. Peter’s High School for Boys and Girls was opened in the ground floor of Nicholson Hall (the present-day Junior School building).

After India gained Independence preparations were made to hand over the school to trained and qualified educationists of the Anglo-Indian community.

The Cowley Fathers retired to Poona (since renamed Pune) from where they eventually withdrew from India in 1966.

Mr. M. W. Duthie was the first layman Principal of St. Peter’s School. In 1965 Mr. Duthie, his wife and their son immigrated to Australia.
On 24th April, 1965 Mr. C. J. Olliver took over as Principal. In April, 1982, Mr. Olliver laid down his office of Principal and retired to Dehradun. No account about St. Peter’s School can be complete without mentioning Mr. T. C. Vaswani who came to India from Pakistan at the time of the partition and was taken in by the Cowley Fathers. He served as Headmaster of the Junior School and is now settled in the USA.
On 1st May, 1982 Mr. E. G. Myall assumed the office of Principal. He retired in May, 2001.
In June, 2001 Mr. Dornford Garrett was appointed Principal and retired in May, 2006.
In June, 2006 Mr. J. Biswas and Mr. M. Sebastian took over as Principal and Deputy Principal respectively. Mr. Sebastian left in May, 2007 and Mr. Biswas resigned in June, 2008.
In June 2008, Mr. Brian Robbins took over as Principal and resigned in April 2013.
On 24th April, 2013, Mr. Eugene D’Monte assumed the office of Principal after a service spanning 28 years as a Senior English Master of which 10 years as a Senior Master at Stewart School, Cuttack, Odisha, 17 years as a Senior English Master in St. Peter’s School and then 1 year as Vice Principal of St. Peter’s School.

History of the School

ST PETER'S SCHOOL

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