India Stamps 2010 : Cathedral And John Connon School

A Choir School, established with the primary objective of providing choristers for the St. Thomas Cathedral, Mumbai  the first Anglican Church in Mumbai was founded in October,1875. Meanwhile The Bombay Scottish Education Society was founded in 1866. The society put up a beautiful building on the Esplanade, and named it for Mr John Connon (then Chief Registrar of Bombay).

In 1878 a high school in Byculla, set up by the Bombay Diocesan Society, was merged with the Choir School to form the Cathedral High School. The present Senior School building, a majestic blend of Indian and Gothic architecture, was erected in 1896. A girls' school had been started in 1880.

Finally, in 1922, in a public meeting held at the Town Hall (the present Asiatic Society of Bombay library), a suggestion was put forward by the principal of the Cathedral Boys' School for the Cathedral Schools and the Scottish School to work together, instead of competing. The idea was well-received, and thus the Anglo-Scottish Education Society was conceived. The schools were re-organized into the Cathedral Boys' School, the Cathedral Girls' School, and the John Connon School.

In the 1960s co-education was still viewed with trepidation, and when in 1965, the Principal, Rev. Ridding, stated that the only way to solve the financial and logistical problems of the school was to make it co-educational, some people felt so strongly about it that they went to court to thwart the school's plans. Justice Lentin, a man famous for his courageous judgments, pronounced that the school had every right to merge if it so desired. The merger proceeded smoothly.

Today the old boys' school is the Senior School; the old girls' school is the Middle School; and the John Connon School is the Junior School. The Infant School, located at Malabar Hill, was set up in 1965.

Now Cathedral has also opened its residential branch in Lonavala, The Cathedral Vidya School.

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