Goethals Memorial School

Infobox Secondary school
name = Goethals Memorial School

motto = "Omnia Bene Facere"
(Latin: 'Do All Things Well')
established = 1907
type = Independent all-boys day and boarding secondary school
affiliations = Roman Catholic, Christian Brothers
headmaster = Br. M.R.Beddoe
founder = Christian Brothers
chaplain =
chair =
enrolment =
grades = Class II-X
colours =
free_label_1 =
free_1 =
free_label_2 =
free_2 =
campus =
city = Kurseong
state = West Bengal
country = India
website = [http://www.goethalsmemorialschool.com www.goethalsmemorialschool.com]

Goethals Memorial School is one of the many administered by the Congregation of Christian Brothers in India. It is situated between Siliguri and Darjeeling at an altitude of 5500 feet above sea level. It is set amid an expanse of forest 5 km from Kurseong town. The school was founded in 1907, and is named after Jesuit father Paul Goethals, a former Archbishop of Calcutta. The land for the school was donated by the Maharaja of Bardhaman.

Along with other public schools in Darjeeling, Goethals attracts students from northeastern India,Nepal and Bangladesh. It follows the Indian Certificate of Secondary Education curriculum, and has classes from standard 3 to standard 10.

A Brief History

On the death of the Most Rev, Dr. Paul Goethals S.J. Archbishop of Calcutta, on July 4th 1901 the Archdiocese of Calcutta decided to commemorate his memory by the establishment of an educational institution for boys in Kurseong.

In February 1907 classes started in the magnificent building erected by the first Principal Br. M.S.O Brien (1907-1914). The number of boys in residence was 110.

The official opening took place on 30th April, 1907.

The first prospectus had in view the affiliation of the School to the Sibpur Engineering College, Calcutta. However, the Sub Overseer Course did not fit with the needs of the pupils and was dropped in favour of the Cambridge Locals.

The Cambridge Exams continued until the 1970s. The school then switched to the Indian Certificate of Secondary Education curriculum.

History: The Very Beginnings

One of the last functions to be performed by Archbishop Dr. Paul Count Goethals, 1st Archbishop of Calcutta, was the blessing and laying of the foundation stone on the 12 April of the St. Xavier's Chapel, Calcutta. Shortly after that he was ordered by his doctors to return to Belgium in the hope that his indifferent health might improve. However, it was soon obvious that he would not survive very long, and when he realized this he determined to return to Calcutta and die among the people for whom he had so long and zealously laboured. He returned to his diocese and lived for some months in his residence in Park Street until the Lord called him away on the 4 July, 1901. He died at his residence, 12 Park Street, Calcutta. His funeral was the most imposing that had been seen in the Capital of British India for years, attending as it was on the route to the Cathedral, by crowds of persons of all classes and creeds, Catholic and Protestant, Mussalman and Hindoo alike. He was succeeded by Most Rev. Dr Meulmann, S.J.

The Honorable Mr. James Woodroffe, Advocate General of the High Court, an Irishman and a convert, called on Archbishop Dr. Meulmann, S.J., soon after his consecration and told him that he wished to have a memorial erected to the late Archbishop Goethals and requested him to call a meeting of the principal Catholics in Calcutta to devise what shape that memorial might take.

Archbishop Meulmann agreed to Mr. Woodroffe's proposal and the first meeting was called of all the priests in Calcutta and all the principal Catholic laymen. It was agreed that the nature of the memorial should depend on the amount of money collected; but first of all a marble tablet was to be erected in the Cathedral in Moorghihatta with a record of the life and works of the good Archbishop Goethals. Woodroffe was ready to put down Rs.5000. Collectors were appointed but very little money was coming in except what was collected by Woodroffe himself. At a subsequent meeting Woodroffe expressed the wish to get all the European boys out of Moorghihatta Orphanage and bring them into healthier surroundings. It was at this stage the Christian Brothers were consulted to see what they were prepared to do. Br Fabian Kenneally was prepared to back the project if the memorial selected were a school situated in a Hill Station. The Brothers had only one Hill Station in Nainital and that was not sufficient for their increasing numbers. Br Stanislaus O'Brien representing the Provincial attended the next meeting of the organizing committee and it was agreed that he with Mr. Woodroffe were to be the sole collectors. Both did very well among the gentry and merchants of Calcutta and a large sum of money was collected.

The Maharajah of Burdwan, who had sold to the Jesuit Fathers the land on which St. Mary's Scholasticate stands at Kurseong, agreed to sell a large strip adjoining the Scholasticate grounds for the purpose of the Goethals Memorial School. The Government also agreed to lease us an area adjoining the Maharajah's strip. The lease is for twenty five years renewable at the same rate as long as it will be required for a school. Thus, abundance of land was secured for the new venture. In September, 1903, Brother Stanislaus O'Brien was sent to Kurseong for the building and equipping of the new establishment, and he became its first Superior. The tenant on both the Government land and the Maharajah's had to be compensated. There was no trouble with the Government tenants as they were called together and paid off, the Government sending a man from Darjeeling to assist. It was different with the tenants of the Maharajah's property. These held out a long time until the Superior invoked the assistance of a native lawyer named Bishambur of the town of Kurseong. Bishambur got them all out except the head-tenant, a lady whose name and titles were Hurka Maya Jemadarini Mondolini. This lady was the only tenant of the Maharajah, the others were her sub-tenants, and she held a vast stretch of the Maharajah's land on these slopes of the Himalayas.

The Jemadars are low-caste Indians who are employed as sweepers, but this lady, though she belonged to this caste, had become wealthy. Mondol means a landlord and the word are rendered feminine by the termination - ni. After a long struggle, Bishambur got her to go and take up her abode lower down on the slope on the other side of the main road to Darjeeling. Of course she had to get a considerable compensation for disturbance. Mount Carmel Novitiate stands on the ground she occupied for her own dwelling. The flat lower down on which Goethals was built had been occupied by a previous mondol. Br Stanislaus O'Brien was thus enabled to clear the site and make preparations for the erection of the building. The Archbishop came, blessed the site and turned the first sod. He also loaned us Br John Molitor, S.J., the builder of St.Francis Xavier's Church in Bow Bazar for the building of Goethals Memorial.

The building now went ahead in right earnest. Sir Andrew Fraser the Lieutenant Governor of Bengal, gave a building grant of 60,000 Rupees. On account of the Government grant the plans had to be submitted to the engineers of the PWD. They came frequently to examine the work, good advice and expressed themselves well pleased with all they saw. Br Molitor suggested a Mansard roof which would give full dormitory accommodation on the top storey. When the Government engineers were consulted they said they knew nothing of the mansard style of roof but allowed it to up. Later one of them said that it was a tricky roof but that the work was well So on the work went, but it was not completed and the school furnished until the end of 1906. In the summer of that year all the Brothers in the plains with the Br. Provincial came up to Kurseong to spend their holidays in the new establishment. The Provincial decided that we must have a house warming, so the whole community of St.Mary's priests and scholastics were invited as well as the priests of the Dacca and those of Bettiah and Krishnagar who were on holidays in the neighbourood. All were greatly pleased with the new Catholic centre, and after a good tiffin returned happily to their homes.

In the following January, the school opened with 100 boys. Later in that year when Sir Andrew and Lady Fraser were going to Darjeeling for the summer months they came for the official opening, leaving the special train on which they were traveling to their summer residence waiting for them at the Goethals siding. Sir Andrew examined the whole building and in his speech at the opening ceremony expressed himself well pleased with all he saw. Very soon we had 200 boarders and began to make a mark at the competitive examinations. A Two years' engineering class started for the purpose of obtaining entrance into the Sibpur Engineering school for mining. Several of the boys became managers of mines. Unfortunately this course has now been closed to the students.

For many years a successful farm was worked at Goethals which supplied the school with abundance of milk, butter, vegetables, and eggs and to a large extent with meat. However, because of the depredations of some of the local community, the farm had to be given up and the land is now under trees.

As the Hill Station of Kurseong is much nearer to Calcutta than that of Nainital, the Provincial, Brother Fabian Kenneally, determined to build a holiday house for the Brothers of the plains close to the Goethals. A journey of one night in the train brings the travelers from Calcutta to the foot of the hills below Kurseong, and a few hours climbing by motor or by train brings the wayfarer into the cooler atmosphere of the hills, 6000 feet above sea-level at the Goethals. Hurka Maya's flat, a few hundred feet above the school was selected as the site of the vacation house which, when completed, gave accommodation for 36 Brothers and was fully utilized for many a mid-summer holiday by the communities from the houses in the plains. When Br Arsenius Ryan became Provincial (1914) he made it the Novitiate and called it Mount Carmel. On March 1st, 1915, the Novitiate was transferred from Asansol to Mt. Carmel. Br. Philip Studdert was the first Novice Master at Mount Carmel, and he was succeeded by Br Baptist Holland in his second term as Novice Master. When through old age he had to relinquish the post he was followed by Brother Luke Aherne. (Mount Carmel was closed in the 40's for want of young men willing to join the Brothers. However it was re-opened in 1959.)

The School Anthem

CHEERS for GOETHALS, CHEERS for GOETHALS
That's the spirit true,
We're out to win, through thick and thin,
We're always loyal to you.

G-O-E-T-H-A-L-S
Come on, Come on, Blue!
We will not slack, we won't come back
Till the fight is through.

On to Victory, on to Victory,
Keep those colours high,
No matter what the score may be
Goethals will always try.

Do all things well, that's our motto,
To it we'll be true.
We'll win the fight with all our might,
For our dear old school.

=Notable Alumni=Mr.Prakash Bhartia, Member of Canadian Dept. of Defence and Order of Canada
Mr.Joseph Galibardy (Indian Hockey Team), Olympic Gold Medalist 1936 Berlin
Mr.Chaman Singh Gurung (Indian Hockey Team), Olympic Gold Medalist 1952 Helsinki
Mr.Cyrus Mitchie (Indian Hockey Team), Olympic Gold Medalist 1936 Berlin
Mr.Jaspal Singh Bindra, CEO, Asia, Standard Chartered Bank
Mr.Kanwarpal Singh Bindra, Director, GE Money
Mr.Rajah Banerjee, Owner (Makaibari Tea)

External links

* [http://www.goethalsmemorialschool.com/ Goethals Memorial School]