King's College, Lagos

King's College, Lagos is a secondary school in Lagos, Lagos State, Nigeria. It was founded on 20 September, 1909 with 10 students on its original site at Lagos Island, adjacent to Tafawa Balewa Square. The school admits male students only, although there were some female (A Level) HSC students before the establishment of Queen's College Lagos. Now the school conducts exams for the West African School-Leaving Certificate and the National Examinations Council.

History

King's College Lagos was modelled after King's College of Our Lady of Eton (popularly know as Eton College). On 20 September 1909 King’s School (as it was then called) came into being. There were 10 pioneer Students which include I. C. Vaughan, I. L. Oluwole, Frank Macaulay, Herbert Mills (from the Gold Coast), O. A. Omololu and Moses King. Oluwole was the first Senior Prefect of the School.

The School building was erected and furnished at a cost of £10,001. It consists of a hall to accommodate 300 Students, 8 lecture rooms, a chemical laboratory and an office.

The philosophy of King’s School was “to provide for the youth of the colony a higher general education than that supplied by the existing Schools, to prepare them for Matriculation Examination of the University of London and to give a useful course of Study to those who intend to qualify for Professional life or to enter Government or Mercantile service.”

The Staff of the College consists of 3 Europeans, namely a principal who gives instruction in English Language, Literature and Latin, a Mathematical and Science Master, together with two African assistant teachers. Occasionally, members of the Education Department were also engaged as lectures of the evening classes.

The Government awarded three Scholarships and three exhibitions annually based on merit. The beneficiaries of the Scholarships are entitled to free tuition and a Government grant of 6 pounds per annum. Conversely, holders of Exhibitions receive free tuition only Hussey Charity Exhibitions tenable at the College was established for indigent Students out of the investment proceeds of the premises of the defunct Hussey Charity.

The average attendance of Students as at the end of 1910 was 16. This rose to 67 as at the end of 1914.

In 1926 was published, “The Development of the Education Department, 1882-1925.” Chapter 1 of that publication entitled, Annual Report on the Education Development, Southern Provinces, Nigeria, for the year 1926” unearthed certain interesting facts about King’s College.

It reads in part “…1909 is chiefly noticeable for the opening of King’s College [in the early days, it was known as King’s School] as a Government Secondary School under the headmastership of a Mr. Lomax who was seconded from the Survey Department, and who was assisted by two European Masters.The number of boys on the roll was 11.In 1990, Mr.Hyde-Johnson was appointed headmaster of King’s College, but nine months later , he succeeded Mr. Rowden as Director of Education…..” That the first Headmaster of the College was Mr. Lomax is an outstanding revelation, outstanding because the general conception has always been that Mr. Hyde- Johnson held that enviable position .Until 1954 when the first edition of the brief history of the College was written, the popular myth was that Mr. Hyde-Johnson was the fist Principal of King’s College. Except for the few Surviving foundation Students then, there was hardly any Old Boy who had ever heard of Mr.Lomax this pioneer’s name was curiously sunk in obscurity.

An insight into life at K.C. in its early years is provided by F.S. Scruby’s article dated 24 th February, 1924 in the Mermaid entitled “Further Glimpse of the Past”

:”It revived many memories which are never very dormant to read Ikoli’s very flattering recollections of my all too short “regime’at K.C. Having taught the young Australian out in the “Bush’ in sunny New South Wales and spent holidays in Fiji and the Pacific Islands, it was the pleasurable anticipation that I came to Lagos and was a great disappointment to me to have to resign the post so soon.

‘It is a curious thing that Ikoli should have noticed that some boys run the risk of being spoiled. To this day Old Boys from Schools in which I taught in England before going to Lagos remind me of the lasting impression that was made on them when they showed any symptoms of such deterioration. The feasts so generously described in the December number were really only meeting s of the Matriculation class- Oluwole, Vaughan and Macaulay- who use to come up to my quarters once or twice a week to read Shakespeare.

“In looking back on the Physical Training, I am afraid Okoli has taken off his rose-coloured spectacles. The Sergeant of the W.A.R.F.F. who used to come and give lessons were really not very old on peppery. He was a very good Instructor and very fond of boys but the fact remains that P.T. was not popular, and one small boy in particular used to come and report to me regularly that he was ‘sore-footed’, and take his big dose from the bottle and an hour’s work as well. It was my great ambition that a cadet Company should be formed at K.C. as the first company of a Lagos Cadet Battalion School were circularized by the Education Department, but the scheme fell through.

“It is a great joy though it is not a matter of Surprise to know that K.C. has prospered during the last 13 years with the development of the House System and Inter-house Sports.

Organization

Houses and classes

Currently there are four houses in the school named after former principals of the school. Hyde-Johnson's House (red), Panes' House (blue), Mckee-Wright's House (yellow) and Harman's House (green). It also has nine arms per class (as of the 2006-2007 session) The arms are from A-H and then J for the SSS 3, and A-G for the SSS 1 and 2. The Principal of the school is Mrs Y.O Awofunwa.

Campuses

Due to population constraints, the school was divided into two campuses, with the senior school moving into the premises of the former Federal School for Arts and Sciences (F.S.A.S) on Victoria Island. (This did not mean that the school administration was divided, as it was still under the control of one Principal and ultimately under the control of the Federal Ministry of Education.) This meant that the senior classes of the school (Senior Secondary School classes 1-3) were now in the Victoria Island "Annex" as that campus came to be known.

Uniform

The School Uniform consists a white shirt(long-sleeved for those in the senior school and short-sleeved for those in the junior school), a school tie and/or a school badge, white trousers)shorts for juniors), black belt, socks and shoes and a blue blazer.The wearing of the blazer became compulsory when Mr Onoja and this had made the school look more inviting to the general public.

Principals

The first principal of the school was a Sir Lomax, while the first African principal was Rex Akpofure.Some other principals were:

*P. H. Davis
*R. S. A. Agiobu-Kemmer
*S. O. Agun
*S. A. Akinruli
*J. R. Bunting
*Sylas Onoja
*Ytunde Awofuwa
*S. I. Balogun
*Augustine A. Ibegbulam
*Akintoye A. Ojemuyiwa

Alumni

*Alex Ekwueme
*Odumegwu Ojukwu
*Kole Omotosho
*Allison Ayida, former secretary to the Federal Government
*Dr. Sonny Kuku, Physician and Endocrinologist
*Ibrahim Gambari, United Nations Representative
*Phillip Asiodu
*Dr. Kalu Idika Kalu
*Hakeem Bello-Osagie
*Chief Anthony Enahoro
*Shamsuddeen Usman, current Minister of Finance Nigeria
*Senator Sanusi Dagash, Minister National Planning Commission Nigeria
*Audu Ogbeh
*Atedo Peterside
*Omamofe Boyo
*Tonye Patrick Cole

External links

* [http://www.collegelagos.org/ official website of King's college Lagos]
* [http://www.kcobonline.org/ King's College Old Boys Association]
* [http://www.myKCL.org Portal for King's College Lagos Boys and Old Boys]

itoje joseph