Government Central School and Victoria College (1862 - 1894)

Queen's College was first founded as The Government Central School (中央書院). It was originallylocated at Gough Street, Sheung Wan. As the school expanded and space was inadequate, a new site between Aberdeen Street and Hollywood Road was allocated to us in 1884. After its foundation stone was laid, the school was renamed Victoria College (維多利亞書院). The school's former site at Gough Street was made available to the Central School for Girls, which was later renamed Belilios Public School (庇理羅士女子中學).

 

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Queen's College before Second World War (1894 - 1941)

In 1894, Government gazetted the change of name from Victoria College to Queen's College (皇仁書院). By that time, Queen's College taught both Chinese and western subjects such as Arithmetic, Geography, Hygiene, History, Grammar, General Intelligence etc., which was ahead of its time in the late 19th Century. The school also encouraged pupils to pursue various extra-curricular activities. By the 1920s, their outstanding sports and academic achievements were widely recognised in Hong Kong and South China. This in turn attracted ever increasing numbers of applicants seeking to enrol in the school. The golden era did not last long, however, as the school was forced to close temporarily when the Japanese invaded Hong Kong 1941. During the war and occupation, the campus was severely damaged by explosion and fire . The famous landmark, once dubbed 'The Old Lady of Aberdeen Street', was reduced to rubbles. The only material recovered from the old campus was a marble bust of former headmaster Dr GH Bateson Wright. After the British reoccupied Hong Kong, Queen's College was reopened in 1946, sharing a campus building with Clementi Middle School (金文泰中學) at Kennedy Road.

 

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Queen's College after the War (1950 - 1962)

In 1950, a new campus was built for Queen's College in Causeway Bay. Sir Alexander Grantham, Governor of Hong Kong laid the foundation in May, and later opened the building on 22 September in the same year. Since then, the two-story high building served countless Q.C. students for over 70 years. 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 organisation 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 study at Belilios Public School. Meanwhile, some Belilios Girls came to Queen's College 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.