Tag Archives: BCS

THE OLD COTTONIAN’S WEEK CELEBRATIONS ~ 2012

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Programme :

Wednesday, 23rd May:
08:15 a.m.  - Chapel Service in the Holy Trinity Chapel
09:00 a.m. - Annual Past Vs Present games fixtures
12 noon       - School Fete
Thursday, 24th May :
09:00 a.m. - Annual Junior School Sports Day
08:00 p.m. - Dinner in the Headmaster’s Lodge
Friday, 25th May :
09:00 a.m. - Annual Speech Day
11:00 a.m.  - Annual Cricket Match School vs Old Cottonians
02:00 p.m. - Lunch in the Main School dining hall
08:00 p.m. – OCA [HP] Chapter contributory Dinner

Dress Code:  

  • Blazer/suit and tie for the Speech Day Function, Chapel Service and Dinner in the Headmaster’s Lodge.
  • Blazer and white flannels for those involved in the cricket match and track suits for other games.

OCs desirous of representing the OCs team against the School to forward the names to Parveen Dharma, on his email ID given below:
dharmapra1975@gmail.com
Mob: 9816634544 

 

OCA HP Chapter contributory Dinner is on Friday 25th May 8 pm at Hotel Combermere, The Mall, Shimla. Please contact Mr. Narinder Chauhan to confirm your attendance.  Rs. 1000 for a single person, Rs. 1500 for a couple. Senior OCs complimentary.

Regards,
Col. Wendy Dewan

Mr Sasim DasGupta / BCS Memorabilia – Centenary Dinner Menu Card 1959

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Mr. Sasim DasGupta was the Art Teacher at BCS. Here is an email from him which should bring back many fond memories for many OCs and BCS Teachers; and hopefully will be of interest to those who were at BCS in the later years as well!

Here is a copy of the menu card of the Centenary dinner which took place at BCS on June 7th, 1959.

I was delighted to design the card but I was terribly disappointed when I saw the printed result.

Neither the colour nor the resolution was anything like the original.  What added more to my annoyance was when I found out that the original design was also lost, either in transit or in the printing press.   However,  it was too late for any action….by then, the dinner was almost on the table and so was the menu card.

[click the image for a full view of the card and signatures]

Fond memories,

Sasim DasGupta

Batch of 1971 – 40th year reunion at BCS

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Dear Headmaster Robinson,

Attached is a letter of appreciation on behalf of the Class of ’71 for all your efforts in making our visit to BCS for our 40th Anniversary Celebrations such a resounding success.

With Warmest Regards

Vikram Sodhi C 62-71
Member Executive Committee OCA (INDIA)

 

  

[Click the image of the letter or the pictures  for a full view]
More pictures online at:  Chetan’s Facebook page

The School BELL

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THE SCHOOL BELL.

All Cottonians remember well the school’s BELL that stood on the First Flat – and the various different tones and ringing patterns that were struck to denote the TIME, BREAK, LUNCH, END OF SCHOOL DAY, PREP TIME, etc ….

Recently, we had an email from OC Richard D’Abreu [Curzon 1936-46]:

My thanks to Bishop Cotton School for forwarding me the Mitre School Paper. I look forward to this newspaper arriving at my home in Bunbury Western Australia from time to time. I am also fascinated by all the stamps which have the picture of the school printed on them.
I find the Mitre interesting to read. It keeps me up with all the events that the school has during the year. So much change to the days of the 1930ies and 40ies which was my era. What got my attention, in Volume 1 March – May 2011 issue,  in the column “In and around BCS” written by  the School Captain Uday Punta, was the mention of the demise of the school bell, and that it would be sadly missed. I could remember, in the 1940ies at the end of term in December, a few vandals, as a school prank, would take the big brass bell down and roll it down the khud. It was always found by the workmen at the school and put back to it’s rightful place in its housing on the First Playground. I cannot comprehend that the old bell is no more. Was it lost or just replaced by a more updated system?
Best wishes to all Cottonians and Old Cottonians…
Dick D’Abreu.

The HM’s response:

I write to inform you that the old order changeth to herald in the new as far as the School bell is concerned. Mr. G.P.S. Sahi and his batch-mates also donated a lovely brass bell along with the bust of the dear Founder in 2009 and it is this bell that is in use at present, having replaced the old one that time and the elements of the weather had put paid to.
You will be glad to know that a Museum has been in place in School since 2009. The Estate Department has been instructed to place the Old School Bell in a place of prominence therein.
With good wishes.
Yours faithfully,
R.C. Robinson
The Headmaster

Dick D’Abreu responds:

Thanks for updating me on the fate of the old school bell which I remembered so well. Progress is a good thing and the replacement new bell may last as long as the old faithful… It was good to read the Head Master’s comments. I had fond memories of it after 9 years as a Cottonian. Many a time I was privileged to be given the honour of ringing it on a Sunday while the boys and staff filled into the chapel..So pleased it is now in the school museum…
Dick

 

BCS in WW2 – by David M. Wood-Robinson

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I and my two brothers, Mark & Colin, were some of the large number of boys who came out in 1940 to spend the war in India with our parents; while Europe was in turmoil and even the defeat of Britain seemed a possibility.

Mark & I came out with about 600 other children on a passenger ship with Thomas Cook staff looking after us and arrived in Bombay(!) in September. We started at BCS later that month but due to the large number of ‘new boys’ the Headmaster, George Sinker, took about 20 of us into his house while another similar number of older boys went to a house near the school gate with a matron in charge. These arrangements were only for sleeping and we each belonged to one of the four houses for everything else including inter-house games.

Some of my memories include stealing chemistry lab equipment to make hookahs in which we smoked all sorts of strange things, climbing over the barbed-wire school fence to ‘scrump’ bhuttas which we roasted in the school boilers and fighting with kites with ground-up glass glued onto their strings. Also that some of the older boys had their eye on Joy Sinker, the Head’s pretty daughter! And at the end of term in December, the school train spread a trail of destruction along the various lines to where the boys’ homes were all over India. Why do we always remember the naughty things?

At prize-giving every year the current Viceroy came to preside and I was lucky enough to shake hands with Lord Linlithgow, Lord Wavell and one other whose name I forget. And of course we made many wonderful friendships which I’m glad to say joining OCA has opened the possibility of renewing.

David M. Wood-Robinson
[1940-44 Ibbetson].

[EDITOR
Here is a listing of the boys who joined BCS in 1940/41/42/43/44 -  general information for those who might be interested : BCS List - 1940 to 1944 ]