Barnes School

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Barnes School, Deolali, is a boarding school in west India. It was established in 1925, on the basis of a 1718 original foundation.

It is a private co-educational

When the Revd. Richard Cobbe was appointed chaplain to the British

A large airy site at Byculla was given by the Government. Girls were also provided for. New school buildings were opened in 1825. One of the copper plates commemorating the opening is now on the wall of Evans Hall, Devlali. The other remains with Christ Church School, Byculla, which with the parish church there stands on part of the land given originally to the BES. Much of the land was later sold to help build Barnes.

The BES schools were primarily boarding schools for

The memory of founders and benefactors is preserved in the names of the buildings: Barnes, Candy, Spence, Haig-Brown, Lloyd. Other names are remembered. Greaves House is named after Sir John Greaves, a prominent Bombay businessman of the firm of Greaves Cotton,[3] director of the Bombay Education Society from 1930 and Chairman of its Managing Committee from 1939 to 1949. Royal House commemorates Harry Royal, an old boy of the BES School from the years around 1900 to 1910, who became an officer of the Bombay Chamber of Commerce and honorary treasurer of the BES for many years. The greatest of them all was the Revd. Thomas Evans. After being Headmaster at the old school at Byculla since 1910, he became the first Headmaster of Barnes, without whom it would probably not have survived its early years. His portrait hangs in Evans Hall which was named in memory of him when he retired in 1934.

Sports and extra-curricular activities

Sports include

Barnes has won the "All Maharashtra Anglo-Indian Schools Football Tournament" 11 out of the 18 times, including a record of 7 times in a row. Barnes has a campus of 265 acres (1.07 km²), has seven playing fields and an expanse of plains and forests surrounding it.

Second World War

W. R. Coles, Principal from 1934 to 1968, wrote of Barnes during the war years:

Those were the days of

Burma or Malaya.^[4]

Amongst these men and elsewhere Barnes was well represented as more and more old students joined the armed forces – mainly the Army, though also the Air Force and the Navy. Old girls became nurses or joined as 'WACs' (Women's Auxiliary Corps). Younger men on the staff went off to enlist. Gradually it became more and more difficult to find teachers. Retired men and, in some cases, misfits had to be engaged. At times classes had to be combined since no teachers at all were available. The Military Hospital expanded fivefold to deal with the mounting toll of wounded men sent back from the fighting areas. At the end of 1941 and the beginning of 1942 war came close to India with the capture of Burma by the Japanese. Of the civilians from

Rangoon and other Burmese towns who managed to escape by air or ship or by trekking over the mountains, some came to Barnes – children and adults. Three teachers and some matrons joined us in this way. At one time it seemed there was nothing to stop the Japanese coming into Assam, Bengal or even further. For a period they had command of the sea. It was considered possible that planes from an aircraft carrier might bomb Bombay and Devlali. So at Barnes we set to dig trenches, erect blast walls, learn First Aid and undergo training in ARP (Air Raid Precautions). At any hour of the day or night the Headmaster could be seen, and heard, cycling around the compound, blowing on a whistle. At the first shrill blast everything had to be stopped, even a meal, and off all had to troop to their Air Raid Stations. Thank goodness, this phase did not last long.^[4]

Every effort was made to entertain the troops. We had some wonderful cricket matches against teams including top club players from Australia, and football games with teams including one or two professionals from the

ENSA, were sent around the big troop centres. In Devlali, at first all the entertainments were held in Evans Hall. Variety shows, orchestras, plays of every kind, Barnes saw in those days.^[4]

What is now the School of Artillery Children's School, near the Cathay Cinema, was built as the Lumley Canteen. One night a week till the canteen finally closed down at the end of 1947 a team of the staff of Barnes used to run it, first preparing food, and then serving it. Feeding the boarders during the war was not easy. We used to get our milk from the Military Farm but at just a week's notice we had to make our own arrangements. Potatoes which in pre-war times came from Italy or East Africa were often nonexistent. If it was not wheat, it was rice, or sugar or something else which could not be had for love or money. Luckily it never happened that there was a shortage of everything at the same time.^[4]

Our class-work suffered inevitably from lack of proper staff and also from the booming of guns practising on the ranges throughout the day and night. The

mortar shell which had been found just outside the boundary and which they were investigating at the rear of Candy Block. Despite distractions and disasters life went on.^[4]

The following description of the school arms has been received from the College of Arms, London:

It is a combination of the arms of Archdeacon Barnes, the Founder, on the left side, and that of his wife, who belonged to the Carnac family, on the right. On the left side is a blue shield with the faces of three white leopards and on the right, four-quarters alternately white and blue with crossed swords, three five-pointed stars and a crescent. The swords are in their natural steel colour with the points upward. The stars are blue over the white quarters and white over the blue. Similarly the crescent is white and blue. The bird is a white falcon with golden beak and legs. It is standing on a green mount with six alternate twists of white and blue underneath. The motto, in Latin, Accepto robore susgam can be translated, "I shall arise with the strength I have received."

School houses

Boys

The boys houses are named after school founders/benefactors:

• Candy – Green – Revd. George Candy
• Greaves – Blue – Sir John Greaves
• Royal – Red – Harry Royal
• Spence – Yellow – Sir Reginald Spence

Girls

The girls houses are named after women of historical significance:

• Joan of Arc – Green
• Edith Cavell – Red
• Helen Keller – Blue
• Florence Nightingale – Yellow

Notable alumni

• Vinod Khanna^[5]

  

• Dilip Kumar^[6][7]
• Cyrus Todiwala
• Arshad Warsi
• Anil Yashwant Tipnis
• Karambir Singh^[8]
• Shivaji Satam

References

External links

• Official website
• Unofficial website
• Anil Tipnis at Barnes after being promoted to Chief of Air Staff
• The History of Barnes

19°53′24.28″N 73°48′31.62″E / 19.8900778°N 73.8087833°E / 19.8900778; 73.8087833