RECENTLY, the alumni, students, teachers, and most of the Guyanese community celebrated the 180th Anniversary of the founding of Queen’s College in 1844. The late Professor Norman Cameron, who taught mathematics to generations of boys and later at the University of Guyana, wrote the definitive History of the School, which needs to be updated.
Dr. Patrick Dial, the oldest surviving master who taught at the school over 70 years ago, supplements the encomiums showered on the school during the anniversary celebrations in this article.

The President, Dr. Irfaan Ali, was the guest of honour at the celebrations, and gave his charge to the students. “You are indeed part of a rich legacy,” said President Ali. “Let there be no doubt, Queen’s College represents excellence. I am sure, without a shadow of a doubt, that this institution will continue to produce some of our most illustrious sons and daughters…There is no substitute for hard work, and you should never shortchange hard work. But also never shortchange the environment that allows you to grow and achieve this accomplishment in your individual excellence.”

He enjoined students to maintain their relationships and contact with the communities from which they came, to give a helping hand to fellow students, and not to allow the competitiveness of the school milieu to obscure the fact that competition could be used as a way for all to succeed. He further pointed out that true human excellence and brilliance go beyond academic achievements or institutional recognition.

President Ali advocated that the core values of humanity—humility, tolerance, togetherness, and equity—be extended to the country as a whole to create a model society.
In the past, Queen’s College (QC) stood out as the unique and unchallengeable premier school in the country. Now, even ‘country’ schools are challenging it for that accolade. One example is the Saraswati Vidya Niketan (SVN) of West Coast Demerara. This school, from its very beginning, admitted children who could not gain admission to other schools because of their poor performance at the Common Entrance or Grade Six exams. Many of these former poor performers, with professional teaching and a first-class learning environment, outperformed QC students.

In other words, there has been an equalisation of several other secondary schools, such as Anna Regina, Bishops, and St. Stanislaus, with QC. This equalisation is due to QC shedding some of its distinctive past characteristics, and other secondary schools raising their standards. Queen’s College, however, has still retained much of its past mystique, which attracts the crème de la crème of students who move from primary to secondary schools each year.

What are those distinctive past characteristics? Until the 1940s, the majority of the staff—and invariably the headmasters—were recruited in Britain. They were all trained, experienced teachers, and many earned their degrees from the best British universities, in particular Oxford, Cambridge, and London. By the end of World War II, locals with similar qualifications were recruited, and by the end of the 1950s, the staff had become almost completely “Guyanised”, though the traditions and standards were meticulously maintained.

The QC staff were comparatively well-paid civil servants, and treated teaching at Queen’s as a career. In the 1960s and 1970s, a few of the staff left to join the University or specialised positions in the Public Service. These included Robert Moore, Rashleigh Jackson, and Rudy Insanally, who joined the newly established Foreign Service, and had distinguished careers. Jackson and Insanally even became Ministers of Foreign Affairs. Ramsammy and Drayton left to initiate and organise the science sector of the University. Others, like Harold Persaud and Patrick Dial, went on to organise the National Archives and serve as Permanent Secretaries. These masters, who chose to serve elsewhere, evidenced the quality of the usual QC master.
The philosophy guiding the school was the same as that of English public schools: “Mens sana in corpore sano”—cultivating a healthy mind in a healthy body. This philosophy informed all the activities of the school.

The bias in Guyanese secondary education, until very recently, had been arts-oriented. Queen’s was the first secondary school to establish a well-equipped laboratory, and seriously teach chemistry, physics, and biology. The Queen’s laboratory was among the best in the country. Many boys who studied science at Queen’s went on to brilliant careers in medicine, or as research scientists both locally and abroad.

In keeping with the philosophy of a healthy mind in a healthy body, sports were an important part of the school curriculum. Cricket, football, hockey, athletics, and indoor sports like chess and badminton were compulsory. The lower-school forms and their form masters went to the playground at least once per week. The cricket teams played in national competitions, and one or two members of the QC cricket team were regularly picked to represent the country in inter-Caribbean tournaments. The annual Sports Day, held at one of the major cricket clubs, was attended by guests from a cross-section of society, earned the status of a national event, and was reported in the newspapers.

The Cadet Corps usually consisted of three platoons, and drilled twice per week with the help of sergeants from the Volunteer Force, later the GDF. Three masters who were interested gave their full time to the cadets, trained at Tacama, and qualified as lieutenants in the Volunteer Force, later GDF. The corps itself trained at Tacama for two weeks each August. Led by the lieutenants, the corps participated in all national parades, including Remembrance Day. Members of the corps were able to join the army or the police force as a career, and three such cadets come to mind: Commissioner of Police Laurie Lewis and Generals Joe Singh and David Granger.

The library was by far the best school library in Guyana, and was particularly useful during World War II, when textbooks could not be imported. It also had a comprehensive collection of books for young people.
Every class in the lower and middle school attended a music session once per week, learning musical notation, the various ages of music, and the great composers. Those who wished to advance could enroll for the Royal School of Music Examinations, which was reasonably priced as Queen’s College was the centre, and invigilators were volunteer masters.

The school song was taught to and sung by all new entrants, and was sung on all important occasions. Since Latin was compulsory until the 1970s, students understood it fully, and the flavour of phrases like “Nos exempla fratrum” (we are exemplars of fraternal love and respect) was deeply absorbed by the students.
Music teachers were capable musicians, such as Lynette Dolphin, a concert pianist who received the rare national honour of the Order of Roraima.
QC could recapture many of those characteristics that gave the school its legendary aura, if it could have headmasters/mistresses like Sanger Davies or Doodnauth Hetram and a career-oriented staff with teachers like N.E. Cameron, Clem Yansen, and Chunilall.