The month of September is very special for the famous Doon School in the Doon valley as it was in this beautiful month, 81 long years ago, that the first student joined this school, soon to be followed by many more. Step by step, the school evolved into one of the most prestigious educational institutions of the world.
Athar Hussain was the very first student to join the school and he arrived on the picturesque Chandbagh (garden of the moon) campus on September 9, 1935. On September 10, the first 72 students of the school entered the beautiful ivy-covered ,red brick buildings memories of which are part of every Dosco’s life and consciousness . These buildings had earlier housed the Imperial Forest College and Research Institute in the Chandbagh Estate at Dehra Dun. The school was set up as the realization of a dream of Satish Ranjan Das, one of pre-independent India’s most eminent barristers and a member of the Executive Council of the Viceroy of India.
With support from a wide range of eminent Indians of that time, the Indian Public Schools Society was registered as a non-profit making body under the Indian Companies Act in 1929. Unfortunately, S R Das passed away in 1928. Thereafter his wife and friends collected funds to start the school in September 1935. The society was fortunate to be able to take over the Chand Bagh Estate in Dehra Dun from the Indian Forest College and to acquire the neighbouring Skinners’ Estate from the family of the well known Col. Skinner of Skinner’s Horse.
Among the students who joined in September 1935 were Inder S lamba, Mahinder N Suri, M M Davar ,Jagdish P Vaisa ,Shaukat Rai, Ranjit Rai ,Shamsher S Puri, M C Sharma and B D Jayal . Since September 1935, about 6000 students have passed through the portals of this distinguished institution, bringing glory to their alma mater.
However ,it was on October 27, 1935 that the Viceroy of India - lord Willingdon-formally inaugurated the Doon School, the first residential public school of the country. The rest, as they say, is history. In his inaugural speech, lord Willingdon expressed the feelings of all those who had worked for the School when he said that he was pleased to participate “at this important ceremony of formally opening the first public school in India, to start on its way an educational experiment which I sincerely believe will be of immense value to this country in future years”. The first headmaster of the school, Arthur Edward Foot was married on January 5, 1935 and in the same month, he sailed for India on the S S Narkanda. He was not yet 34 years old then.
Extracting the best that was offered at each of the great English public schools, he brought to the Doon School the teaching of science which had been started at Harrow, the good teacher –student relationship and the high academic standard developed at Shrewsbury, the system of organized games which had started at Marlborough and the concept of offering a vast number of subjects from Uppingham. He believed that the men who leave the Doon School must be those who were going to lead the nation in all departments of life.
Doon School is still seen as the nursery for the nation’s leaders. It was at the Welham Boys’ Preparatory School in the quiet Doon valley that Rajiv Gandhi spent his early school years. From Welham, he went to The Doon School in 1955. Amitabh Bachchan , the star of the millennium, grew up at Sherwood College , Nainital. At The Doon School Founder’s Day several years ago, Bachchan said while addressing the young “Doscos” that he was addressing the future leaders and decision- makers of the country.”
A few of the students from the batch which had joined in September 1935 were present at the Platimun Jubilee celebrations of the school which were held on a grand scale in October 2010.
Beginning as a dream of S R Das in September 1935, it is now one of the most sought after schools in the country.