page_title: St. John's Diocesan Girls' Higher Secondary School
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: St. John's Diocesan Girls' Higher Secondary School / History
caption_attribution_description: English: stjohnsschool
context_page_description: St. John's Diocesan Girls' H.S. School is a girls-only day school located in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. It was established in 1876 by British missionary Angelina Margaret Hoare from Kent, England who devoted her life to the advancement of women's education in British India. It is a Christian school run by the Protestant Church of North India and its primary language of instruction is English. The school's patron saint is Saint John the Baptist. Although previously a college, the school was stripped of its college status by the British Government when freedom-fighter Bina Das, a student of the school, attempted to assassinate the Governor of Bengal, Stanley Jackson.
  Today, the school is often considered to be one of the most prestigious girls' schools in Bengal, and has a rich history of distinguished alumnae such as Lady Abala Bose, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Maitreyi Devi and Sharmila Tagore. It is situated in the iconic Landsdowne Road in South Kolkata and also runs a school for underprivileged children in Ripon Street.
context_section_description: The school is one of the oldest girls' schools in Calcutta (present-day Kolkata). In 1894, the school was named St. John's Diocesan by the Clewer Sisters of John the Baptist from Windsor, Berkshire. The school was started in 1876 by Sister Angelina Margaret Hoare (17 May 1843 – 10 January 1892), a British missionary from Kent, England who devoted her life to the advancement of women's education in British India. From her diaries we know that the school started with 16 female students.
  
  From 1908-31, St. John's Diocesan School remained the only Christian women's college of good repute in eastern India. Hoare wrote in a letters to her brother in England : "...my idea of the future of our Diocesan School is that it should be an institution not confined to any particular society or an elite group..." She died at age 48 in 1892. Upon her death, Bishop of Calcutta, Bishop Johnson, praised her in the following words:
  ...be assured, all of you that her devoted life has not been lost, for the public of Calcutta. The work she has done can never be altogether lost sight of. Not to mention the seed she has sown in the hearts of her beloved children in the Diocesan School of Calcutta and other schools in the Sundarbans , which will bear fruit in the generations to come...
  On 7 April 1931, Beena Das who was a student of the school, shot the then Governor, Stanley Jackson for which the recognition of the college status was taken way thereafter by the British Government. During its earlier days till the 1970s, it was a co-educational school. However, during the 1970s, the need for educational institutions for women in Kolkata was felt and since then the school has devoted itself to the betterment of female education only. It has more than 3,800 female students and is affiliated to the WBBSE and WBCHSE.
caption: Campus
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