St. Marks History The St.Mark’s school humble beginning started in the year 1885 when Rev.Courtney, the first mission chaplain, opened a school in Butterworth. The school had one teacher and an enrollment of 24. The government gave a grant of $127.50. The mission came up with $26.60. After the death of Rev.Courtney the school did not do too well and was closed down by E.A.B.Brown, the Honorary Secretary of the Province Wellesley Mission. In 1901, the school was restarted by Mr.W.G.Gray. The school was housed in a private house in Jalan Telaga Air with an enrollment of 30 pupils. When the enrollment increased, the Butterworth English School moved to a new building where the Rex Theatre used to be. Mr.Gray then left for Johore and handed over the school to Rev.H.C.Henham of the S.P.Mission. The new school, S.P.G.Mission School moved to a Malay type house in Bagan Luar Road. Mr.Mathew S.Balavendrum was appointed as the first headmaster. Then the school moved to Kampung Gajah Road opposite Shangai Talkies(now, the Odean Cinema). But soon the school was closed down by the Inspector of Schools for its poor condition. Mr.Dong Chui Sing from St.Andrew, Singapore was sent to take charge of the school (Red House is named after him).He worked tirelessly and bought two acres of land in St.Mark’s Road and put up a school with nine classes and and office. By 1940 St.Mark’s had firmly established itself with 300 pupils. Mr.Dong was succeeded by Tan Ah Hung in 1941. But when World War II spread to this part, the school was taken over by the Japanese and named Daigo Indo Gakko and later Ju San Nihon Gakko. When the Japanese surrendered Mr.Tan resumed the headship and got on with the job of refurnishing the school as all the furniture was used up by the Japanese as firewood. Students brought their own chairs and stools and well wishers gave old chairs and tables. Mr.Tan Ah Hung retired in 1952 (Yellow House is named after him) Mr.Tan was succeeded by another capable headmaster Mr.W.H.Wakefield, who carried on where Mr.Tan stopped. He did for St.Mark’s what nobody had done before. He took in every child who wanted an education. Enrollment trebled by the time he retired in 1960 and he had been able to put up a brick building with a science lab to house the Secondary School. However, the school was divided into two different sections .i.e primary and secondary as a result of orders from the Government. Mr.H.Wakefield was the Principal of the Secondary School while Mr.Ang Cheng Kau became the headmaster of the Primary School. Mr.Robert David succeeded Mr.Ang Cheng Kau in 1959. On 23rd May 1959 The new secondary school was officially opened by Tuan Yang Terutama Raja Tun Uda Al-Haj. B. Raja Mohamed. When Mr.H.Wakefield retired in March 1960, Mr.C.J.Manuel was appointed as the new Principal. Subsequently, the school went through faces of changes between 1970 till now under different leadership. But the changes were insignificant in terms of the much needed facilities to meet the demand of the increasing enrollment. Since St.Mark is not a fully government aided school, financial constraint strangled much of its physical development and amenities. It is rather sad to note that the physical amenities and facilities of the school fall short of a school with 127 years of history. Thus, the management of the school has decided to organize a donation drive to raise funds to build a new block which will house a hall, classrooms, meeting rooms, living skill workshops and a counseling room. The management believes that we have arrived at an opportune time to reach out to all the Markians and the generous public to play a part in building this new block........ This article was taken from.. e-psso.zapto.org/StMark/history.html.
Posted on: Wed, 16 Oct 2013 07:32:30 +0000
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