Grand Old School

MALACCA, Sun. -
Malaysia's second oldest school - the Malacca High School celebrated its 150th anniversay of its birthday yesterday.

Highlight of the sesquicentenary celebration was the annual speech and prize giving ceremony which was attended by the Governor of Malacca Tun Syed Zahiruddin and his consort, Toh Puan Halimah binte Hj. Noh.

The school was opened on December 7, 1826 with only 18 pupils under its principal, Mr. T.H. Moore.

It was then a missionary school and was called the Malacca Free School as education at that time was provided free.

Even by the middle of the 19th century, the enrolment of the school did not exceed 200.

In August 1878, the British Government took over the school's administration and renamed it Malacca high School. Its principal then was Mr. A. Armstrong.

Before the school was moved to its present site on Sept. 1, 1884, it was situated in a parsonage house on which the General Post Office now stands.

During the Pacific War, the school was occupied by the Japanese Military Forces and later the Allied Forces took over.

From its humble beginning of providing the British Colonel masters with a much needed and cheap source of administrative assistants, the school has risen to be one of the premier schools in the country today.

Among those who passed out from the school were the late Tun Sir Tan Cheng Lock and his son Tun Tan Siew Sin who was the first post Merdeka Minister of Commerce and Industry and later the Minister of Finance.

Today the school's total enrolment stands at 1,500 wtih a tutorial staff of 60.

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