Colvin Taluqdars' College

Colvin Taluqdars' College in Lucknow is one of the oldest public schools in India.HistorySir Auckland Colvin, Lieutenant Governor of the North West Provinces, while functioning as Lieutenant Governor of Avadh and Agra in 1889, conceived the idea of a school with the object of imparting education to the children of the British administrators and the landed aristocracy who were known as Taluqdars. The 'wards' class, founded in 1884, formed the nucleus for the establishment of the Taluqdars' College. The first Principal was Henry George Impey Siddons, the son of a Captain in the Indian Army, who graduated at Oxford and returned to India to teach. From 1875 to 1884 he had been first headmaster, then Principal, of the Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College, Aligarh, subsequently holding other teaching posts in India.Only when the British left India in 1947 did it open its doors to the general public. By that time, it had along with, Rajkumar College, Raipur, Aitchison College in Lahore and Mayo College in Ajmer acquired reputation as the top school in the Indian plains. The Governor of the state of Uttar Pradesh is the patron of the College. Lord Minto visited Colvin during its grand 'Darbar Day' in November, 1908.