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CMS Grammar School, Lagos

The CMS Grammar School in Bariga, a suburb of Lagos in Lagos State, is the oldest secondary school in Nigeria, founded on 6 June 1859 by the Church Missionary Society. For decades it was the main source of African clergymen and administrators in the Lagos Colony.[1]

Foundation

The seed funding for CMS Grammar School, Lagos was made possible by James Pinson Labulo Davies who in April 1859 provided Babington Macaulay with £50 (equivalent of ₦1.34 million as of 2014) to buy books and equipment for the school. With the seed funding Macaulay opened CMS Grammar School on 6 June 1859, which made it the first secondary school in Nigeria.[2] In 1867, Davies contributed another £100 (₦2.68 million as of 2014) toward a CMS Grammar School Building Fund.[3] Other contributors to the CMS Building Fund were non Saros such as Daniel Conrad Taiwo AKA Taiwo Olowo who contributed £50. Saro contributors also included men such as Moses Johnson, I.H. Willoughby, T.F. Cole, James George, and Charles Foresythe who contributed £40.[4] The CMS Grammar School in Freetown, founded in 1848, served as a model.

The school began with six students, all boarders in a small, single story building called the 'Cotton House' at Broad Street. The first pupils were destined to be clergymen.[1]The curriculum included English, Logic, Greek, Arithmetic, Geometry, Geography, History, Bible Knowledge and Latin.[5]The first principal of the school was the scholar and theologian Babington Macaulay, who served until his death in 1878.[6] He was the father of Herbert Macaulay.[7]When the British colony of Lagos was established in 1861, the colonial authorities obtained most of their African clerical and administrative staff from the school.[1]

Principals

Alumni

Some notable alumni:

References

  1. ^ a b c "School History". Old Grammarians Society. Archived from the original on 19 September 2008. Retrieved 21 May 2011.
  2. ^ Elebute, Adeyemo. The Life of James Pinson Labulo Davies: A Colossus of Victorian Lagos. Kachifo Limited/Prestige. p. 190. ISBN 9789785205763.
  3. ^ Herskovits Kopytoff, Jean. A preface to modern Nigeria: the "Sierra Leonians" in Yoruba, 1830–1890. University of Wisconsin Press, 1965. p. 244.
  4. ^ Herskovits Kopytoff, Jean. A preface to modern Nigeria: the "Sierra Leonians" in Yoruba, 1830–1890. University of Wisconsin Press, 1965. p. 365 note 87.
  5. ^ Ambassador Dapo Fafowora (4 June 2009). "150 years of the CMS Grammar School, Lagos". The Nation (Nigeria). Archived from the original on 3 October 2009. Retrieved 21 May 2011.
  6. ^ "Macaulay, Thomas Babington 1826 to 1878 Anglican Nigeria". Dictionary of African Christian Biography. Archived from the original on 19 August 2014. Retrieved 23 January 2015.
  7. ^ "Brief History of CMS Grammar School". CMS Grammar School. Retrieved 21 May 2011.[permanent dead link]