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Kowloon College
The first KGV School was built in a small building in Nathan Road in 1894. It was called the Kowloon College and it was built because the Europeans in Kowloon wanted a school for their own children only. -
About King George V School
King George V School is the oldest school among all the schools in the English Schools Foundation. -
Kowloon College Destroyed
The building was blown down by a typhoon in 1896. -
Central British School
The school soon became very crowded. Students from all over Hong Kong were sent to the school and so its name was changed to the Central British School. -
1930 Central British School
By 1930 the school had more than 300 students. The playgrounds were only 7 meters square and wooden huts had been built at the back of the school as extra classrooms. So it was decided to build a new school in the countryside where there was plenty of space. -
1935 Homantin
In 1935 the school building was begun in the hills of Homantin. The Headmaster who first asked for a new building was Mr. Nightingale; the teacher who found the best design for the building was Mr. Rowell; and the first Headmaster in the new building was the Reverend Upsdell. -
King George V School
King George had been king in 1935 when the Foundation Stone of the school was laid. -
The new school in 1936
There was a very grand opening ceremony on the 14th September 1936. The school really was in the middle of the countryside. After lessons and before going home, the students would walk through the fields for a swim and a picnic on Hung Hom beach. -
WW1
In 1937 the Japanese army invaded China. Lots of European women and children came from Shanghai to Hong Kong in order to escape the war. They needed somewhere to live and in the summer of 1937 the school buildings became a refugee camp. The teachers and students helped look after them during their extra two weeks summer holiday. It soon became safe for the refugees to return home and everything went back to normal. -
The School during the war
As soon as the school closed in 1940 it was turned into a hospital for British soldiers stationed in Hong Kong. It was surrounded by sandbags and barbed wire to protect the buildings from air raid attacks. -
The school in December
In December 1941 the Japanese invaded Hong Kong. Hong Kong surrendered on Christmas Day and all Europeans were sent into Prisoner of War camps-including many teachers and ex-students of Central British School. The names of those who died in the battle of Hong Kong are on a board in the school foyer. -
School Buildings - Hospitals
The Japanese used the school buildings as a hospital for their officers. It was really very efficient, the rooms you now use as classrooms were then the wards, X-ray rooms and offices. Part of the Peel Block was also used as living areas for the Japanese officers. -
Torture Chamber
It is said that the Pavilion on the games field was used as a torture chamber during the war. This may well be true as there was a prisoner of war camp on Argyle Street. Prisoners were brought up to the school field to work on the vegetable gardens that were dug at the end of the football pitch. One of them hid a radio under the soil. There was a cemetery at the bottom of Tin Kwong Road and it was said that the bodies were buried under the school field. -
Opening of the School
The school re-opened in the Summer of 1946. The Principal was Mr. Ferguson and one of the teachers, who had fought to defend Hong Kong during the war, was Mr D.Crozier. -
First Assembly
When he held the first assembly of the year in September 1946 you could still see the flag of the Rising Sun painted at the back of the stage in the hall. The field looked like a vegetable garden and there were 79 students. -
Nationalities/Not a British school
In 1947 children of all nationalities were able to attend the school. The school was no longer just a British school. -
Speech Day
So on Speech Day 1948 it was announced that the school would be called King George V School. -
KGV Joins ESF
In 1979, after a long tiresome debate, the school joined the English Schools Foundation (ESF). King George V is still well known throughout Hong Kong and has become a very popular school. It still has some features from the war such as incredibly low handles that were used for people in wheel chairs when the school was used as a hospital, but now has modern facilities that are the envy of many schools in Hong Kong -
Period: to
KGV History
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KGV Now
KGV is a very large school, which has a lot of facilities, such as, the field, the swimming pool, the canteens, link block, new block, GLT, science block, SSC, Peel Block, library, reading centre, peforming arts block, tennis courts, gyms, gym room, pavillion, etc. We go through IB, GCSE or BTEC. We have 14 subjects.
