Diocesan Boys' School


The Diocesan Boys' School is a day and boarding Anglican boys' school in Hong Kong, located at 131 Argyle Street, Mong Kok, Kowloon. Having run as a grant-aided school since it was founded, the school commenced operation in the Direct Subsidy Scheme in September 2003. It uses English as the medium of instruction. As of 2024 the headmaster was Ronnie Cheng Kay-Yen.
WWW dbs.edu.hk

History

The first foundation

In 1860, Lydia Smith and the Society for the Promotion of Female Education in the Far East set up the Diocesan Native Female Training School, a day-school turned boarding school for native girls, affiliated with the Diocese of Victoria. As stated in its first annual report, the purpose of the school was "to introduce among a somewhat superior class of native females the blessings of Christianity and of religious training". The school sat on Bonham Road, a small concrete house on a paddy field. Lady Robinson became the patron.
The school had a difficult existence. The Second Opium War aroused strong anti-British sentiment and so it was very unpopular for Chinese girls to learn English. The school was closed and then reopened under the name "Diocesan Female School", but its finances did not improve. In 1868, Bishop Charles Alford took the school under his immediate superintendence.

The second foundation

19th century

On 30 January 1869, in a bid to gain popular support, Bishop Alford issued an appeal to admit boys into the school and to turn it into an orphanage. The appeal was well received by the public. In September, the Diocesan Home and Orphanage, for boys and girls, both foreign and Chinese, was established.
In July 1870, William Arthur, formerly of the Garrison School, was appointed as the headmaster and his wife as the matron.
In 1878, the school was placed in the grant-in-aid scheme by the Education Department.
In March 1878, Arthur resigned. Bishop Burdon proposed to stop admitting boys into the school and to bring it under the FES. In July, he withdrew his proposal following pressure from William Beswick, honorary treasurer of the DHO, although the Bishop still thought it inappropriate to have boys and girls boarding in the same school campus.
On 1 November 1878, George Piercy, then master of the Government Central School, was appointed to be the new headmaster. Piercy focused on the students' academics, and the school attained satisfactory results in the Cambridge and Oxford Local Examinations scholarships.
On 31 May 1879, the school committee resolved to stop accepting girls as boarders.
In 1891, the school was renamed the Diocesan School and Orphanage. In 1892, the remaining girls were transferred to Fairlea Girls' School. The Diocesan School and Orphanage was transformed into a boys' school.

Early 20th century

In 1902, the school was renamed the Diocesan Boys' School and Orphanage. It is unclear when the school was renamed the Diocesan Boys' School, although the name was used as early as 1918.
Rev. William Featherstone, headmaster from 1918 to 1931, introduced the prefects' system, a house system and Speech Day. He also moved the school from Bonham Road to a hill site in Mong Kok. Construction was completed in 1926. In February 1927, the British military authorities took the school for use as a hospital for one year.
When the Second Sino-Japanese War broke out in China in 1937, the school showed its support towards the Chinese Nationalist Party. In January 1938, a shoe-shining club was organised under the permission of Rev. Christopher Sargent to raise funds for the Nationalist government. Boys went to schools around Hong Kong and polished shoes for teachers and students. In 1939, there was a school strike when a student with Japanese citizenship was appointed as head prefect.
During the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong, most of the school staff, including then-headmaster Gerald Goodban, were imprisoned. The school building was transformed into a military hospital for soldiers of the Imperial Japanese Army.

Post-war years

Imperial Japan surrendered in August 1945. The school remained under the control of the Kempeitai until November, when all the Japanese soldiers were captured.
On 21 March 1946, J. L. YoungSaye, a senior teacher, got the school to run again. Oswald Cheung and B. J. Monks took up the post of acting headmaster successively. Goodban returned from England on 19 November 1947. Repairs started during the Christmas holidays.
In 1949, Goodban introduced a new house system in which houses were named after former headmasters, along with the Piercy Challenge Shield.
In early 1950s, construction plans for a gymnasium, a Carnegie Hall and a science wing were proposed.
In 1955, Canon George Zimmern, also known as George She, was appointed the next headmaster, the first Hong Kong-born old boy to be given the role. As headmaster, Canon She welcomed students from poor households and affirmed the Chinese language in school culture. Canon She also introduced the Garden Fête in 1955.
It was decided that the primary classes should be dropped for lack of space and that a completely new primary school - Diocesan Preparatory School - would be built, although the decision was only implemented in 1969.
James Lowcock became headmaster in 1961. Based on his previous experience in the school, he restructured the administration to improve efficiency and appointed more teachers to posts with designated duties.
In 1983, Jacland Lai succeeded Mr. Lowcock as headmaster. A language laboratory and a demonstration room were built. The electrics and alarm installations were renovated, the school walls repainted, and the facilities were computerised throughout the school.

2000s

In 2002, Lai was succeeded by Terence Chang, an old boy and then-headmaster of Jockey Club Ti-I College.
On 4 October 2002, the school committee proposed to join the Direct Subsidy Scheme with effect from September 2003. The application was accepted by the Education and Manpower Bureau in March 2003. The DSS was fiercely debated within the School throughout 2002. Chang was highly in favour of joining the DSS, but some students and most teachers opposed the DSS because they were afraid it would shut out students from poorer families. Alumni on the whole were slightly inclined towards the DSS. The school claimed that parents were in favour, though its findings have since been criticised as biased.
A primary school was built beside the secondary school campus. The project was financed by the government as part of the deal that saw the school join the DSS. The Diocesan Boys' School Primary Division had its first, partial intake of students in 2004 and expanded its intake with students aged between 6 and 12 over the following years.
In April 2012, Diocesan Boys' School became the first secondary school in Hong Kong to have a school app on iOS and Android.
In September 2012, Chang retired and Ronnie Kay Yen Cheng – an alumnus who had been the conductor of the school choirs – succeeded him as headmaster.
In May 2020, the school became the world's No.1 International Baccalaureate school, with an average mark of 42.
In September 2025, the Junior Forms Curriculum Coordinator Rosene Ghafur succeeded Ng Kay Kong as Dean.

Campus

The school is located on Kadoorie Hill in Ho Man Tin, Kowloon City District.

21st century

In March 2009, the school received media attention when a Form 4 student complained that he had had a nude female model as a subject in his art class, and alleged embarrassment. The visual arts teacher, employed for 27 years, told reporters that he had been inviting nude models without any complaint for nearly ten years. Then-Headmaster Terence Chang said it was a "big fuss about nothing".

National security education

In December 2022, DBS said that it had already implemented national security education into its curriculum. The school stated that "The objective is to deepen students' understanding of the country's development and national security, enhance their sense of national identity and nurture them as good law-abiding citizens."

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