The Old Diocesan Issue 10 - Magazine - Page 14
Bishops at 175
To mark and honour the school’s anniversary,
we collated a pictorial spread of some of its
more famous and influential sons
“My decision to stay on was
caused by a discovery. Dimly
at first, but much more clearly
as time went on, there dawned
on my mind a very significant
fact. About this particular school
there was something unique which
I had overlooked at first. Though
outwardly it was so unkept, so
dilapidated, so disorganised and
so poverty-stricken, yet it drew
upon an unseen strength and
possessed hidden riches. The
Old Boys had a faith in it which
was quite unshakeable. They had
in it a kind of reverence which
was almost awe-inspiring. Their
visits to it were in the nature of
pilgrimages. Inarticulate sons
of the backveld became almost
eloquent as they talked of Bishops.
The majority were quite willing
to overlook its faults, because
they loved it. Many pledged part
of their earnings to forward the
schemes of development. They
had believed in Bishops in the
past, and no temporary setback
as a result of the war was going
to destroy their faith in its future.
They were willing to work for it and
to back it in any way they could.
“This kind of loyalty and selfsacrifice among Old Boys was
something quite new to me.
Its quality and intensity were
beyond anything I had seen
in any other school.”
Canon Birt, Principal 1919-1943
12 | THE OLD DIOCESAN
Bishop Gray (1809-1872)
Not a son, but the father of the school, Robert Gray arrived in Cape Town in
1847, having been consecrated in Westminster Abbey as the city’s first Anglican
bishop. He founded St George’s Grammar School the following year, then Bishops
in 1849, and thus, with his wife Sophy, would have an enduring influence on
education in Cape Town specifically, and South Africa in general.