A Brief History of St Stithians
by Mr. J. Verner
St Stithians College is a Methodist Church school situated in
Randburg, an area just to the north of Johannesburg. It owes its
existence to the dream and foresight of three men - Gilbert
Tucker, a Johannesburg Chartered Accountant, who shared his dream, with two of
his clients, the building partnership of William Mountstephens
and Albert Collins. Tucker dreamed of creating a school modelled
on his own alma mater, Kingswood College in Grahamstown.
Financing the school would be a problem, but Mountstephens and
Collins decided to leave the unassigned residue of their estates
to fund a trust for the building of such a Methodist school.
Mountstephens and Collins were Cornishmen who met when they
started their apprenticeships together in Penryn and who became
firm friends. They decided to leave England and wanted to go to
America, but there was no ship due to cross the Atlantic for a
week while one was due to leave for South Africa the next day.
Once in South Africa they worked in Port Elizabeth, then moved
around a bit to see more of the country and thus landed up In
Kimberley at the time of the Diamond Rush. They remained
builders, however, and formed a successful partnership. Their
business prospered in Johannesburg. Neither Mountstephens nor
Collins smoked or drank and both lived simple lives in which
support for the Methodist Church played an important role.
Collins, who never married, died first and this led to the
creation of the Trust for building the Methodist school Tucker
had dreamt of. The Trust was formally opened in April 1941 and,
at Mountstephens' suggestion, was named after Collins'
birthplace, Stithian, a small Cornish village. The name derived
from the Irish Saint Etain who fled to Cornwall in the 9th
Century to escape an outbreak of plague in Ireland and set up a
Christian community there. The Trust was able to purchase a
piece of land in 1943 during the Second World War, but nothing
further was achieved until after the war. At first it was
thought that building costs might drop and so the trustees
waited a while until it became obvious that prices would not
drop and so the decision to build was made in 1951.
Mountstephens lived to see the land purchased, but not the
school built; his widow on the other hand, was to take an active
interest in the school until her death. The school was to have
been a secondary school only and at first the debate on
co-education was open. Circumstances were to make decisions for
the Trustees: the area was new and remote; its people wanted a
boys' school and a preparatory school as well as a secondary
school. The doors opened at the start of the 1953 school year
and foundation scholars were enrolled at both Grade 8 and Grade
1 levels. The school thrived under Wally Mears, its first
Headmaster, and has gone from strength to strength ever since.
The fortunate position in the way of major expansion for
Johannesburg has ensured a growing population. In the early 90s,
the concept of a second foundation for St Stithians College was
mooted this was catalysed by the 40th Anniversary in 1993. After
investigating, the Council decided to go ahead with the concept
of a girls’ school.
St Stithians Girls' College opened in January 1995 with classes
ranging from Grade 0 to Grade 3. The new buildings rose rapidly
at their site on the other side of the rugby fields, looking
across to the Boys' College and Preparatory School towards
Sandton in the distance. 1996 saw the school grow dramatically
to offer classes from Grade 0 to Grade 6 and Grade 8 to Grade
ii, with a total of 517 pupils. 1997 was the first time Grade 12
girls wrote the Matriculation Examination.
St Stithians College continues to develop with the Foundation
Phase opening its doors in January this year.
The 210 acres of ground offer an environmental sanctuary, sports
fields and housing for staff in a village atmosphere, as well as
the school buildings themselves. It is a growing, vibrant and
thriving community - which offers a wide range of sporting
activities, an academic curriculum and a cultural diversity
which all contribute to ensuring that the pupils do receive the
liberal education in a Christian tradition that the founders
desired.
No boy or girl can come to Saints and not know that he or she is
a part of something special, that, in the words of the school
song,
“Here their ship once anchored and here its course was set”.
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The School History