A SHORT HISTORY

OF THE

MAY0 COLLEGE
1869-1942
BY

V. A. S. STOW M. A., c. I . E . ,
Principal, Mayo College.

19 4 2

P RI N TE D AT
T H E F I N E ART P R IN TI N G PRESS,
AJMER,
M A YO c o n
LIB R A .; V

z z tn r ®
 C H E C K E D OK
OA1 E

CONTENTS.

C hap. P age.
P reface .... .... .... —
I. T h e B e g i n n i n g , 1869-187,5' .... 10
II. E a r l y Y e a r s , 1876-1903..... .... 7
III. R eo rg an isatio n ani> -E xpansion
1903-1914 .... .... .... 26
IV. C h e q u e r e d Y e a r s , 1914-1931 .... 53
V. P r e s e n t D a y , 1931-1942 .... .... 73
 PREFACE.

The Mayo College has now been in existence for

nearly seventy years and an up to date sketch of its
history may therefore be of some interest.
There is already extant a history of the College,
the interesting and exhaustive- account written by
Mr. Herbert Sherring, who was at the College from
1887 to 1'912, but the period covered by it does not
extend beyond 1898, and the following pages are
an attempt to bring the story up to date and to give
a short account of the history of the College from its
beginnings to the present day. In addition to the
valuable information obtained about early dates
from Mr. Sherring’s work, I am indebted to Mr.
J. A. M. Ede of the College staff for his suggestions
and assistance in reading the proofs and seeing this
sketch through the press, and to Messrs. K. L. Syed
and Co., State Photographers of P^ilanpur, for the
admirable photographs they took for the purpose. The
sketch has been completed on the eve of my
retirement and I offer it as a parting token, which
I hope may find acceptance not for its merits, but
for the sake of the Mayo College W ar Fund to
which the proceeds will be devoted.

A jmer,
V. A. S. S t o w ,
December, 1942.
T h e M ayo C o l l e g e B u i l d i n g f r o m t h e N o r t h W e s t . k . i^'-a&co.
 C H A PT E R I.
T H E BEGINNING, 1869— 1875.

Colonel Walter's letter. The origin of the

Mayo College may be traced to a recommendation
made by Lt. Col. F. K. M. Walter, Political Agent,
Bharatpur Agency, in his repurt of 1869. “ To ensura
to the sons of the aristocracy of India a liberal and
enlightened education to enable them to keep pace
with the ever advancing spiritof the age," Col. Walter
urged “ the establishment of an ‘Eton in India’, a
College on an extensive scale, with ample accom­
modation within its walls for a large number of
pupils and the followers (few in number of course)
who would accompany them, with a complete staff
of throughly educated English gentlemen, not mere
book-worms but men fond of field sports and outdoor
exercise, and the elite of the Native gentlemen
belonging to the Educational Department”.
At a Durbar in Ajmer Lord Mayo, the then
Viceroy of India, formally adopted this proposal and
asked for the co-operation of the Princes and Chiefs
of Rajputana in carrying it out. From this beginn­
ing a definite scheme took shape, the basic idea of
which was that the States of Rajputana and the
Government of India should be associated both in
the establishment and in the maintenance of the
College. T he States were invited to contribute to
an Endowment fund and to buiid and maintain
Boarding houses in the College grounds for the
accommodation of pupils from their States. On their
side the Government of India undertook to contri-
 2
bute to the endowment an amount equal to that
contributed by the States, part ofjthe amount to be
spent on construction work, a n d \ interest on the
balance to be paid as an annual subvention. They
also undertook to give the land required for a resi­
dential institution, to make the roads, and to maintain
the buildings and the roads they constructed. The
buildings to be constructed by Government were the.
Main building, the Principal’s house, the Head
Master’s house, and a Boarding house to be called
the Ajmer house and intended primarily for boys
from Ajmer-Merwara. The site selected included
the buildings and' park of the former Residency,
which were situated south of the present Udaipur
house, and occupied a position in then open country
east of Ajmer with the nearest other building two
miles away. The area of the College grounds was
110 acres and while the boundaries on the north,
east and south were much the same as today, the
western boundary did not extend beyond the present
Nasirabad link road which runs past the main gate
of the College, and the land belonging to the College
west of that road was not acquired till much later.
The'response of the States to Lord Mayo’s
invitation; was an Endowment fund1of over six lakhs,
and eight States, namely Udaipur, Jaipur, Jodhpur,
Bikaner, Alwar, Bharatpur, Tonk and Jhalawar
agreed to build .Boarding houses immediately. It
was hoped at the time that the other States would
follow suit but only one did. Two other States,
Dholpur and Kotah, subsequently announced their
intention of building houses, but only the Kotah
house ‘materialized and was completed ten years
later. Work on most of the State houses commen­
ced at an early date, but there was considerable
delay in starting the Main building, chiefly due to
the competing claims of rival designs and the neces­
sity of selecting a plan which would be within the
limit of four lakhs stipulated-by the Government of
India. As the result of this delay the College had
 3
to stat“t without a main building of its own and for
ten years after it was opened the Residency had to
serve as the main building of the College.
Opening of the College. In 1874 progress
with other buildings was sufficiently advanced for a
Principal to be selected. Captain, afterwards Sir
Oliver, St. John, R. E., ah officer of the Political
Department of the Government of India, was appoin­
ted the first Principal of the College and in October
1875 opened the College with one boy, H. H. the
then Maharaja of Alwar. No accommodation in the
College grounds being yet available the Maharaja
lived at first in a house outside the grounds and pro­
ceeded to his studies daily on an elephant, ,but a
short time afterwards he was accommodated in a
bungalow attached to the Residency,. while the
Principal occupied the Residency house. ' The new
buildings which were ready for occupation during
1875 were the Head Master’s house (now knowm as
Sherring house) and five Boarding houses, the
Ajmer, Jaipur, Udaipur, Bharatpur and Bikaner
houses. None of these, however, with the exception
of the Ajmer house was complete with outhouses,
while the Principal’s house and the Jodhpur and
Alwar houses were still under construction. Work
on the other sanctioned buildings had not com­
menced.
During the following months boys of ages vary­
ing from seven to eighteen joined the College from
Jodhpur, Jaipur, Jhalawar, and Ajmpr-Meruara, and
at the end of the school year the roll stood at 23,
made up as follows:— Ajmer 8, Jaipur 7, Jodhpur 6,
Alwar 1, Jhalawar 1. “As regards pupils,1' says the
annual report, “ the College may claim to have com­
menced operations under very favourable circumstan­
ces. One reigning Chief, two heirspresurr.ptive,
and a brother of one of the most powerful princes of
Rajputan,a form a nucleus of aristocracy which leaves
nothing to be desired. There is nevertheless no
doubt that as yet the nobles of Rajputana generally
 4
show no spontaneous inclination to send their sons
to the College for education and for some time at
least constant pressure will have to be exerted on
parents through the Durbars of the States In ano­
ther paragraph are the words^‘the fact that Udaipur,
the most powerful and representative State of Raj-
putana, is only represented at the College by a large
empty house is the most discouraging fact that I
have to report”.
Organization. Apart from the Boarding house
staff who were State employees, the establishment of
the College in this the first year of its existence
comprised an English staff of threg viz: Principal,
Head Master, and Writing and Arithmetic master,
an Indian teaching staff of three viz: Hindi and
Persian tutor, Hindi and Sanskrit tutor, and junior
English and Vernacular master, a riding master,
one clerk, a menial staff of nine, and a police guard.
The senior Indian master drew a salary of Rs. 100/-
p. m. and the junior 40/-. Of this staff only the
Principal, Head Master, and Riding master were
to be resident.
School work was organized in four classes and,
except the lowest which was still at the rudiments
of Hindi, were taught English, while Urdu as the
‘lingua franca’ of India was included as an essential
part of the syllabus but was not willingly learnt
except by boys from Jaipur. The attainments of
the boys proved very limited as might be expected.
Only three had any previous knowledge of English
and some at the age of seventeen could not write
and read their own vernacular.
Facilities for games were lacking, but a lawn-
tennis court near the Headmaster’s house was in use
and most of the boys rode. Boys were apparently
fearful of exposure to the sun and unwilling to play
in the open air save in the early morning and late
in the evening, and for that reason the Principal
erected a covered play-shed >vhich was situated near
the present squash courts.
 3
In accordance with the original proposals the
Boarding houses were maintained by the States
which built them and the Boarding house staff
were State and not College employees over whom
the College had only partial control. By the rules
each State was to depute a Pandit, afterwards known
as a Motamid, to be in charge of its pupils when
not actually engaged in class work or outdoor
exercise. The Pandit was to reside in the Boarding
house and to be responsible to the Principal for
the observance of order and discipline. This was
the origin of the Motamid system, peculiar to the
Mayo College, which prevails ' with amendments
today.
The maintenance by the States concerned of
the Boarding houses relieved and still relieves the
College of considerable annual expense, but apart
from the difficulty of adequate supervision which
though much mitigated still persists to a certain
extent today, the system has many disadvantages,
some of which are summarized in the following
extract from the report of 1875-76:—
“ The system of separate Boarding houses,
though doubtless a necessary deference to Rajput
prejudice, has many disadvantages as regards dis­
cipline and the promotion of friendly intercourse
among the boys of different States. Habits of
cleanliness and decorum combined with a proper
feeling of self reliance are difficult to instil into
boys surrounded, during the whole time they are
absent from study, by a set of dirty and obsequious
servants.”
By the rules, boys were permitted three private
servants, exclusive of stable attendants, but this rule
from the first seems to have been liberally interpreted
and many boys had more than the prescribed
number. Boys were encouraged to keep horses,
and were allowed a private carriage. Each boy was
required to pay a sum of Rs. 50/* per annum for
 6
books and stationery and a small varying sum for
medical attendance. Otherwise no fees were
charged.
The system of. small separate State houses
was probably a necessity*at the time, but many
difficulties would have been avoided if the College
could have been built with two large Boarding
houses under full College control and capable to­
gether of accommodating • sixty boys, the number
contemplated for the College when it was founded,
and if the construction of other houses had waited
till additional accommodation was required.
The control of the College was placed in the
hands of a Council consisting of the Viceroy as
President, the Agent to the Governor-General,
Rajputana, as Vice-President, fifteen rulers of Raj­
putana, the Political Agents accredited to their
States, and the Commissioner of Ajmer, with the
Principal as Secretary. A committee of the
Council was to meet every three months at the
College and the rulers of Rajputana who had subs­
cribed to the endowment fund were authorized
to depute representatives to any meeting of the
Committee. Neither the Council nor its Committee,
however, met till a year and a half after the College
opened and the next meeting was not held till ten
years later.

Q
 C H A P T E R II.
EARLY YEARS. 1876— 1903.

.Once started, the College made steady progress

in the following decade. The roll increased, further
buildings were completed, equipment was improved,
the grounds were laid out, and additional facilities
were provided for games and outdoor training.
Buildings. As regards buildings, the Prin­
cipal’s House, then a one-storeyed building, was
completed in the year following the opening of the
College, and during the next few years the number
of State Boarding houses as it stands today was
completed by the finishing of the Jodhpur and Alwar
houses and by the erection of the Tonk, Jhalawar,
and Kotah houses. A small area of additional land
to the south-west was acquired and planted with
trees while progress was made with the making of
gardens round the houses and the provision of
out-offices, and the States with houses built stables
on the present site.
Of different designs and architecturally beautiful,
the various Boarding houses did much to give the
College the distinctive and attractive appearance
which has been justly admired, but a modern
observer can not help remarking that as boarding
houses their design is not ideal. In many of them
the accommodation for boys is incommensurate
with the size of the building, and in many cases
ingress and egress at any time are a comparatively
easy matter. These facts have added to the diffi>
 8
culties of administration inherent in a system of
separate State houses and experienced by suc­
cessive Principals.
The Main Building. Two years after the
College started, following the preparation of several
plans and a good deal of acrimonious correspondence,
a design for the main building of the College was
finally approved. Work was started in the following
year and the building was finally completed at a
cost of nearly four lakhs in 1885 and formally
opened by the Viceroy, Lord Dufferin. ^T en years
after its foundation, therefore, the College moved
from its temporary location in the Residency buil­
dings which were subsequently demolished, and
classes were at last held in a building intended for
that purpose) As constructed in 1885 the main
building, a white marble edifice in the Hindu
Saracenic style, was half its present size and did
not include the east wing which was not built till
twenty five years later. The accommodation it
provided consisted of a large hall, a library, and
four class rooms. As there were at the time eight
classes in the College, a number of classes had to
be held in the hall while the Principal conducted
his office work on the dais
The expense of decorating the Hall was met
by a special donation given by H. H. the Maharaja
of Jodhpur, and the accomplishment of his aim by
the founder of the College was signalized by the
erection outside the main entrance of a full length
statue of Lord Mayo, the gift of British and Indian
residents of Rajputana, while the main approach
to the building was marked by a large gateway
presented by H. H. the then Maharaja of Alwar.
Temple. During the following years the only
important addition to buildings .was a Temple
which was completed in 1893 partly from a donation
of Rs. 8,000/- made for the purpose by Mahant
Deva Das of Ajmer. This^donation had been made
T h e M ayo C o l l e g e B u i l d i n g — N o v e m b e r 1881— S o u t h W est Vie w .
 d
several years before but construction had beert
delayed owing to the wishes of certain members
of the' College Council that no temple should be
constructed within the College grounds and the
consequent difficulty of finding a suitable plot of
land. T he site eventually selected was one south
of Jaipur house and outside the College compound.
In 1878 Major St. John vacated the.post of
Principal on appointment as a member of the Kabul
Mission, and after the vacancy had been filled for
a few months by Major Powlett, Political Agent in
Kotah, was succeeded by Captain William Loch of
the Indian Army who remained in charge till 1903,
While the post of second English Master was held
by the same incumbent, Mr. J. M. Carter, for ten
years, that of Headmaster changed hands frequently
at first and was held by no less than five incumbents
till 1887 when Mr. H. Sherring was appointed and
began a connection with the College which lasted
for twenty five years.
Studies. As the number of boys increased, the
staff was augmented, the curriculum was extended,
and additional classes were formed. The additional
expense was met by an increase of income resulting
from the realization of arrears of the Endowment
fund, increased receipts from the Games, Book and
Medical subscription owing to the rise in the College
roll, and the sale of produce from the old Residency
garden. In 1885, the total receipts of the College
amounted to Rs. 30,000/- against Rs. 22,000/- in
1876. '
T he report for 1876 stated that while the
moral and physital improvement in the College had
been more remarkable than the mental, j-and that
boys were inclined to be idle and at first generally
insubordinate, the progress in study had been, fairly
satisfactory, and that the spirit of emulation at first
nearly dormant was beginning to exert a ^favourable
influence. History, Geography, Sanskrit, arfd Persian
 io
Were at different times added to the curriculum and
a special Botany class was formed. At one time it
was possible for a boy to learn both Sanskrit and
Persian and all boys, as stated previously, were
taught both Hindi and Urdu, but after a few years
it was made a rule that a boy could only learn one
classical language, and either Hindi or Urdu. T he
curriculum was designed to lead up to the entrance
examination of the Calcutta University and later to
the Matriculation Examination of the Allahabad
University, and the number of classes rose to eight
and an entrance class .{ No candidate, however,
appears to have been sent up for any_outside exami­
nation till the year 1880 when a boy sat for the
entrance examination of the Calcutta University
but failed in Mathematics, a not uncommon event
afterwards, and there was no outside inspection of
the College. Annual examinations were held at the
end of each school year by the College staff, and
prizes including a Viceroy’s gold medal founded by
Lord Lytton were awarded both for work during the
year and for holiday tasks. The hours of work were
changed a good deal at various times. In 1876 they
were 6 to 9 A. M and 9-30 to 11-50, and after this
various changes were tried till at length classes were
held from 9 to 1, an arrangement which lasted for
many subsequent years.
In 1890 the College was for the first time
examined and inspected by an outside agency, Mr.
E. Giles, Educational Inspector, Northern Division,
Bombay. . In his report Mr. Giles pointed out the
difficulties the College had to face from a tendency to
idleness among its students who were free from the
stimulus of poverty and the necessity of employing
education as a means of livelihood, from the fact
that they were drawn from a class unaccustomed to
literary effort with home influences usually antagoni­
stic to such, and from frequentvperiods of absence—
difficulties which have not disappeared today. He
advised that the syllabus should be changed by
abandoning the Allahabad University text books,
 11
by increased attention to English and its use as a
medium of conversation and the inclusion of English
poetry in the syllabus, and by the devotion of more
time to General Knowledge.
The changes recommended were adopted and
a special curriculum Was introduced for the College.
Two hours a day were devoted to English, and a
poetry book was compiled by the Head Master.
General Knowledge was introduced as a new
separate subject ranging from lessons on common
animals in the lowest class to a book containing
elementary instruction in natural history, geology,
botany, chemistry, physics, and physiology in the
highest classes. The College or Entrance class also
studied agriculture, and drawing started by Mr.
Sherring was an optional subject. The curriculum
as revised in 1892, was not very different
from that which prevails at present, but the
whole standard seems to have been appreciably
lower than-that of today. For example the curri­
culum for one year prescribed for the first-class an
English reader of a standard which would now be^
used in the third class, and forty pages of English
History, whereas the second class of modern times,
the one prior to the Diploma, is required in a year to
do a complete play of Shakespeare, two prose books,
and the whole of British History. One of the causes
of this comparatively low standard was undoubtedly
the advanced age at which boys joined the College.
The system of inspection and examination
begun in 1890 was continued yearly, and the College
was inspected by a variety of educational officers
who were usually either Principals of Colleges or
Inspectors of schools whose services were specially
secured to visit the Mayo College. The system of a
joint inspection of all Chiefs’ Colleges and a joint
final examination was as yet unknown. Boys either
appeared for no outside final examination at all or
were prepared for different examinations as occasion
arose. Thus in 1893 one boy passed the Allahabad
 12

Matriculation while two years later the College class

was prepared for the entrance examination of the
Imperial Forest School, Dehra Dun.. About any
examinations taken or passed in other years the
reports are silent, and the College class in some
years had no boys.
Outdoor life and Games. From its earliest
days the Mayo College developed a taste for sports
and games. Outdoor activities soon became popular
and the covered play-shed gradually ceased to be
required. The report for 1876 stated that atten­
dance at the play ground at first enforced had be­
come practically voluntary, that the riding class was
attended with pleasure, and that cricket, rounders,
and football were played with a zest not far shoit of
that shown at an English school. 'T ennis was also
played and a racquets court and an open-air swimm­
ing bath were built not long after the College started.
The latter, which occupied its present site near the
Principal’s house but was then only a small unwalled
tank, was used when the well which served it had
enough water, but the former which stood on the
site of the present squash courts from the first was
hardly ever used and soon fell into disrepair. Cric­
ket seems to have been the most popular game,'
and Capt. Loch, in his first report 011 the College,
in intimating the addition of three new tennis courts,
stated that, while the elder boys appreciated tennis
thoroughly, the smaller boys preferred badminton and
all showed a greater tendency to cricket. The only
area, however, available for games was a small space
in the vicinity of the Head Master’s house now
known as Sherring house. Here for many years
one ground, now used as the First division hockey
ground, had to serve the purposes of the cricket,
football and hockey (which was introduced in 1883)
of the whole College. Besides being small it had the
-additional drawback of over twenty trees actually
within the boundaries. Three tennis courts occupied
the site of the present second English assistant’s
house now known as Twiss House, a covered play-
T h e M a y o C o l l e g e G r o u n d s i n 1882.
 13
shed already referred to stood near the present
squash courts, and riding instruction was given near
the stables. There was no polo ground but boys
played occasionally on the Merwara Infantry ground
in the civil station, Of the skill shown at various
games there is little means of judging especially as
matches with outside teams were practically never
played, but Mr. Sherring in his history of the Mayo
College writes that, when he first came to the College,
cricket was in a very rudimentary state resembling
cricket on the village green and that the bowling
was all underhand and the batting was on a par with
the bowling During the first ten years of its exis­
tence the College only played one outside cricket
match, a match against the Government College,
Ajmer, and that curiously enough resulted in a tie.
Games kit was unknown and boys played all their
games in their College dress with their achkans tied
round their waist and wearing their pugarees. Safas
were forbidden.
After the appointment of Mr. Sherring as H ead­
master in 1887, a considerable development took
place in the athletic activities of the College under
his enthusiastic guidance. Some of the forms these
activities took sound strange to modern ears. For
example, boys occasionally went out jackal hunting
on horseback, but there were no hounds, each rider
being armed with a long stick and endeavouring to
club the jackal. When rounders was played the whole
school generally joined in the game making about
thirty-five to forty a side. The same was the case
with hockey which made a spasmodic appearance in
the games time table and was played with walking
sticks and an old disused cricket ball with sometimes
forty a side. Football we are told was not popular
owing to the necessity of weaiing boots, for boys pre­
ferred to play all their games barefooted.
The racquets court, which had been built in
the early days of the College, was, as it had gene­
rally been, in a poor state of repair and was rarely
 14
used by the boys, and the same applies to a Fives
Court which had been built adjoining it. The open
swimming bath, which in the absence of a pipe water
supply depended on a well which had to serve other
purposes also,' could only be used in seasons when the
rains were plentiful and this difficulty still persists.
Another difficulty was that Hindu and Muhammadan
boys had religious objections to bathing together.
They bathed at different times and six inches of fresh
water had to be put in before the next batch had
their swim. In the hope that an adequate town-
pipe supply of water would shortly materialize
proposals were made for the appointment of a swim­
ming instructor with the object that, when sufficient
boys had been taught to swim, a College Boat club
should be started on Anasagar lake, a scheme which
it may be regretted in many ways has never materia­
lized.
Little change took place in riding instruction
during the last quarter of the nineteenth century
and the College still lacked its own polo ground,
though polo was played twice a week by a few boys
on the Merwara Infantry parade ground, no Ajmer
club polo ground being then in existence. The rid­
ing ground at the College still occupied its original
site between the stables and the racquets court, space
now partly covered by Colvin House, and included
a jumping and tent-pegging course.
In 1895 target-shooting was introduced, butts be­
ing builtagainst the racquets court. The range admit­
ted of firing up to three hundred yards and was used
by senior boys twice a week under the superinten­
dence of Col. Loch, the weapon utilized being a
miniature Martini rifle. Shortly afterwards another
butt with switch rails to carry a running tiger or deer
was constructed, but appears not to have remained
in use long. The original trollies and rails are still
in use at the present day.
About the same time the covered play shed
was converted into a gymnasium and equipped with
 is
apparatus given by H. H. the then Maharaja of
Alwar, and a special gymnastics instructor was
appointed.
It was in cricket, however, that the most
marked athletic development of the College towards
the end of the nineteenth century took place and
by its cricket the Mayo College gained an outside
reputation for skill at games. To the original
ground behind the Head Master’s house, another
ground was added between it and the Udaipur
house. This ground, though intended originally
for hockey, came to be used principally as a cricket
ground for the Senior boys, and east of it another
ground was made for smaller boys. All these three
grounds were used for other games besides cricket
and cannot therefore have been ideal for fielding.
Handicapped though he was by the lack of
suitable grounds Mr. Sherring’s enthusiasm for
cricket, in which he took an active part, soon bore
fruit and the game developed at the College
from the ‘village green’ stage in which he found it.
Overhand bowling was introduced but was not
popular at first and a rule had to be made forbidding
such bowling till a side had scored forty runs.
Underhand bowling, however, gradually disappeared
and with better bowling the standard of batting
improved though scoring was very, low judged by
modern standards. Matches were played with local
teams and in 1889 the College team visited
Jhalawar to play the State team. The journey was
an arduous undertaking as after a train journey of
a hundred and twenty miles to Neemuch the team
had to travel forty miles by palki and then another
forty by carriage, while on the way back one of the
carriages broke down and some of the boys had to
ride two on one horse. In the following year on
the occasion of the visit of H. R. H. Prince Albert
Victor to Ajmer* a garden party was given at tlie
Kaisar Bagh at which one of the chief attractions
was a cricket match between the College and the
 16

Gymkhana. In this match the College team wore

colours for the first time, a white flannel coat
reaching half way to the knees with a panchranga
shield on the left breast, dhoties or trousers, and a
panchranga pugaree, a half-way stage between the
modern uniform kit'and the early days when as we
have seen, boys played games in their school dress.
In the next few years visits were paid to Udaipur
and Jaipur and against the former, H. H. the late
Maharao of Kotah contributed to an easy victory
by the College by taking ten wickets, but Jaipur
was much too strong for the College. Then came
the appointment of a special cricket instructor, Mr.
Cooper, a member of the Parsi team which had
visited England, being elected, and a series of
contests with the Rajkumar College, Rajkot, was
instituted. The latter were the first matches played
by a team of Mayo College boys only, unassisted
by masters or outsiders, against a boys’ team. The
term “ boys” however seems to have been somewhat
elastic as, in the second match, since Rajkot wished
to play two old boys, the Mayo College sent for
. two former champions, Durjan Sal of Kotra and
Kalyan Singh of Ajairajpura. In their matches
against Rajkot, Mayo College had the advantage of
numbers and more than held their own, but they
were also able to compete successfully against school
teams which had a wider field of choice than they
and in 1898 they won the Cricket Shield in the
newly started Rajputana Schools Tournaments.
Enough has been written to show that cricket
played a very important part in the life of the Mayo
College in the last quarter of the nineteenth century.
In fact cricket in the words of Mr. Sherring formed
half the existence of the Mayo College boy. It
was apparently often played every day of the week
including Sundays either at the nets or in games
and matches, and we are told that the comparative
scarcity of outside teams available to play against
was compensated by State vs. State and Class vs.
Class matches and games such as Rathores vs. the
T h e M ayo C o l l e g e B u i l d i n g a s O r i g i n a l l y C o m p l e t e d .
 17
Rest. ~ W hat the Mayo College boy who was not
a crick.et enthusiast thought of so much cricket
history does not record.
General life at the College. A fair idea of
the life led by a boy at the College in those days
can be obtained from a perusal of the rules in force.
At the first bell, which was rung at different times
according to the season of the year but at a consi­
derably earlier hour than in modern days, boys
got up at the second bell while it was still dark, and
left their boarding houses to attend Roll-call. This,
except for boys riding who went straight to the
riding ground, was held by the Jemadar at the
east side of the Main building. Roll-call was
followed by riding, gymnastics, and cricket. nets
at which I am told in winter mornings the early
hours and cold necessitated bowling and batting in
over-coats. After this boys retired to their houses
till 8-30. Sunday was a holiday but there were no
regular half holidays during the week except one
given occasionally for cricket, and school throughout
the week was held from 9 to 1 and from 2 to 4.
The boys entered the Main building when the bell
rang at 8-40, some arriving on horse-back and others
in carriages, and took their places in class as they
had left off the previous day. Each period lasted
for an hour and marking was by places, boys moving
up or down according as they answered or failed to
answer questions, and at the end of the period the
top boy got ten marks, the second nine and so on.
If there were more than ten boys in a class the top
mark was equivalent to the number of boys in
the class.
At 1 p.m. while boys either went to their
houses or remained in the College building for
detention work or voluntary study or playing
billiards, chess, or draughts, the Principal held a
durbar in the hall. This was attended by the
motamids, jemadar, and hospital assistant who gave
in their various reports, after which punishments
 18
were awarded. The latter consisted of extra school
and temporary exclusion from games for ordinary
offences while for serious offences a boy was put
into ‘Coventry’ and no one was allowed to speak
to him. This was the severest penalty inflicted
and recourse was never had to corporal punishment.
The chief disciplinary trouble seems to have been
in getting boys back after leave and after the
summer vacation which at one time lasted lor three
months, and early reports are full of complaints on
this head or of satisfaction at improvement. In some
cases boys appear to have been absent for.a whole
school year. Evening games after school were
apparently voluntary for boys whose names were
not specially mentioned in orders, and they could
arrange their own exercise as they liked under the
general supervision of the jemadar. In the evening
and at other times out of school boys did their
preparation in their houses at any time they found
convenient, but they could not leave their houses
to visit other houses without the Principal’s special
permission which was very rarely granted. The
general control of boys outside the class room and
the play ground was in the hands of the Motamids
who were responsible for the interior economy of
their houses, the observance of rules by the boys,
their general expenditure, and the control of boys’
servants who were expressly forbidden to smoke
in the boys’ rooms or to sleep in them. Motamids
were also required to make a round of the boys’
rooms twice during each night.
Private servants were then as later a problem to
the authorities. Rules restricting them existed and
in some cases the prescribed limit of three, exclusive
of syces, was observed, but in many cases the
limit was greatly exceeded. W hen H. H. the late
Maharao of Kotah joined the College he came with
two hundred followers for whose accommodation a
special village had to be bu+lt, while H. H. the late
Maharaja of Alwar had a stable establishment of
over twenty polo ponies and four carriage horses.
 19
Boys’ servants were their masters’ .hereditary
retainers receiving usually no money wages but,
in lieu free food, and enjoying a piece of rent free
land in their master’s home. The control, therefore,
of the College authorities over them was slight and
the only disciplinary action possible against them
was dismissal which, as it meant returning to their
families, was welcomed.
T he system of private guardians and pri­
vate tutors prevailed in the College from early times
and the latter who even then were stigmatized as
not at all a necessity were paid from Rs. 20/-
to 40/- p.m.
The monthly expenses of an average Thakur in
those days amounted to Rs. 120/-. The principal
item was the bill of the College bania who had his
premises in the College and amounted to Rs. 40/-
p.m. The rest of the expenditure was on meat,
milk, tobacco for servants, upkeep of two ponies,
clothes for the boy and his servants, subscriptions for
drawing, cricket, temple, and target practice, and
the customary payment of Rs. 4/- to the Book, Play
and Medical fund.
The College Roll. During the years 1876 to
1903 the College roll at first rose by steady stages
till it reached 80 in 1885. In the year following
its opening its recruiting area was extended outside
Rajputana by the admission of a boy from the
Punjab, followed a little later by that of a descen­
dant of Raja Chait Singh of Benares and by others
from Central India and other areas. Of the
Rajputana States all except five were soon repre-
sentated, Jaipur and Jodhpur contributing the
most, and Ajmer-Merwara always had a number of
boys at the College. After 1885 the roll remained
for some years in the neighbourhood of 80. After
this there was a decline followed by a temporary
recovery and then again there was a continuous fall,
which, beginning in 1893, ended in the roll falling
 20
gradually to 49 in 1903, of which number Kotah
contributed eight and Jodhpur, which had always
been strongly represented at the College hitherto,
only four.
Need for re-organization. Of the reasons for
this decline it is not easy to judge with accuracy.
The numbers at a Chiefs' College are liable to ups
and downs from causes which do not affect ordinary
schools The presence of the heir-apparent of a
State at the College means an influx of other boys
from the State and when the heir-appare'nt leaves
they leave too. Again some apparently trifling
incident may lend to the withdrawal of support by
a certain State, and in any case with a limited field
of recruitment the number of boys available is bound
to vary from time to time. But apart from such
considerations as these, one cause of the - decline of
the popularity of the College at the end of the nine­
teenth century was the feeling that the Mayo
College like other Chiefs’ Colleges needed reorga­
nization to improve the standard of education it
gave and that in particular the curriculum should
be revised and the staff strengthened. The latter
had been increased since the College was started
and included nine Indian assistants, but little had
been done to improve the low rates of pay prevailing,
and salaries ranging from Rs. 50/- p.m. to Rs. 150/-
were hardly likely to attract the right type of master
required for the special work of a Chiefs’ College.
Further, the English staff, which had been reduced
to two including the Principal, was insufficient.
T he question of the re-organization of the Mayo
College in common with other Chiefs’ Colleges
engaged the attention of the then Viceroy, Lord
Curzon, and the measures taken opened a new
chapter in the history of the College;
Retirement of Col. Loch. In 1903 Col. Loch
retired after devoting twenty five years of his life
to the service of the Mayo College. He had steered
it successfully through its early years and moulded
L t . - C o l o n e l W i l l i a m L o c h , c. i. e.
P r i n c i p a l , 1877— 1903.
 21

its general characteristics on lines which exist today.

It fell to his successor Mr. C. W. Waddington
later C.I.E., M.V.O., then Principal of the Rajkumar
College, Rajkot, to inaugurate the changes which
were considered necessary in accordance with the
times. Among the founders of the Mayo College,
Col. L och’s name will always be held in honourable
remembrance with that of the Viceroy whose
name the College bears. In the words of Lord
Curzon spoken on the eve of Col. Loch’s retirement
from the College “ His name will always be in­
separably connected with its early history, its steadily
growing success, and its established reputation. He
regarded the College with all and more than the
affection of a parent and in many a State in India
both in Rajputana and much further afield were to
be found ‘old boys’ administering properties or
ruling States who entertained towards him an
almost filial affection and esteem.” His services
were recognized by the Government of India by the
award of C. I. E. His portrait painted from a fund
subscribed to perpetuate his memory after lie left
the College hangs in the College Hall and a sword
of honour was instituted from the balance of the
fund, to be awarded annually to the best all round
boy. He died in 1912.
Reminiscences of an Old Boy. Shortly after
I came to the College a distinguished old boy,
Colonel Maharaj Sir Bhairon Singh of Bikaner,
who had been at the College with Col. Loch, was
good enough to send me his reminiscences of his
school days. T he writer was a-t the College from
1892 to 1895 and the following extracts which I
was authorized to publish throw an interesting
side-light on life at the College in its early days.
“ There was one Jamadar Khajar Khan who
was from the same cavalry to which Col. Loch
belonged. I was told that Khajar Khan when a
sowar in the regiment had saved Col. Loch’s life at
the Kabul or some other expedition. W hen Col.
 11

Loch joined the Mayo College, he employed Khajar

Khan as Jamadar. This old man (Khajar Khan)
always used to be in his Regimental khaki uniform
with blue Zari Safa and red kamarband and I never
saw him at the College Parade in Mufti. He used
to take roll call at the College courtyard every
morning before the parade of the mounted sirdars.
He used to take us sometimes outside the College
premises along the Nasirabad road, city road, station
side, maidan side. We used to call him Ustadji
and we used to ask him sometimes to take us to the
city side or the Merwara Battalion lines and he
used to allow us our request for a pleasant trip.
Whenever a sirdar was absent from roll call the
Ustadji used to come to the boarding house con­
cerned after the riding school or parade and used
to enquire from the absentee sirdar the reason of
his absence. And generally we used to reply that
we remained asleep. Then he used to say, ‘Achha!
never absent yourself again, otherwise I will take
you to the Colonel Sahib’, but he was so kind an old
man that I never saw him taking any one to the
Colonel Sahib.
“ In those days a sirdar had to live in his own
boarding house and was not allowed to see other
sirdars in other boarding houses. I remained in
the College for about three and a half years, but I
never saw all the boarding houses which I used to
be very anxious indeed to do, and so whenever any
question is asked about any boarding house, I
have to reply that I regret I have never seen
that house.
“ Though I managed to see a few houses outside
when I was a student, for example the Tonk house
was very near to our Bikaner house, I had never
seen it inside and at the time of the College Jubilee
when I was invited as an old student I saw for the
first time the inside of that house and other
houses which I was not able to see when I was at
the College as a student. This was rather a hard
rule for students.
 23
“ His Highness Maharao Sahib Bahadur of Kotah
when a student at the Mayo College used to give a
dinner to all the sirdar students at the Kotah
house on the auspicious occasion of his birthday
and we used to talk among ourselves that we would
sec the Kotah house that day, but we never did.
“ The examinations used to be held in the month
of April by the College staff and sometimes by Mr.
Giles and then prizes used to be given by the Agent
to the Governor General and Col. Loch used to
enquire from us a couple of months before as to what
thing we desired to have for prizes. Some Sirdars
used to ask for medals and others for books etc.
“ Once I was asked what prize I desired for my
proficiency in Arithmetic and I asked for a leather,
writing box which I got and it was with me several
years, then I gave it to a sirdar student of the Bika­
ner Walter Nobles’ School.
“ We used to play football, hockey and cricket
(as only the princes and senior Sardars used to play
polo and tennis). Whenever football or hockey was
played the College was divided into two parties
called red and green. We always used to have two
kinds of safas or turbans—red and green. The
College Order book used to be circulated in class
rooms by the old chaprasi Mitza. W e used to be
very anxious when he brought the oider book as
it used to announce holidays or the visit of some
Prince or other important personage. It also contai­
ned information about games also in which I was
sometimes placed on the green side and sometimes
on the red. I do not know the reason but the
masters of the College were not allowed to wear
safas or turbans of any other colour except light pink
and I head from some masters, for example Pandit
Peetambarji, Har Buxji, Sheodan Malji, Durga
Prasadji and Deep Chandji that they had not used
safas or turbans of any other colour because they
were on the College staff.
 24
“ Whenever any sirdar did not prepare his lesson
or behave properly the master used to say that he
would report the matter to the Principal and use to
take a quarter of foolscap sheet and begin to write a
report to the Principal. He used to address his
letter as ‘Respected Sir’. Sometimes the Head boy
and others used to say ‘Master Sahib: kindly excuse
him this time’. And he used to agree and tear off
the report when it was only half written or finished.
Sometimes he used to give it to a sirdar who took
it to the Principal, and then all of us in the class
were anxious about the action that might be taken.
And the report used to come back with the
orders of Col. Loch in red or blue pencil. Some­
times the boy was detained for a day for one hour
during the recess and sometimes for a few days and
he was debarred from games and was not allowed to
talk with other sirdars in that house. This was
called strict Coventry. This order had to be enforced
by the Motamid. But when the Motamid was
pleased he used to allow the boy to talk but warned
him not to talk or to go another’s room when Col.
Loch Sahib came. Col. Loch used to visit houses
any time in the day and some times in the. night.
“ I was told a funny story when I was in the
College that some years back Col. Loch visited one
boarding house alone in the night when a chowkidar
knowingly shouted out, “ Thief, Thief”, and the
Colonel ran back. And it was said that since that
time he did not visit houses in the night time so
often. While I was in the College, I saw Col. Loch
many times coining to the boarding house in the day
but I only remember his coming in the night time
once when Thakur Udey Singh of Bhadrawala in our
house was very ill.
“ Dr. Bundraban Chander Sur was in charge of
the medical department of the College and when­
ever we were ill we used to go to him with a written
note and say 'Doctor Sahib. W e are ill’. And he
used to enquire ‘What is the m atter?’ And we used to
 atJH
T he Mo rn in g In terva l— 1942. K. L Syccl & Co.
 25
say ‘Headache or pain in the stomach.’ If he was
pleased, he used to write ‘111, rest required.’ And
on our returning from him to the class with his reply
it used to be submitted to the Principal and when
sanctioned we used to be allowed to go home. But
if any one approached him when not actually
ill, he used to give a very strong dose of fruit salt.
“ Rewards were given to any man who killed
snakes in the compound but this practice was abused,
for sometimes servants used to kill snakes outside
the College premises and get rewards for it.
“ There was no fixed holiday in the week and
many times whenever there were clouds the senior
boys (there was no Monitor system when I was in
the College) used to suggest one, and we all at the
roll call time used to ask the Ustadji (the JamadarJ
not to take the sirdars to riding school or to send
boys for gymnastic practice but allow all of us to go
and ask the Principal for a holiday. He always
used to agree to this and never refused our request.
As soon as all the boys from the roll call reached
the Principal’s house in the early hours, Col. Loch
used to come out, sometimes in his sleeping gown,
and enquire ‘Boys! W hat do you want? ’ W e
used to say, ‘Sir, today is a nice day, we want a
holiday for cricket.’ And his reply used to be
sometimes, ‘All right, boys! Have a whole
holiday.’ And at once we used to begin clapping.
Sometimes he used to say, ‘Half holiday.’ Then
we used to go to the College and the College used
to be closed at 1 p.m. and we used to go and play
cricket. But sometimes Col. Loch used to say
‘Boys! I regret you have already enjoyed holidays
recently and so no holiday’, and then we all used
to return home disappointed, some boys however
saying ‘never mind, we have escaped the riding
school and gymnastics this morning.”
 C H A PTER III.
REORGANISATION AND EXPANSION, 1903— 1914.

When Mr. Waddington succeeded Col. Loch

in 1903 it had been decided by the Viceroy, Lord
Curzon, that an immediate reorganization of the
whole system of the Chiefs’ Colleges was imperative
so that they might win the confidence of the States
to an extent greater than before, and more comp­
letely fulfil the conception of their founders. As the
result of conferences attended by representatives of
the Government of India and of the States and
under the close personal supervision of Lord
Curzon, a scheme was worked out which had two
main features. In the first place the number of
institutions to be recognized as Chiefs’ Colleges
was to be reduced to three. At the time there were
a number of schools in various parts of India con­
fined to the landed aristocracy, but it was now
decided that only the Mayo College, the Raj
Kumar College, Rajkot, and the Aitchison College,
Lahore, should receive the recognition of the Go­
vernment of India as Chiefs’ Colleges. Later it
was decided to include the Daly College, Indore,
though it was urged by some at the time that the
area mainly served by the two Colleges was only
big enough for one. The number of recognized
Chiefs’ Colleges was subsequently increased to five
by the inclusion of the Raj Kumar College,
Raipur.
The second feature of the scheme was a radical
revision of the internal organization of the Colleges
 27
recognized as Chiefs’ Colleges, particularly with
regard to control, staff, and curriculum.
Reforms on these lines were introduced into the
Mayo College during the following years and were
accompanied at the same time by considerable
building additions and by a great expansion of the
outdoor activities of the College. Under the
guidance of Mr. Waddington and Mr., afterwards
Sir Eliot, Colvin, the Agent to the Governor General
as Vice President of the Council, and supported by
the active interest of the States, the College entered
upon a period of great prosperity and popularity
which was reflected in the roll rising from fifty
to above two hundred.
General Council and Managing Committee.
The former General Council of the College, which
had only met on the most rare occasions since the
College was founded and which had latterly practi­
cally ceased to function, was replaced by a body
designed to give both the Princes and Government
an' active control and interest in the management
of the College. T he re-organised General Council
included the Viceroy as President, the Agent to
the Governor General in Rajputana as Vice-
President, all Rulers of Rajputana States other than
minors and two rulers of Central India, and ten
officials T he Council as revised above met for the
first time in 1906 and in the following years
meetings were held with fair regularity and with
satisfactory attendances.
To supervise the detailed administration of the
College a Committee of the Council, styled the
Working Committee and subsequently the Manag­
ing Committee, was formed. This Committee
of which the Commissioner, Ajmer-Merwara, was
Convener contained as many as sixteen members
of whom thirteen were Rulers of States.
In the years immediately following their for­
mation, the newly constituted bodies and noticeably
 28
the Rulers who were members of them, evinced a
close interest in the welfare and progress of the
College and to this interest among the rulers of
States both in Rajputana and outside must be
attributed much of the prosperity of the College
which followed its reorganization in 1903.
Finance. When the College was reorganized,
the Government of India extended a generous
measure of financial assistance, not only in contri­
buting to building additions but also in increasing
the value of its annual grant from Rs. ] 2,000 to
Rs. 55,000 to help the College to meet the addi­
tional expense entailed by the re-organization
especially with regard to staff. This assistance was
supplemented by the States and their rulers who,
in addition to handsome gifts from time to time
for specific purposes, subscribed sufficient to raise
the endowment fund from seven to ten lakhs.
As time went on, the great increase in the
College roll involved a considerable rise in general
maintenance costs without any corresponding rise
in income, as no fees were charged other than the
already existing I ’lay and Medical and Games and
Stationery subscription. It was decided therefore
in 1909 to levy graduated fees for boys from outside
Rajputana and these gave in that year an additional
income of Rs. 10.000. A similar fee was at first
levied also from boys from Central India but they
were a few years.later exempted.
The above measure gave the College an
income sufficient not only to meet its expenditure
but to defray either partly or wholly the cost of
improvements and new buildings required from
time to time.
Building additions. The Mayo College was
originally designed to accommodate only about
sixty boys and though subsequent structural ad­
ditions to boarding houses increased the accommod­
ation, in 1903 a hundred was the maximum which
 29

could comfortably be taken. When he joined Mr.

Waddington estimated that with the recruiting field
available a maximum of one hundred and fifty
boys might eventually be expected at the College
and laid his plans accordingly.
To meet the anticipated rise two things were
essential, extra space in the main building and in­
creased boarding house accommodation, and these
two needs were met to a certain extent.
Annexe to Main building. The Main building
of the College was originally designed to provide
only a hall, a library, and four class rooms, and in
1904 with the roll at 88, less than half the figure to
which it subsequently attained, two classes had to
be located in the hall which also served as an office
for the Principal and three more had to be taken in
the largest of the class rooms, while a room in the
Ajmer house had to be used as a science laboratory
and office for the clerks. The inconvenience of these
arrangements and the difficulties of teaching can
be imagined.
T he Government of India agreed to assist the
College to construct an annexe to the east of the
Main building and plans were prepared by Sir
Swinton Jacob. Work was started in 1906 and
the building was formally opened in 1909 by Mr.
Colvin. The annexe or east wing as it is usually
called was constructed of white marble in keeping
with theolderbuildingata costof twolakhsof rupeesof
which a little more than one quarter was contributed
by College funds and most of the rest by Govern­
ment. It provided additional accommodation of
eight rooms of varying sizes. At the time that the
annexe was designed this was thought likely to
prove sufficient but by the time the annexe was
finished the College roll had nearly risen to two
hundred, and' Post Diploma classes had been
added to the College. The large increase in the
roll necessitated the bifurcation of certain classes
and, no separate Science laboratory having been
 30
provided, much space was taken up by science
teaching. As a result, while the Principal no
longer had to do his office work in the hall and it
was possible to provide the clerks with a separate
room, the Post Diploma classes had to be housed
in the library, two school classes had still to be
taken in the hall, and no common room for masters
was available. Plans were contemplated to provide
six further additional rooms at the north and south
sides of the original building but these did not
materialize. A little later the congestion of accom­
modation was relieved to a certain extent by moving
the three junior classes to another house, and by a
decline in the College roll which made the bifur­
cation of classes no longer necessary, but it is to
be regretted that no separate science laboratory
was provided. The provision of adequate accom­
modation for teaching science has only been met
in the most recent years. T h e Post Diploma
classes led a nomadic existence for some years,
moving from house to house, including the Sherring
house, till they eventually found a permanent home
in the Jhalawar house.
At the same time that the Main building of the
College was enlarged, steps were taken to beautify
its appearance both internally and externally. The
hall was adorned with the portraits of Ruling
Princes painted' specially for the College and
presented by them, together with others of person­
ages honourably associated with the history of the
College such as Colonel Loch and Sir Eliot Colvin.
These portraits make an imposing array on
the walls of the Hall and never fail to strike a
visitor. A little later a marble dais was presented
by H. H. the Maharaja of Gwalior to commemorate
the visit of Her Majesty Queen Mary. Outside the
main building a handsome approach to the new
east wing flanked with turf walks and carved marble
balustrades, was made from designs by Sir Swinton
Jacob, and this approach provides perhaps the most
beautiful aspect in the whole College grounds.
 31
Boarding accommodation. The need for
additional boarding house accommodation was met
to a certain extent, partly by minor additions to exis­
ting boarding houses, partly by the erection of special
houses for boys living with their own guardians,
and partly by the construction of a large new
boarding house. Of the first the most notable were
additions made by the States concerned to the
Bikaner, Jaipur, Alwar and Ajmer houses, but some
additional accommodation was provided in each
State house. With regard to special houses, from
the earliest days when the first boy to join the
College at first lived outside it, it had been the prac­
tice in some cases for boys not to live in a College
boarding house but in the house of a member of
the English staff or in a private house with a special
guardian, and such boys were known as private
boarders. Hitherto private boarders occupying
their own houses had lived outside the College but
during the years under review three houses for such
boys were provided in the College grounds, the
houses now known as the Kashmir, New Jodhpur,
and New Bharatpur houses in the south of the
College compound. The first named was built
by the Kashmir Darbar for the use of the heir-
apparent, now H. H. the Maharaja, and subsequently
after he had left was handed over to the College.
The second originally known as the Hatvva house
was built by the Hatwa estate for the minor
Maharaja, and the third was provided out of College
funds for the use of the late Maharaja of Bharatpur.
All these houses after their original occupants had
left were at the disposal of the College. For a short
time the Kashmir house was used for the teaching
of the Post-Diploma classes but when these were
moved to the Jhalawar house, became available
for other tenants on rental and brought the- College
additional income, an arrangement which persists
today. T he Hathwa house, which did not belong
to the College, subsequently changed hands several
times till a few years ago it was bought and const-
 32
derably enlarged by the Jodhpur Durbar for the use
of the Maharaj .Kumars of Jodhpur.
The provision of these houses made the situa­
tion with regard to private boarders more satisfactory
than before as it rendered supervision by the
College authorities easier, but a number of boys
continued to live outside the College and this is the
case today. The practice of private boarders, per­
mitted to meet the special wishes of parents or
guardians in certain cases, is not confined to the
Mayo College but prevails at it to a greater extent
than elsewhere. While it ensures the recruitment
of boys who would not otherwise join and makes
for closer indivilual attention than is possible in a
boarding house, it is open to objection on the
grounds of preferential treatment and the lack of
the give and take of boarding house life.
It is’obviously desirable that as far as possible
private boarders as well as other boys should live
inside the college precincts, where they can be
under effective supervision by the college authorities,
but a recent decision to stop the practice of boys
living with members of the College staff will make
this less possible than in the past. T he practice of
private boarders living with members of the staff
secured both close individual supervision and obser­
vance of school regulations and also involved
parents and guardians in less expense than a
private house of their own. Its discontinuance may
have an adverse influence on recruitment.
Colvin House. The most marked addition to
the boarding accommodation was a new house now
known as Colvin house. This was originally in­
tended to serve as a joint boarding house for boys
from the nine Rajputana States which had no
houses of their own^ in the College and for boys
from outside Rajputana, and subscriptions were
invited from the States interested for the purpose.
Half a lakh was received and the College con*
 33
tributed Rs. 22,000 from its own funds. The house
was built at a cost of Rs. 72,000 on the site of the
old riding ground, which was moved to a new site
north west of the main building, and provided
twenty eight bed rooms and eight common rooms
which could be used for study. Named in honour
of Sir Eliot Colvin who had done so much for the
College as Vice-President of the General Council,
it was completed and occupied in 1913, but instead
of its original purpose it was reserved for the
accommodation and teaching of about thirty junior
boys up to the age of thirteen irrespective of the
States from which they came, and the three lower
classes of the school were held in it.
The steps outlined above gave the College
sufficient accomm'odation for one hundred and fifty
boys. With the roll, however, considerably above
that number from 1907 for several years the College
must have been inconveniently crowded. Rooms
in boarding houses large enough really for only one
boy had to accommodate four, common rooms had
to be used as bed rooms, some boys had to live in
in the new cricket pavilion, and a good many outside
the College as day boys. The Alwar house, which
has not room for more than twelve bovs comfortably,
at one time had twenty five boys living in it. This
congestion continued till it was automatically
relieved by the roll declining to the neighbourhood
of one hundred and fifty.
Other buildings— Bikaner Pavilion. A striking
addition to the College buildings of another kind was
the Cricket Pavilion presented by H.H. the Maharaja
of Bikaner, an Old Boy of the College. Designed by
Sir Swinton Jacob, to whom so many of the archi­
tectural beauties of the College are due, and built
of red stone on the south west edge of a new 1st
XI cricket ground which had recently been made, it
was completed in 1906, and from the outset besides
its usefulness as a pavilion for all important cricket
 34
matches played at the College was a suitable place
for various College functions and At Homes. In
addition two rooms in it could be used to accommo­
date guests on occasions and the pavilion therefore
to a certain extent served the purpose of a Guest
house. Besides defraying the cost of the building
H. H. the Maharaja furnished it, and the walls of
theTiall inside it were a little later decorated by
groups and" views of the leading Public Schools of
England presented by those schools.
Kotah Sanitarium. The need for an infirmary
had been urged from the earliest days of the College
in several annual reports but no action had hitherto
materialized. The want was however removed in
1908 by the generosity of a distingushed Old Boy,
H. H. the late Maharao of Kotah. Out of funds
donated for the purpose by His Highness a sani-
torium for the isolation and treatment of serious or
infectious cases with nurses quarters adjoining was
built and equipped on a plot to the north west of
the College.
Other improvements. The tale of new
buildings constructed during this period of expan­
sion was completed by the erection of two houses,
now known as the Madden and Twiss houses, for
the additional members of the English Staff, thus
providing the College with accommodation for a
resident English staff of four. At the same time a
second storey was added to the Principal’s house.
Proposals however to provide accommodation for the
Indian teaching staff either by building houses for
them in the College grounds or by buying'up houses
on the Srinagar road adjoining the College did not
materialize. The same fate met a project to cons­
truct a new Temple and the old Temple remained
the one building in the College unworthy of it.
The College had to wait many more yeai^s before
these two important needs were met.
Water-supply. Together with the building
work undertaken, two other materia] improvements
 35
to the College must be mentioned. Since its found­
ation the College had been dependent for its water
supply on wells many of which had begun to dry up,
and the insufficiency of water for many years had
been a great inconvenience and a grave danger to
health. In 1904 the College was connected with the
municipal main from Foy Sagar and a fairly
adequate supply of water was obtained for the first
time. Since those days, however the size of Ajmer
has continued to increase without any increase in the
water supply, which now gives the College very
little water, and the College has again largely to
depend on its wells.
Acquisition of land. An improvement of
another kind which was very 'opportune was the
acquisition of fresh1 land to prevent the further
encroachment of the fast spreading suburbs of Ajmer.
As already mentioned, when the College was founded
it was in open country. The nearest outside build­
ing was two miles away and it is said that panthers
could be met with between the College and the city.
H ad the rapid expansion of Ajmer been foreseen at
the time, the surrounding land might have been
acquired for a very low figure, but only very small
_portions were taken up and at the beginning of the
twentieth-century the suburbs of Ajmer, and un­
sanitary suburbs at that, were fast approaching the
College gates. A gift on one lakh by H. H. the
Maharaja of Jodhpur and sums available from other
sources enabled the danger to be met to a certain
extent by the purchase of land in the most pressing
quarter, the west of the College compound. At the
time, the College grounds were practically unfenced
and steps were taken to fence in certain portions
though much of the compound still remained un-
fenccd for many years. These steps did much to
improve the privacy of the College, but it was not
possible completely to solve the difficulty. Had it
been possible to extend the College boundary in its
earlier days up to the main Nasirabad road its main
buildings would have been removed a considerable
 36
distance from outside encroachments and the aspect
looking west would have presented a much better
appearance in later years. As it is, much of the
ground between the main Nasirabad road and the
Coilege is occupied by unsightly tenements and
other new buildings, and a public road cuts right
through the College grounds from north to south
not far to the west of the Main building, swinging
round outside the College grounds to join the main
Nasirabad road. The history of this road is obscure
but from the College point of view it is a matter for
regret that steps were not possible to make it a
private road, as it renders it very difficult to keep
the whole College compound private. Another
quarter in which the acquisition of fresh land would
have been valuable was the east, where buildings
have since sprung up only a few yards behind the
Principal’s house.
Staff. The reorganization of the College in 1903
provided for a teaching staff of twelve, namely an
English staff of four and an Indian staff of eight, all
of whom were to have the status of Government
servants entitled to pensions. The English staff
while members of the Indian Educational service
were to form a separate cadre of that service to be
known as the Chiefs’ Colleges cadre, specially rec­
ruited for Chiefs’ Colleges and serving under the
Political Department of the Government of India.
The Indian Staff though not members of the Indian
educational service were by virtue of serving at the
College to rank as Government servants.
Thus the former system by which the staff
consisted of an Army officer as Principal, and a
Headmaster and assistant staff who might not
necessarily be and were usually not Government
servants, was replaced.
On the English staff Mr. Sherring was re­
appointed with the new designation of Vice-Principal
and two English Assistant masters, Mr. F.J. Portman
 37
M.A. (Oxon) and Mr. S. F. Madden, B.A., (Cantab),
were recruited from England. In 1905 Mr. Portman,
to the deep regret of all who knew him, died at the
College of enteric fever at the age of 27. During
his short service at the Mayo College he impressed
his personality on every branch of its activities and
he is still affectionately remembered by Old Boys
who were at the College with him. His name has
been perpetuated at the College by the Portman
Cup, a challenge cup for inter-house Cricket, pur­
chased out of a fund subscribed to his memory and
fittingly commemorating his services to the College
as a cricketer. The vacancy caused by his death
was filled by the appointment from the M. A. O.
College, Aligarh, of Mr. C. C. H. Twiss, 15.A. (Oxon),
who like Mr. Madden gave many years of service
to the College, being connected with it up to 1928.
In addition to the permanent regular English
staff sanctioned for each of the four Chiefs’ Colleges
the Government of India instituted a leave reserve
of first one and later two English Assistant masters,
who when not required elsewhere were attached to
the Mayo College. This arrangement gave the
Mayo College first a third English Assistant in
addition to the Vice-Principal and later a fourth,
making a total English staff of six. Under these
conditions Mr. W. Fanshawe B. a . (Oxon) joined the
staff in 1908 and though originally on the leave
reserve remained at the Mayo College till 1926,
when he left to take up the appointment of
Principal of the Daly College, Indore, where to the
great regret of his many friends he shortly after­
wards died.
In 1912 Mr. Sherring severed his long connec­
tion with the College to take up an appointment
in the Bikaner State and Mr. Madden was appointed
Vice-Principal in his place. Mr. Sheri ing’s devotion
to the College and the special interest he took- in
its athletic activities stand out clearly in the
pages of the history which he wrote of the Mayo
 38
College up to 1898, and won him the affection and
gratitude of his pupils. At a farewell party given
to him when he proceeded on leave prior to severing
his long connection- with the College, the part he
had played in its life was expressed by the Head
Monitor in the following terms:—
“ Words can feebly express the gratitude which
we boys owe you for your work among us and for
your unvarying kindness to us all alike. In the
Class-room you have been to us a kind master and
on the rare occasions on which you took us to task
we recognized that you were cruel only to be kind.
In the playground you have encouraged us by your
presence and advice; and at athletics and tug of-war
you have trained us with a skill that can best be
judged by results. In addition to teaching us you
have won the hearts of the boys and of all with
whom you have come in contact.”
Mr. Sherring, I believe, is happily still alive.
In addition to the regular English staff, the
College was, as it has been in more recent years,
fortunate during the period in~the~presence of a —
number of English guardians, many of whom played
a prominent part in its various activities and supple­
mented the efforts of the regular staff.
The reorganization of the Indian Staff provided
for a cadre of eight masters on increment scales of
pay with initial salaries ranging from Rs.' 75/- to
Rs. 2 40/-p.m. instead of the former minimum of
Rs. 50/- and maximum of Rs. 150/-, and the
opportunity was taken to retire a number of masters
for age or other reasons, replacing them with better
qualified and younger men.
Another additional master was subsequently
added by the appointment of a Shastri who, besides
giving religious instruction, assisted in the teaching
 39
of Sanskrit and Hindi, and the Government of India
also attached another Indian master from the leave
reserve.
T he staff of the College thus rose to a strength
of sixteen, six English and ten Indian masters,
but with the great expansion in numbers even this
considerable increase proved inadequate. Recourse
was had to the services of Motamids to supplement
the regular staff in teaching but this did not prove
a satisfactory arrangement, partly because few of
the Motamids possessed the requisite teaching quali­
fications, and in 1912 the sanctioned Indian teaching
staff had to be still further increased by four more
appointments.
Curriculum and class work. It was decided
to introduce in the Mayo and other Chiefs’ Colleges
a revised course of instruction which would at the
same time meet the special needs of the class of
boy educated at them and enable boys who wished
to proceed to a University to do so straight from
their College. With this dual objcct in view the
curriculum was reorganized and a special final
examination confined to Chiefs’ Colleges was ins­
tituted. This examination, for which a Diploma
was to be awarded to successful. candidates by the
Government of India was to be known as the Chiefs’
Colleges Diploma Examination, and the Universities
were to be asked to recognize it as equivalent to
Matriculation
The curriculum as revised, which was on much
the same lines as that which exists today, provided
for two alternative courses, one for boys likely to
proceed to a University and the other for boys
whose education would end with their school career.
For the former the syllabus included Advanced
Mathematics and for the latter Law, Political
Economy, Land Revenue, and Land Records.
Both courses included English (2 prose and 1 poetry
book), Vernacular, History, Indian and English, the
 40
Geography of the world, Arithmetic, and Drawing
as common compulsory subjects and an alternative
between Science and a Classical Language. In the
next few. years minor changes were made in the
course such as the omission of Drawing, the inclu­
sion of General Knowledge questions in the English
essay paper and of petition reading in vernacular,
and the addition of Surveying, practical and theo­
retical, to the Administration syllabus, while
distinctions were added to the pass for special
success in any subject. When the Diploma was
first introduced each College formed its own curri­
culum within the bounds of the course, chose its
own text books, and was independently examined.
A year later a common simultaneous examination,
which obtained recognition from the Allahabad and
Punjab Universities as equivalent to matriculation
was introduced for all the four Chiefs’ Colleges.
From that date the Mayo College was thus enabled
to compete* with other Chiefs’ Colleges and the
results were generally satisfactory. Between 1904
and 1914 the College sent up 92 candidates for the
Diploma examination of whom 77 passed, in some
cases after a second test in one or two subjects in
which they failed. The first Mayo College boy to
gain a Diploma with distinction was Kaj Chandra
Sen of Kunadi, Kotah, now a member of the
General Council and Working Committee of the
College. In the first few years the standard for
passing the Diploma was low and failures were very
rare, but the raising of the standard in 1911 resulted
in only half the candidates passing that year.
Post Diploma. The reform of the curriculum
and the institution of the Diploma examination
placed the school education of the College on a
satisfactory basis. Shortly afterwards the facilities
it offered were extended to a higher standard by the
institution of Post Diploma classes for undergraduate
teaching. To enable boys to continue their educa­
tion in surroundings specially designed for them and
M r . C. W . W a d d x n g t o n c . i. e., m. v, o.
P r i n c i p a l 1903— 1917.
 41
to avoid the temptations and expense of residing
in a university town, it was proposed that the
College should start higher classes after the
Diploma. The original idea was to have two
alternative courses each of two years, one teaching
up to the intermediate standard of the Allahabad
University and the other a course of instruction in
Administration for boys not taking up University
studies. The former, however, only was adopted,
and after one year it was replaced by a three years’
course in English, Mediaeval and Modern History
of India, and Administration leading up to a Higher
Diploma which was intended to be equivalent to a
University degree. In the first two subjects the
standard aimed at was the B. A. course of the
Allahabad University and the third included all
the subjects prescribed for the local Girdawars’
examination and the Lower Standard Departmental
Examination with practical training by touring
in camp.
From the first the course suffered trom three
handicaps. In the first place the Higher Diploma
did not gain the outside recognition that was hoped.
It was given official recognition for the purposes of
entering the service of the Government of India and
with certain reservations that of the Local Govern­
ments of Bombay, the Punjab, and the United
Provinces, but the Allahabad and other Indian
Universities declined to recognize it for admission to
their M.A. and L L.B . classes. In the second place
adequate teaching facilities were not forthcoming.
It was contemplated at the time that the existing
staff with assistance from guardians and qualified
motamids would be adequate but this did not prove
the case. Further, while it was realized that under­
graduates and school boys should be separated by
providing special lecture rooms and boarding house
accommodation for the former, this need was not
adequately met till several years later when the
Jhalawar and Colvin houses became available for
 42
the purpose. In the third place the scheme never
enjoyed the whole-hearted support of the States
generally and was only regarded by many as a
temporary and doubtful experiment. A proposal
emanating from Her Highness the Begum of Bhopal
for the founding of a Chiefs’ University, which
would mean the discontinuance of the Mayo College
Post Diploma classes, obtained strong support, and
the General Council of the College recommended
that a separate joint College for the higher edu­
cation of boys from all the Chiefs’ Colleges be
established either at Ajmer or elsewhere. At a
conference subsequently convened by the Viceroy
to consider the matter a resolution was passed in
favour of a separate College not to be affiliated to
a University but having the privileges of a degree-
giving institution, the location being left to the
Government of India. A sub-committee was
appointed to elaborate proposals and it recommended
that Administration should be transferred from the
Diploma to the Higher Diploma course which
should extend over four years divided into two
stages, the first including English and elementary
Administration as compulsory subjects, while in the
secpnd stage Administration would be an optional
subject along with History, Philosophy, Mathe­
matics, and a classical language and later Science.
The scheme which provided for a staff of a Principal
and ten professors was estimated to cost nine lakhs
of rupees in initial expenditure and two and a half
lakhs in recurring, thus requiring an endowment
fund of rupees seventy five and a half lakhs. Of
this amount ten lakhs were promised at the time
and annual subscriptions of Rs. 24,000. It was
unlikely that proposals involving such an outlay
would materialize for several years, if at all, and it
was subsequently decided to continue the Post
Diploma classes at the Mayo College meanwhile
devoting to their maintenance the interest on
capital sums subscribed and annual grants promised
for the Higher College-. At the same time pro*
 43
vision was made to recruit three English masters
specially for these classes but the world war of
1914-18 intervening made this impossible and the
proposal was subsequently dropped. T he proposed
Higher Chiefs' College has still not materialized
and is unlikely to do so, and the Mayo College
which admits to its Post Diploma course boys from
other Chiefs’ Colleges and boys of the requisite
social status from elsewhere still continues to
perform the part of a Higher College. By a recent
reorganization of the Post Diploma section into
a College section preparing candidates for the
Intermediate Examination of.the Rajputana Board
and the B. A. degree of the Agra University, the
Mayo College has itself attained the status of a
Degree College and so performs the part of a Higher
College more fully than was at first possible.
Details of this reorganization are given in the last
chapter of this sketch.
Inspection. Concurrently with the institution
of the Diploma course a new system of inspection
was started. The College was inspected annually
by officers specially deputed by the Government of
India to inspect Chiefs’ Colleges, who, in addition
to their inspection of the whole College, examined
the Diploma candidates in an oral test to supple­
ment the written papers. At first the inspection
was conducted by one officer called the Inspector
of Chiefs’ Colleges, but a few years later two were
appointed each year. The inspection reports of the
years 1903-12 reveal the difficulties with which
the College had to cope owing to its staff and
accommodation being inadequate to meet the large
number of boys it attracted, and the consequent
handicaps to its teaching, but at the same time
make it clear that the education given by the
College attained a good all round standard. The
attainment of this standard was assisted not only by
the improvement of the staff and curriculum but
also a younger age of admission and greater regu­
larity of attendance than had prevailed in the past.
 44
Religious Instruction. An important addition
to the training given by the College was the
introduction for the first time of systematic religi­
ous instruction. A Shastri was appointed to
supervise the religious training of Hindu boys while
that of Muhammadan boys was placed in the hands
of the Hafiz of the Tonk House. The arrangements
for Hindu boys included a period of Sandhyas in
the Boarding House each morning, attendance at
the College temple daily after games, special
instruction in the Temple on Sundays, and half an
hour’s teaching by the Shastri for each class in
school during the week with text books specially
prepared for the College. It was also intended to
provide a special room for prayers in each board­
ing house but the outstripping of accommodation
by numbers made this impossible.
Outdoor Life. A very marked feature of the
history of the College during the period 1903-12
was the expansion of its outdoor life. More and
better grounds for games were providedsand outdoor
life was more systematically supervieed, athletic
activities which had fallen into ab yance were
revived, and new forms of physical training were
instituted.
Mounted Cadet Corps. Of the last named the
most important was the forming of a mounted
Cadet Corps, which gave a great impetus to riding
at the College. The first step was the replacement
of the old riding ground near the site now occupied
by Colvin house by a new ground north-west of
the main building and the new ground included an
exercising track of half a mile in circuit and two
riding schools. When this was ready and the place
of the old riding master had been taken by a
specially selected Indian officer lent by the Jodhpur
Durbar, the corps was organized in three squads
with Rao Raja Raghunath Singh of Bharatpur as
the first Squadron Leader. The uniform for ordinary
occasions was khaki and Sam Browne belts and
 45
swords, the latter the gift of His Highness the
Maharaja of Jodhpur, but for special occasions such
as escorts the uniform was a white frock coat and
white breeches with safa and waistband of the
College panchranga, while the horses also had
martingales of the panchranga. Afterwards the
white.frock coats were replaced by serge coats as
worn in recent times. The first occasion on which
the squadron formed an escort at Ajmer was when
the Viceroy visited the College in 190G. This was
followed by a still greater distinction a few years
later when the squadron formed the carriage escort
of the Queen Empress on her visit to Ajmer. For
a time the cadet corps attained a strength of eighty
and the practical nature of the training given was
enhanced by occasional field days with regular
troops. A further impetus to riding at the College
was the addition of a polo ground of its own. Part
of the land newly acquired to the west of the
College was made into a polo ground, and boys had
no longer to'play all their polo in the civil station
two miles away. The result was a marked increase
in the popularity of polo, and 'the Mayo College
became one of the main nurseries of polo in India.
Reference has already been made to the new
cricket ground now known as the Central ground
and the Bikaner Pavilion. In addition to this ground
which was turfed with a matting wicket, other new
but unturfed grounds were made for cricket and
football, .facilitating the systematic conduct of
games and removing the necessity for the old thirty
a side contests, while six new tennis courts were
prepared to the north of the central cricket ground.
T he racquets court was repaired and restored to use
out of a gift from H. H. the Maharaja of Mysore
supplemented by College funds, and a few years
later a squash racquets court was built from a
donation from H. H. the Gaekwar of Baroda. The
swimming bath however remained a small unwalled
tank and like the gymnasium seems gradually to
have fallen into disuse.
 46
The provision of more facilities for games
naturally led to an improvement in standard, but
even more potent factors were the introduction for
the first time of a regular compulsory games time­
table for- the whole college and the presence on the
staff both of a noted cricket coach Mr. Balsara and
also of a number of young athletic English and
Indian masters. These supplemented instruction
by practical example, and together developed the
training which had hitherto been carried on by Mr.
Sherring single-handed. Cricket and football, the
latter of which replaced hockey, were the standard
games, supplemented by tennis. Hockey, which
later became almost the most popular game in the
College and certainly the one in which the general
standard was the highest, was not included in the
time-table for some years and then practically for
Post-Diploma boys only.
At cricket, which, as already seen, had from
early timeS been the principal game in the College,
a high standard was attained and the strongest
teams found the College hard to beat. At football
the standard does not seem to have been so high
and that at tennis varied, but taken all round the
College deservedly had a high athletic reputation
in these years.
Tournaments with other Colleges. The strength
of the College at games was shown by the results
of its meetings with other Colleges in which the
boys had to rely on their own efforts without any
members of the staff to assist them. Disparity of
numbers and distance led after a short time to the
discontinuance of the annual tournament with the
Rajkumar College, Rajkot, and its place was taken
by an annual meeting with the Aitchison College,
Lahore, while there were occasional contests with
the Imperial Cadet College, Dehra Dun, and one
with the Daly College, Indore.
The tournament with the Aitchison College
was started in 1906, the^first meeting being at Ajmer,
 47
and a challenge shield was subsequently presented
by the Kour Sahib of Patiala. The competition
comprised cricket, football, tennis, tent-pegging, and
sports, and in the. nine meetings held up to 1914
the Mayo College won the cricket on six occasions,
the football on five, three matches being drawn,
the tennis on four, the tent-pegging each time, and
the sports on five occasions, gaining the shield every
time sinc^jts presentation except twice. Of special
performances the most noteworthy was at the
cricket match in 1906 when the Mayo College scored
415 for 1 wicket, Thakur Dan Singh of Lathi con­
tributing 203 not out and Kanwar Chandra Sen of
Kunadi 126 not out, a performance which can
seldom have been equalled in any school match.
Against the Imperial Cadet Corps the results
were also successful. Five contests were held
between 1907 and 1914, squash racquets taking the
place of the athletic sports events of the Aitchison
College tournament. The Mayo College won the
cricket every time except once and the football and
squash racquets three times but lost most of the
tennis matches. The best individual performance
accomplished was in 1907 by a former Mayo College
boy, Rao Raja Raghunath Singh of Bharatpur, who
made 156 against his old school. Numerical strength
gave the Mayo College an advantage both over the
Aitchison College Lahore and the Imperial Cadet
College, but the latter had some advantage in age,
and the results show the all-round strength of the
Mayo College.
The single contest with the Daly College,
Indore, where the present writer was then on the
staff, was interfered with by rain and was incon­
clusive. The cricket match had to be abandoned
with the Mayo College in a very strong position,
the football match resulted in a goalless draw after
the Daly College had the best of the game, and
the tennis was won by the Daly College. It was
thought at the time that the tournament with the
 48
Daly College might become an annual event
especially as the Daly College was the nearest
of the Chiefs’ Colleges to Ajmer. It was impossible
however for the Mayo College with its other tourna­
ments to spare the time for a further one, and the
next meeting between the two Colleges had to wait
till 1930, when, the competition with the Aitchison
College having dropped out, an annual contest with
the Daly College was instituted.
Further evidence of the athletic strength of the
Mayo College in the early years of the twentieth
century is forthcoming from its record in the
Rajputana Schools Tournament in which between
the years 1903 and 12 it won the cricket shield on
each occasion that it competed, except once when
it withdrew from the tournament owing to an
umpiring dispute.
Inter-House competitions. An innovation which
helped to foster athletic activity throughout the
College was the holding of Inter-House competitions.
These were started with football and tennis matches,
and subsequently tug-of-war, cricket, tent-pegging, and
athletic sports were added, for the last of which a
new cinder track was made Challenge cups were
presented for the various competitions and the
growth of the College roll enabled nearly each
House for some years to put in a full team for cricket
and football, thus greatly adding to the interest of
the matches and promoting house esprit de corps.
Prominent Athletes. During these years the
College was fortunate in possessing a number of
all-round athletes of more than average ability
among the boys. Reference has already been made
to T. Dan Singh of Lathi, K. Chandra Sen of
Kunadi, and R. R. Raghunath Singh of Bharatpur.
The last named was one of the best all-round boys
ever at the College. In one season he made 1036
runs at cricket with an average of 69, won seventeen
prizes for study, games, and sports, and gained the
T he P r i n c i p a l ’s H ouse. E . L. Syed & Co.
 40
Viceroy’s medal both for work and the best athlete.
Among others may be mentioned Apji Govind Singh
of Koela (Kotah), the Mayo College Jessop, who
once made 140 in 80 minutes and whose hits have
become legendary, M. K. Victor Ilitendra Narayan
of Cooch Behar, Rana Ranjit Singh of Barwani
(C.I.), K. Gulab Singh of Bogra (Bikaner), Sahib-
zada Muhammad Khan of Tonk, Nawab Mehbub
Ali Beg of Hyderabad, K. Debi Singh of Pipla
(Jaipur), Thakur Bahadur Singh of Khera (Alwar),
Kanwar Bhim Singh of Kunadi, H. H. the present
Maharana Rana of Dholpur, K. Hira Singh of
Panna, H. H. the present Maharaja of Panna, Rao
Prithipal Singh of Panna, .K. Akhairaj Singh of
Gainta (Kotah), R Kamal Singh of Deoli
(Bharatpur) and T. Dalpat Singh of Rohat
(Jodhpur).
General features of College life. The daily
routine at the College in these years was much as
it is now. Morning exercise of half an hour at a
time varying with the season of the year was
followed by bathing, prayers, preparation, and
breakfast in the boarding.houses. On whole-sehool
days classes were held from 10 to 1 and from 2 to 4,
while Wednesdays and Saturdays were half holidays.
Periods were at first one hour but were later reduced
to fifty minutes, an extra period being added.
School was followed after an interval by evening
games and temple, after which boys returned to
their houses for dinner and evening preparation as
in the morning. No change was made in the
previous system by which the State Boarding houses
were in the charge of State-appoiuted Motamids,
but they were arranged in groups under the general
supervision of the English assistants, the number
of groups varying according to the size of the English
staff. T he private expenditure of boys was reduced
to a much lower general level by the exercise of more
control over their individual accounts and the super­
vision of the modis’ supplies by a Supply Committee
 50
of motamids and guardians, and it became possible
for a boy to live at the college on less than Rs. 40/-
p.m. if he kept no horse. Efforts were also made to
introduce common messing, but these met with only
partial success and the system did not extend beyond
the Bikaner, Jodhpur, and Kishengarh boys.
Monitors. To assist in the maintenance of
discipline and to serve as a training in responsibility
a monotorial system was introduced, and a little later
weekly Monitors’ meetings were instituted, to which
members of the staff were occasionally invited and
at which subjects connected with the internal
economy of the College were discussed and essays
were occasionally read. The monitors, who were
originally twelve in number but were subsequently
reduced to eight, had very limited powers but they
seem to have played a useful part in the life of the
College socially and on the occasion of functions.
Magazine. Two important additions to the
activities of the College which did much to keep its
Old Boys in touch with it were the inauguration of
the Mayo College Magazine and of an annual Old
Boys’ gathering. The former, which first appeared in
1905 and was edited by a member of the College
staff with contributions from boys of the College
as far as possible, has had an uninterrupted existence
to the present day and from the first gave a com­
plete record of the activities of the College particu­
larly on the social and athletic side.
Old Boys' gathering. The Old Boys’ gathering
was first held in connection with a meeting of the
Working Committee in 1905 and was attended by
fifteen Old Boys including Their Highnesses the
Maharajas of Bikaner and Alwar and a cricket
match Past versus Present was played, followed by
a tug-of-war, at which the Magazine records that
training prevailed against weight, and by games of
tennis and racquets. At the third gathering held two
years later and timed to coincide with the Prize-
 51
giving, theattendance numbered forty including H.H.
the late Maharao of Kotah, who brought with him
a cricket team entirely composed of Old Boys from
his State to play against the College. Subsequent
gatherings were usually well attended and contests
between Past and Present at cricket and other
games were regularly held. Concurrently with the
Old Boys’ gathering an Old Boys’ Association was
founded and this further assisted Old Boys to keep
in touch with their old school.
The College roll. The record outlined above
in itself shows that the College was a very flourishing
institution in the period 1903-14, and it attained a
degree of popularity which had not been approached
before. Its prosperity is evidenced further by the
number of boys it attracted not only from Rajputana
and Central India but also from other parts of India
with the result that its roll was quadrupled. At
the end of 1903 there were only 49 boys at the College,
all from Rajputana, Kotah being the most strongly
represented • State with eight boys and Udaipur
being unrepresented. By the following year the
number had risen to 88, a total bigger by eight than
at any previous period in the history of the College,
and included fourteen from Central India, and six
from various other parts of India as Cooch Behar,
Tipperah, Khairpur, Mysore, and Sachin. In the
following years the roll rapidly rose above 100.
Soon the Rajputana boys alone exceeded 100 and
for the first time in its history every State in
Rajputana was represented. This rise continued-
till in 1912 the roll reached what is still the record
number of 202. Of this noteworthy number Raj­
putana contributed 163 with 19 boys from Alwar
and 17 from Jodhpur, Central India 15, and other
parts 24. The last named repesented all parts of
India, from Kashmir and Nepal in the north to
Hyderabad and Vizianagram in the south.
Thus within a space of nine years the College
roll reached a figure four times greater than it was
 52
when the College was reorganised, more than double
the highest figure reached in any previous period in
its history, and bigger by fifty than the maximum
contemplated when reorganization was taken in
hand. Though this result was undoubtedly due
chiefly to the successful manner in which the re­
organization was carried out it was also partly due
to two special causes which operated only at the
time. In the first place the temporary reduction of
the status of the Daly College, Indore, and the
uncertainty of its future led to a considerable
recruitment of boys from Central India. W hen the
Daly College was finally reconstituted towards the
close of the period as a recognized Chiefs’ College
the number of boys from Central India gradually
decreased, though the heir-apparents of Central
India States in some cases continued to be sent
to the Mayo College. In the second place the
adoption of a less stringent property qualification
for admission and the reduction of the cost of living
at the College already referred to led to the influx
of a number of boys who before and after could
hardly have entered the College.
The maintenance for long of a strength of two
hundred was unlikely unless the recruiting area was
extended still further outside Rajputana, and it was
hardly desirable unless there was a large further
increase of accommodation. Neither of these two
developments materialized at the time and in the
circumstances it was as well that the roll remained
for one year only above two hundred and then
steadily declined to the neighbourhood of one
hundred and fifty.

©
 C H A P T E R IV.
C H EQ U ERED YEARS, 1914-31.

Shortly after 1912 the College began to ex­

perience less prosperous years. In a certain sense
this was an almost inevitable reaction from the
phenomenal expansion of the previous ten years
and the too extravagant hopes formed then of the
capabilities of the College, and all schools have
their ups and downs. A significant fact was a falling
off of the interest and support which the College
had in the previous decade received from the States
of Rajputana and which as always was vital to its
prosperity. The effects of the reaction were ac­
centuated by other circumstances which could
not have been foreseen. The world war of l ()ll-18
and its consequences of dislocation of staff and
financial stress involved the College in difficulties
the effects of which were long afterwards felt.
The College and the world war of 1914-18.
T he Mayo College was closely concerned with the
world war of 1914-18 in a number of ways. In the
first place the whole of the regular English Stalf at
various times were either actively engaged on
military service or on special duty connected with
the war, and one lost his life in action. In the early
part of the war three members of the English staff,
Messrs. Twiss, Braithwaite, and Ashcroft joined
the army. The first named had a distinguished
war-record, rising to the rank of Lt: Colonel and
gaining the D. S. O. Mr. Braithwaite was killed
jn action in Palestine and Mr. Ashcroft sustained
 54
injuries to his health which afterwards resulted in a
fatal illness. Later on Mr. Madden and Mr.
Fanshawe proceeded on military duty, and the list
was completed by Mr. VVaddington himself who in
1917 was appointed to Remounts duty with the rank
of Lt. Colonel and did not return to the College.
Retirement of Mr Waddington from the Princi-
palship. The record outlined in the previous chapter
shows the debt owed by the College to Mr.
Waddington and speaks for itself, but the tribute
paid to him in the Mayo College Magazine at the
time when he left the College is worth quoting.
“ No staff could have had a more sympathetic and
helpful superior and no boys a more devoted and
inspiring' teacher. Old Boys of the Mayo College,
long after they have left, have continued to look
upon Mr. Waddington as their guide, philosopher,
and friend, knowing well that no trouble was too
great for him to take in their interests. His untiring
efforts and his ungrudging labour have won for the
Mayo College that unique position which it holds
among the schools of India. It is his persistent
but diplomatic perseverance that has secured for it
the recognition and attention from the higher
powers that it deserves”. Out of a fund started in
recent years to perpetuate his memory Mr.
Waddington’s portrait has been painted and now
hangs in the hall facing that of his predecessor
Col. Loch.
Appointment of Mr. Leslie-]ones as Principal.
Mr. Waddington was succeeded as Principal by Mr.
F. A. Leslie-Jones, later C.B.E , Principal of the
Aitchison College, Lahore, and the absence of the
regular members of the English Assistant staff was
to a certain extent compensated by the presence of
two junior members of the I.C.S., whose services
were lent to the College by the Government of
India in the beginning of 1915 for work with the
Post Diploma classes, but who also performed many
of the other duties which had been carried out by
 55
the regular English staff now absent on military
service. In addition for a short period at the end
of the war another member of the I.C.S., Mr. E. C.
Gibson, I.C.S., later Sir Edmond Gibson, Resident
for the States of Western India, officiated as an
Assistant Master.
These measures to a certain extent compensated
for the absence of regular members of the staff
during the greater part of the war, but from 1917
the English staff at the College gradually dwindled
till at one time the Principal had no English
assistant at all. This shortage was partly remedied
subsequently, but the total strength of the English
staff did not rise above three, and as one of the
members was usually on leave, the English staff
seldom numbered more than two, a big contrast to
the previous decade. ,
In addition to the regular staff, a number of
English guardians reverted to military duty at the
beginning of the W ar and their loss was much felt.
Among them Major H. K. Barr and Captain Corbett
lost their lives during the war.
The College was not actively represented at the
war by its staff only. A not inconsiderable number of
Old Boys, among whom may be mentioned H. H.
the Maharaja of Bikaner, H. H. the late Maharaja
of Jodhpur, H- H. the late Maharaja of Idar, served
with His Majesty’s forces in different parts of the
world, and of members of the General Council the
late General His Highness Maharaja Pratap Singh
of Idar, and the late Maharaja of Kishangarh, while
the Maharaja of Bikaner represented India at the
Peace Conference. Of those unable to take any
active part themselves in the war, the boys and staff
of the College maintained a War Fund from which
monthly subscriptions were sent for various war
purposes, while on each anniversary of the outbreak
of the war a special donation varying from Rs. ljOOO/-
to 2,000 was placed at the disposal of the Viceroy.
 56
Altogether nearly Rs. 23,000 were subscribed by the
boys and staff of the College to war funds in the
four years.
Financial difficulties. The post-war years
were difficult years for the College and problems
arose which created doubt and despondency
about its future and even its continued existence.
One of these problems was connected with finance.
With an income reduced by a fall in the roll the
College was faced by the necessity of meeting in­
creased expenditure due to the rise in prices and
the need to increase the pay of the staff. At one
time it was hoped to meet the situation by increased
financial assistance from the Government of India
and by additional annual contributions from the
States. Nothing however came of either of these
hopes and there was even talk of the discontinuance
of the Government grant. Recourse had to be made
to drastic measures of economy, which included the
reduction of the sanctioned strength of the English
staff to four and the closing of Colvin House as a
separate house for junior boys, and to the levying
of schooling fees for the first time in the history of
the College from boys from Kajputana, a minimum
rate of Rs. 120/- per annum being fixed.
While these measures enabled the College to
pay its way, the fact that its continued existence
was in doubt is further evidenced by a proposal
originating from H. H. the late Maharaja of Alwar
that all the Chiefs’ College should be combined
into one central College to be located preferably
at Delhi. It is not the place here to discuss the
merits of such a proposal which is never likely to
materialize, but it calls for mention because it was
symptomatic of the failing interest in the Mayo
College and was mingled with important questions
affecting both its future constitution and curriculum.
A further reorganization of Chiefs’ Colleges was
under the consideration of the Government of India
and one of the most important matters for review
M r . F , A. L e s l i e J o n e s , c. b . e .
P rin c ip a l, 1917— 1927.
 57
was the constitution of the Colleges. For some
time past there had been a growing demand that,
as the Colleges were largely maintained by the
financial support of the Princes and existed prim­
arily for them, the Princes should have more control
over their management. This claim was parti­
cularly advanced in the case of the Mayo College,
and the absence of a dominant share in its manage­
ment was held to be one of the main causes which
had led to the diminution of their interest in the
College. For some years past it had become the
exception and not the - rule for Ruling Princes to
attend meetings of the General Council or Managing
Committee in person, and members were either
represented by a delegated official from their
state or not at all. This state of affairs is reflected
by a resolution of the Council in 1926 when
the question was considered of instituting a
permanent Old Boys’ Advisory Committee, designed
both to assist in the welfare of the College and to
stimulate the interest of Old Boys in it. The
Council recorded their opinion that “unless or until
the desire of Old Boys to have a share in the
government of the College and to show their interest
in its welfare by helping in its management should
show itself by the attendance of such members of
the Council as are Old Boys at its meetings or by
the appointment of their Old Boys as representatives,
the question of forming an Advisory Committee of
Old Boys did not call for discussion”. These words
are significant and were further borne out by the
diminished attendance at Old Boys’ gatherings.
The question of ensuring to the College the support
of the classes interested in it by making- them res­
ponsible for its management was the subject of
meetings and correspondence for many years, till
eventually a new constitution was approved, but
this did not come into force until after the - close of
the period under review in this chapter.
Diploma Examination. Allied with the question
of its constitutional future was that of the curriculum
 58
to be followed at the College. The Chiefs’ Colleges
Diploma examination did not command general
approval and it was held in some quarters that it
should be replaced by some examination taken by
boys at ordinary high schools such as the School
Leaving Certificate or the Matriculation, the
curriculum of Chiefs’ Colleges being changed
accordingly. The Daly College abandoned the
Diploma in f.ivour of the School Leaving Certificate
and similar proposals were made regarding the Mayo
College. While it was argued in some quarters that
the standard of the Diploma was too low, in others
it was contended that the Diploma was a
more difficult examination and so could not
be passed at such an early age as others. It was
also maintained that it was not so suitable as a
preparation for a University career or higher study.
Nothing, however, came of the proposals at the time.
Post-Diploma. A question which caused
greater and more prolonged discussion during a
number of years was that of the Post-Diploma
classes. Various proposals were made with regard
to them. One was that they should be discontinued
altogether. At the time when the project of a joint
Higher College was under consideration it had been
decided, as previously stated, to continue the Post
Diploma classes at the Mayo College pending the
institution of the new College. During the war
and afterwards the Higher College receded more
and more into' the background as a practical possi­
bility, and the classes at the Mayo College continued.
But it was felt in some quarters that the expense
and inconvenience of combining undergraduate
instruction with school teaching in one institution
were not commensurate with the utility of the Post-
Diploma course, especially in view of the fact that
the Higher Diploma was not recognized by the
Universities as equivalent to a degree.
Another proposal was that the course should be
reorganized on a two years’ basis leading up to the
 59
Intermediate examination of the Universities of a
standard equivalent to it, while a third scheme was
that the course should be so reconstituted as to meet
the requirements of the Universities for recognition
as equivalent to a degree. The last named proposal
was eventually adopted, and a revised four years’
course was approved by the Government of India
and favourably received by the Allahabad U ni­
versity. Difficulties with regard to staff, however,
caused the introduction of the new course to be
postponed, and the Post Diploma classes continued
to be carried on in their existing form till after the
close of the period with which this chapter is
concerned.
Examination Results. Bearing in mind the
difficulties through which it was passing, the College
achieved creditable results in outside examinations
between the years 1915 and 1930. 210 candidates
appeared for the Chiefs’ Colleges Diploma Exami­
nation and 54 for the Higher Diploma, and of the
former 164 passed and 46 failed, and of the latter
47 passed and 7 failed. In the Diploma, in one
year, all out of 16 candidates passed, and on another
occasion 14 out of 15 were successful, while in
another year three candidates gained first classes.
Improvements Projected or accomplished. The
difficulties which beset the College during these
years left little scope for major material improve­
ments but it was found possible to accomplish
one and to pave the way for another.
Though so much had been done in the previous
period to add to the amenities of the College there
were still requirements some of which were urgently
needed. The most pressing of these was the
electrification of the buildings in the College and
this was met.
Elcciric Installation. Donations from the
Jaipur Durbar, the Maharaja of Mayurbhanj and
 60
other sources and a sum set aside by the College
out of its surplus in the fat years, enabled the
buildings for which the College was responsible to
be installed with electric light and fans at a cost
of Rs. 38,000/-. This met a long felt want which
had been accentuated by the fact that in the main
building only one class room was provided with a
punkha. Power was at first received from the B.' B.
& C. I. Railway’s plant, but a few years later the
supply was taken over by the newly formed Ajmer
Electric Co., a change which necessitated further
expenditure as the College system had then to be
converted from direct to alternating current.
Of the State houses, at the same time that the
College buildings were electrified, funds were
generously provided by the Jaipur Durbar for the
electrification of both the Jaipur house and the
New Bharatpur house, the Jodhpur Durbar similarly
met the cost of electrifying the Jodhpur house and
the Local Administration that of the Ajmer house.
During the following years other Durbars also had
their houses electrified at their own expense but the
electrification of all buildings of importance in the
College was not completed till a few years ago.
New Temple. The second important improve­
ment, one which, though not actually accomplished
was made possible, was the provision of a new
Temple. For some time it had been recognized
that the existing Temple was unsuitable in posilion
and structure and that a new temple in a central
position under the full control of the College was
required. More pressing requirements postponed
any action till after the War, when an appeal was
started and backed by the interest of H. H. the late
Maharaja of Alwar which resulted in substantial dona­
tions, and the early construction of a new temple
seemed assured. The failure, however, of the Alliance
Bank of Simla in which part of the donations was
invested, and other matters connected with the
future of the College caused the project to be sus­
 61
pended, and the new Temple did not materialize till
the time of the present Principal.
Other improvements. Among other improve­
ments projected but not realized in the years
following the war may be mentioned a school shop,
a diary farm, and the provision of quarters for the
Indian staff. Frequent reference to the need for
these occurs in annual reports but lack of funds
prevented their accomplishment While, therefore,
the electric installation remains the one major
addition to the amenities of the College during these
years, three minor improvements which were made
merit mention. The fencing of the College grounds
was extended though much of the grounds still
remained unfenced. The swimming bath was repai­
red and restored to ust, and out of a fund collected
to commemorate Col. Loch and Sir EJiot Colvin
the racquets court was converted into three squash
courts and the Loch riffe range was rebuilt.
Retirement of Mr. Leslie Jones and the
appointment of Mr. Madden as Principal. In 1927
Mr. Leslie-Jones proceeded on long leave, at the end
of which he retired and was succeeded as Principal
by Mr Madden. Reference has already been made
to the difficulties which Mr Leslie-Jones had to face
during the eleven years of his office. To the regard
in which he was held at the College the following
tribute in the magazine bears witness:—
“ As a chief no one could probably have been
more loyal in his support or more appreciative of the
work of those who served under him. His heart
and soul were in the school, and he never spared
himself in any task that he thought would benefit
it. To those boys who had the good fortune to live
with him he was like a second father in the care and
devotion he bestowed to thei-r upbringing. As a
teacher, no one could have been more enthusiastic
or hard working, and many succeeding generations
of boys will remember his inspired lessons on
Shakespeare in the second and diploma classes. In
 62
all the outdoor life of the College he took the
keenest interest, no form of sport failing to receive
its due share of encouragement. As Principal of
two Chiefs’ Colleges for a period of twenty four years
he may well claim to have left his mark on the
ruling classes of India. No one knew them better,
their good qualities and their failings, and no one
could have devoted himself more whole-heartedly
to the task of instilling into them not only some
elements of education but also the high precepts
of character and conduct becoming to their
position”.
Retirement of Mr. Madden. Three years later
Mr. Madden also retired and the present writer,
then Principal of the Rajkumar College, Raipur,
was appointed to succeed him. With Mr. Madden
passed from the College the last of a small body of
English gentlemen who had been associated with
the College since the days of its comparative youth
and who, in devoting the best years of their lives to
its service, had given it ideals of character and
conduct which should act as a guide to future
generations.
To the general regret Mr. Madden died in
England shortly after his retirement.
General Life at the College, 1914-1930 .—
Motamids. From its earliest days one of the most
difficult problems at the College had been the
satisfactory administration of the boarding houses
and the control of the boarding house life. With the
increased English staff following the organization
of 1903 it had been possible to improve matters by
placing the boarding houses under the general
supervision of the English assistants, but it was
generally recognized that the system of control still
needed improvement, and this question engaged the
attention of the College authorities for several years.
From the College point of view the mosl satisfactory
solution was for the PTurbars to hand over to the
 63
College the full control of their boarding houses and
their staff, but this idea did not find favour at the
time. It was then decided by the General Council
that the States should be asked to select as Motamids
gentlemen of good family, preferably Old Boys of
the College, who would be given the title of House
Sirdar or House Superintendent and receive
allowances from the College if the States could not
see their way to increasing the salary to the figure
necessary to secure the right type of officer. As a
result of these recommendations some improvement
in the type of officer appointed was made but the
appointment of Old Boys did not unfortunately be-,
come the practice, and the title of Motamids was
retained and remains in some houses to this day.
Monitorial system. A monitorial system in the
College had been started, as previously stated, by
Mr. Waddington.. Hitherto they had not much
authority, but Mr. Leslie Jones decided to try to
make them an active force by giving them privileges
and powers which offered them in his words ‘an
opportunity of exercising authority and learning
the meaning of power, coupled with respect
for authority’, on the lines of the monitorial
system at an English Public School. The step was
an experiment and experience soon proved that
some years must pass before the senior boys were
able to take a really vital part in the government of
the school in the same way as a Monitor at an
English School, and that the initiative found in the
latter was lacking in the former, but on the whole
the monitors, who varied in number from eight to
two, justified the introduction of the experiment.
Both post diploma students and boys in the school
section of the College were eligible for monitorships,
but as the monitor system is essentially a school­
boy institution and post diploma students were in
the position of undergraduates, this practice had its
disadvantages. After the close of the period the
office of monitor was confined to boys who had not
passed their diploma and a little later it was found
possible to extend the responsibilities and privileges
of monitors with on the whole satisfactory results.
Common Mcssijig. Efforts were made to extend
the system of common messing on Indian lines but
met with very little success. Since its first intro­
duction as mentioned in the previous chapter the
system had not extended beyond the Bikaner,
Jodhpur and Ivishengarh boys and after some time
died out among them. A decline in the number of
boys from Bikaner and Kishengarh added to family
prejudices made the maintenance of a satisfactory
common mess impracticable for boys from those
states, while in the case of Jodhpur objections based
on the difficulties of adequate supervision led to the
common mess being abandoned. On the other hand
it was found possible to introduce a successful mess
in the Jaipur house.
Debating Society. An important step in the
general training of boys was the formation of a
Debating Society. This was started in 1917 for the
senior boys and performed during the following years
a useful function in training boys to speak in public
and to express themselves in English. The society
at first met fortnightly, but subsequently debates
Were reduced to one each month. The society had
no permanent president but it was the practice for
the Principal or another member of the English
staff to preside at each debate. This practice was
later modified by the Principal appointing a post
diploma student to preside at each debate, except
on those occasions—usually once a term—on which
visitors were invited to attend or to speak, when he
himself presided. As in similar cases elsewhere, the
society was handicapped by the difficulty of finding
an adequate number of suitable subjects for debate
and a marked weakness was a tendency to deliver
set speeches learnt by heart with a consequent
lack of debiting power, but on the whole the Society
proved a success.
T he C en tr a l C r ic k et G r o un d 1C. L. Syed & Co.
 65
Inter-Class Flag. Another innovation which
utserves mention was the introduction by Mr.
Madden shortly before he retired of an inter-class
competition in work, conduct, and personal neatness.
Classes were marked fortnightly for the above, and
i flag was awarded to the winning class. Subsequ-
•itly, additions made by the present Principal were
ne award of a special flag to the class having the
best result at the end of each half year and the
award of bronze medals to each member of the
winning class after each fortnight.
General Routine. During these years the
general routine at the College remained much as
it had been before, with one exception, a change in
the school working hours Formerly classes had
been, held in two sessions with an hour’s interval in
the middle. The interval was abolished and classes
were held continuously in six periods from 10 a.m.
to 2 p.m., except that the most junior boys were
dismissed at 1-20 and the whole school closed on
Saturdays at 1-45. This change was made partly
to avoid an extra walk for boys in the heat of the
day to and from the boarding houses, which are
some of them nearly half a mile from the main
building, and to afford them more leisure for private
reading. Another reason for the change was to give the
Indian staff, who, in the absence of quarters for them
in the College grounds, lived in some cases two miles
from the College, time to go home or rest between
their duties in school and their supervision work in
afternoon games. The new time-table was adversely
commented on in Inspection reports because of the
strain on boys involved by four hours’ continuous
work with only a five minutes’ break in the middle,
and after some years a return was made to the old
practice, with the addition of a fifteen minutes’
break in the middle of the morning session.
After the W ar it w; found advisable to raise
the minimum nnual income entitling a boy to be ad­
mitted to the College from Rs. 1,500 to Rs. 3,000, and
 66
the minimum monthly expenditure necessary for a boy
was also raised. These two steps, together with the
increase in fees and subscriptions already mentioned,
undoubtedly had an adverse effect on the College
roll, but they had the advantage of lessening the
danger of educating a boy above his future position
in life and the difference between the richer and
poorer boys at the College was not so marked as
before.
Outdoor life — Riding. The reaction which
followed the great expansion of the years 1903-12
was reflected in the riding activities of the College
which declined considerably for a time, and when
Mr. Leslie Jones came to the College he found
only twelve boys with ponies, the stables almost
empty, and the Cadet Corps in an apparently
moribund condition. This unsatisfactory state of
affairs was reflected by the fact that in the annual
tournament with the Aitchison College the latter
were for a number of years invariably successful in
the section tent-pegging. Under the supervision on
his return from military service of Mr. Fanshawe
who had served with Indian Cavalry during the war,
the squadron regained much of its vitality. Interest
in riding was further stimulated by the presentation
of a number of challenge cups and by the
holding of local polo tournaments in which the
College took part. The presence at the College of
Their Highnesses the present Maharajas of Jodhpur
and Jaipur, who laid at the College the foundations
of their future skill at polo, meant better and more
plentiful ponies and the standard of play consequ­
ently improved. In 1923 the College nearly won
the Kotah Cup open to all Rajputana teams, and
later, thanks to the coaching of Col. Dhonkal Singh,
one of the two polo players in India ever to have a
handicap of ten, who was at the College as Indian
Guardian to H. H. the Maharaja of, Jaipur, the
College succceded in winning the Cup both in 1927
and 1928. Later when the Rajputana and Central
India Tournament was revived at Ajmer, the
 67
College was able to enter two teams, the second
of which for the first time in its history was
composed entirely of boys, and won the Cup with
its first team.
During these years the Squadron provided an
Escort on three occasions including one to H. R. H.
the Prince of Wales when he visited the College
in 1921.
Games. The temporary conversion of the Daly
College into a military Academy towards the end
of the 1914-18 war caused the transference of a
number of senior boys from there to the Mayo
College. Among them were several boys of more
than average athletic as well as intellectual ability
and these added considerably to the all-round
athletic strength of the Mayo College and were in
fact its mainstay for several years. An important
addition to the regular games time table of the
College was the introduction of hockey throughout
the school. Hockey had hitherto been confined to
post-diploma students but it now became one of
the regular games of the whole school and was
substituted for football during part of the year.
T he standard of play soon became high and the
game gradually rivalled cricket in popularity
and skill.
A further addition to athletic activities was a
few years later provided by the construction of three
new squash racqets courts already mentioned. At
first restricted to members of the staff and post
diploma students the courts were subsequently made
available for boys in the school, and squash racquets
became a popular alternative to tennis.
Another beneficial innovation was the introduc­
tion of uniform games kit for every boy in the
College. As late as 1917, while teams representing
the College in important matches wore colours
based on the College panchranga, other boys dressed
for games much as they wished as in the earliest
 68
days of the College and often played in their school
clothes. After 1917, games kit became compulsory
for all boys at all games.
Tournaments. The College no longer competed
in the various events of the Rajputana Schools
tournament, and the closing of the Imperial Cadet
College led to the cessation of one of the most
important athletic competitions of previous years,
but the tournament with the Aitchison College
continued until 1922, when reasons of expense led
to its suspension and final abandonment. The
results of the Tournament in the years 1915-22
were more even than in the previous period, each
College winning the Patiala shield four times. The
Aitchison College were victorious for three years
running from 1915, after which, thanks largely to
the all-round part played by the recruits from the
Daly College, the tables were turned and the Mayo
College won the shield for four successive years.
The last contest, however, that of 1922, was dis­
astrous for the Mayo College— the most disastrous
in the history of the competition—as the Aitchison
College won all five events. During the eight years
the Mayo College held its own in cricket and football
winning each four times and drawing one match,
and in tennis the results were also even, but in
tent-pegging and sports the Aitchison College had
much the best of it.
W hen the tournament with the Aitchison
College was abandoned efforts were made to arrange
a similar contest with the Daly College. At first
these efforts were unsuccessful and for eight years
Mayo College had no annual competition with
another Chiefs’ College. In 1930, however, the Daly
College sent a team to Ajmer for the first time and
a tournament of four events was held, the Mayo
College being successful. This tournament was
subsequently organised on an annual basis and a
challenge shield was presented by H. H. the late
Maharaja of Kishengarh. T h e events included in
 69
the new competition differed somewhat from those
in the tournament with the Aitchison College.
Cricket, athletic sports, and tennis remained but
football was replaced by hockey, the riding events
were eliminated, and squash racquets was added
to the programme.
During the years intervening between the
abandonment of the tournament with the Aitchison
College and the starting of that with- the Daly
College, the chief matches played by the Mayo
College were in local cricket and hockey tournaments
with occasional matches with teams visiting Raj­
putana from outside. The Colvin Cricket shield
open to all Rajputana teams was won on three
occasions and the Gibson Hockey Cup open
to College teams once. Of domestic matches the
most important continued to be inter-house com­
petitions, but with numbers smaller it was no longer
possible for each House to enter a full team and
houses had to be combined first in three and then
in two groups.
Prominent athletes. Reference has already
been made to the part played in the athletic life of
the College by boys transferred from the Daly
College when the latter temporarily bccame a
military academy. Prominent among them were
Nawab Sarwar Ali Khan of Kurwai, Thakur
Manmahipal Singh of Namli, Kanwar Dulai Singh
of Bidwal, M. Dhairyashil Rao of Dhar and Sahib-
zada Mir Gulam and Sahibzada Nasiruddin of Surat.
Among other prominent athletes at the College
during the years 1915— 1931 may be mentioned
Kanwar Krishna Singh of Jaoli, Alwar, a useful
cricketer, Thakur Daulat Singh of Kumbhana,
Bikaner, a good football player, K Bahadur Singh
of Para, Alwar, who jumped 19 ft. 3£ in. and
did the 100 yards in 10p seconds in the Athletic
sports, K. Himmat Singh of Kunadi who was
prominent at cricket, football and tennis, K.
Suryapal Singh of Awagarh, U. P., a good performer
at cricket, sports and squash racquets, Maharaja
Purna Chandra Deo of Mayurbhanj one of the best
cricketers of his time, Raja Mahendra Singh of
Bhadawar, U. P., who was in the teams at cricket,
football and hockey for several seasons, Maharaj
Gulab Singh of Bansvvara, who in days when scoring
ruled much lower than before scored 55 runs against
the Aitchison College, Diwan Bhartendra Singh of
Panna, one of the best all rounders ever at the
College, K. Amar Singh of Ajairajpura, Jaipur,
prominent at football, hockey and athletic sports,
H. H. the Maharaja of Jodhpur, the best polo player
of his time, H. H. the Maharawal of Dungarpur, a
cricketer very much above the everage, who scored
a century not out in both innings of a match against
AUvar State in the Alwar Cup tournament, had in
one season an average of 60 for 12 innings and
received the distinction of being chosen to represent
Rajputana and Central India against the M C. C.
team of 1926 while still at school, and H. H. the
Maharaja of Jaipur who in addition to more than
ordinary skill at polo represented the College at
cricket, hockey and tennis.
Looking back at these sixteen years it may be
said that the College on the whole maintained a
creditable standard at games. During the war years
the standard went down but the advent of boys from
the Daly College restored matters, and on their dis­
appearance some good home talent was produced. In
some games the standard was lower than in the pre­
vious decade but in others as hockey and polo it was
higher. For some years the standard in cricket
was maintained but towards the end of the period
it declined. This was largely due to the dearth of
cricketing masters on the staff and the advance in
years of stalwarts such as K. S. Gaffar Syed who
had taken a prominent part in earlier days both in
playing and coaching, and to the absence of a special
qualified cricket coach.
The College Roll. The vicissitudes of the
College during the years 1915-30 are reflected in
 71
its numbers. At the end of 1914 there were 177
boys on the roll with every state in Rajputana re­
presented but in the following eight years the
numbers dropped steadily. While the number of
boys from outside Rajputana and from Central
India was maintained, the boys from Rajputana
decreased till they numbered only 67 and the roll
fell to 99. In the following years there was a
recovery which was maintained for four years during
which the roll was in the neighbourhood of 140.
After that there was a further decline and the
numbers fell to 98 in 1930, but the College Jubilee
celebrations in that year revived interest in the
College and brought the roll up to 115.
The decline in the roll during these years from
177 to 115 was due in large measure to the decreased
interest taken by the Rajputana States in the
College and the uncertainty about its future. While
states like Udaipur, Jaipur, Jodhpur and Kotah
continued usually to be strongly represented, others
like Bikaner and Alwar, which had formerly had
many boys at the College, now had hardly any, and
a number of states were altogether unrepresented.
Other causes were the rise in the cost of living at
the College and the doubling of the minimum
income qualifying for entry to it, and a stricter
insistence than before on age and academic standards
for admission. These factors, particularly the
economic one, did not greatly affect recruitment
from other parts of India than Rajputana and
Central India as none but wealthy boys came from
these parts, and the College continued to attract
recruits from various parts'of India and even outside
from such places as Muscat.
The College Jubilee. Opened in 1875 the
College completed its Jubilee in 1925. At that time
with the proposed measures of re-organization still
undecided and the future of the College still un­
certain, it was decided to postpone any celebrations.
The Jubilee however was eventually celebrated in
 72
March 1930 and the occasion both revived interest
in the College and produced a notable gathering.
The celebration was attended by the Viceroy and
Lady Irwin, eighteen Ruling Princes and Chiefs of
whom fifteen were Old Boys of the College, and by
one hundred and sixty other Old Boys. At the
Prize-Giving with which the functions began, the
Principal in giving a brief account of the history of
the College quoted figures which showed the part
that the College had played in the education of the
aristocracy of India since its foundation. He pointed
out that since the first boy was admitted nine hund­
red and fifty boys had been at the Mayo College of
whom fifty six were Ruling Princes and Chiefs, as
well as twenty heirs, while the influence of rhe
College had extended from Kashmir in the north to
Mysore in the south and from Muscat in the Persian
Gulf to Manipur in the east, and the States whose
ruling families had been directly connected with the
College represented an area nearly half the total
area of the Indian States.
On the day following the Prize-Giving an At
Home was given by the Old Boys at which Lord
and Lady Irwin were present informally and played
tennis with some of the boys and Old Boys, and in
the evening a banquet was held in the College Hall
for which the College buildings and grounds were
specially illuminated.
To mark the occasion of the Jubilee H. H. the
Maharaja of Kashmir founded a scholarship to be
awarded to a Mayo College student for higher study
in England for three years. This at the time was
the only tangible memorial of the Jubilee, but two
years later a new endowment fund was started to
commemorate the occasion and to provide for the
uncertainties of the future. Reference will be made
later to this fund which is known as the Jubilee
Endowment Fund.
T he M ayo C o l l e g e B u il d in g from th e E ast. k . l . syed&co.
 C H A P T E R V.
P R E SE N T DAY, 1931— 1942.

MODERN PROGRESS.
Constitutional changes.— General Council.
The appointment of the present Principal coincided'
with the introduction of a new constitution which, as
already seen, had been contemplated for several
years and which wheii introduced inaugurated a new
era in the history of the College. Under the old
constitution the control of the College had been
mainly in the hands of the Government of. India
through its Political officers. By the new constitu­
tion the control was. transferred to the Princes.
T h e Viceroy and Agent to the Governor-General
for Rajputana ceased to be President and Vice-
President of the General Council and instead
became respectively Patron and Visitor of the
College. Their places at the head of the Council
were taken by two Ruling Princes of Rajputana
elected annually by the members of the Council.
At the same time the official element in the Council
was reduced to four while the representatives of
States outside Rajputana was increased to four
Ruling Princes who could be co-opted from any
area. Further, to give the Thikanas of Rajputana
some share in the management of the College three
representatives of the Old Boys’ Association elected
by that body were added to the Council.
Working Committee. The former Managing
Committee was replaced by a smaller Working
 74
Committee of six, of which the Chairman was to be
a Ruling Prince of Rajputana elected for three years
by the General Council and only one member was
to be an official. The Committee comprised four
Ruling Princes of Rajputana, a Political Officer of
Rajputana nominated by the Agent to the Governor
General, and a representative of the Old Boys’
Association elected by the General Council from the
representatives of that body on the General Council.
The size of the committee was subsequently raised
to eight by the addition of another Ruling Prince of
Rajputana and another representative of the Old
Boys’ Association.
Since the inauguration of the vnew constitution
'the office of President of the General Council has
been held in succession by H. H. the Maharaj Rana
of Dholpur, H. H. the Maharana of Udaipur, H. H.
the Maharaja of Jodhpur, H. H. the Maharana of
Udaipur for a second term, and H. H. the Maharaj
Rana of Dholpur, and that of Vice-President by
H. H. the Maharaja of Jodhpur, H. H. the Maharaja
of Jaipur, H. H. the Maharaj Rana of Dholpur and
H. H. the Maharao of Kotah.
The office of Chairman of the Working Com­
mittee has been held throughout by H. H. the
Maharaj Rana of Dholpur.
Finance. The introduction of the new consti­
tution revived the interest of the states in the
College and this revival was shown in financial
support. When the new constitution was inaugu­
rated the Government of India gave no undertaking
that they would indefinitely continue to assist the
College financially on the same scale as in the past.
It was decided therefore to raise a fund which would
suitably commemorate the College Jubilee by a
substantial addition to its financial resources, enabling
it to increase its efficiency and to meet the under-
tainties of the future. The fund which is known as
the Jubilee Endowment Fund has reached a total of
 75
a little over 3£ lakhs. Generous donations to it were
made by H. H. the Maharana of Udaipur, H. H. the
Maharaja of Jodhpur, H. H. the Maharaja of Jaipur,
and H. H. the Maharaj Rana of Dholpur and their
action was typical of the unfailing support rendered
by Their Highnesses to the College in recent years
both in guiding its counsels and in contributing
financially for various special purposes. The
College is under a great debt of obligation to Their
Highnesses.
Government grant. As already stated when
the new constitution was introduced no undertaking
was given by the Government of India that th e y .
would maintain their grant at its previous figure.
During the following years the grants to the other
Chiefs’ Colleges with the exception of the Aitchison
College, Lahore, were reduced till they eventually
disappeared. The Mayo College, however, on the
grounds of the special contribution it made to
education in India continued to receive from
Government financial assistance not far short of its
previous figure till 1942, after which the grant was
reduced to the original sum of Rs. 12,000/-.
Modern developments. With its finances further
strengthened by a considerable rise in the roll
including increased recruitment of boys from outside
Rajputana paying substantial fees, the College was
in a position to introduce a number of important
improvements increasing its efficiency and bringing
it more up to date, and its prosperity revived.
The main developments of the past decade have
been the strengthening of the staff and the bettering
of their conditions of service, an increase in the
educational facilities offered by the College, im­
proved boarding arrangements, and extended faci­
lities for physical training and outdoor life..
Staff. At the beginning of the period under!
review in this chapter Mr. A. A. Ritchie, who had
joined the staff a few years before, was selected by
 76
the Working Committee for the post of Vice-
Principal. He retired in 1934 and his place as Vice-
Principal was taken by Lt. Col. G. Howson, c. I. E.,
who had likewise joined the staff a few years
previously, and on the latter’s retirement in 1938
a new Vice-Principal was recruited from England,
Mr. M. A. McCanlis, M.A. (Oxon), who had been for
some years a master at Cheltenham College, being
selected. The post of fourth English master, which
had been in suspense for some time, was revived
daring the period and Mr. G. H. Tidswell, b .a .
(Oxon) was appointed. Mr. Tidswell’s career was
cut short in tragic circumstances by his death in a
motor accident after he had been at the College for
only one term. Like Mr. Portman who too met an
untimely death in the College after a short stay,
Mr. Tidswell during his brief period here won the
regard of all to an extent which is witnessed by the
fact that the boys subscribed for and presented a
football challenge cup to be named after him. His
place was taken by Mr. W. H. Bradshaw, b .a.
(Oxon) and, on Mr. Ritchie’s retirement, Mr. J.A.M.
Ede, B.A. (Cantab.) was appointed to the staff. In
addition a- temporary post of fifth English master
was created for some time and was held by Mr. H.
K. Kefford, b .a. (Cantab.).
During the greater part, therefore, of the last
ten years the College has had an English staff of
five, but Mr. Bradshaw having proceeded on military
service for the duration of the war, its present
strength is three.
With regard to the Indian staff at the time of
the introduction of the present constitution, it was
decided that future members of the College staff
should not be Government servants but should be
engaged by the College on its own terms. It was
later also decided that existing members of the
Indian staff having the status of Government
servants should be retired on compensatory pensions,
the College having the right to re-engage such
0 N

&

M r V. A. S. S t o w c . i. e . k . l . syea&co.
P rin c ip a l, 1931— 1943.
(From the portrait painted by Mr. B. C. Gue and hung in the
College Hall.)
 77
members as is thought fit. The new arrangement
enabled the College to strengthen the staff by re­
placing members who had outlived their usefulness
with better qualified and younger men, and the
services of five members of the Indian staff were
terminated.
In former days hardly any member of the
Indian staff was trained, but partly by the engage­
ment of new members with training certificates and
partly by the deputation of existing members to
training colleges either in India or England this
has been changed and at present, out of fifteen
members of the School Section teaching staff, eleven
possess training certificates.
At the same lime the strength of the staff in
both sections of the College has been increased and
the conditions of service have been improved.
Better rates of pay have been introduced and a Pro­
vident Fund has been started to whose benefits all
except the menial members of the staff are entitled.
Houses have been built for the staff in the College
grounds, a staff club has been founded, and a co­
operative society has been formed for the benefit of
both the superior and inferior staff.
During the period two members of the staff who
had long been prominently connected with the
College retired by superannuation.
In the College section Khan Sahib Gaffar
Syed retired after nearly thirty years’ service and
Thakur Madan Singh is now Senior Lecturer in that
section and Superintendent, Colvin house. In the
School section Rao Sahib L. G. Sathe retired after
twenty-seven years’ service and was succeeded as
Senior Assistant by Rai Sahib Shyam Sundar
Sharma. On the latter’s retirement not long after­
wards the present incumbent, Khan Bahadur Syed
Abdul Wahid, who likewise to the general regret
is approaching the age of retirement, became Senior
Assistant.
//©/
■ A V R m i.M M W
 78
The members of the Indian staff mentioned
above rendered distinguished service to the College
during their long association with it and their names
will be remembered with esteem by a number of
Old Boys of the present day.
S ta ff Houses. Reference has been made in
previous pages to still-born projects for housing the
Indian staff within the College precincts. In the
past few years eighteen houses for the Indian
superior staff have been built in the College grounds.
One of these has been built adjoining Colvin house
for the Superintendent of that house and makes it
possible for a married master to hold charge of
the house without inconvenience. The remainder
have been constructed on the north-western edge of
the College compound and consist of two rows built
back to back. The row which faces the College
was built first and comprises houses of three grades
according to size and rental. The second row
consists of houses all of the middle grade. In all
cases the accommodation provided both in
quality and extent greatly surpasses anything that
could be secured for a similar rental elsewhere in
Ajmer, and the houses have successfully removed a
long felt want. The Indian staff of the Mayo
College have many duties outside the class room
to perform, duties which necessitate their presence
in the College at various times outside their teach­
ing hours, and the advantages both to the College
and to them of an arrangement which enables them
to live on the spot instead of, as in many cases pre­
viously, more than two miles away are obvious.
At the present time practically the whole of
the teaching staff of the College is resident and it
is a matter of personal satisfaction to me that
I have been able to be instrumental in providing
this amenity for a hard-worked body of men.
S ta ff Club. Another innovation which has been
of benefit to the staff is the founding of a staff club
which by the desire of its members is known as the
 79
Stow Club. Aided by a number of donations from
Ruling Princes this club was made by structural
alterations to the former P. VV. D. office and P. W D.
godown, and its facilities for recreation include a
billiards room, the table for which was presented by
the Ruler of Khairagarh, E.S.A., an Old Boy of
the College, two tennis courts, two badminton courts,
and a bowling green. Membership is open to all
members of the superior staff of the College, both
teaching and of other categories, and to Old Boys,
a number of whom have joined either as life or
ordinary members. Its present ordinary member­
ship is fifty-eight.
In addition, a club for wives of the Indian staff
has been started by utilizing the nurses’ quarters
in the sanitarium which are seldom required for
nurses and making a badminton court adjoining
them.
Increased educational facilities. A marked
development which can be claimed for the past few
years is the improvement of the educational facilities
offered by the College, particularly in the Post
Diploma or College Section as it is now called.
College Section. The College Section has been
reorganized as a separate self-contained unit of the
College with its own teaching, boarding and dis­
ciplinary arrangements apart, under the special
charge of a member of the English staff with the
title of Assistant Warden, and its academic status
has been enhanced. When, as already seen, the
Post-diploma classes were eventually in the time of
Mr. Waddington housed in Jhalawar house, that
house continued to be used partly for boarding
purposes. It is now exclusively used for the ins­
tructional purposes of the College section and it may
be called the main building of the College section.
The rooms have been re-furnished as lecture rooms
and tutorial rooms, and a library with reading rooms
attached and an office have been provided. College
Section students, who as undergraduates now enjoy
 80
special privileges not admissible to school boys, all
except private boarders reside in Colvin house
which is reserved for that purpose and has been
provided with a mess-room, common room, recreation
room, and reading room, the last of which
has been equipped, out of a leaving gift made by
H. H. the Raja of Sailana, C. I., in the name of his
two sons. Further, College Section students have
their own separate arrangements for games and
social activities and maintain their own Debating
Union and their own Journal.
University affiliation. With regard to studies, in
the previous chapter reference was made to the
revised four years’ course which was designed to
meet the requirements of the universities for.recog­
nition as equivalent to the B. A. and to the fact
that its introduction was postponed for various
reasons. Shortly after the present writer became
Principal this revised course was introduced. Jn
the intervening years, however, changes in univer­
sity organization had taken place which had placed
the Mayo College no longer in the area of the
Allahabad University, which had expressed its
willingness to recognize the revised course as equi­
valent to a degree, but of the newly formed Agra
University, and it was found that University
statutes precluded the recognition desired. The
cardinal reason why the Post-diploma section had
been retained at the College was that it enabled
the College to perform the functions of a Higher
Chiefs’ College. The adequate performance of
these functions demanded that the Post-diploma
courses and examinations should not only be suited
for a higher Chiefs’ College but should also receive
outside recognition. It now being clear that no
course confined to the College would receive the
recognition.desired, it was decided to abandon the
Post-diploma course and to affiliate the Post­
diploma section to the Board of Education for
Rajputana, Central India, and Gwalior, and to the
Agra University, so as to prepare candidates for the
T h e M a y o C o l l e g e G r o u n d s i n 1 9 4 2 .' K. Syotl A Co.
 81
Intermediate Arts examination of the former body
and the B. A. degree of the latter. This was done,
and the Mayo College attained the status of a
Degree College, the only institution of its kind to
have that status. The change has been of advantage
to the College both because it has attracted an
increased number of students to the College Section
and also because it has yielded additional income.
In recognition of the fact that the College had
attained the status of a recognized Degree College,
the Bikaner Durbar renewed their annual grant of
Rs. 4,000/- to the post-school section which had
been suspended until such time as the College Post­
diploma classes should teach up to a recognized
degree standard.
At present the subjects studied in the Interme­
diate section are English, Hindi, History, Civics,and
Economics, and in the B.A., General English, English
Literature, Hindi, History, Economics, and Politics.
In all subjects, class-room lectures are supplemented
by individual tutorials so that students may get the
maximum of individual attention. For the Inter­
mediate examination candidates offer English, which
is compulsory, and three of the other subjects, and,
for the B. A., General English, which is compulsory,
and three of the other subjects.
At the same time that university affiliation was
effected, steps were taken to widen further the scope
of the College section and the educational facilities
it offered, by the formation of an Army Class and
the provision of special arrangements for training
in Administration.
The Army Class was constituted as a self-
contained unit of the College Section to prepare
candidates for the competitive Entrance Examina­
tion for the Indian Military Academy and for the
Indian Army Special Certificate, and until the
suspension during the present war of the competitive
Indian Military Academy entrance examination
caused the class to be closed for the time being, did
 82
successful work with the limited number of candi­
dates available. Arrangements for training in
Administration were at first confined to lectures by
the College staff, attendance at local courts, and
occasional district tours, but were later supplemented
by preparation for the Ajmer-Merwara Revenue
and Judicial lower standard examination which can
be taken by students who are also studying for the
ordinary collegiate course.
School Section Cambridge Certificate. In the
School Section the Chiefs’ Colleges Diploma is still
the final examination but it has been decided after
a thorough examination of the whole question and of
possible alternatives to replace it by the Cambridge
School Certificate- and- arrangements have been
made for the first candidates to appear for this
examination in 1944. The Diploma examination
has many merits and its standard a few years ago
was considerably enhanced by raising the percentage
required to pass and by other changes, but it still
suffers from the defect of low public repute. It has
been successively abandoned by all the other Chiefs’
Colleges for the Cambridge School Certificate and
at present the Mayo College is the only College
which takes it. Had the Mayo College not decided
to make a change, it is extremely doubtful whether
the Government of India would have consented to
continue holding the examination for only one
College.
The decision to adopt the Cambridge School
Certificate entails little change in the curriculum as
most of the subjects will be the same as those
already studied. Law and Administration which
are included in the Diploma syllabus are not at
present among those of the Cambridge School Certi­
ficate. Correspondence has been in progress regard­
ing the inclusion of such a subject for Mayo College
candidates but no decision is likely to be reached
before the end of the war. Meanwhile two new
alternative subjects not offered for the Diploma have
 83
been included in the curriculum for the Cambridge
School Certificate, Physiology and Hygiene, and
Drawing and Art. The latter with the appointment
of a new Arts master of high ability has made
great strides at the College in the last few years.
The same can be said of Mathematics which with
the appointment of two specially qualified m athem a­
tical masters and a revised syllabus has ceased to be
the general stumbling block it was, and the higher
mathematical standard required by the Cambridge
School Certificate can be faced with confidence.
Science .— Another subject in which improved
facilities have recently been added is Science In
an earlier part of this sketch reference was made to
the need of additional facilities for the teaching of
Science, a need which was not fully met when the
additional wing of the main building was built.
T he modern advancement of scientific knowledge
and its importance in every day life make the ade­
quate teaching of science a more vital part of school
education than in the past and the need of improved
facilities for science teaching at the Mayo College has
now been met. The additional accommodation neces­
sary has been provided by the construction adjoining
the main building of a separate lecture room and a
separate laboratory for Physics, the latter of which
was presented by H. H. the Maharaja of Jodhpur
as a leaving gift to commemorate the association
of his eldest son with the College. These additions
have made it possible to keep the Chemistry and
Physics branches of science teaching quite separate
with adequate accommodation for each. Further, a
Manual work-room adjoining the Physics laboratory,
which was recently presented by H. H. the Maharaja
of Jind to commemorate the association of his two
sons with the College and which is at present used
for carpentry and other forms of manual training,
can also be utilized for science purposes if and when
required.
Minor innovations .—Among minor innovations
of recent years with regard to instruction in the
 84
school section may be mentioned special activities,
the re-equipment of the Library, the function of
class libraries, afternoon preparation in school under
the supervision of members of the school staff, and an
open-air map of 'India. Special activities, the main
object of which is to give boys interests which may
be of use to them in after life, take place during
school-hours and at other times under the supervision
of members of the staff or special instructors and
include carpentry and manual work, drawing and
painting, gardening, first aid, motor instruction, and
horse and stable management. The open-air map of
India constructed on a large scale of cement outside
the geography class-room is the joint production of
members of the staff and boys. It seldom fails to
raise the interest of visitors, often to the exclusion
of other objects of interest, and is a valuable aid to
the teaching of geography.
New Temple .— In the important department of
religious instruction and observance, the construction
of a new Temple has been a valuable addition.
Reference has already been made to the project for
a new Temple during the Principalship of Mr.
Leslie-Jones. This project was realized in 1936
when a new Temple was built on a site west of
the Udaipur House. The College is indebted to
H. H. the late Maharaja of Kishengarh for the close
interest he took both in the design of the new edifice
and in the arrangements for its consecration and
maintenance and also for presenting the chief image.
Generous contributions were made by H. H. the
Maharaja of Jodhpur and H. H. the Maharaja of
Jaipur to the expenses of the consecration ceremony
which was performed by the former, and H. H. the
Maharana of Udaipur presented valuable jewellery
for the chief image. The new Temple, built of
white stone, is an edifice much more worthy of the
College than the former one and, unlike the latter,
which was outside the College grounds at a distance
from all boarding houses except one, stands in a
central position which*' makes it much more acces*
L o o k i n g S o u t h - E a s t f r o m t h e C o l l e g e B u i l d i n g — ] y42. k . l . s}««i 4Co.
 85
sible. After the consecration of the new Temple
the old Temple was handed over under certain
conditions to the descendants of the Mahant who
had contributed to its construction.
.Holiday tours .—The average boy at an institu­
tion like the Mayo College has seen little of the
world outside his own home and to many their
State capital represents the biggest city they know
of. In such a case holiday tours are of particular
value and in recent years such tours have been a
successful annual feature both in the school and
college sections until travel difficulties consequent
on the present war put a temporary stop to them.
Tours have been organized not only to places in
India within comfortable reach but also as far afield
as the Khybcr pass and Ceylon, and a summer
vacation tour to Australia would have taken place
but for the war intervening.
Boy Scouts .—The all-round educational value
of Boy-scouting was recognized in the College some
years ago by the formation of a scout troop, but
after a short time chiefly owing to the absence of
any one on the staff qualified to exercise effective
supervision the troop was disbanded. Scouting was
revived last year by the formation of a Cub pack,
followed a little later by two Scout troops and
then by a Rovers crew, the last being confined to
students of the College section. At the present time
the group which has been officially enrolled as the
23rd Ajmer Mayo College Scout group consists
of four Cub packs, two Scout troops and one
25th Ajmer Rovers crew. Membership is entirely
voluntary but nearly all boys in. the school and
College sections have joined.
The College is fortunate at present in having a
number of trained scoutmasters on its staff and the^
movement has made a most promising start. As
Provincial Scout Commissioner the writer had
the pleasure recently of presenting the group with
their scout-flag.
 86
Examination results .— The effect of the measures
taken to strengthen the staff and to improve the
educational facilities offered by the College may
be assessed from the results attained by the College
in outside examinations.
In the school section during the past eleven
years, out of 152 candidates.sent up for the Chiefs’
Colleges Diploma Examination, 127 passed. In the
College section 44 out of 51 candidates passed the
Higher Diploma examinations, and, since the
adoption of University examinations, 24 out of 31
candidates have passed the Intermediate and 10
out of 12 the B. A. examination.
The best all roi nd results obtained so far since
the introduction of the new examinations was in
1940 when out of 26 candidates sent up for outside
examinations 25 passed. In that year the College
presented 16 candidates for the Diploma examina­
tion, 8 for the Intermediate, 1 for the B. A. and 1
for the I. M. A. Competitive Entrance Examination,
and all were successful except one of the Diploma
candidates.
Two years later 14 out of 16 candidates passed
the Diploma, all 4 candidates passed the Inter­
mediate, and 6 out of 7 candidates passed the B. A.
New Boarding House system. A very
important development of recent years and perhaps
the most important reform effected in the College
for many years is the introduction of a new boarding
house system. As already seen, ever since the
foundation of the College it had been felt by those
concerned with its administration, that the system
of a number of small State houses occupied by boys
of all ages from one State with a number of private
retainers and not directly controlled by the College
had grave inherent defects. Conservatism for many
years caused these defects to be perpetuated or at
the best mitigated and the Colvin house as a house
for junior boys was only a partial and temporary
 87
measure, but the growing spirit of modern times has
enabled a radical change recently to be effected.
The first essential was the provision of adequate
boarding house accommodation. Fortunately this
was available in the Jaipur and Jodhpur houses
which, owing to recent extensions, are now
much the two largest houses in the College, capable
between them of accommodating nearly as many
boys as the other school boarding houses put together.
In the Jaipur house the extension comprised the
completion of a new wing begun but left unfinished
when Mr. Waddington was Principal, and the whole
of the new wing was fitted with modern sanitation.
In the case of the Jodhpur house a new two-storeyed
wing was built facing the original building.
.'Further extensions to each house are now under
•.consideration. With the approval of Their
?■Highnesses of Jodhpur and Jaipur a reorganized
boarding house system was a year ago introduced
into these two houses and the College is under a
debt of obligation to Their Highnesses, both for the
additional accommodation provided, and also for
placing their houses at the disposal of the College
for the new scheme and agreeing to continue the
existing maintenance grants. The two Houses are
run on thorough up to date boarding house lines
under resident Superintendents who are members
of the College staff and one of them is exclusively
confined to junior boys and the other to seniors, the
Jaipur house being the junior house and the Jodhpur
house the senior. The former is in the charge of a
European Lady Superintendent who is a qualified
nurse and each house has a resident Assistant
Superintendent. In both houses private servants
have been replaced by house servants, private
guardians and tutors have been eliminated, the
previously existing common mess has been improved,
and a fixed inclusive schooling and boarding fee is
charged. This fee at present is Rs. 1040/- per
annum from Rajputana boys, a figure which
certainly cannot be called high. For boys from
 88
outside Rajputana the charge is higher according
to the sliding scale of schooling fees charged from
such boys. Whije Jodhpur and Jaipur boys have
the first claim on accommodation in both houses,
the houses are open to boys from any area and
many such are at present represented. Launched
in the face of no little conservative opposition with a
small number of boys, the scheme, once introduced,
quickly found acceptance both with parents and
boys. Both houses are at present full, and steps
are under consideration to extend the scheme.*.jr
The introduction of the new syfetem necessitat­
ed a change in the grouping of houses for general
administration and inter-house competitions. In
the place of the former three groups of North,
South, and West, the Jaipur and Jodhpur houses
were made into a separate group known as the New
houses, while the others were rearranged as East
and West houses.
Minor developments. In the other Boarding
houses which at present continue on the former
lines, efforts have been made with a good measure
of success to extend the common messing system
and to curtail the number of private servants and
guardians. Apart from the new houses, the
common messing system now prevails in every
school boarding-house,- and 'while in some cases
some boys still have their own kitchen arrangements,
all the boys in one house feed tog ether. in one
common dining room, specially furnished for the
purpose.
The school houses compete individually each
year for a championship shield presented by
H. H. the Maharana of Udaipur. Marks are awarded
for work, conduct, games, sparetime, and tidiness,
and as calculation is on a percentage basis, each
House has an equal chance of success.
Time has brought about a number of changes
in the school life of the Mayo College boy. He
 89
no longer lives in a circle of private retainers in
whose company he takes his meals, goes to school
on horse-back or in a carriage, or plays his games in
his pugaree in full school-kit thirty-five a side on a
tree-dotted ground which is used impartially for
cricket, hockey, and football. The Mayo College
boy of the present day in many cases has no private
servant, he takes his food with his fellows in a
common mess-room and as a scout can cook it
himself at a pinch, he walks or bicycles to school,
he plays his games in modern games kit on grounds
devoted to one game and he attends his classes in
shorts and shirt without a pugaree or safa. This
latter practice, which would have probably shocked
a Mayo College parent of earlier times to the
extent of withdrawing his boy from the College,
has the advantage of coolness in a place where for
the greater part of the year the climate is hot.
At other times than school, Jodhpur coats and
breeches with safas or pugarees are worn for semi-
formal occasions as debates and entertainments,
and on all formal occasions such as Temple or
Sundays and holidays achkans are worn. To attend
temple on working days safas or pugarees are
always worn.
Outdoor life and Physical training. The
College grounds From its early days the College
seems to have suffered from lack of privacy. This
was mainly due to the fact that much of the
compound remained for many years unfenced and
that, except in one place, entrances had no gates or
chbwkidars on duty. W hen the present writer came
to the College he found the College grounds being
used both as a public thoroughfare and as a public
pirk Steps were taken to fence in the whole of
the compound, to erect gates at all the entrances,
and to maintain chovvkidars on permanent duty at
the main gates. These steps had the desired effect
and gave the College the privacy essential in an
institution of this nature.
 90
Until a few years ago the outlying western half
of the College pack was leased to farming tenants
who erected unsightly tenements on their land and
were constantly in arrears with their rent. These
tenants have now been removed and the additional
land is used for riding purposes and playing fields.
This step has improved the appearance of the
College grounds and has proved profitable to the
College because grazing leases in the rains for some
of the grounds yield more than the rent formerly
paid for farming.
Playing fields. With regard to playing fields,
the area made available by the taking over of farm
land has been used to make a new riding ground
and a landing ground for aeroplanes and two new
football grounds which are also used for cricket in
the cricket season. The area north-west of the
main building formerly occupied by the riding school
has been made into a turfed cricket ground and two
football grounds. The bigger of the two football
grounds made on the former farm land is known
as the Waddington ground and the cricket ground
made on part of the former riding ground is known
as the Loch ground. These two grounds adjoin the
main gate of the College and the first names which a
visitor sees on entering the College are those of two
officers who between them had charge of its destinies
for forty years. The names of the other former
Principals are now perpetuated on other grounds
which have been called after them, and the present
writer has been accorded a similar distinction by the
Games committee.
The names of Mr. Leslie Jones and Mr. Madden
are associated with two hockey grounds south-west
of the main building while the two new-football
grounds made on part of the former riding area
bear the names of Sir Oliver St. John and the
present writer. Since the first days when, as previ­
ously seen, only one playing field was available,
successive Principals have increased the playing
 91
fields of the College, but until recently the same
ground had to do duty for a variety of games and
some of the grounds used for cricket were owing to
their surface hardly suitable for the purpose. With
the additions recently made the College has now an
adequate number of separate grounds for each game.
There are five cricket grounds, three of which are
turfed, though the scarcity of water still necessitates
a matting wicket, four turfed football grounds, five
hockey grounds with a specially prepared surface
and a practice hockey ground south of the new
Temple. T h e central cricket ground, which has
always been one of the best and most attractive
grounds in India, has been improved by the relaying
of the turf, the erection of a large score board facing
the pavilion, and the construction of two terraced
platforms for spectators on its western side.
All the main grounds for various games have
been provided with pavilions. For that on the
Madden ground the College is indebted to IT. II. the
Maharao Raja of Bundi who presented it as a
leaving gift in the name of his heir-apparent, while
the existing pavilion on the Sherring ground was
rebuilt from a leaving gift made for the purpose by
H. H. the Maharaja of Panna on behalf of his
two sons."
Riding. The present riding ground mentioned
above, compared with the two former ones, has the
advantage of more space, of which use has been
made for additional riding schools and an enlarged
jumping course. It also has the advantage of being
contiguous to the polo ground. The gift of an
electric water installation for the latter by His
Highness the Maharaja of Jodhpur enables the grass
to be maintained and polo played on it for the
greater part of the year instead of only during the
monsoon. Until recently most of the polo played
by the College was played on the Ajmer Polo club
ground some distance away. This ground is no
longer’ available as the club has been amalgamated
 92

with the Mayo College Polo club and the ground

has been handed over to the Municipality. Land
was received in exchange from the Municipality and
the sale proceeds of this land will be devoted to the
improvement and maintenance of the playing area at
the Mayo College. The Mayo College can claim to
be one of the main nurseries of polo in India, and
the maintenance of polo locally will depend on its
maintenance at the College which, I hope, the new
arrangement will ensure. Local polo is now prac­
tically confined to the College and a few enthusiastic
Istimrardars who are Old Boys of the College.
Until recently there were a number of other players
in Ajmer,-and Nasirabad could produce three teams,
but this is no longer the case, and polo at Nasirabad
has entirely ceased at any rate for the time being.
It however continues an active existence at the
College which in most years has been able to enter
two teams which have performed with credit both
in the Rajputana and Kotah Cup tournaments.
Two boys, the sons of His Highness the Maharaja
of Panna, had the distinction of being awarded
I. P. A. handicaps while still at school. Other
riding activities call for no special mention and the
squadron has continued on previous lines. It is to
be regretted that there is no riding contest with
another college, such as used to be held with the
Aitchison College at the time of the annual tour­
nament with that College, but expense is too great a
difficulty and riding competitions at the College
have to be confined to inter-house and individual
events.
Games As in the case of the polo ground, the .
upkeep of playing fields has been facilitated by the
provision of electric-pump installations. For one
such installed in the Jhalawar House well and
serving the central cricket ground, the College is
indebted to Maharaja Sir Pateshwari Prasad Singh
of Balrampur, an Old Boy who presented it as a
leaving gift. Another, which serves the Waddington
and Loch grounds from a well near the Sanitarium,
V
 93
was provided out of College funds. These arrange­
ments make it possible to maintain the turf in
good condition on these grounds throughout the
year.
Swim m ing Bath. A third electric pump has
been installed in the well adjoining the Principal’s
house to supply the Swimming bath. For other
improvements to the latter the College is indebted
to His Highness the Maharaja of Rajpipla who, to
commemorate the association of his three sons with
the College, made a leaving gift which enabled the
bath to be entirely rebuilt and enlarged, and a wall
to be erected round it securing the necessary privacy.
Every boy in the school is now taught to swim
and has regular swimming periods according to a
time-table.
Gymnasium. Another leaving gift which has
removed a long felt want is that of a suitable
gymnasium. For many years the College had no
suitable gymnasium, as the gymnasium made in the
time , of Col. Loch by the conversion of the original
play-shed near the racquets court was dismantled
after some years and was not replaced, and the only
facilities for gymnastics instruction consisted of
a very limited amount of apparatus adjoining the
Bikaner pavilion. A recent gift from H. H. the
Maharaja of Tehri-Garhwal in the name of his
three sons who were at the College has enabled a
large open air gymnasium to be built in a corner of
the foot-parade ground near Udaipur House. It is
fitted with all the necessary up to date apparatus and
with the appointment of a new specially qualified
instructor has led to an appreciable .rise in the
standard of P. T.
From a fund raised by H. H. the Maharawal of
Dungarpur to perpetuate the memory of Mr.
Fanshawe, whose ward he had been at the.College,
two new squash courts have been built adjoining
the existing ones and are known as the Fanshawe
 94
Memorial Courts.- The College has now five squash
courts, two of which have been fitted with electric
light and can be used after dark.
During recent years the College can claim on
the whole to have maintained its athletic reputation.
At an institution of this nature the maintenance of
a high standard at games is very largely dependent
on the presence on the staff of an adequate number of
active athletic masters. New appointments to the
staff both English and Indian during the past few
years have included a number of young athletic
masters who in some cases have replaced stalwarts
whose days of athletic activity were getting past,
and the result has been satisfactory.
Of the various games, cricket continues to be
popular as in the earliest days and the last few years
have seen a revival of standard, there has been a
marked advance in the popularity and standard of
football, and tennis, squash, and athletic sports
have maintained a good standard. On the other
hand hockey, except in the College section, has
declined in popularity and performance.
At the present time the College is represented
in outside matches by teams of three distinct cate­
gories, College teams which include members of the
staff, students of the College section, and boys of
the School section, College section teams confined
to students of the College section, and School teams
composed only of boys in the School section.
The College XI has figured creditably in local
tournaments. It has won the Colvin cricket shield
open to all Rajputana teams on four occasions, from
1934 to 1936 and again in 1942. The College has
also been represented on each occasion in Raj­
putana teams against touring sides and in the Ranji
trophy matches. Among prominent cricketers of
the College of modern times may be mentioned Mr.
W. H. Bradshaw, who besides being a cricket Blue
at Oxford was also captain of the University football
 95
XI, Mr. M: A. McCanlis, who was captain of the
Oxford University cricket XI, Mr. Dan Mai, and
Mr. G. R. Naidoo of the staff, and among the boys
the late Rao Him m at Singh of Garhi the best
cricketer produced in recent years by the College,
who might have gone a long way in representative
cricket but for his untimely death, Ap. Randhir Singh
of Koelaf Kotah, K. Ilarbhan Singh of Bharatpur,
S. Ahmad Ali Khan of Tonk, and K. Laxman Singh
of Kunadi, whose father in his time took part in
in the record partnership against the Aitchison
College.
College section teams are a new feature, H an­
dicapped by limited numbers to choose from, they
have done best in events like tennis and athletic
sports in which this drawback is less felt. At tennis
the standard is high and a number of good players
have developed of whom the. best probably was
Raja Cha.ndrachur Prasad Deo of Udaipur (E.S.A.),
who got inrt o the final of the Rajputana open singles
championship, and Maharajadhiraj Bhanupratap
Deo of Kankar (E. S. A.), who in the first appear­
ance of the College section in the Rajputana Inter
Collegiate tournament had the distinction of being
awarded the title of champion athlete of the tour­
nament, the first occasion 011 which such an award
was made.
While in the College section hockey is a more
popular game than football, in the School section
the latter has replaced the former both in popularity
and standard, and the standard is high. At present
the bulk of the College'football XI is composed of
boys in the School section, and the school has won
the Stow Cup open to' lo c a l; schools on several
occasions. Another game at which the present
school standard is high is tennis, and in last year’s
tournament with the Daly College, all five-tennis
matches were won without the loss of a set.
At cricket the school standard has varied from
year to year, but the school has held its own in
 96
outside matches and in particular in its matches
with the Daly College, Indore. For this annual
match, which is a part of the annual tournament
with that College, a cup was presented by His
Highness the Miharajaof Panna in memory of the
late Lt. Col. R. G. Mac Nabb, Resident for Central
India, who was -His Highness’s guardian while he
was at the Mayo College.
The annual tournament with the Daly College,
started in 1930, continues to comprise five events,
namely cricket, hockey, athletic sports, tennis, and
squash, but the system under which it is played has
been altered. Instead of the former practice of
holding all five events at the same time at each
College in alternate years, the cricket and squash
matches are now played at one College shortly
before X’mas, and the remaining three events at
the other College in the following spring. The
cricket is now a two day match instead of one, thus
precluding the likelihood of a draw, as the result is
decided on the first innings if two innings are not
completed. The former practice of holding all events
at one time, which prevailed both in the tournament
with the Aitchison College and at first in that with
the Daly College, made it impossible to allocate
different seasons to different games, and it involved
an undue strain on all-round athletes who sometimes
had to compete in four out of five events. The new
arrangement, besides removing these difficulties, has
the advantage of giving each College an important
fixture at home every year Since its inception the
Mayo College has won the tournament on seven
occasions out of eleven, no contest having taken
place in one year owing to an outbreak of chicken
pox. Of individual events, while the results have
been mostly fairly even, the Mayo College have
gained a marked lead in athletic sports and squash,
having won the former on seven occasions out of ten
and the latter on six out of nine. In sports the
College has had two athletes much above the
average, M. K. Indrajit Singh of Cooch-Behar who
M ayo C o lle g e G ro u p — 1942. K. L. Syed & Co.
 97
cleared 5 ft. 4 inches in the high jump and 9 ft.
4 inches in the long jump, and K. Hari Sen of
Pisangan, Ajmer-Merwara, who achieved a high
jump of 5 ft. 6 inches and a long jump of 20 ft.
7 i inches, and did the 120 yards hurdles in 5f
seconds and the 100 yards in 10 seconds.
Other prominent athletes who will be remem­
bered by their contemporaries have been M. K.
Narendra Singh and M. K. Pushpendra Singh of
Panna, and .K. Dashrath Singh of Kunadi, all-
rounders above the average, S. Ismail Ali Khan of
Tonk, a very good squash player who was also a
useful cricketer and tennis player, and S. Masum Ali
Khan a present day all rounder also of Tonk, which
has produced a number of prominent athletes at the
College since the earliest days.
The College roll. The developments outlined
in this chapter have assisted the College to recover
a measure of prosperity which is reflected in the roll
which has risen from 115 to 165 during the last
eleven years. At the present time every state in
Rajputana except Banswara, Jhalawar, and Sirohi
is represented at the College, Jaipur, Jodhpur,
Kotah and Udaipur having the largest numbers, and
the number of boys from outside Rajputana has
risen from 23 to 39. The latter figure includes boys
from nearly every part of India and also from out­
side,~and the College can justify its claim to be an
all-India Chiefs’ College. During the past few
years the future rulers of forty states have been or
are being educated at the College, including those
of Udaipur, Jodhpur, Bundi, Jaisalmer, Karauli,
Kishengarh and Shahpura in Rajputana, eight
states of Central India, six E. S. A. states, and from
other areas Jind, Benares, Idar, Rajpipla, Baria,
Tehri-Garhwal and Khairpur. In addition, near
relatives of the rulers present and future of the
above states have received or are receiving their
education at the College, and among other states
near relatives of whose rulers have recently been at
 98
the College are Jaipur, Alwar, Tonk, Dholpur and
Dungarpur in Rajputana, outside Rajputana, Gwalior,
Lunawada, Cooch Behar, Tripura, and Manipur, and
outside India, Muscat.
Conclusion. At the time of writing these pages
the shadow of-the world war hangs over India, and the
Mayo College has been actively concerned. The
part played by the Mayo College in the war of
1914-18 has previously been mentioned. In the
present war a number of Old Boys including
H. H. the Maharaja of Jaipur have been or are on
active service overseas, while others are serving in
India either in the Indian Army or in the State
forces and a member of the English staff and a
number of English Guardians are on military service.
The College has its own W ar fund maintained by
subscriptions from the staff and boys, and by special
means such as the selling of pictures painted by
boys, dramatic performances arranged by the
College, gymkhanas and flag-days, and the fund
has to date donated three Motor Ambulances for the
use of Indian troops serving overseas. In addition
special donations for such objects as Christmas gifts
for troops are made from time to time.
The war lias caused the postponement of one or
two important developments at the College. The
chief of these is the establishment of a Dairy farm.
This is a project of long standing and was originally
suggested by. Col. Loch in a note he left on retiring
from the College but never reached any further
stage. Detailed plans were recently prepared on
the basis of expert advice to establish in the College
grounds a self-supporting farm, which would both
provide good milk for the College and serve as a
practical object lesson in agriculture and the care
of cattle. The scheme was in principle approved
by the Working Committee of the College but
owing to war conditions it was decided to postpone
its introduction for the present. The advantages
to the College of an up to date dairy farm are obvi­
 99
ous and I hope that it will not be long before it
materializes.
Another improvement which is much needed
is the provision of a Guest house. The Bikaner
pavilion on the central cricket ground, though
originally intended to be used also as a Guest house,
is not suitable for that purpose, as it has only two
rooms suitable for the accommodation of guests and
these are more suitable for dressing rooms during
cricket matches and are now used as such. Visitors
are always welcome at the College and the more
visits the College receives from its Old Boys and
others interested in it the better. It is possible at
present to accommodate a certain number of visitors
in the Principal’s house and in the houses of other
members of the stall and in the boarding houses,
but such arrangements are not adequate. If the
College had a separate Guesthouse of a size suitable
to its standing, I feci sure that the number of visitors
would increase and they would be accommodated
under more comfortable conditions than is possible in
most cases at present. 1 had hoped at one time
that a Guest house would materialize as a memorial
to Mr. VVaddington but this unfortunately has not
proved the case.
It is to be hoped that the above and other
developments in accordance with the needs of the
times will materialize in the future and that the
College will maintain its prosperity. The College
was founded primarily for the benefit of the States
of Rajputana and the active support of the States
and their rulers has always been vital to its pros­
perity. As this support has waxed or waned the
fortunes of the College have waxed or waned. In
former days the Government of India undertook a
large share of the responsibility of maintaining the
College, and the College was able to survive periods
when the support of the States languished. Now
that the Government of India have not only abro­
gated their control over the administration of the
 100
College but have also withdrawn more than four-
fifths of their annual financial support the destinies
of the College ‘are in the hands of the Princes and
their active support is more vital than ever. Of
recent years the College has been fortunate in the
liberal support of a number of Puling Princes both
of Rajputana and outside, evidence of which is to be
found in the gifts already mentioned, and if this
support is maintained the College need have no fear
of the future.
On what lines the future of the College will be
cast and to what extent admission to it-may be
widened it is possible only to guess, but whatever
changes may be introduced, as one intimately con­
nected with its fortunes for over eleven years
the writer of this sketch will conclude with the
hope that the College will maintain the aims with
which it was founded and the fine traditions it has
acquired, that it will continue, in the words quoted
at the beginning of this sketch, to provide ‘for the
sons of the aristocracy of India a liberal and enligh­
tened education to keep pace with the ever
advancing spirit of the age’, and that it will continue
worthily to bear the motto which it has borne
worthily for sixty seven years:— ‘Let there be
Light’.

m n eOLLJUtiE Kiaa