St. Bede's College, Shimla

February 24, 2006

St. Bede’s College, Shimla

A commemorative postage stamp on the Women’s Education (1^st Issue) : 100 years of St. Bede’s College, Simla, Himachal Pradesh, established as a teacher’s training institute by Religious of Jesus and Mary in 1904 :

Issued by India

Issued on Feb 24, 2006

Issued for : The Department of Posts is pleased to issue a commemorative postage stamp on St. Bede’s College.

Credits :
Stamp & FDC : Bharati Mirchandani
Cancellation : Alka Sharma

Type : Stamp, Mint Condition

Colour : Multicolor

Denomination : 500 Paise

Stamps Printed : 0.8 Million

Printing Process : Photogravure

Printer : India Security Press, Nashik

About :

St. Bede’s College is a premier institution, educating women students for last 100 years. The history of St. Bede‘s College can be traced from way back to 1842, when many convents of the Religious of the congregation of Jesus and Mary were opened in North India, in order to educate the children of Catholic British soldiers. When Mother St. Clare (Assistant General) came out to India on visitation in 1902, she realized that the best way to help India was to establish a Catholic Training College for Teachers. After the necessary permissions were obtained from the Governor of the Punjab and the Inspector of Education and Mother General gave her consent, the location chosen was Shimla, which was then the summer capital of India. At that time, Shimla came under the Governor of Punjab.
Immediately the construction began, and the building was ready in 1903. Mother St. Clare returned to India with three sisters from England to start the Teachers Training Course. The first Principal was M. St. Gregory.
The College opened 4^th March 1904 with 15 students. Upto 1947, this College continued to function as a Teachers Training College. In 1948, graduate classes of the B.A. and B.Sc. were started. In 1970 the Himachal Pradesh University was established and this College was affiliated to it. The College kept expanding with new courses but the original Teachers Training Course still continues. St. Bede‘s College has now a sprawling campus with six buildings and more than 1500 students with 200 resident students from all over the country and abroad.
The library, which started with 200 books, has now more than 2000 titles and has been computerized.
The motto of St. Bede‘s College is ‘Non Nobis Solum‘ that means ‘Not for ourselves alone’. Adhering to the motto, St. Bede‘s College has made significant contribution in the field of women’s education in the last one hundred years.
Text : Material provided by St. Bede’s College.