History of Milton High School

Sir William Milton

Milton School started life on the 25th of July 1910. It was named after Sir William Milton (the administrator of the BSAC) and initially located on Borrow Street, Bulawayo (now Parirenyatwa Street).

Milton High School and Eveline High School  were the first state maintained high schools in the then Rhodesia. Again, it was the first government all boys’ school ever established in Bulawayo.

In September 1927, 300 boys and members of staff moved to Milton’s present home, which is situated between Suburbs and the race course. However, it was not until the 1st of June 1928 that the school was officially opened by Sir John Chancellor as “Milton School”.

The school colours are plumbago (dark grey) and oxford blue with the school crest based on an early version of the city of Bulawayo’s crest. The motto is Greek and translates as “Quit ye like men”.

The school was initially divided into four houses – Charter, Pioneer, North Town and South Town. However, due to the dominance of the boarders, four new houses were introduced in 1938. They were Birchenough, Borrow, Fairbridge and Heaney.

At the start of 1950, Milton had 420 boys, but by the end of 1951 this figure rose to 581 creating a “housing crisis’. Two more classrooms were built in 12 days along with marquees which were erected on the open space between the main block and the dining hall. After ten years of planning and fundraising 5000 pounds from state lotteries and 1000 pounds from the Baron family, Milton’s swimming pool was opened at a cost of 17 500 pounds.

In 1954, there were 644 pupils, by 1957 this figure had risen to over 700, a year later there were in excess of 900. With over 200 boys per house, four new houses were created – Brady, Chancellor, Malvern and Rhodes.

In 1961, Milton had 1,150 boys which made it the largest school in the Federation. Malvern and Brady houses were dropped and the boarding houses of Charter and Pioneer were re-established once again. In the same year (1961), saw the completion of the new Economics Block, Commerce Department,  a new Staffroom, a double storey Administration Block and the official opening of the Sixth Form Department by the then Minister of Education, D. B. Goldberg.

In 1962 rooms were built to house the Technical Department, as well as the construction of locking cycle sheds, a rifle range and stands were erected on the playing fields.

The Headmasters of Milton High School

In 1967, Milton’s games houses were renamed in honour of the school’s first five headmasters and each house was to meet in the quadrangle that bore the appropriate name. Even today the quads are named after those five headmasters and these are:

  1. B. de Beer (1910 – 1924)
  2. Lt Col, J. B. Brady (1925 – 1930)
  3. G. Livingston (1931 – 1941)
  4. R. Morgan (1941 – 1942)
  5. Gebbie (1943 – 1946)

After 1946, Milton had several changes of headmasters and each contributed immensely to the school:

  1. Ball (1946 – 1950)
  2. H. Downing (1950 – 1955)
  3. R. Messiter-Tooze (1956 – 1963)
  4. M. Brett (1964 – 1969)
  5. K. Gracie (1970 – 1980)
  6. Andersen (1981 – 1984)
  7. Fincham (1984 – 1987)
  8. Mandikate (1988 – 1995)
  9. B. S. Senda (1996 – 2001)
  10. D. Swene (2002 – 2006)
  11. Ngwenya (2006 – 2013)
  12. Ncube (2014 – 2016)
  13. Ncube ( 2016 – to date)