TTC  Days

Mount Hermon College of Education

1972 was my last and final year at Mt. Hermon. I was in class 11 and completed my Senior Cambridge at the end of the year. It was also the year when a new college – Teacher’s Training College – was established in our school estate. Most of the students of the college were Anglo-Indians.

Mount Hermon TTC trainee teachers 1976: Edwin Dragwidge sitting in the centre of Principal Mr. GA Murray and Mrs. J. Rongong. 

Photo: Brian Fernandez, also in the snap. Pic courtesy:wwwgeorgeherbertshepherdlko.blogspot.com, a TTC graduate.

Mr. GA Murray, our school Principal, played an influential role in shifting the Undergraduate Men’s Training College at St. Thomas’s School, Kidderpore (Calcutta) to our school premises in Darjeeling. The management of the college was also transferred to the newly-formed Mount Hermon College of Education Society. The college was recognised by the Government of West Bengal and Mr. Murray became its first Principal.

TTC's main building. 

While a two-storey building housed TTC, located below MH’s main building, the students – both men and women – lived in several cottages of the school.

Initially, MH’s Junior Head Mistress, Mrs. Joy Rongong, along with Mr. and Mrs. Marcus, Farther German and a few others were the main lecturers and later Mrs. Val Johnston and Mandira Dam West were the main persons responsible for the success of TTC. Over the years many of its graduates have played a leading role in various Anglo-Indian Schools in India. Many of them also became Principals in various educational institutions in India.

I, as one of the graduates of TTC, have decided to start ‘TTC Days’ page in Facebook on the occasion of Mr. Murray’s first death anniversary which falls on April 7, 2016. I do this in honour and memory of Mr. Murray and hope TTC graduates and former teachers will contribute towards this page.

     Many TTC trainees stayed at Dawn cottage at Mt. Hermon School campus.