La Salle College

Foundation In the 1910s, Kowloon was expanding rapidly; the Second Convention of Peking had caused New Kowloon to be leased to Britain along with the New Territories. The escalating cost of real estate and increasing population density in Hong Kong Island prompted Portuguese residents to migrate en masse to Kowloon. St Joseph's had catered to many Portuguese students, whose parents wanted their son to receive a Catholic and English education. Noting the surge in demand for school places, Brother Aimar Sauron (1873–1945), the director of St Joseph's, realised that a new school building was necessary. He acquired a hilly plot near Prince Edward Road as a site for the new La Salle College on 23 April 1928, for a sum of HK$120,000. The site was immediately north of the city boundary (i.e., in New Kowloon); that section of Boundary Street was not yet a formal road when the school site was bought, which was only gazetted in 1929. An annex was also built in January 1938, which later became the first La Salle Primary School building. On 5 November 1930, Sir William Peel, then Governor of Hong Kong, laid the foundation stone of the new building. By 3 December 1931, the work on the building and the playgrounds was sufficiently advanced to allow the opening of eight classes for 303 pupils, under the management of five Brothers from St Joseph's and four assistant masters from the Chatham Road Branch School. Replacing the junior school, La Salle College was formally inaugurated on 6 January 1932. Seven Brothers, headed by Brother Aimar as director, took over. A few days later 40 boarders occupied the quarters to the west of the building. There were then 540 students in 14 classes. About one-third of the students had European (mostly Portuguese) connection. World War II Brother Aimar was the principal of the school for its first seven years. The students were offered matriculation examinations, the laboratories were constructed, four tennis courts and a full-sized football pitch were built, and the statue of Jean-Baptiste de La Salle that now stands in front of the college was erected. The number of students increased to 805 in 1935 and 1,060 in 1939. In 1939, La Salle College was affected when World War II commenced in Europe. On 3 September 1939, Britain declared war on Germany, and the British War Department in Hong Kong designated the La Salle College campus as an internment camp for German nationals arrested in Hong Kong that same day. Those interned included the German engineer Gerhard Neumann. The internment camp was run for approximately eight months, during which time the Brothers organised classes in morning and afternoon sessions in the College Annex across the road (the building which was to become La Salle Primary School in 1957). On 8 December 1941, the Japanese attacked Hong Kong, and the school building was again taken over by the British Military, this time as a relief hospital. After the surrender of Hong Kong on Christmas Day 1941, the Japanese took over the school building. In December 1941 the school's operations was suspended until September 1946, and In February 1942, the Brothers were expelled from the college. During the Japanese occupation, the college was believed to have been used as a Number One Japanese military hospital (out of four in Kowloon) until August 1945. Post-war development School recommenced in September 1946. By the end of 1949, the Chinese Civil War was coming to an end. Most of China was controlled by the Communist government of Mao Zedong and the People's Liberation Army was rapidly advancing southwards towards the Hong Kong border. Owing to that threat, the British Army reinforced their garrisons in Hong Kong. In need of a hospital, the British Army expropriated the use of the college grounds, originally agreed to be only for 12 to 18 months. Meanwhile, the Hong Kong government erected wood hutments on a plot at Perth Street, Ho Man Tin. The temporary occupation dragged on for ten years, taking the concerted efforts of the local government, some members of the British Parliament, and the Vatican to finally dislodge the Army in August 1959. Brother Felix was appointed director of the school in 1956 and re-acquired the college buildings from the military authorities on 1 August 1959. Student numbers grew steadily, and this led to a separation of primary and secondary divisions. La Salle Primary School was founded in 1957 and Brother Henry Pang was appointed its founder and first headmaster. In 1964 the La Salle College Evening School was commenced within the main campus building; in 1969 the Evening School was separated and became Chan Sui Ki (La Salle) College in Ho Man Tin. The decision was taken by the Brothers, headed by the then Brother Director, Brother Raphael Egan, in 1977 to undertake the replacement of the ageing building. While classes were continuing, a portion of the school grounds were used to erect a new building. The project was funded via the sale of approximately one-third of the school grounds to Cheung Kong Holdings, owned by Li Ka-shing. The governor of Hong Kong, Sir Murray MacLehose, officially opened the new school building on 19 February 1982, in its Golden Jubilee year. ==Admission==