In 1851,
Jean-Baptiste Boucho,
Vicar Apostolic of Malacca-Singapore, appealed to the institute of the Sisters of the Infant Jesus, also known as the Dames of Saint Maur, for assistance in establishing a mission school for girls in Malaya, and in December 1851, four sisters from the Mission of the Infant Jesus sailed from
Antwerp bound for
Penang. In July 1852, three sisters arrived, one sister having died during the voyage, and they settled in a small wooden building in Church Street, George Town near the
Church of the Assumption, which served as the first school. Teaching during the day, the sisters sewed at night to raise additional funds as the number of pupils increased. In 1859, the mission, led by Mother St Mathilde Raclot, acquired the current site at the end of Light Street for
Fr50,000 which included Government House. Built at the beginning of the nineteenth century and previously abandoned, the building once served as the government offices and council chambers. Initially, wooden huts were erected to serve as classrooms, dormitories and kitchens and Government House was converted into a novitiate. From time to time, additional buildings were erected on the site. In 1867, a chapel was built, and in 1882, an assembly hall, cloisters and more classrooms. During the 1930s more buildings were added, including a new chapel with an
art deco interior. During the
Japanese occupation, the school was used by the Japanese Imperial Navy and 22 captured US sailors from the
USS Grenadier SS210 were incarcerated in the school in 1943, and scratched their names into the walls which have been preserved behind glass. In 2020, the Sisters of the Infant Jesus announced they would be closing the school, "due to a continuous decline in enrolment of students in the last decade and escalating costs to maintain the heritage school buildings", but planned to open a new private international school at the site. In 2023, a ceremony was held to mark the closure of the school. == References ==