In September 1951,
Edward Paget, Bishop of Southern Rhodesia, wrote to the Rector of
Michaelhouse in Natal, offering him the headship of a school that did not exist. Six months later, Fred Snell started working with Canon Robert Grinham and the
Ruzawi School Board toward the creation of an independent senior school. Peterhouse opened in 1955 under the rectorship of Fred Snell with 55 boys and within five years the number had risen to 360 according to plan. Peterhouse was founded as an Anglican boys' country boarding school. When the school opened in 1955, the major building programme had been completed; the Chapel had been dedicated; the staff were accommodated in houses around the grounds; and the grounds themselves had been developed, with the playing fields spreading across the slope below the school, and beyond them, plantations of gum and pine. During the rectorship of Fred Snell, the first black pupils joined the school. Bruce Fieldsend, who joined Peterhouse at the beginning, succeeded Fred Snell as Rector in 1968. Under Bruce Fieldsend, Peterhouse continued to flourish and in 1976, the school had an enrolment of 389 pupils – the highest it had ever been. In 1972, the
Rhodesian Bush War had begun to cast a shadow over the land. In 1976 the enrolment began to drop and by the beginning of 1980, Peterhouse was barely half full. After
Independence, the school began to grow again, and in 1984 Bruce Fieldsend was succeeded by the Reverend Doctor Alan Megahey. Under his rectorship not only did the boys' school grow to over 500 pupils, but in 1985, Springvale House, a preparatory school for boys and girls, was opened and in 1987 Peterhouse Girls' School started. These two schools are both situated on the site of the old Springvale School which had closed during the war and which was on the other side of the main Harare / Mutare road from the boys' school. The three schools now occupy a site of 3 000 acres, of which 700 acres are taken up with Gosho Park, Peterhouse's conservation area and Game Park. In 1994, Mike Bawden succeeded Alan Megahey as rector. In 2002, Jon Calderwood was appointed rector after Bawden returned to England. Calderwood was head of Springvale House from 1985 to 1993 and Head of Peterhouse Girls from 1994 to 2001 before he was rector. He retired as rector at the end of 2012. In 2013 Howard Blackett, formerly headmaster of the
Royal Hospital School of
Ipswich, was appointed rector. Jonathan Trafford, an old Peterhouse teacher and headmaster, took up the position in January 2020. ==Coat of arms==