About BHS Alumni

Bishop's High School Tobago Alumni Association

History

The Bishop’s High School Tobago Alumni Association is the official network of its Past Students. It is a matter of public record that the school was opened as the first secondary school in Tobago on 14th September 1925 but precise information regarding the subsequent establishment of an Alumni Association following that historic year is not available to us at this time. Indeed, the earliest reference that we have found is the year 1957, when the “Bishop’s High School Past Students Association” entered that year’s Arts Festival in the categories of Essays and Drama and was awarded a Certificate of Merit for the latter. It does not appear though that that “Association”, if indeed it was, enjoyed any great degree of longevity.

However, we are aware that at certain times and in different places, there have been groups of past students, who have, de facto if not de jure, functioned as an association - even if only in the broadest sense of the term. Invariably though, those “associations” were initiated outside of Tobago and generally expanded out of a sense of community and family to facilitate social interaction amongst the Tobagonians that were centered at those points in the wider Diaspora. Here was a situation begging to be organized.

In 2000, the Organizing Committee of the school’s 75th Anniversary Celebrations mandated that a concerted effort be made to address the void that existed amongst the past students. Four (4) years after, a Working Committee headed by Mr. Allan Richards accepted the challenge and initiated a project that had as its objective: the formal establishment of an Alumni Association in which every member, regardless of status, would enjoy equal standing.

Coming out of those deliberations, the historic “COME BHS, COME TOGETHER 2004” School Reunion was held at the school on 11th July and the hall was filled and overflowing with persons who welcomed the opportunity to renew friendships, reminisce about times past and make new friends. The draft constitution was presented and ratified and an Executive Committee installed. To say the least, there was much jubilation and enthusiasm - for the Association was an idea whose time had finally arrived and it has not stumbled since.