Welham Girls' School

Welham Girls' School is a private boarding school for girls located in Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India.

History

The school was founded by Hersilia Susie Oliphant, who had previously set up Welham Boys' School. She named the schools after her home village of Welham, Nottinghamshire in the United Kingdom.

She acquired a palatial estate called Nasreen adjacent to the boys' school to start a small boarding school for girls. There were no funds, staff, or school buildings. There were originally ten pupils. Oliphant recruited another English woman, Grace Mary Linnel, to run the boarding school for girls. Linnel became the founder principal of Welham Girls School, which started in 1957.

The school has been described in The Economic Times as one of a group of "old, rich and popular schools — the Eton equivalents in India ... These boarding schools are a state of mind in themselves, an attitude which can’t be duplicated".

Extracurricular activities

The school hosts competitive events such as sports, craft, dramatics, music, dance and photography. Sports include basketball, hockey, swimming, badminton, lawn tennis, athletics, table tennis, karate, shooting and aerobics. The basketball team has won numerous tournaments and represented Uttrakhand at the national level. Several students have been chosen for the India camp as well.

Notable alumnae

Art

• Madhu Jain, textile designer
• Smriti Morarka, hand-weaving revivalist
• Mrinalini Mukherjee, artist
• Laila Tyabji, co-founder of Dastkar

Business

• Devika Bulchandani, Global CEO, Ogilvy
• Devyani Rana, vice-president of Coca-Cola India

Film

• Kareena Kapoor, actress
• Nitya Mehra, director and screenwriter
• Deepa Mehta, film director
• Shivani Rawat, producer
• Sukhmani Sadana, actor and screenwriter
• Priya Seth, cinematographer
• Alankrita Shrivastava, screenwriter and film director

Indian Administrative Service

• Neera Yadav, IAS officer

Journalism

• Radhika Roy, co-founder and co-owner of NDTV
• Tavleen Singh, non-fiction writer, journalist and columnist, Indian Express
• Madhu Trehan, journalist and co-founder of Newslaundry

Law

• Malavika Rajkotia, lawyer and activist

Literature

• Advaita Kala, novelist and screenwriter
• Deepti Kapoor, novelist

Politics and activism

• Subhashini Ali, activist, president of the All India Democratic Women's Association
• Renuka Chowdhury, MP Rajya Sabha
• Priyanka Gandhi, politician
• Brinda Karat, Member of Parliament, Communist Party of India (Marxist)
• Meira Kumar, ex-presidential candidate and First Lady speaker of the Lok Sabha
• Mala Sen, writer and activist
• Ambika Soni, politician

Sports

• Jyoti Ann Burrett, footballer

References

External links

• School website

1. Welham Boys' School
2. Priyanka Gandhi
3. Grace Mary Linnel
4. Aditi Vasudev
5. Radhika Roy
6. Tyabji family
7. Devika Bulchandani
8. Kareena Kapoor Khan
9. Tavleen Singh
10. Devyani Rana
11. Madhu Trehan
12. Advaita Kala
13. Chitrangada Singh (princess)
14. Sukhmani Sadana
15. Dehradun
16. Shivani Rawat
17. Welham
18. Meira Kumar
19. Nitya Mehra
20. Subhashini Ali