Training College, Accra. The number of boys on roll was now
75, and this steadily in- creased to 135 in 1925 when
Captain Harman returned to the Gold Coast as Assistant
Director of Education.
Captain Harman, was a man of great vision and energy. He
possessed the rare gift of bold originality and perhaps did
more than any other for the physical development of King's
College and certainly for its outstanding progress as the
premier educational institution in Nigeria and, unarguably,
in West Africa.
In 1920, Captain Harman inaugurated the House system. Three
Houses were created:
School House, Hyde-Johnson's House and McKee Wright's House.
Hyde Johnson's House, were in 1920 the first ever Inter
House sports champions but both School House and McKee
Wright's House, tied for first place at the second annual
interhouse sports meeting in 1921.
In June 1923, he founded the school Magazine, 'The Mermaid',
named after the weather vein, "that mythical denizen of the
deep" still adorning the roof of the old building (Vol. XXII
1945). The second issue came out in December, 1923.The
Editorial of that No. 2 issue of'The Mermaid' states: "If we
had felt any hesitation as to the need or value of bringing
into being 'The Mermaid', we should have had ample
justification of our venture in the warm welcome accorded to
our first number.
Earlier members of the school will find particular interest
in the congratulations and good wishes of Sir Fredrick
Lugard, who writes to us in reference to the future of
education in West Africa. "I hope that King's College will
continue to lead the way, and not to be outdone by any other
colony."...Besides the school song which Major Harman gave
to the School, the College was to undergo its first major
physical development in 1924. and there is no better
description of this change than as recorded in No. 3 issue
of'The Mermaid', published in August 1924.
"The scheme for providing King's College with a Boarding
House and new laborato- ries has been approved and work has
already begun. If all goes well both buildings should be
ready for use by the end of next year.... The Boarding is
being placed at the West end of our grounds. The ground
floor provides a spacious dinning room for the boarders,
with pantry and students' store room; a library and reading
room where silence will be the rule and quiet study be
carried on; senior and junior common rooms where the
ordinary out-of-school life of the boarders will be lived;
and a master's office where affairs of the house will be
conducted."
"On the floor above, there will be 4 dormitories with
accommodation for 64, with a special room in each for the
prefect in charge. The general appearance of the boarding
house will be in keeping with the present school.
"A bungalow for the master in immediate charge of the
boarders is being built nearby." "The laboratories will be
built in the space between the present main building and the
Telegraph quarters. It will be one floor only, but so
designed that a second floor can be added whenever further
school accommodation is required.
The main features will be large chemical and physical
laboratory
