St. Peter’s College is one of the oldest institutions of its kind in the country. It began as a Boarding School in 1841 and was transferred to its present building in 1846 which has been accepted as the founding year of the school.
Since the First war of Independence in 1857, St. Peter’s College has stood as a witness to the freedom struggle and to the changes that have taken place since then. The College had achieved such prominence by 1870 that the then visiting Inspector wrote in his report that it would “bear no unfavorable comparison with the best institutions of a similar kind in England and Europe.
In the same year the school was affiliated to Calcutta University for its first entrance examination, and was henceforth called a ‘College’. Education in St. Peter’s was regarded as a sure passport to the Roorkee College of Engineering, various government departments and to the Secretariat.
As a result of the high reputation of the College, dignitaries like the Prince of Wales, the Duke and the Duchess of Connaught, the Duke of Edinburg; Viceroys like Lord Northbrook and Lord Ripon; Governors of Uttar Pradesh; Ambassadors of the Holy See; Mother Teresa; leading sportsman like Vijay Hazare, actor-singer Kishore Kumar, leading statesmen, scholars and poets paid visits to this Institution. Of late Ajit Wadekar, Milka Singh, Kapil Dev, P. T. Usha, Manjit Dua, Madanlal, Rajyavardhan Rathore, Ashok Kumar Dhyanchand, Ajay Jadeja, Murali Kartik, Nayan Mongia and Late Sunil Dutt were also added to this list.
After Independence, the College re-oriented its studies and co-curricular activities to suit the requirements of a free country and a developing society. It has met successfully the new challenge of nation-building and of training the young generation to be better citizens.