[2] The college is named after His Excellency Sir Anthony Foster Abell, a British colonial official who served as the 3rd Governor of Sarawak from 1949 to 1959.

At a meeting on 27 October 1958, at Istana Darul Hana, Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddien III and Abell talked about the outcomes of the London negotiations.

In January 1953, the Government English School moved to Seria Town at the current Post Office site with a building of 2 classrooms.

[6] Clearing and piling for the college second phase were part of the work during the three government English schools construction projects in that same year.

[7][8] The construction of two coeducational preparatory and junior secondary schools, one in Kuala Belait and one in Tutong, with capacity for 1,080 students each, staff housing, and hostel accommodations for 400 of them (200 boys and 200 girls) constitutes the primary development project in English-medium education.

[11] In 1972, the newly constructed dorms for girls and boys at Perdana Wazir English School and AAC were still closed.