Bishop's College in Colombo, Sri Lanka, is a private girls' school founded by the Anglican Church of Ceylon in February 1875.

The principal was a Mrs Long, who had served earlier at the Church Missionary School in Nallur, Jaffna.

[2] However, in May 1859, Frances Chapman returned to England due to ill health, Mrs Long died in 1861 and the school had to be temporarily closed.

Among the first girls enrolled were Minnie Von Possner, Hilda Obeysekera, Dorah Aserappah and Caroline Peiris.

Their Society of Saint Margaret was a sorority founded by John Mason Neale in 1855, which had now expanded to an overseas mission.

Principals and teachers who came to Ceylon to fulfil the goals of Christian mission often had to leave due to ill health, the rigours of the tropical climate or personal reasons.

Subjects taught directed them to the Cambridge local examinations: French, drawing, singing, and piano playing were also on the curriculum.

[9] In 1890, the then Bishop of Colombo, Reginald Copleston, purchased the Maradatin Cinnamon Gardens bordering Boyd Place, Colpetty.

For an unbroken period of sixty years from 1895 to 1955 these sisters guided the students of Bishop's College: not only in their mental development, but in the levels of charity, community spirit and public service, and upholding of the school motto "Non Sibi Sed Omnibus" (Not for Self, but for All).

[10] A close bond was established between Bishop's College and St Margaret's Convent, Polwatte, which remains up to now.

[12] The school faced Boyd Place on the south, a property known as Arncliffe on the east, a building known as Edgecote on the west, and a government reservation adjoining the Beira Lake on the north.

The property on which the school was located was held in trust by the bishop of the Diocese of Colombo with a board of three members.

[13][14] After much deliberation, and with the donor's approval, it was decided not to open a unit of the school at Elscourt as it was considered too far from the building at Boyd Place.

With World War II entering the Asian zone, Bishop's College evacuated to "Fernhill" in Bahirawakanda, Kandy, with 37 students.

With the end of the war, the country was moving towards independence, and Bishop's College had in 1943 introduced Sinhala and Tamil as the media of instruction in the kindergarten, while they were being taught as a subject.

[15] With a focus on national culture, she introduced the practice that the students of other faiths should commence their day with their own religious observance, as the Christians did, and have their own societies and celebrate their own festivals.

The design is influenced by Scandinavian modernism with its "white cubic architecture" "sharped edged prismatic forms and brise soleil facades".

[17] The interior of the classroom block is protected by perforated external wall panels which are supported on a concrete portal frame and inserted between the exposed beam-ends to give an impression of extreme lightness and delicacy.

When the building was nearing completion Bawa commissioned Lydia Duchini, an Italian sculptor, to create a sculpture of the bishop.

Since the school hall, impressive in its day, was totally inadequate for present needs, the PPA was anxious to gift an auditorium to their Alma Mater, and with land leased out from the Government, laid the foundation in 1985.