School heads in the early days included George Uglow Pope, Herbert Pakenham-Walsh, S. T. Pettigrew, William Elphick, Iowerth Lowell Thomas and A. T. Balraj.

[2] The school's past extends back to the British Raj and the Victorian era with its beginnings in a house on High Grounds over which now stands the great ITC Windsor Hotel.

The school was named in honour of George Cotton, Bishop of Calcutta, under whose stewardship a scheme of education was organized for the Anglican Churches in India.

It was only with the arrival of George Uglow Pope, a distinguished Tamil scholar (who translated the famed Tirukkuṛaḷ into English[3]) that the present site was acquired For Rs 47,500.

Henry Whitehead, Bishop of Madras, the chairman of the board of governors, as a last resort, invited the members of the Brotherhood of Saint Peter to save the school from closure.

[4] Scouting was officially founded in British India in 1909, first starting at the Bishop Cotton Boys' School in Bangalore by Capt T.H Baker and Major Pakenham Walsh.