125th Year Of Lawrence College, Murree - 1860-1985 September 21, 1985

Today, 125 years old, Lawrence College, Ghora Gall, Murree, is the oldest institution of its type in Pakistan. Its name has been changed many times as have its fortunes been varying in the past.
This institution founded in 1860 as the Lawrence School (subsequently upgraded to College) by Sir Henry Lawrence, started as an asylum with 82 children in its care. The number rose to 201 boys and 101 girls in 1914 when it was taken over by the Government of the Punjab as the Lawrence Memorial School, and to 356 boys and 124 girls when it became the Lawrence College in 1926 with the construction of the Senior School building. Today the number has risen to 777.
Its first crest was a falcon poised for flight with the motto 'ONWARD AND UPWARD', later changed to Lawrence Coat-of-Arms in 1926 with the present, motto 'NEVER GIVE IN', In 1973, the College was re-named as Pine Hills College. The name Ghora Gall College was adopted in 1978 but again this year the old name "Lawrence College" has been re-adopted.
In 1948, the pre-independence seven houses - Peake, Wightwick, Wright, Dane, Godley, Maclagon and O'Dwyer were re-organised into Peake. Wightwick, Wright and Walker; Girls School was stopped and Prep. School, with lqbal, Tipu, Sir Syed, Jinnah, Khalid and Aurangzeb houses, was started. In 1 973, the entire College was re-organized into Tipu, Babar, Jinnah and lqbal Houses in all the three schools.
G.C. Peake was the Principal with the longest tenure from 1874 to 1904; Abdul Majid was the first Muslim student ever taken on the rolls of this College in 1925; Chaudhry Abdul Hamid was the first Muslim taken on the teaching staff in 1927 and was also the first Muslim Principal from 1952 to 1955; Moulvi Jaffer Khan gave the first call of AZAN in 1967, Ejaz Mansoor Qureshi gave the second AZAN and also stood first in the Intermediate Examination of Sargodha Board in 1971; in 1983 Musharraf Rasool stood second in the Intermediate Examination of the Rawalpindi Board.
Scions of this Alma Mater have spread wide in the world - an estimated 450 in the U.K., as many in the U.S. Canada and Australia and almost the same number in the rest of Europe. In Pakistan they have risen to exceptional positions of responsibility in the civil, political and military career. In the two wars against India, (1965 and 1971), some of them earned the honour of Shahadat and were decorated with military awards.
in the past this College has frequently come in the lime-light and it hopes to do so in the future, as well. It has plans to become self-generating in the course of the following decade.
The number of students is expected to rise 1500 by then. A five-year plan has been chalked out to expand the available facilities in order to adequately meet the needs of such a large number, It also aims at offering a number of scholarships to the really deserving students in the country.
Its major aim and aspiration is to play and effective role in the field of national education and development.
Pakistan Post Office is issuing a commemorative postage stamp of the denomination of Rs. 3/ to commemorate the Lawrence College, Ghora Gall, Murree.