About Us

Sir Robert Stanes was born on 13th  May, 1841. He came to India in 1858 at the age of 17, to help his brothers to manage the family’s coffee estates at Coonoor in the Nilgiris. What was planned as a short trip to India turned out to be a life long adventure for him.

The brothers pioneered the present large plantation industry, first in coffee and later in tea, in the hilly areas of Annamalais, Nilgiris and Yercaud in South India. Sir Robert Stanes started the first coffee curing works in Coimbatore and also established the first Textile mill, The Coimbatore Spinning and Weaving Co., Ltd., in 1888. Sir Robert Stanes was the first Council Chairman when Coimbatore was constituted as a municipality. He was a great mentor, advisor and friend to many of the industrialists in Coimbatore and its surrounding areas. The Stanes family can therefore be acknowledged as the pioneers in the development and industrialisation of Coimbatore.

As a young man of just 21 years, Sir Robert Stanes decided to start a school for his employees’ children who could not read or write. The Stanes Day School was started on 6th  November, 1862, in a little house near the Kumaran market with just 4 teachers and 2 students. The school’s strength increased requiring boarding establishments for boys and girls coming from outside the town. The school then occupied a building near the railway station (the present Head Post Office) where it continued for about 50 years. The present spacious campus of 25 acres on Avinashi Road was purchased and the foundation for the Main Block of the school was laid in 1927. Today, the school has around 3000 students and more than 200 staff members. It started as an European and Anglo-Indian School under the concept of liberal education, the portals of the school have been thrown open to all, irrespective of their caste, creed, community or status. Honouring our Founder’s wishes, the exclusive minority rights for Anglo-Indian children are being retained.