Here's a timeline for the history of the Diocesan schools for boys and girls, taken from the girls' school's history page, and a document about the boys' school's history.
The girls' school's history page gives the impression it has existed since the initial foundation in 1860.
The boys' school's history document gives more detail, and shows how for the first forty years of the girls' school it stopped and started several times before settling into its stride in 1899.
| Year | Girls | Boys |
| 1860 | The "First Foundation" of the school is referred to an earlier institution established by the Society for the Promotion of Female Education in the Far East (FES) and Lady L. Smith, the wife of the first Bishop of Victoria, in 1860. It was given the name "Diocesan Native Female Training School" (DNFTS, 曰字樓女館), affiliated with the Diocese of the Anglican denomination in Hong Kong. The Committee started the school on Bonham Road, with a small concrete house on a paddy field. It was ordered that English language be used in the school in order to provide an English school environment. | |
| 1866 | It was renamed Diocesan Female School. | |
| 1868 | The school was soon mired in controversy and got into financial trouble. In 1868, the second Bishop of Victoria, Bishop R. Alford, took the school under his immediate superintendence | |
| 1869 | On 30 January 1869, Bishop Alford issued an Appeal to extend the benefits of education given in DNFTS to children of both sexes, which was soon met with a liberal response. Under a new constitution and new Committee, the "Diocesan Home and Orphanage" (DHO, 曰字樓孤子院), also known as the "Second Foundation", was begun for English, Eurasian, Chinese and other pupils on the same site in September. | |
| 1878 | The School was placed in the Grant-in-Aid Scheme by the Education Department, based on its academic performance. | |
| 1878 | In July: no more girls were received as boarders, though they still remained as day-scholars. | |
| 1891 (?) | Owing to some legal claim to the land, the Home had to change its name slightly and was henceforth called "Diocesan School and Orphanage" (DSO). | |
| 1892 | All the girls were transferred to Fairlea Girls’ School (later merged with another school and was known as Heep Yunn School), under the superintendence of Ms. M. Johnstone. | DSO became a boys’ school for the first time |
| 1899 | Ms. Johnstone also played an important part in establishing the Diocesan Girls’ School and Orphanage (DGSO) in Rose Villas in the vicinity of DSO on Bonham Road in 1899. | |
| 1902 | To distinguish from DGSO, DSO renamed itself "Diocesan Boys’ School and Orphanage" (DBSO) in 1902. | |
| 1913 | The school moved to its present site in Kowloon. | |
| 1926 | In addition, Rev. Featherstone proposed moving the School from Bonham Road to Mongkok Hill in 1926. But soon in March 1927, the British military authorities commandeered the new campus as a hospital in connection with the Shanghai Defence Force of UK because of the Canton-Hongkong Strike Boycott. The School was temporary moved to "Ten Houses" (now Mongkok Police Station) in the corner of Nathan Road and Prince Edward Road. On returning, the School found that the third storey of the School Building was finished by the military. |
Corrections welcome,
Regards, David