From a single classroom in 1855 to a 170-year-old institution today.
A school born of a quiet act of conviction
Our story begins with the arrival in the Bangalore Civil and Military Station of Mrs. Little, the wife of a Wesleyan missionary. Moved by the limited educational opportunities available to Indian girls, she resolved to open a school. With the help of friends in Islington, England, the school opened on 2 September 1855 with 42 students. In those first years the curriculum reflected the world the girls lived in: Tamil reading, scripture, geography, English, hymns, sewing and crochet. By the time of the First World War it had become the first all-girls school in the Bangalore Civil and Military Station.
The campus on Promenade Road
In 1888 the school moved to its present site on Promenade Road, at the Wesley Tamil Mission compound. The original stone structure built that year still stands today and remains one of the recognisable architectural landmarks of the old Cantonment.
Rev. Fred Goodwill, and the name we carry
The school takes its name from the Reverend Fred Goodwill (1874–1969), a British Methodist missionary and Tamil scholar who served as superintendent of the Wesleyan Tamil Mission in Bangalore from 1899. He became the school's manager and a tireless advocate for educating girls regardless of caste. In recognition of his twenty-six years of service, the Wesleyan Tamil Girls School was renamed Goodwill Girls' School in 1924. Ms. Rose Sisterson served as Principal from 1905 to 1938 — more than three decades — and raised the school to High School status in 1914.
A timeline at a glance
- 1855 — Mrs. Little opens the school on 2 September with 42 students.
- 1888 — The school moves to its present Promenade Road campus; the original stone building is constructed.
- 1905–1938 — Ms. Rose Sisterson serves as Principal.
- 1924 — The school is renamed in honour of Rev. Fred Goodwill.
- 1996 — Elevated to a Pre-University College.
- 2025 — 170th anniversary, themed Lumen Legatum — "The Legacy of Light".
Goodwill counts among its former students Dr. Evangeline Anderson Rajkumar, theologian and former Dean of Theology and Ethics at the United Theological College, Bangalore.