Malacca High School (MHS) is a secondary school in Malacca, Malaysia. Founded on 7 December 1826, it is the second oldest recorded school in the country after only Penang Free School. It was awarded cluster school status and is known as one of the premier schools in Malaysia.
History
Establishment
On 7 December 1826, MHS was officially established; just after Malacca was made a British colony on 17 March 1824, when the Dutch ceded Malacca to the English after the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824.
The establishment of the school (then known as Malacca Free School) was initiated by Thomas H. Moor who came to Malacca in 1825 on orders by William Milne who was one of the educators at the Anglo-Chinese College. In his letter dated 4 January 1825, he stated his wishes to Arundel in London to establish a school. The establishment of the school was also supported by some influential people including James Humphrey, a Superintendent in the London Missionary Society. The startup of Malacca High School was directly related to the closing of the Dutch-Malay school which was established in January 1815 by Christian missionary during the Dutch reign. The school was closed when Malacca was handed over to the British by the Dutch.
School motto
Meliora Hic Sequamur
This old main motto stands for "Here We Strive For Better Things". The motto was introduced by the Principal of Malacca High School L.W. Arnold. He was stationed in the school from 1931 to 1934. The use of the motto coincided with the shifting of the school from the High Court Building to the current location. The official opening of the school was in October 1931. The Motto obviously was chose to coincide with the abbreviation of MHS for the school. And that Headmaster Arnold was definitely purposeful in giving the translation of Meliora Hic Sequamur (=MHS) for the Malacca High School (=MHS) as such according to his own interpretation.A check with its actual Latin meaning, shows that the translation should have been "Let us follow (sequamur) the melody ( meloria) here (hic)"
School emblem
The school emblem was introduced in 1931. During this time the School Board of Governors was established and the motto "Meliora Hic Sequamur" was established. Originally, the school emblem reflected ‘History,’Resilience’ and ‘Strength’.
The ‘A Famosa’ logo was used and the colour of green and maroon were used. At the bottom of the logo, ‘ Meliora Hic Sequamur‘ was etched. At the beginning, this logo was used by the school prefects only but from 1970 all students wear the logo.
Principals
1826 - T.H. Moor
1843 - John Overee
1862 - T. Smith
1878 - Alex Armstrong (A. Armstrong) 1893 - J. Howell 1916 - C.F.C. Ayre 1921 - C. Beamish 1924 - C.G. Coleman 1930 - T.A.O. Sullivan 1931 - L.W. Arnold 1934 - L.A.S. Jermyn 1941 - C.A. Scott, Lee Chin Lin 1945 - Goh Tiow Chong 1946 - C. Foster, C.J. Gurney 1950 - G.P. Dartford 1952 - F.T. Laidlaw, E.H. Bromley 1956 - A. Atkinson 1957 - W. Gibson 1958 - K. Kandiah, Ee Tiang Hong 1960 - C.T. Wade, Goh Keat Seng 1965 - Tan Teik Hock 1969 - Lim Leng Lee 1970 - K. Anandarajan 1972 - Chan Ying Tat 1985 - Abdul Rafie Mahat 1991 - Mohammad Ismail 1994 - Hussin Abdul Hamid 1996 - Mohd Zin Abdul Hamid 1998 - Othman Ibrahim 2000 - Noh Ahmad 2001 - Ya'amah Mohd Dris 2003 - Mohd Ali Saed 2006 - Yusof Ahmad 2007 - Abd. Razak Che Ngah 2014 - Ramnan Saidun
Notable alumni
Politics and Civil Service
Lim Guan Eng, MP for Bagan, and former Chief Minister of Penang and Finance Minister of Malaysia Mohd Ali Rustam, Yang di-Pertua Negeri of Melaka Abu Zahar Ithnin (Former Malacca Chief Minister) M.K. Rajakumar Tan Cheng Lock (one of the founding fathers of modern Malaysia and the founder of the Malaysian Chinese Association) Tan Siew Sin (former Minister of Commerce and Industry, Finance Minister and former president of the Malayan Chinese Association)
Literature
Shirley Geok-Lin Lim (UCLA Professor of English who chairs the School of Education of UCLA, winner of Commonwealth Poetry Prize and National Book Award)
Education
Anuwar Ali currently President of Open University Malaysia
Extra-curricular activities
There are now 9 uniform units. Among them are Scouts, Red Crescent Society, PKBM (Land), Police Cadets, KRS, Fire Brigade Cadets, Marching Band, Silat Seni Gayong and JPA3.
Sports houses
The house system was introduced in 1923. Every student was assigned a "house" named after historical figures. The sports houses in the school are: Albuquerque Famosa Minto Raffles St Francis Van Dieman