Welham Girls' School
History
The school was founded by Hersilia Susie Oliphant, who had previously set up Welham Boys' School. She named the schools after her home village of Welham, Nottinghamshire in the United Kingdom.
She acquired a palatial estate called Nasreen adjacent to the boys' school to start a small boarding school for girls. There were no funds, staff, or school buildings. There were originally ten pupils. Oliphant recruited another English woman, Grace Mary Linnel, to run the boarding school for girls. Linnel became the founder principal of Welham Girls School, which started in 1957.
The school has been described in The Economic Times as one of a group of "old, rich and popular schools — the Eton equivalents in India ... These boarding schools are a state of mind in themselves, an attitude which can’t be duplicated".
Extracurricular activities
The school hosts competitive events such as sports, craft, dramatics, music, dance and photography. Sports include basketball, hockey, swimming, badminton, lawn tennis, athletics, table tennis, karate, shooting and aerobics. The basketball team has won numerous tournaments and represented Uttrakhand at the national level. Several students have been chosen for the India camp as well.
Notable alumnae
Art
- Madhu Jain, textile designer
- Smriti Morarka, hand-weaving revivalist
- Mrinalini Mukherjee, artist
- Laila Tyabji, co-founder of Dastkar
Business
- Devika Bulchandani, Global CEO, Ogilvy
- Devyani Rana, vice-president of Coca-Cola India
Film
- Kareena Kapoor, actress
- Nitya Mehra, director and screenwriter
- Deepa Mehta, film director
- Shivani Rawat, producer
- Sukhmani Sadana, actor and screenwriter
- Priya Seth, cinematographer
- Alankrita Shrivastava, screenwriter and film director
Indian Administrative Service
- Neera Yadav, IAS officer
Journalism
- Radhika Roy, co-founder and co-owner of NDTV
- Tavleen Singh, non-fiction writer, journalist and columnist, Indian Express
- Madhu Trehan, journalist and co-founder of Newslaundry
Law
- Malavika Rajkotia, lawyer and activist
Literature
- Advaita Kala, novelist and screenwriter
- Deepti Kapoor, novelist
Politics and activism
- Subhashini Ali, activist, president of the All India Democratic Women's Association
- Renuka Chowdhury, MP Rajya Sabha
- Priyanka Gandhi, politician
- Brinda Karat, Member of Parliament, Communist Party of India (Marxist)
- Meira Kumar, ex-presidential candidate and First Lady speaker of the Lok Sabha
- Mala Sen, writer and activist
- Ambika Soni, politician
Sports
- Jyoti Ann Burrett, footballer