Welham Girls' School is a private

boarding school A boarding school is a school where pupils live within premises while being given formal instruction. The word "boarding" is used in the sense of "room and board", i.e. lodging and meals. They have existed for many centuries, and now extend acr ...

for girls located in

Dehradun Dehradun (), also known as Dehra Doon, is the winter capital and the List of cities in Uttarakhand by population, most populous city of the Indian state of Uttarakhand. It is the administrative headquarters of the eponymous Dehradun district, d ...

, Uttarakhand, India.

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 ''The Economic Times'' is an Indian English-language business-focused daily newspaper. Owned by The Times Group, ''The Economic Times'' began publication in 1961 and it is sold in all major cities in India. As of 2012, it is the world's secon ...

'' 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

File:PRIYANKA GANDHI & NEELAM SHARMA AMBALA EX CHAIRMAN MUNICIPAL COUNCIL AMBALA CANTT.jpg, Priyanka Gandhi, Politician File:Kareena Kapoor Khan in 2023 (1) (cropped).jpg, Kareena Kapoor, Actor File:Meira Kumar.jpg, Meira Kumar, former Speaker of the

Lok Sabha The Lok Sabha, also known as the House of the People, is the lower house of Parliament of India which is Bicameralism, bicameral, where the upper house is Rajya Sabha. Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha, Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by a ...

File:Tavleen Singh - India Economic Summit 2011.jpg, Tavleen Singh, Journalist File:Deepa Mehta (Giza Eskubideen Zinemaldiaren Saria - Premio Festival Derechos Humanos) (33879458355).jpg,

Deepa Mehta Deepa Mehta, (; born 15 September 1950) is an Indian-born Canadian film director and screenwriter, best known for her Elements Trilogy, Fire (1996 film), ''Fire'' (1996), ''Earth (1998 film), Earth'' (1998), and ''Water (2005 film), Water'' (2 ...

, Film director

Art

* Madhu Jain, textile designer * Smriti Morarka, hand-weaving revivalist * Mrinalini Mukherjee, artist *

Laila Tyabji Laila Tyabji (born 2 May 1947) is an Indian social worker, designer, writer, and craft activist. She is one of the founders of Dastkar, a Delhi-based non governmental organization, working for the revival of traditional crafts in India. She was ...

, co-founder of Dastkar

Business

Devika Bulchandani Devika Bulchandani is the Global CEO of Ogilvy (agency), Ogilvy. She is the first Indian-origin person to head the New York-based British advertising agency. She was previously the Global President at the company, and was appointed CEO in Septemb ...

, Global CEO, Ogilvy * Devyani Rana, vice-president of Coca-Cola India

Film

* Kareena Kapoor, actress * Nitya Mehra, director and screenwriter *

, 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 New Delhi Television Ltd is an Indian news media company focusing on broadcast and digital news publication. It was founded in 1984 by economist Prannoy Roy and journalist Radhika Roy. NDTV began as a production house for news segments, ...

* Tavleen Singh, non-fiction writer, journalist and columnist, ''

Indian Express ''The Indian Express'' is an English-language India, Indian daily newspaper founded in 1932 by P. Varadarajulu Naidu. It is headquartered in Noida, owned by the Indian Express Limited, ''Indian Express Group''. It was later taken over by Ramnat ...

'' * 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 All India Democratic Women's Association (AIDWA) is a women's organisation committed to achieving democracy, equality and Women's rights, women's emancipation. It has an organisational presence in 23 states in India, with a current membership o ...

* Renuka Chowdhury, MP

Rajya Sabha Rajya Sabha (Council of States) is the upper house of the Parliament of India and functions as the institutional representation of India’s federal units — the states and union territories.https://rajyasabha.nic.in/ It is a key component o ...

* Priyanka Gandhi, politician * Brinda Karat, Member of Parliament,

Communist Party of India (Marxist) The Communist Party of India (Marxist) (abbreviated as CPI(M)) is a Communism in India, communist List of political parties in India, political party in India. It is the largest communist party in India in terms of membership and electora ...

* Meira Kumar, ex-presidential candidate and First Lady speaker of the

* Mala Sen, writer and activist * Ambika Soni, politician

Sports

* Jyoti Ann Burrett, footballer

References

External links

School website
{{Coord, 30.3163, 78.0564, type:edu_region:IN-UT, display=title Girls' schools in Uttarakhand Boarding schools in Uttarakhand Schools in Dehradun Educational institutions established in 1957 1957 establishments in Uttar Pradesh Private schools in Uttarakhand Girls' schools in India Girls boarding schools