Evolution of Daly College

Daly College

This construction of the main building was started in 1882 and opened by Lord Dufferin in 1885. It was entirely made of reinforced concrete. The classes were held on the upper floor. The lower floor accommodated the Principal's office, a general reading room for the Kumar's and staff and the library, which contained numerous valuable books on Arts, Science, History, Oriental Literature.


The bust of General Sir Henry Daly erected by H.H. Maharaja Madhavrao Scindia of Gwalior is placed in the Central Hall on the upper floor. When the college moved to its present premises in 1909 the building with the boarding houses was handed over to the Medical School.

The Principal's Bunglow

This building was constructed in 1878 out of the money subscribed to the Mayo Memorial Fund. Mr. G. R. Abreigh- Mackay the first Principal of the Indore Residency College first occupied it.

The Indore Residency School

The office of the Public Works Department now occupies the original building of the Indore Residency School. In the room facing the iron gate a separate class for chiefs attending the class made their own arrangements for boarding and lodging where the classes were taught by Mr. G. Alberigh Mackay who was then tutor to minor Raja of Ratlam. This was the beginning of the Daly College, which was then known as "The Rajkumar Class" and subsequently in 1982 as "The Indore Residency Raj Kumar College" when the classes were moved to the Old Boarding Houses.

The Old Boarding Houses

When the Rajkumar classes were separated from the Indore Residency school in 1882 this house was constructed on the site of the present K.E. Medical School. It contained about eight rooms one of them being used as a reading room.

The Gwalior Boarding House

This house was built in 1891 to the north of the C.I.A. Jail. H.H. Maharaja Tukoji Rao Puar of Dewas, senior, and H.H. Raja Arun Singh of Narsinghgarh lived here with their companions and tutors from 1898 to 1903. In 1904 H.H. Maharaja Tukoji Rao Holkar with his guardian Mr. Percy Hide occupied the house and regularly took part in the college games. From 1905 to 1908 it accommodated about twenty Kumars with a housemaster. With many additions and alterations it is now used as Chief's Guest House.

The Holkar Boarding House

The office of the Public Works Department now occupies the original building of the Indore Residency School. In the room facing the iron gate a separate class for chiefs attending the class made their own arrangements for boarding and lodging where the classes were taught by Mr. G. Alberigh Mackay who was then tutor to the minor Raja of Ratlam. This was the beginning of Daly College, which was then known as "The Rajkumar Class" and subsequently in 1882 as "The Indore Residency Raj Kumar College" when the classes were moved to the Old Boarding Houses.

The New Boarding House

This was originally the college gymnasium, which was open all around. To provide accommodation for the Kumars, the gymnasium was walled and made into a boarding house in 1904 with three large rooms, a bathroom, a room for the house Master and a spacious verandah in the south. To the north of this boarding house were two tennis courts where the European ladies and gentlemen of the station often came to play tennis with the Kumars.

Old Daly College - Play Ground

A small plot to the west of the college building was the only playground where the Kumars and the staff played cricket, football and hockey. In 1905 Mr. J.H. Smith the Principal inaugurated the C.I.S.A sports association whose first meeting was held on this ground.

Besides riding there were physical and company drills, fencing, bayonet exercise, lance practice, sword exercise, boxing, torchlight parable. In 1906 a separate football ground was made in the extreme north of the compound.