La Martiniere was founded as per the will of Major General Claude Martin in the year 1836. The schools flourish today in Calcutta, Lucknow, and Lyon.
In 1752, a 17-year old Frenchman named Claude Martin came to India as a humble private in the armies of the East India Company. But Claude Martin was no ordinary soldier of fortune. He rose rapidly to the rank of Major General and also spent many years in the service of Shuja-ud-Daulah, the Nawab of Oudh. By the time of his death in September 1800, he had amassed property worth over half a million
pounds sterling. So far, Claude Martin’s career reads like that of so many other Europeans who found fame and fortune under the powerful patronage of the East India Company. And indeed, if that was all there was to the man, he would have soon been forgotten in the musty pages of history. However, Claude Martin was a man of vision and he left generous endowments to start schools in Lucknow, Calcutta and in Lyon, in his native land of France. La Martiniere Schools, Calcutta, were the result of his desire to start an educational institution for the “public good of the town of Calcutta”. It took 30 years to dispose off the litigation arising out of Claude Martin’s will. Finally, as a result of a Supreme Court decision, La Martiniere Schools opened in Calcutta, on 1st March, 1836. La Martiniere Calcutta offers an all-round education up to the Higher Secondary level. It is affiliated to the Council for the ISC Examinations, New Delhi, which conducts the ICSE and ISC Examinations at the close of Classes X & XII. The school has a very wide spectrum of co-curricular activities which receive as much importance as the academic disciplines. Through this extensive range of activities, the students are exposed to varying situations and issues. They regularly participate in Inter-School Competitions at the local, State, National and occasionally at the International levels. The scholastic, the intra- and the extra-mural programmes of La Martiniere are geared to nurturing academic excellence, independent and creative thought, tapping of diverse talents, leadership training and a deep commitment to serving the community.
“It is thoughts like these that makes La Martiniere a great and famed Institution.”
