Christ the King College, Bo (CKC)

The Story of CKC in the early days- Tony Sheriff

Christ The King College (CKC), Bo - Sierra Leone is a unique secondary school built by the Catholic Mission on a plot of land donated by Paramount Chief land owners, Chief Hotagua and Chief Boima, of Bo Kakua chiefdom.

This story starts with the need to educate the children of the other masses after many decades of secondary education of the children and siblings of Paramount Chiefs in the Bo Govt Secondary School - which was built only for them.

The Catholic Mission had established Saint Edward's Secondary School in the Colony, in the capital of Sierra Leone, Freetown, which was a success because it had become one of the top performing secondary schools in the country.

Considering the success of St Edward's Sec School in Freetown, and realising that there is need for a Catholic Secondary School in the Protectorate area of Sierra Leone, the Catholic Mission took the first steps to establish a sister school to St Edward's in Bo at the site of St Francis Primary School, Bo in 1953, which was the birth of Christ The King College.

Rev Fr Michael Corbett started CKC in 1953, but there were plans to look for an appropriate site to relocate the school for future development. At that time, Fr O'Flyne was the Parish Priest of St Francis, so he must have been part of the negotiating team that approached Chief Hotagua and Chief Boima to ask for a site to build a new sec. school where the newly found CKC will be relocated.

If any agreement was documented, such documents will be found either in Freetown in the lands ministry or in Dublin in the Spiritan House, same as the Building plans and documents.

Ormley Gorley Esq (late) use to represent the Catholic Mission and therefore could have been the lawyer for any negotiations between the land owner chiefs and Fr O'Flyne for the piece of land where CKC is built.

At this point, I can say that the Ex-pupils Movement of Christ The King College, COBA has no legal status with respect to the piece of land, except the Diocese of Freetown and Bo - Bishop Brosnahan, Fr O'Flyne and Fr Michael Corbett, who are all late now. However, they are survived by the COBA movement, members of which are descendants of the school.

CKC was built under the watch of Fr Brian O'connor as the architect, Fr Corbett and Fr. Fitzgerald who was transferred to Pujehun in 1959 to establish St Paul's Sec School. Fr. Fitzgerald was replaced by Fr. Timothy O'Connor, who later joined Fr. Fitzgerald in Pujehun and later drowned in Sulima at age of 33.

When the lodge was built at the end of the Avenue of CKC, it housed 4 priests: Fr Corbett, Fr Brian O'Connor, Fr Timothy O'Connor and Fr Owens. Fr PJ Henehan joined them in 1960 and became the boarding home master apart from teaching French language in the school. He was very disciplined and very time conscious.

Fr Brian O'Connor taught science in Forms IV and V, gymnastics and club swinging. After he finished setting up the laboratory in CKC, Fr Brian O'Connor was transferred back to

Freetown to set up the laboratory in St Edward's. He was replaced by Fr MacMahon who became the Science teacher in the senior forms.

Fr. Jeremia Lambe became the second Principal of CKC in August 1962, after Fr Corbett. Before that time, Fr Lambe was teaching at the Catholic Teacher Training College (CTC) Bo.

Fr. Lambe greatly improved the outlook of the school compound by clearing the forest that blocked view of the school buildings from the Damballa highway. He built the staff quarters on the opposite side of the field oacross from the school buildings. He built the Lawn Tennis courts and trained pupils to play the game. His trained teams of tennis players in the school competed at national and international levels of tennis games. He loved the game of golf but tennis was his favourite.

Apart from administration of the school, Fr Lambe as the Principal of the school always catered for teaching staff from across the world - Europe, America, Canada, Africa, India and Pakistan apart from local staffs. He taught English language in the senior forms.

Fr Curran joined CKC staff in 1967 from Bonthe and taught Chemistry in forms V and VI. He later succeeded Fr Lambe as Principal of the school.

CKC benefitted from young graduates in the early years of its establishment, most of whom were grade One students, such as George Dakowa who taught Biology, PP Kebbie, Jonathan Tucker, Patrick Banks, Joe Amara Bangalie, Hassan Conteh and Milton Harvey to mention a few.

The story of CKC in the early days cannot be concluded without mentioning the cooks for the boarding home, Pa Tongie, Gamanga and Brima Thermogene. Brima used to dress in white shirt and Trousers despite being a cook, but he tells local women he fancied that he teaches French in CKC (soft lies).
Mr Legg was the cook for the priests and Santigie was the cleaner of the Priests' quarters.
Last but not least was Mr Sam, who worked in the Science laboratory as Lab assistant for several decades.

This narrative is developed thanks to Prof Andrew Conteh, who enrolled in CKC 20th January 1957 - 1962 from St Patrick's primary school in Bonthe. He grew to become a bursar in the boarding home and senior Prefect in form V before he left CKC to do his 6th Form in St Edwards in Freetown in 1962.