The Bombay Education society (BES) was founded on 29 ^th January 1815 in Mumbai by the Venerable Archdeacon George Barnes, chaplain to the East India Company at the time.

Chaplain Rev. Richard Cobbe founded a small free school in Mumbai (not far from the present Cathedral of St. Thomas, Fort) to house, feed, clothe and educate twelve poor boys, Archdeacon Barnes realised that the charity school could not meet the educational needs of hundreds of children and so he appealed for funds.

Consequently, The Society for promoting education of the poor within the Government of Bombay now known as the Bombay Education Society (BES) was formed in 1815 with Sir Evan Napean, then the Governor of Bombay, as its first President, to ensure a value based education and good upbringing for under-privileged children.

A site of more than 250 acres was purchased at Devlali and on November 17th 1923, Sir George Lloyd laid the foundation stone of Evans Hall. One of the copper plates commemorating the opening is now on one of the walls of the Evans Hall at Barnes School & Junior College, Devlali.

The other remains with Christ Church School, Byculla, Mumbai which along with the parish church there, stands on part of the land originally given to the BES. Much of the land was later sold to help build Barnes School.

The first small school became congested as more and more students sought admission and therefore it became apparent that new grounds and school buildings were essential. A large, airy site at Byculla was allocated by the government and new school building was opened in 1925.

Less than two years later, i.e. on January 29th 1925, a special train brought the first boarders to Devlali and Barnes School was declared open by Leslie Wilson, Governor of Bombay and patron of the Bombay Education Society. The memory of the Founders and Benefactors is preserved well.

The greatest of them was Rev. Thomas Evans, after being Headmaster at the old school in Byculla, he became the first Headmaster of Barnes. Without him, the school probably would not have survived its early years and this is the reason that his portrait hangs in the Evans Hall, named in his memory when he retired in 1934.