In 1900 after the signing of the Buganda Agreement the Vatican designated the Catholic Church that had taken root in Uganda to three missionary bodies, and these were The Missionaries of Africa{White Fathers},The Mill Hill Missionaries and The Comboni Missionaries. The White Fathers were in charge of west Buganda, Bunyoro,Ankole,Tooro and Kigezi their seat was at Lubaga and so they were under the administration of the Bishop of Lubaga, the Mill Hill Missionaries were in charge of East Buganda,Busoga,Bukedi,Bugisu,Teso and Karamoja their seat was at Nsambya and so they were under the administration of the Bishop of Nsambya, the Comboni Missionaries were in charge of Acholi,Lango,West Nile and Southern Sudan their seat was at Juba they were under the administration of Bishop of the Upper Nile.
In 1902 the Mill Hill Missionaries founded a school and mission at Namilyango hill the aim was to train catechist it was located at the present day St Peters Primary School which is just next to the Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church Namilyango Parish. In 1915 the Bishop of Nsambya the Right Reverend Henry Hanlon decided that the School should now be transformed to offer formal education to the children of the Chiefs of the Buganda Kingdom and Father Minderop was appointed the headmaster and it moved to the present location below the Church and that is when it adopted the name “Sacred Heart College Namilyango”. In 1932 when the Bishop of Nsambya the Right Reverend John Campling contracted the Brothers of Christian Instructions who were based at Kisubi to run the school as the population of students was expanding, the Brothers christened the school as St Aloysius College.
In 1937 the Bishop of Nsambya the Right Reverend John Reesinch decided to terminate the contract of the Brothers of Christian Instruction and the Mill Hill Missionaries resumed the administration of the school, the boarding section was introduced with three dormitories and these were named Hanlon,Campling and Biermans{ these are the present day Reesinch,Biermans and Campling}.
In 1940 Father Doyle was appointed headmaster of the school this was followed by the introduction of the Cadet Course and the game of boxing at the College consequently the population of the students increased and there was need to expand on the accommodation space. A new dormitory was built and completed 1949 it was named Hanlon and the existing Hanlon house was renamed Reesinch after Bishop John Reesinch who was the reigning Bishop of Nsambya diocese at that time. By 1941 the college had 4 dormitories and these were Hanlon, Reesinch, Biermans and Campling these houses were in the 1970s tagged and branded as the Colonial houses as they had been built in the colonial days.
In the 1940s and the 1950s the education system had Junior Secondary and Senior Secondary education teaching in the post primary schools thereafter the students would proceed to Makerere College for 2 years of Intermediate education and 2 years of training and they would graduate with Diplomas, the alternative to Makerere was School of Engineering at Nakawa { this is the present day MUBS}.In 1961 when the country got self-government led by Ben Kiwanuka it decided to introduce the Higher School Certificate HSC in the post primary schools under the stewardship of Mr. John Chrysostom Kiwanuka who was the Minister of Education and also a teacher at SMAK and Makerere was elevated to a University and started awarding degrees Namilyango was among the pioneer schools to have the HSC. Father Kuipers who was the headmaster then decided that the HSC students would reside in Hanlon house, so it became the dormitory of the HSC hence there was need to expand accommodation facilities for the students as the population was increasing. When HSC was introduced the Cadet Course was abolished.
In 1964 when the cold war between the United States {Americans} and the Soviet Union {Russians} was accerelating,these two super powers began wooing the newly independent countries in Africa to lean on their style of leadership the Americans were agitating for democracy as the Russians were agitating for communism/socialism. The American government gave a grant to the Uganda government to support development of post primary education, so through their agency of international development {USAID} they built Tororo Girls Schools at Tororo and Teso College at Aloet near Soroti. As the central government had no schools by then they approached Catholic church which had schools, Namilyango became a beneficiary for under this programme 2 dormitories, 3 senior staff houses, 3 junior staff houses, the Sick bay, the HSC hostel, the Main hall, the Boxing pyramid, the Library, the Biology Lab and a 2 Classroom block were built at the college and the 2 dormitories and the HSC hostel were opened for occupation in 1965.
It was the policy of the Mill Hill missionaries not to name structures and roads after people who were alive and so the 2 dormitories were named New House Upper and New House Lower and the HSC block was named the HSC hostel. In 1981 when Mr. Alfred Mugoda was the headmaster these dormitories were given names; New House Upper was named Doyle House after Father John Doyle who was the headmaster of the school from 1940-1951, New House Lower was named McKee House after Father Kevin McKee who was a teacher at the school from 1952-1962 and the HSC hostel was named Minderop Hostel after Father John Minderop who was the headmaster of the school from 1915-1927 all these Fathers belonged to the Mill Hill missionaries.
In 1967 Uganda became a republic and the provision of services was centralized to the central government, when it came to tackle education it realized that the prominent secondary schools were owned by Churches{Catholic and Protestants},Buganda Kingdom,Indians,Moslems and the Ismaili Community {Aga Khan} apart from Tororo Girls and Teso College! And it had no money to build new schools, so it decided to subsidize the cost of running the schools. The 50 prominent secondary schools were selected and they were branded as Government Aided schools. In 1968 the Junior secondary was abolished and HSC was introduced in schools that had performed well then and the Junior secondary schools were converted into Secondary schools without HSC.
It was in the same year that government got a loan from the World Bank through the International Development Agency IDA to build and improve on the infra-structure in the government aided schools Namilyango was a beneficiary and so 4 dormitories and 3 classrooms were built and completed in 1969, the dormitories were for the O-Level students and they were named House A, House B, House C and House D they were opened for occupation in 1970 and they were nicknamed the “Industrial Area” by the students occupying the Colonial Houses and the New Houses because they resembled the design of factories.
In 1977 when Alfred Mugoda was the headmaster House D was named Mukasa House after Mr. Noah Mukasa who came to the school as a Biology teacher in 1957 and in 1960 he was appointed the Deputy Headmaster to Father Kuipers he retained this post up to 1976 when he retired, to appreciate his contribution the dormitory was named after him. In 1981 the other 3 dormitories were renamed as follows; House A was named Kiwanuka House after Bishop Dr Joseph Kiwanuka who served as Bishop of Lubaga from 1957-1966 he was the first African Bishop South of the Sahara, House B was named Billington House after Bishop Vincent Billington who served as Bishop of Nsambya Diocese 1959-1965 he was the last Mill Hill bishop to serve at Nsambya, House C was named Kuipers House after Father Bernard Kuipers he came to Namilyango in 1943 to boost the teaching of Science subjects, from 1952-1959 he served as Deputy Headmaster to Father Hewston, from 1960-1970 he served as Headmaster and from 1988-1990 he was chaplain.
In 2009 the Board of Governors and the PTA decided to build a new dormitory for the Senior 1 class as the student population had expanded. Mr. Gerald Muguluma the Headmaster then consulted NACOBA to suggest what name should be given to the dormitory NACOBA recommended that it should be named Sweeny House after Father John Sweeny who was chaplain at the school from 1965 to 1995. Bishop Ssekamanya did not endorse the name and he ruled that the dormitory shall be named Charles Lwanga after St Charles Lwanga one of the 22 Uganda martyrs that were killed at Namugongo by Kabaka Mwanga.
In 2014 the Board of Governors and the PTA decided to build a new dormitory for the O-Level section to cope up with rising demand for admissions at the school. Mr. Muguluma again consulted NACOBA to suggest what name to be given to the dormitory NACOBA recommended Hewston House after Father Henry Hewston who served as the Headmaster of the school from 1952-1959 this time Bishop Ssekamanya endorsed the name and Hewston House was opened for occupation by Bishop Christopher Kakoza of Lugazi Diocese on Namilyango Day of 2015.
Deo Lubega
McKee House 1975-1978