It was Robert Stanes who gave to Coimbatore its industrial importance. In the memorable year 1861, he found the climate of Coimbatore suitable for the curing of coffee, and set up the Stanes Coffee Curing works, the first of many of his companies in Coimbatore.
In the year 1870, he married Harriet Huntingdon Harris in England. He returned with his wife to Coimbatore at the end of 1870. They had six daughters and two sons. In November 1888, he founded the Coimbatore Spinning and Weaving Company Limited and it opened on August 1890, the first in South India and the precursor of the industrialization of Coimbatore District. For the next 15 years the business (Stanes C Co.), the school –work and his church services grew.

Sir Robert Stanes, a pioneering English planter and industrialist founded the school in 1862. He was anxious to help his Anglo-Indian employee’s children in their education and initially started a Sunday Bible School. Finding the need to educate them in English, he decided to start The Day School, which he did under a ‘pandal’ attached to the Teacher’s house.
Thus in 1862, “The Coimbatore Day School” was born. The beginning was small. A little house was rented near the Kumaran Market. The School had four pupils – two girls, two boys and two teachers.

From there, the School moved to premises adjacent to and now occupied by the General Post Office and operated there for more than 50 years, first as “The Coimbatore Day School” and later as the “Stanes European High School”, a co-educational residential institution. It celebrated its Golden Jubilee in 1912, with its Founder marveling at its wonderful growth which he had not envisaged at its inception. In 1914, Robert Stanes was awarded Kaiser -I-Hind medal, and was bestowed with Knighthood in the year 1920.

As the number of students grew, the need for the School was to establish a holistic educational system with a strong emphasis on Sports and Games. To achieve this, Sir Robert Stanes bought the present spacious campus on Avinashi Road. The foundation for the main block was laid on September 23rd 1927, by the Governor General of Madras, the Viscount Goschen of Hawkhurst, in a grand manner.
The School has ever been noted as an Anglo-Indian Protestant Evangelical School, where the Word of God is read and taught daily. “The unseen foundation of the new building was being laid on the solid ground of God’s Word, the Bible” were Sir Robert Stanes’ words on the big day.

Sir Robert Stanes slept in the Lord in Coonoor in 1936 and is buried alongside his wife, Harriet Huntingdon Harris (1843–1901), at All Saints Church, Coonoor. The School thereafter has grown phenomenally in every sphere of School education. It is renowned as being one of the oldest and best Public Schools in the country.

In the year 2012, the school proudly celebrated its Sesquicentennial year in a grand manner.With the demand for new Board Examinations, the Stanes ICSE/ISC School was established in 2012, affiliated to the Council for Indian School Certificate Examinations and the Stanes CBSE School was established in 2016, affiliated to the Central Board of Secondary Education. Both Schools in a very short time have established themselves as premier institutions of their respective Boards in Coimbatore City. The Anglo-Indian Higher Secondary School continues to follow the State Board syllabus.

In the year 2022, the school celebrated its Post Centennial Diamond Jubilee, having completed 160 years in the field of education. Our esteemed institution is the Alma Mater to a galaxy of renowned achievers and highly accomplished leaders in every walk of life, from sporting success to the professions, entrepreneurship and public life. Stanes proudly continues its goal of producing dedicated, good citizens of India, ever keeping in mind its motto “Excelsa Sequar” (Aim for the Highest) and our masthead “To God be the Glory.”