Towards the end of 1942, at the height of the Pacific Campaign of the Second World War, the Colonial Authority was issued a command to close all urban schools and surrender their compounds to the military, to be used as military camps for the war campaign against the Japanese threat. At that time, a notable missionary teacher by the name of Mr William Earnest Donnelly, was serving as principal of Toorak Boys’ School. Whilst other overseas teachers immediately left Fiji to await the end of the war, the determined missionary principal, Mr Donnelly sent a circular to all members of the senior classes of Classes Six, Seven, and Eight of Toorak Boys School, inviting volunteers to come away with him, to continue their education. After consultation with the heads of the Methodist Church, he was given permission to use the principal’s residence at the Davuilevu Technical School. As a result, he and 50 volunteers from Toorak Boys School in Suva, met at the principal’s residence on 3 March 1943. Their first classrooms were the two master bedrooms in the house and the long verandah on the eastern side as their library. There were only two classes and two teachers; the late Mssrs W.E Donnelly and Semesa Sikivou.