Visitors to the fifth floor of the College’s Classroom Block will find a large bronze bell at the end of the corridor linking the Stewart Building. Though the bell is engraved with the words ‘ARAMIS 1949’, the bell did not come into the possession of the College until the early 1970s.

The Aramis was an oil tanker built in Malmö, Sweden, in 1949. It served the Far East for most of its lifetime and was decommissioned in Hong Kong in 1971. The bell you see here is the bell from that oil tanker. As to how it came to be a part of St. Paul’s College, nobody knows for sure. The most likely explanation is that the bell was a gift from an alumnus working in the maritime industry who was involved with the decommissioning of the aforementioned tanker.

The bell was installed to be used in fire drills. Today, it serves a decorative purpose, with its journey to the College remaining a mystery.