The school was established for the welfare of the employees of GSF and its allied defence establishments. Kolkata has got the privilege of having quite a number of premier institutions on its landscape. Gun and Shell Factory, Cossipore (GSF), a defence installation, is one among them. Established in the year, 1801, by the East India Company, as the first ordnance factory in the country, Gun and Shell factory Cossipore, has been rendering yeoman’s service in the field of defence production to safeguard the frontiers of the mother land for the last two centuries. It is also doing its bit in promoting education in the larger interest of the society. W.W. A. Cossipore English School is located in the residential complex of the Factory.

Starting with a meager strength of less than 100 students in the year 1976, the school under the patronage of the General Manager of Gun and Shell Factory, Cossipore, has developed during the last three decades to its present strength of almost 1, 700 students from Lower K.G. to class XII. In 1976, the school had only Nursery to class – I with a strength of less than 100 students. Gradually, it increased up to class VIII in the year 1983 with strength around 940 students when it got affiliated to CISCE. The first batch of the school appeared for board exam in the year 1985.

Afterwords, it made its stride year by year and has become a school of reckoning in North Kolkata. Its status has been uplifted to Higher Secondary level in the year, 1995.