Shawnigan Lake School was founded in 1916 by Christopher Windley Lonsdale in a then-secluded west coast rainforest on Vancouver Island. The first register of Shawnigan Lake School is dated April 27, 1916. As the years passed, Shawnigan withstood two world wars, economic crises and changing approaches to education to forge a place as one of the country's leading boarding schools.
In 1953, the Shawnigan Lake School War Memorial Society and the Old Boys Committee constructed two tennis courts at the school known as the War Memorial Tennis Courts. In March 1953, the Honourable Clarence Wallace C.B.E., Lieutenant-Governor of British Columbia presented a roll of honour to the school with the names of 42 Old Boys of Shawnigan killed on active service in the war of 1939-45. The Roll of Honour is in permanent display in the Chapel.
