“The Mayo College, Ajmer is an educational institution founded in 1875 by Sir Richard Southwell Bourke, 6th Earl of Mayo, who was also the Viceroy of India from 1868 to 1872. It is one of the oldest educational institutions which was set up as a public boarding school, offering admission to the then elite. This character of the institution changed in the post-independence era, but it continued to be a prestigious centre of learning. The Mayo College is an unaided, non-governmental educational institution receiving no grant either from State or Central Government and is affiliated to Central Board of Secondary Education, New Delhi, for purposes of students taking that examination to pass the 12th standard.

We cannot lose sight of the fact that we are dealing with an educational institution of great eminence. Persons employed in educational institutions right from Class IV staff to the highest level have a far greater responsibility on account of the nature of activity which takes place in these institutions – ‘education’. There are students of all ages, starting from younger ones to older teenagers, who are studying and living in these campuses. It is a different kind of ‘gurukul’. Thus, anything which is done, as would cause an adverse impact on the mind of these young people, is something which we find difficult to approve, even if it is claimed as a right to make certain demands. At the cost of repetition, we may re-emphasize, the Mayo College is a recognized institution but is not financially aided in any manner by Central or State Government.” 

– Hon’ble Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul, Kailash Singh v. Managing Committee, Mayo College, Ajmer, [Civil Appeal No.6409 of 2017].

While visiting the convict settlement at Port Blair in Andaman Islands in 1872 for the purpose of inspection, Sir Richard Southwell Bourke was assassinated by Sher Ali Afridi, a Pathan convict who used a knife.

Mayo’s body was brought home to Ireland and buried in Johnstown, County Kildare, near his home at Palmerstown House. Afridi was hanged.

In 1873, a newly discovered swallowtail butterfly from the Andaman Islands was named: Papilio Mayo.