The name "Burn Hall" comes from the Scottish and Northern English word burn meaning 'a stream or a small river', and the British English word hall meaning 'a large country house, especially one with a landed estate'. The Mill Hill Fathers named Burn Hall School after their own seminary that was housed in Burn Hall – an ancient "hall" that has a "burn" called River Browney running through its grounds in County Durham, North East England. The institution was granted the prefix "Army" in 1977 after the change of administration and it was called a "college" on the pattern of cadet colleges and other prestigious institutions of the world.
At the time of partition of India, the Mill Hill mission was thrown into disarray by the Kashmir conflict and the school was closed. In 1948, Father Herman Thijssen moved to Abbottabad and, along with Father Francis Scanlon and Father John Boerkamp, set up Burn Hall School in Abbott Hotel. Here, they replicated the English school system that they had themselves studied in. More buildings were later added to accommodate an increasing number of students. The Fathers promoted sports and extracurricular activities such as art, debates, dramatics and music as a means of character building. In 1949, Thijssen went on to establish St. Mary's Academy, Rawalpindi. After the creation of Pakistan, foreign missionaries could no longer hope for residential permits. So, the Mill Hillers who had spent almost the whole of their lives in British India remained in Abbottabad to provide further service to the school. Burn Hall school later came under the control of the Diocesan Board of Education, Rawalpindi. In 1956, a new campus was constructed on Mansehra Road, a few miles outside the town, to provide more room for the seniors. It came to be known as Senior Burn Hall and the older campus Junior Burn Hall. The school in Srinagar was also reopened after nine years in 1956 by Boerkamp as "Burn Hall School". It has since been educating much of Kashmir Valley's elite.
Army administration
In 1977, the Burn Hall School in Abbottabad was handed over to, and the lands were purchased by Pakistan Army Education Corps. Senior Burn Hall was renamed Army Burn Hall College and Junior Burn Hall became Army Burn Hall College for Girls. On 28 October 1993, Pakistan Post issued 1 million commemorative postage stamps to celebrate 50 years of Burn Hall Institutions. In March 2018, Burn Hall celebrated its 75 year anniversary with a three-day mega event. It was attended by a large number of alumni of all ages. Gohar Ayub Khan, being an old Hallian, announced the launch of the book History of Burn Hall on behalf of the college. On 5 March, Pakistan Post issued commemorative postage stamps to mark the event.
