Scotch College

Putting Bob’s monument in its rightful place

If you seek his monument, look around you.

Words: Caleb Griffiths • Year 12 Photography: Kathryn Cairney

The Class of 2007 is raising funds to repair the Bob Horne drinking fountain – known to and used by generations of Scotch boys, many of whom must have wondered what its Latin inscription, Si quaeris monumentum requiris, circumspice, actually meant.

Well, who precisely was Bob Horne? Bob was groundsman and head curator at Scotch from 1895 until his death late in the afternoon of Monday 4 December 1929. Bob died doing what he loved and excelled in doing – preparing a pitch.

The beautiful grounds of today are testimony to Bob’s skill, efficiency and foresight. He built the Main Oval, despite the scepticism of many at the time, with a horse-drawn scoop and dray in a period when there were few mechanical and no automated devices to assist him.

Yet it was not his renowned skill as a maker of wickets, or his handiness as an artistic groundsman that made Bob Horne such a valuable asset to the School. Rather it was the influence he had on the thousands of boys who passed under his keen eye that qualify him for the role of a schoolboy hero.

The original drinking fountain, unveiled by former Scotch Council Chairman, Sir Arthur Robinson, was erected in Bob’s honour outside the old Main Oval pavilion, with the inscription: ‘Si monumentum requiris, circumspice’: if you seek his monument, look around you.

When the old pavilion was demolished to make way for the current arts, geology and biology block, the fountain was relocated to the back of the scoreboard building – a somewhat out-of-the-way position for any monument. It has since fallen into a sad state of disrepair, a truck having dislodged the copper drainage bowl and the original granite having completely vanished.

The Class of 2007 wants to relocate the fountain to its original setting overlooking the Main Oval – Bob’s pride and joy. The class is also having the old pavilion clock recreated and located above the fountain. Along with the refurbishment of the Chapel bell, this will form a significant part of the Class of 2007’s gift to the school.

To fund the refurbishment of the Bob Horne Memorial Fountain, the Class of 2007 has to raise in the vicinity of $8000. This is equivalent to the profit from 32 barbeques (that’s three every fortnight). Your assistance in this effort would be warmly welcomed and greatly appreciated by the Class of 2007 and benefit thousands of future Scotch Collegians through the preservation of this fundamental part of Scotch’s history.

The Class of 2007 will also be putting the funds raised towards the refurbishment of the Chapel bell, which has fallen into a sad state of disrepair, the recreation of the old Main Oval Pavilion Clock and another project which is still being discussed.