Scotch College

Wesley at Scotch

'Unshakeable bonds' reinforced at Remembrance Day service

Rear: James Wilson, Dr Gordon Donaldson (Principal Scotch College), Andrew Earle, Will McMahon. Front: Philipa Judd and Dr Helen Drennen (Principal Wesley College).

Remembrance Day Assembly is always an occasion of great emotion and significance.

But on Friday 10 November it took on even greater meaning, with participation in the service by 97 Old Scotch Boys and 76 Old Wesley Boys who had been at Scotch during 1942 and 1943 – the two war years when Wesley College operated on the Scotch campus. (See When firm friendships were formed, in this edition.)

Many wives and partners also attended the service, and the morning tea and lunch which followed.

For everyone – Scotch and Wesley boys from the ‘40s, partners, staff, and current students – it was an incredibly emotional experience, evoking smiles, and even a few tears. Old boys of both schools greeted each other warmly as more than 60 years of war and peace peeled away. Firm links between the two Schools were remembered, celebrated and reinforced.

The service, in a packed Memorial Hall, began with the national anthem and a welcome by the Principal, Dr Gordon Donaldson, who spoke on the significance of Remembrance Day.

After the Bible reading by Scotch student Andrew Earle, the hymn Abide with me, and the School Chaplain, Rev Graham Bradbeer gave the homily and prayer, Year 11 students from the two schools – Will McMahon (Scotch) and Philippa Judd (Wesley) – vividly recalled the days of ’42 and ’43 in a special presentation, Wesley at Scotch. (See the transcript of the presentation in this edition.)

Wesley Principal, Dr Helen Drennen then spoke about the ‘unshakeable bonds’ between Wesley and Scotch, forged over many decades before the Wesley at Scotch years, and indelibly strengthened during those dark days of war.

Dr Drennen unveiled a plaque commemorating Wesley’s time at Scotch, which will be appropriately placed adjacent to the drinking fountain on the north side of the Main Oval, which Wesley students presented to Scotch to thank the School for its hospitality to them.

The service continued with a presentation of a 9th Division banner by Dr Hugh Melville (’41 – see Scotch’s new link with the 9th Division); then current Wesley student James Wilson read a letter written by Old Wesley boy, Harry Carter on 24 April 1915 – the night before he participated in, and survived, the Gallipoli landing. Old Scotch boy Hon Walter Jona (’44) read For the Fallen, and the service concluded with a minute’s silence, The Last Post, Reveille and benediction by the Chaplain.

Everyone filed out into the Quadrangle, where the full significance of Scotch’s sacrifice in two World Wars was symbolically represented by a forest of white wooden crosses in two of the four lawns – more than 500 – one cross for each Old Scotch boy who made the supreme sacrifice in the wars.

Morning tea in the James Forbes Academy was followed by lunch in the Cardinal Pavilion, where many friendships from the war years were rekindled, the Scotch-Wesley friendly rivalry was joked about, and the ‘unshakeable bonds’ were well and truly reinforced.

With great distinction, clarity and humility, Old Scotch Boys Laurie Muir (’42), Hugh Melville (’42) and Tom Hogg (’43), with their Wesley counterparts Bruce Gregory, Ian Parkin and John Ball, presented their reflections of life at Scotch in 1942 and 1943.

1. Andrew Earle

2. Year 7 students assemble in the quadrangle for the service 3. Professor Weston Bate and Dr John Bartram