Scotch College

Best mates for life

Mac Cuming (MGS) and David Lorimer (SC)

This photograph shows two extreme rivals: a Melbourne Grammar School boy and a Scotch College boy – or does it? The real story is fascinating.

Patrick ‘Peter’ Lorimer attended Scotch from 1864–66. When Peter died on 15 August 1906, his youngest son, David, was five years old. David entered Camberwell Grammar School in 1913, as his mother could not afford to send him to Scotch.

James Cuming attended MGS from 1876–79. His son, Mariannus ‘Mac’ Cuming, entered Camberwell Grammar School in 1910. Mac became a friend of David Lorimer, and in 1917 Mac left to attend MGS.

James Cuming approached David’s widowed mother, Kate Tasmania Lorimer, offering to pay for David to attend MGS. Her late husband, his brother George, and her elder son John were Scotch boys, and she was appalled that David might become a Grammar boy. She refused Cuming’s generous offer. Speaking volumes about the man, James Cuming made another offer: to pay for David to attend Scotch.

David Lorimer entered Scotch on 23 March 1917. In 1918 he was a member of the Scotch First XVIII, which was beaten by MGS. Mac’s mother died in 1926, leaving £100 to David, who used it as a deposit on a farm. David was best man at Mac’s wedding. Mac was a director of many companies, including ICI (1949–71) and BHP (1957–71), but made time to visit David in NSW. David died at Nyngan, NSW, on 20 January 1971. Mac remained in contact with David’s family until his own death in Melbourne on 26 November 1988.

In 2006, at least seven Scotch boys’ fathers are Old Melburnians. At least two Scotch school captains are sons of Old Melburnians. When MGS began in 1858, 12 Scotch boys left to attend the new school. While at least 98 boys have shed the dark blue to wear cardinal, gold and blue, at least 136 Scotch boys have defected to wear the mitred blazer. At least 11 have been unable to choose between Scotch and MGS, and have bounced between them. Some families have sent three generations to one school before defecting to the other.

Mac’s family typifies the links between Scotch and Grammar. His son, David, attended MGS (1937–44) and married Merle, daughter of Old Scotch Collegian George Sutherland Smith (1909–15). Their daughter married an Old Scotch Collegian, and their son, Mac’s great grandson, Michael Cook, attended Scotch from 1985–96. Mac probably enjoyed the irony of seeing him start at Scotch. Mac’s first cousin twice removed is currently on staff at Scotch, and her son is expected to don the cardinal, gold and blue in the near future.

One day during World War I, Cuming and Lorimer walked into a Melbourne photographer’s studio. Perhaps they had come straight from their respective schools. It seems almost certain that they consciously wore their rival schools’ blazers, aware of the irony, and proud of their schools: the strongest of foes, and best mates for life.

Paul Mishura