Scotch College

School spirit

Pictured: Ward's Head of the River cartoon (around 1969).

It is an old and pleasing joke that "Scotch" is the name of both a school and a whisky.

Take, for example, a cartoon (right) that depicts a boat-race river-side party of adults and a Scotch boy in blazer. The men grasp cut-glass whisky tumblers and it seems that the boy too has had his share - he grins from ear to ear and steam rises from his head. As the caption says, in a comment from one adult to another: "No doubt about Scotch it's a great drink".

It is unsigned, but the donor, Hugh Daly (1970), attributes it to Ward O'Neil (1969), now the cartoonist of the Australian Financial Review.

This cartoon is already framed and under glass, and no doubt has some value as the early work of one the several distinguished cartoonists that Scotch has produced. The value is enhanced by what is written beside it on the same sheet of paper. For when the editors of Satura sought to publish it, the Vice-Principal censored it emphatically : "NO ! Absolutely NO mention of alcohol to be connected with the name of the school. R. S. Bond 17 Apr 69".

O'Neil cannot recall these events explicitly but imagines that he probably meekly accepted Bond's ruling. He recalls, too, the open-minded encouragement of his drawing by the art masters "Oscar" Helms and "Goofy" Paton. The latter he recalls with particular fondness. 'Er, boys I wonder if any of you has seen my car ? ... I can't remember where I parked it ..."

Another cartoon, by artist Bob Wade (1949), is set outside the school swimming pool which bears a notice warning boys not to dive when the pool is empty. Scotch needs water, so to speak. As the caption puts it, 'Dad said the best thing he learned from Shorty was that Scotch and water's a great combination".

The teacher nicknamed "Shorty" by some generations of boys and "Tiny" by other generations, was, of course, a very tall man. Keith Elliott taught at Scotch from 1946 to 1979, and it was on the occasion of his retirement that Wade drew this cartoon.

An early work of Bob Wade, who this year received the Order of Australia medal (see story ).

He and Elliott had started Scotch together in 1946 when the brand-new Elliott was form master of Remove A, containing Wade. (In those days, two classes of new boys joined the school in Year 9.) The cartoon is signed by Wade, of course, and the copy in the archives was autographed: "K. L. (Shorty) Elliott" at a Forty-Niners' Dinner and donated to the school by Robert Brélaz (1949).

Daly and Brélaz shared a common impulse, to pass the school's memorabilia to the school's archives.

Jim Mitchell
Co-Archivist