Scotch College

Who are these men?

Can you recognise which Principal or Vice Principal of Scotch each of the following is referring to?

They are all quotes from the penultimate draft of the new history of Scotch. To check your answers - and for a great read anyhow - make sure you obtain your copy of the new history. Orders can be placed by using the 2001 Programme Bookings Form previously circulated. Order forms will also be circulated with Great Scot early next year. The manuscript of the book is very nearly ready to go to the publisher, Allen & Unwin. The History Committee is delighted with the way it is shaping up, and is sure that you will be too.

'Whom have I hurt? What artists have I broken? - No, don't write or telephone to tell me; I can guess; it's not worth the postage nowadays. But this must be the shadow on any headmaster's mind.'

'How does a shy man manage a thousand boys? By a clear, firm austerity, physically he 'was indeed a grand figure. His whole body had been laid out regardless of cost, with plenty of face and eyebrow, and a monumental slab of trunk'.

'He had such an awesome and fearful image in my mind that, because I didn't know what his first name was (just his initial), I couldn't imagine what it might be; it didn't seem possible that such a man could have any kind of ordinary Christian name at all. Yet when somehow I confided to him something that was troubling me, and found him unexpectedly kind and caring, quite sensitive. I found him a strange paradox.'

'It became customary to call him a farmer's son - 'the son of a simple Scotch farmer'. Perhaps this made later eminence more glorious, or perhaps it implied an inner strength or straightforwardness supposedly linked with working the land.'

'In appointing him Scotch reached back for comfort to its roots. A young Celt would once again see Scotch through. This was the last time the school acquired a principal without having met him first, and we may imagine the mutual shock. He was a youthful, brown-eyed six-footer,…and his surprisingly large eyebrows took a vivacious part in the conversation, as did his wide and flashing smile. He had great charm.'

'The trams and traffic stopped in Glenferrie Road for his funeral as the pipe band escorted the cortège out of the Monash Gates.'

'The Rector of Xavier honoured his friend by adding Xavier's boys to the Scotch boys following the hearse.'

'This tall, boyish, young man was warm and charming…. He never came to like vegemite, but he made the transition to Australia and to Scotch.'