What they did then - Scotch College

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What they did then

PAUL MISHURA – ACTING ARCHIVIST

In keeping with the ‘teaching and learning conversations’ theme of this edition of Great Scot, ‘What they did then’ looks at some Old Boys in education.

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One of the earliest Scotchies in education was Professor Andrew Harper (1844-1936, SC 1857-58) (RIGHT) He won a Cunningham Fellowship to Edinburgh University, graduating BA (1868) and DD (1872). Professor Harper was the foundation English teacher at Presbyterian Ladies’ College. From 1879 to 1888 he was PLC’s principal, and then chairman of its council from 1907 to 1913. From 1888 he was lecturer in Hebrew at Ormond College, and from 1902 to 1923 he was the third principal of St Andrew’s College, Sydney University.

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One of the great modern principals was Stephen Newton (SC 1961-72) (BELOW)who retired in April 2011 as the much-loved principal of Caulfield Grammar School. Taking up the position in 1993, he made all campuses co-educational. Before the Chinese boom began, Newton broke new ground by establishing CGS’s fifth campus and the first international campus for an Australian school, with the opening of the Nanjing campus in 1998. He retired from a school of more than 3,000 students. Newton received an honour in this year’s Australia Day honours list. (Please see the Old Boys section of this issue.) Scotchies playing sport might like to claim they ‘own’ Caulfield Grammar School, but one Old Boy who did own it was Walter Murray Buntine (1866-1953, SC 1884-85) (RIGHT). He was on the staff of CGS from at least 1890, and liked it so much that he bought it in 1896 and became its headmaster. In 1893 he had established Hawksburn Grammar School. It grew rapidly and needed space, resulting in the merger with CGS and the dissolution of HGS. In 1923 he took on the title of principal, appointing F H J Archer headmaster, and in 1931 Buntine sold CGS to its old boys. He was a founder of Ridley College and from 1909 to 1952 was a member of its council.

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A Scotch boy who part-owned Caulfield Grammar School was Professor Thomas Jollie Smith (1858-1927; SC 1870-75) (LEFT) He may have joined the CGS staff at the end of its foundation year in 1881, but was definitely there in 1882, as on 21 February he went into partnership with founding headmaster J H Davies to purchase land and expand the school. The partnership was dissolved during August 1882. In a career which included periods as a principal and a Presbyterian minister, from 1911 to 1921 he was lecturer at Melbourne University in Logic, Psychology and Ethics, and in Japanese, which he established in 1919. From 1922 Smith was professor of Hebrew, Logic and Old Testament Studies at Ormond College.

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A Scotchie who ruled Carey Baptist Grammar School was Harold George Steele (1884-1967, SC 1900-02) (LEFT), who was Carey’s foundation headmaster from 1923 to 1944. He graduated BA (1906), DipEd (Oxon 1915) and MA (1918). From 1918 to 1922 Steele was vice-principal of Launceston Church Grammar School. He led Carey through the Great Depression which could have killed the infant school, and took it through most of World War II. So strong were the foundations on which Steele set Carey that it was the youngest of five schools invited to join the APS in September 1957.

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Sir Walter Logie Forbes Murdoch (1874-1970; SC 1891) (RIGHT) was a foundation student at Camberwell Grammar School (1886-90). To enter Melbourne University he had to leave and attend Scotch, which was one of the few schools at which students could attempt matriculation. After teaching experience in Victoria he became an assistant lecturer in English at Melbourne University in 1903. In 1913 he became a founding professor of English at the University of Western Australia, retaining the role until 1939. Murdoch was chancellor of the university from 1943 to 1947. In 1973 his name was given to Western Australia’s second university, making him the second Scotch boy after Monash to become the eponym of a university.

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The Scotch boy who saved Geelong College was Sir Francis William Rolland (1878-1965, SC 1895) (ABOVE). A Presbyterian clergyman, he served as an army chaplain in World War I, winning the Military Cross. Following the accidental shooting death of Geelong College’s second principal Norman Morrison, the school had two short-lived principals who presided over a declining school. With no teaching experience, Rolland was appointed principal of only 208 Geelong College boys in 1920. He was a grandson of its founder and became its saviour. With strength of character and perseverance he inspired faith in the school, raising funds and enrolments, and retired in 1945. By his side as vice-principal until 1938 was Andrew Hamilton MacRoberts (1875-1943, SC 1891-92).

Camberwell Grammar School was owned by a Scotch boy: Arthur Bertram Taylor (1857-1938; SC 1864-75). It also owes its existence to him as it was he who founded it in 1886. He had graduated BA in 1880 and realised that an independent school in Camberwell could not fail. A shrewd businessman, Taylor ran the school very profitably until he sold it in June 1891, as he foresaw the coming depression. He sold it to Alfred Smith Hall and William Alexander Gosman (1866-1940, SC 1879-84). Gosman jointly owned the school until selling his share in 1896.

Brisbane Boys’ College owes its existence to Arthur William Rudd (1874-1962, SC 1888-90). As a teacher with four students in a tent he founded Clayfield College in Brisbane in 1902. It grew quickly and in 1919 was taken over by the Presbyterian and Methodist churches and became Brisbane Boys’ College. Rudd was its principal from 1902 to 1930 and its vice-principal from 1931-45.

A Scotchie who left his mark on University High School was Matthew Stanton Sharman (1876-1953, SC 1890-94). In 1910 he joined the staff of the school which became University High School, and in 1915 he became the school’s second principal. He opposed corporal punishment and examinations for their own sake. Sharman retired as principal in 1941, having been president of the old pupils’ association and the man whose ideals were encapsulated in the school’s ceremonial life.