KING CHARLES III

THE ACCESSION OF KING CHARLES III FOLLOWING THE DEATH OF HIS MOTHER, QUEEN ELIZABETH II, ON 8 SEPTEMBER WAS A POIGNANT MOMENT FOR HIS FORMER

TIMBERTOP CLASSMATES. THEY EXPRESSED THEIR CONDOLENCES AND WELL WISHES FOR THE NEW KING’S REIGN IN A LETTER THAT WAS DELIVERED TO BALMORAL CASTLE.

This message is from members of the Timbertop Class of 1966 who had the privilege to be your school friends all those years ago in the mountains of Victoria.

It was with great sadness and our deepest sympathy for Your Majesty that we learned of the passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth on 8 September. Losing a mother is a time of deepest grief. We extend our heartfelt sympathy and our thoughts to Your Majesty and to all members of the Royal family.

Collectively, we wish you strength and wisdom in the days and years ahead to help steer the world towards a more sustainable, peaceful future and to deal with the difficulties that must come with such august duty and calling. We also hope that part of the strength and stamina on which you can call rests in the memories of those long past days in the Australian bush. We are honoured to be counted amongst your friends and hope that you will find the opportunity to visit Australia frequently.

HRH Prince Charles arrived at Timbertop in early February 1966, aged 17. The Queen had consulted prime minister Sir Robert Menzies about the possibility of her eldest son coming to Australia to broaden his education, and Menzies approached Tommy Garnett (Headmaster 1961-73). A student exchange programme was arranged with Gordonstoun, Prince Charles’s school in Scotland, and Corio student David Manton (P’67) went to Gordonstoun while Prince Charles was in Australia. The arrangement was initially for one term but was so successful it continued for a second term.

Even though Prince Charles was three years older than the other Timbertop students, that campus was selected because it offered more privacy than Corio as well as providing the future king of Australia with a hands-on experience of living in the Australian bush. He was assigned two companions of his own age, Stuart McGregor (P’65) and John Burnell (FB’65), and given accommodation in the single masters’ quarters, along with his security detail, Inspector Derek Sharp. Charles, as he was known to his fellow students, participated in all aspects of Timbertop life and later described his experience as “the best part of my education – the part I enjoyed most, and I have very happy memories of it”.

Prince Charles visited Corio several times during his stay for meetings with his academic tutors, Michael Collins Persse (Staff 1955–2018) for history, John Glover (Staff 1933–69) for French, and Peter Westcott (Staff 1940–69) for English, who ensured that their pupil kept up to speed with the British A-level syllabus that he was following. In the May school holidays he went as part of a GGS school group to visit the Dogura Martyrs Memorial School in Popondetta, Papua New Guinea. On 28 July, his last night as a GGS student, Prince Charles stayed at Corio and read a paper on his ancestor King Charles I to the Historical Society, an account of which was recorded by Michael Collins Persse in the society’s minute book. Prince Charles returned to Gordonstoun for his final year of school, and completed his education at Trinity College, Cambridge. He returned to Timbertop for a visit with his sister Princess Anne in 1970, and has also visited Corio several times, most recently in 2005 for the School’s sesquicentenary.

“We are incredibly proud of the way his GGS experience helped to shape the growth and development of King Charles during a very formative period of his life”, said Principal, Rebecca Cody. “Many of our former students who were his contemporaries remember fondly his decency, persistence and resilience. We wish His Majesty King Charles III great health, joy and success in his reign.”