The Cluthan OCTOBER 2016
Clyde Old Girls’ Association Inc Registered Number: A0028536K
THE PRESIDENT AND COMMITTEE OF THE CLYDE OLD GIRLS’ ASSOCIATION INC (COGA) INVITE YOU TO THE COGA ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING AND OLD GIRLS’ DAY LUNCH
SUNDAY 16 OCTOBER 2016 at the South Melbourne Community Centre corner Park Street and Ferrars Place, South Melbourne
PROGRAM 10.30am 11.00am 11.45am 12.20-2.30pm
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Arrival and morning tea Annual General Meeting Guest speaker: Janet McCulloch (Low) Old Girls’ Day lunch Cost: $25 per person
(Please RSVP by 9 October using the yellow form inside the Cluthan) ************************** Janet McCulloch OAM (Low Cl’51) was named Ballarat Senior of the Year on 25 September 2015, following her Ballarat Senior Volunteer Award. She also won the Ballarat Arts Foundation’s annual Denis Bateman Award which was presented to her on 12 March 2015. (continued on page 2)
GUEST SPEAKER FOR THE COGA 2016 AGM JANET MCCULLOCH (LOW)
AT THE JUMBLE SALE
Mrs McCulloch, also known as Janet Low, is a leading member of the creative community in Ballarat, a founding member of the Ballarat Arts Foundation, president of the Ballarat Fine Art Gallery Women’s Association and a committee member of the Ballarat Theatre Organ Society. She is a long-time volunteer with the Royal South Street Society, Her Majesty’s Theatre and the Ballarat Light Opera Company. Janet is also recognised for her voluntary work with Uniting Care Ballarat’s BreezeWay program which provides meals for the homeless. Janet arrived in Ballarat in 1966 as a Victorian police officer, working with women and children and helping to found the Ballarat branch of the Children’s Protection Society. L-R: Sally Hudson (Mercer) with her aunt Debo McNab (Grimwade)
AT THE 2015 AGM
Old friends and classmates, L-R: Jane Dumbrell (Selleck), Lynette Moore (Stevens), Michelle Cook (Chalmers) with guest speaker Cas Bennetto
L-R: The proprietor of the Manse Café, Peta Gillespie and her mother Tim Gillespie (Street), after a hearty lunch and good coffee capped off a busy jumble sale morning.
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Left: Sisters Hilary Blakiston (Heath) and Dallas Kinnear (Heath) at the 2015 AGM Coming from the Heath family of Geelong, Hilary and Dallas are among a handful of Clyde girls who also attended The Hermitage before going to Clyde. Hilary’s daughters, the Blakiston sisters Debbie West, Sue Piper and Caroline Adams, also attended The Hermitage in primary years.
Clyde Old Girls’ Association Inc ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING AGENDA 2016 1. 2. 3. 4.
Apologies Minutes Business Arising President’s Report
5. 6. 7.
Treasurer’s Report Other Business Election of 2016/2017 Committee
2015 – 2016 COMMITTEE MEMBERS Margie Gillett (Cordner) President Light Blue Coordinator 03 9525 3698 gillett22@bigpond.com
Fern Henderson (Welsh) Vice President 03 5989 2664 davhendo3@bigpond.com
Peta Gillespie Treasurer 03 5333 4324 pmg252@gmail.com
Trish Young Secretary 0414 235 316 tyoung@smsmt.com
Katrina Carr (Moore) Clyde House Liaison 07 3374 0196 jankcarr@bigpond.net.au
Elizabeth Landy (Manifold) 03 5663 2220 elizabethlandy@bigpond.com
Sally Powe (Douglas) 0412 223 266 sallylmacgpowe@gmail.com
Di Whittakers (Moore) 03 5882 1143 burnimadeni@bigpond.com
Lesley Griffin (Vincent) 0412 479 860 griffin.lesley@gmail.com
EDITORIAL NEWS AND INFORMATION THE CLUTHAN
I love reading travel stories and I’m delighted that there are so many diverse journeys in this Cluthan. I know that a number of COGs have been on trips this year and I’m looking forward to putting them into next year’s Cluthan. You can send Cluthan contributions to: Julia Ponder, 15/89A Bay Terrace, Wynnum Queensland 4178 (T) 07 3348 6644 (M) 0411 414 126 (E) julia@comart.com.au or (E) coganews@gmail.com. The closing date for next year’s news and reports is 30 June 2017. If you would like a copy of your submission so you can proof read it I can send you the pages as they will appear in the Cluthan – corrections are due back by the end of July. Thank you to everyone who has contributed stories, reports and news in this Cluthan as these are greatly appreciated by our readers. My grateful thanks to Margie Gillett (Cordner) and Sue Schudmak (Sproat) for all their help in collating news, writing, editing, proof reading and distribution of the final copy. Thank you to the Old Geelong Grammarians who are generously funding the printing, to Geelong Grammar School for the postage for the Cluthan and to the Clyde Old Girls who kindly help each year with getting the Cluthan ready for mailing. LIGHT BLUE
Light Blue (the Geelong Grammar School magazine) is another source for COGs to receive and share information. Light Blue comes out three times a year and has a section of Clyde Old Girls’ information. If you would like to receive it (or cancel it), contact Katie Rafferty, Alumni Manager, (T) 03 5273 9338 (E) katier@ggs.vic.edu.au. Send contributions for the page to Margie Gillett (Cordner), 22 Evelyn Street, St Kilda 3183 (T) 03 9525 3698 (E) gillett22@bigpond.com COGA ADDRESS LIST AND DATABASE
Please contact Sue Schudmak (Sproat) for changes to names, addresses, phone numbers, new email addresses (we now include those in our database and address booklet) and notification of COG deaths. 5 Fawkner Street, South Yarra 3141 (T) 03 9867 2663 (M) 0418 560 563 (E) susanschudmak@icloud.com or Dougal Morrison, GGS Community Relations Office (T) 03 5273 9200 (E) dmorrison@ggs.vic.edu.au 3
AGM MINUTES 2015 Held at South Melbourne Community Centre Meeting opened 11:15 am
General Business:
Present: (As per book)
Joan Mackenzie moved: ‘That the Clyde Old Girls’ Association offer membership of COGA to girls who have attended Clyde House and have relatives who attended Clyde School.’
Apologies: Anna Affleck Susanna Allen June Calvert Katrina Carr Janet Gordon Xenia Laycock Gaie McLean Rosemary Parker Judith Reindl Anna Tucker Annabelle Pobjoy Tid Alston Jill Meredith-Smith Virginia Stevenson
Judy Allen Jenny Blencowe Fiona Caro Margie Gillett Sally Hudson Sarah Lysaght Gay Morton Sally Powe Madame ten Brink Diana Whittakers Rosemary Weatherly Dizzy Carlyon Sue Schudmak Barbara Botterill
Joan included the following points in support of the motion: Succession planning for COGA The spirit of Clyde lives on through Clyde House Some (not all) members of Clyde House would like to join COGA Clyde House is the custodian of Clyde School memorabilia It is time to move to include Clyde House girls in COGA Not all Clyde School girls were at Mt Macedon so how is this different? Felicity Dalgleish said that GGS did not want Clyde House girls offered COGA membership as it makes them different from other OGGs.
Minutes of the Previous AGM: Having been printed in the Cluthan, these were taken as read. Moved they be accepted: Fern Henderson. Seconded by Tim Gillespie.
Dallas Kinnear asked if Clyde House girls do not become involved, how will we continue to fund IHK? Sally Salter asked that if daughters/relatives of COGs are not in Clyde House, are they in danger of being left out if the decision is to offer Clyde House girls COGA membership?
Business Arising from the Minutes of the Last AGM No business President’s Report
Sue Schudmak provided a reply to Joan’s motion which was read by Peta Gillespie in Sue’s absence. (See page 13 for the full text.)
Fern Henderson read the President’s Report in Margie Gillett’s absence. Jackie Mackinnon moved it be accepted. Seconded by Hilary Blakiston.
Sue raised the issue that inviting Clyde House girls to join COGA would mean a change in the COGA constitution. In the constitution, it states that membership of the association is open only to past students who were enrolled at or attended Clyde School (with honorary membership for some former staff members). Since the closure of Clyde School, the constitution has stated that in addition to uniting former Clyde School students, COGA aims to foster the spirit of Clyde School at Clyde House, GGS. There is no existing category of membership for students who did not attend Clyde School.
Treasurer’s Report Having been printed in the Cluthan, this is taken as read. Peta Gillespie moved it be accepted. Seconded by Liz Smart. Election of Officer Bearers Dallas Kinnear took the podium to declare all positions vacant and read out the nominations for the 2015/2016 COGA committee: President: Margie Gillett (Cordner) Vice President: Fern Henderson (Welsh) Treasurer: Peta Gillespie Secretary: Trish Young Committee Members: Sally Powe (Douglas), Katrina Carr (Moore), Elizabeth Landy (Manifold), Di Whittakers (Moore) and Lesley Griffin (Vincent)
Meg Hornabrook also spoke to say while she appreciates the sentiments of Jackie Mackinnon, COGA members are an endangered species and we are delaying the inevitable. Peta Gillespie spoke to Anna Affleck who said while she was interested in the connection, she was not sure of the views of others.
All positions were approved by those present. 4
Belinda Philp suggested a discussion paper is needed. It should include girls in Clyde House and in other GGS houses. The costs of changing the constitution should be considered as well as other information such as the GGS view.
COGA PRESIDENT’S REPORT 2015
Jackie Mackinnon said: We should identify who from Clyde House would be interested. Current Clyde House girls may have allegiance to GGS and that there are very few active members on OGGS. What about other houses at GGS and girls in those houses with a Clyde School connection?
Welcome everyone to the South Melbourne Community centre for COGA’s 2015 Annual General Meeting. We were last here in 2013 when Billy Philp (Morieson/Laidlaw) was our guest speaker. She gave us a unique insight into trade union politics thanks to her personal experience and achievements in the nursing sector. Today we welcome Cas Bennetto as our guest speaker and we look forward to hearing of her life and experiences, particularly as Director of the Kimberley Foundation of Australia.
COGA President Margie Gillett (Cordner) was not able to attend the AGM, and this report was presented on her behalf by Vice President, Fern Henderson (Welsh).
Joan Mackenzie indicated that it should be an option for Clyde House girls and not compulsory to join COGA.
Sadly I (Margie Gillett) am unable to be with you today as I am in Kuala Lumpur attending the biennial OGG Asia reunion (Malaysia 2015), which is organised and hosted by the OGG Association, together with representatives of the Malaysia branch. At the OGG Asia dinner we catch up with OGGs, including Clyde and Hermitage Old Girls and others from the GGS community residing or travelling in Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, China, Japan, India, Taiwan or Myanmar. There is some fun involved during the weekend – especially shopping in KL’s downtown fantasia-land of unique city architecture, or exploring the colonial areas of the city.
Elizabeth Landy talked about Clyde House being rebuilt and to be located behind Manifold House with little of the memorabilia currently in Clyde House to be housed in the new house. Lesley Griffin moved that the discussion should be stopped and that the committee should follow up the options and canvass relevant people. The motion was amended to say that the committee will follow up and discuss the options with a view to bringing the issue to the next AGM. Moved, Lesley Griffin and seconded by Elizabeth Landy. Joan Mackenzie offered to help the committee in this action.
My Clyde friends might be interested to know that the first event I attended as OGG President was the Old Scotch Collegians’ dinner in June 2015. There were kilts, bagpipes and haggis, followed by hearty school songs and good cheer, and only three women at the dinner with 596 Scotch boys. A happy celebration of grand traditions. Some might say a Clyde girl’s dream come true!
Sue Monger asked that we record congratulations to Margie Gillett for picking up the role of OGG Association President and that we should be very thrilled with the appointment. Sally Salter also asked that the people involved in the Cluthan and the address book should be commended for the production and wanted it recorded that we are ‘extremely happy with it!’
The Cluthan 2015 was produced by a small team but enjoyed by many readers. We owe a debt of gratitude to Julia Ponder, our Editor-in-chief in Queensland who has again compiled and formatted an excellent 48-page magazine. Her eye for detail and layout is invaluable. Keeping the A4 black-and-white format has enabled us to retain its distinctive design with the Clyde crest and old English lettering on the cover. After weeks of ‘tooth comb’ editing and proof-reading with Sue Schudmak (Sproat) and others, Julia forwarded the completed final draft to GGS where Alumni Relations Manager, Katie Rafferty ensured it was printed and ready for distribution. Many thanks to OGGA and GGS for funding this process and covering postage costs, and to Sue for organising the envelopes for postage and distribution at her home in Melbourne, helped by Annabelle Pobjoy (d’Antoine), and Elizabeth (Blip) Landy (Manifold). Thank you
Elizabeth Landy mentioned that Jill MeredithSmith had identified five teachers who had been left out of the address book including: Zena Holland, Miss Dickinson, Miss (Madge) Hamilton, Miss Thurwell and Miss Isobel Thomas. Others identified some additional updates including: Mr Collinson, Michael Coulter, Inca Pucilowski (French teacher) deceased, Mr Deutscher, Mr Szigethy deceased, Elizabeth Tibbetts (Richardson), Margot Davey (Woods), Susan Home (Woods) and Dallas Kinnear (Heath) Meeting closed at 12:05.
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to Peta Gillespie who received AGM replies, then organised attendance lists and payments for the AGM and lunch today, in addition to the name tags, registration table and COGA finance report. We love your work Peta.
Quite simply, COGA would not exist without the Clyde database, which is monitored by Sue Schudmak (Sproat) and managed at GGS by Dougal Morrison. With support from Katie Rafferty, Dougal is tireless in updating and researching names and details, printing new lists for Sue each year. There are always alterations, for example there were twenty-seven changes to the list only two weeks after it was printed recently. There were 2,066 students who attended Clyde. The school closed forty years ago, yet The Cluthan has just been posted to 733 current addresses, with the new COGA Address booklet enclosed. There are 256 unknown addresses, and nineteen who requested to be on the ‘no mail’ list, making 1,008 Clyde girls still potentially contactable. It takes a lot of work to maintain the list, it’s not done by magic, and Sue absolutely relies on your help. She is always chipping away at the unknown addresses, contacting family or friends if possible, in case some are deceased (even if over 100 years old, we can’t assume!). Please call or contact Sue if you are aware of any deaths, of new or changed contact details, or especially email addresses, as these are vital nowadays for organising reunions. If you do organise a reunion, please pass on any new contacts, and take lots of photos for The Cluthan. We are immensely grateful to Sue for this fantastic work on our behalf, and to Dougal and Katie at GGS.
The Cluthan would not exist without its regular contributors. This year’s commemoration of Anzac 1915 was compiled by Archives coordinator Jackie Mackinnon (Kelly) who delved through old Cluthans and archival material of that era. This included letters, anecdotes and essays written by COGs, staff members and students revealing the effects of the international conflict. Wartime support efforts by Clyde girls at school were manifold and tireless – knitting for the troops and raising funds through concerts and events. The eyes of Clyde always looked out to the world at large, with minds and hearts focussed on helping others. Those traditions of community awareness and service have continued to be characteristic of Clyde girls to this day. Thank you to Liz Smart (Goode) who kindly contributed extracts from her 1950s school diary. They illustrated not only her natural writing skills but the delightful joie de vivre and mischief that permeated our schooldays on the mountain. Despite the fancy dress triumph of Liz and crew in their cardboard fire truck, none of them actually became firemen, but friendships forged in those days have lasted a lifetime.
The COGA committee is a great team to work with, and again, there would be no COGA Inc without their commitment, support and friendship. Thank you to them all: Vice President Fern Henderson (Welsh) was captured on safari in Africa recently, luckily only by a roving camera, talking to lionesses and looking like Virginia McKenna in Born Free. Special thanks to Fern for chairing the AGM today; Treasurer Peta Gillespie had a wonderful pilgrimage to Turkey, visiting Gallipoli to commemorate the wartime loss of local heroes from her home district; Secretary Trish Young has coached and inspired winning state hockey teams throughout the year; Sally Powe (Douglas) is a busy physiotherapist who has kindly organised the catering for today; Katrina Carr (Moore) has diligently maintained liaison with Clyde House to compile the traditional list of students who are related to Clyde Old Girls, and to obtain a lively Clyde House report written by GGS student Sammy Reis who is related to four COGs. Thank you to Katrina and Sammy; Di Whittakers (Moore) sadly farewelled her beloved and remarkable 96 year old mother, at Peterborough in June this year, it is always a heart wrenching time to lose a dear family member; Elizabeth (Blip) Landy (Manifold) regularly treks through the Kimberley region and other places of scenic beauty, carrying a pack and camping al fresco; Lesley Griffin (Vincent) supports many COGA activities and was
The COGA activity reports provided by Golf coordinator Anna Tucker (Kimpton) and Jumble Sale coordinator Jane Loughnan (Weatherly) reflect the generous effort and time they contribute to keep Clyde Old Girls in touch with each other. Congratulations to all Clyde golf players who consistently hold their own against stiff competition and fly the flag proudly on our behalf. Thank you to Jane and her team of dedicated jumble helpers who once again raised a significant donation to Isabel Henderson Kindergarten. A special thank you to Jane Nevile (Lewis) for her many years of supplying superb preserves and produce to the jumble sale, she has been an outstanding contributor. Her rhubarb, quince, cumquat or any other concoctions are not only beautiful to look at, they are delicious. For the first time in sixty years, there will be a change of venue for the Jumble Sale in 2016 to the Toorak Uniting Church hall, in Toorak Road. The managers of St John’s Church Hall have increased the cost of hiring their hall by 500%. Other factors such as difficult parking and access restrictions have forced us to make the change. Thank you to Sally Hudson (Mercer) who contacted the TUC and booked 23 June 2016, and to Jane who has agreed to coordinate the sale at the new venue. Please advise all your friends about the change. 6
warmly welcomed as a new committee member this year. There is always room for new faces on the committee, so please let us know if you are interested.
I wondered if going to Clyde shaped who I am today? Did it affect the decisions and the different pathways I have taken in my life? Were the things that I loved at Clyde – like music and books and French – going to play out in my life as I got older, or were they transitory loves and part of the camaraderie of a group of girls studying them and enjoying them together? Of course they turned out be enduring loves and they have played a huge role in my life. Other enduring memories and things I loved about Clyde were the camping trips with Madame ten Brink and her dog Luba. One time we were camped on the German teacher’s property. I was climbing over a fence and Luba, who was on the other side, was snarling at me. I had to get over to her side but she was really ferocious. When I landed at her feet she bit me on the leg. The bite was quite bad, but I didn’t tell Madame. I loved the House Entertainments. I remember having a crush on Tinky Austin and a few of the older girls after they sang: The eastern world it is explodin’, violence flarin’, bullets loadin’ ... and on it went.
If you go down to GGS anytime, do visit the Clyde archives collection in the Fisher Library or the memorabilia display in the Hawker Library and Clyde House. Jackie Mackinnon (Kelly) and Sue Schudmak (Sproat) have sorted, cleaned and rearranged all the memorabilia, discovering some precious items languishing forgotten in drawers and cupboards. They have created evocative and eclectic displays, bringing life to dusty old cups and hockey sticks, school ties and white jumpers, photos and memories whispering from the glass cases. Brilliant work girls, thank you so much from us all for your exceptional efforts. Clyde House will be completely overhauled and redeveloped in the next couple of years, so it was essential to rescue our treasures before it was too late. If you are clearing out cupboards at home, or wondering what to do with old Clyde bits and pieces, call or send an image to Jackie for advice.
So many memories are of singing, either on the bus or in choir, or the madrigal group or folk group; in Gilbert and Sullivan operas, the annual Christmas carol evening; and of course the school song – ‘Hold fast to what is good, to all that keeps its worth forever ...’ Remember singing in the dining room every night after dinner? We weren’t allowed to leave until everyone had finished. And then someone would play the piano and everyone would sing. My sister Lou and I regularly played those hymns. We joined the choir in our first year. Nanny McMullin was Music Club Secretary and there were only fourteen of us in the choir. In my second last year – 1973, Caro Blakiston and I shared the Music Secretary role. Caro and I still love to sing and we are still close friends. In the years since school I have sung solo or with Lou at three weddings and a funeral. I sang for six years in an A Cappella choir in Sydney called the Glory Bound Groove Train and now I sing with the Melbourne Singers of Gospel. We sing blues and songs with soul and purpose; we’re a 100-voice choir and we practise each week. I absolutely love it.
The entire GGS community is coming to terms with the revelations of the ongoing Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. Principal Stephen Meek, School Council chairman Jeremy Kirkwood, GGS Finance director Andrew Moore and representatives of the OGG Association are researching ways to develop a positive and supportive relationship with the victims of abuse. It is important to break the vicious cycle of recurring psychological trauma, and ensure adequate recognition of suffering caused. Please let us know if you have any suggestions, thoughts or feelings on this matter. We look forward to enjoying COGA activities with you all in 2016. Margie Gillett (Cordner) COGA President CAS BENNETTO COGA AGM GUEST SPEAKER 2015 When Margie Cordner asked me to give the talk today I thought about what it is that brings us Old Clyde Girls together. I realised that we like to come together because of our shared memories and experiences of Clyde. I love it whenever I meet a Clyde girl because there is an immediate surge of delight and pleasure in meeting somebody who has had the same experiences I’ve had; and whom I know shares similar memories. When I meet another Clyde girl there is an immediate sense of shared common ground: of trust in that person; confidence in that person; probably a shared set of values; probably even a shared sense of humour.
I love the camaraderie and joy of singing with others. I learned this at Clyde. I value that we had the ability to amuse ourselves for hours on end without the need to be entertained. We were always quoting passages from Macbeth or some other book we were studying in English Lit. and making each other laugh. We would sit on the end of each other’s beds and take on the persona of Lady Macbeth or Gem Reid or Mrs Foletta. Fair is foul, and foul is fair … I always saw Clyde as an adventure. My father was an adventurer and legendary sailor. When he died in Tasmania in December 2005 it was only nine days before the start of his 45th Sydney-to-Hobart Yacht Race. At the time 7
his world record was unequalled. Even though he had been ill, he was still hoping to compete. He valued the sense of not knowing what would happen out there, but knowing he was up for it. I share that with you because I feel I am a kindred spirit. If somebody were to describe me I think they would say I have a sense of adventure. Shaped by my genes and shaped by Clyde. They might also say that I’m competitive and a bit reckless; that I’m assertive and bossy; good for a laugh and a bit of a show off. I arrived at Clyde with my sister Lou in 1970 – confident, competitive and ready for adventure. Lou went into Third Form and I went into Second Form. Alice Pringle had taken over as headmistress the year before. I remember a desperate moment when I said goodbye to mum on the first day, Monday 2 February 1970. I watched her drive away and felt utter despair; but I think it only lasted that afternoon. Lou was there and so were a handful of new girls I wanted to meet who would be dorming with me in Sleep Out. There were only seven of us in Form 2 that year. There are two things in particular I remember about Sleep Out: whenever a bat came in the window we’d run around in shower caps brandishing hockey sticks hoping it would fly out again; and the morning we found a dead possum hanging from a branch and nobody knowing how it got there. Except that we did know … In subsequent years when we were no longer new girls, I remember rushing to the Nursery stairs to peer at the lists posted on the door to check which dormitory I’d been assigned and hoping like hell I hadn’t been put with so and so … Then rushing to the dorm to bags the best bed. The lifelong friendships are one of the biggest joys. Some dear friends are here today, including my sister. Thank you. Others have sent emails or called. I treasure the loyalty, the generosity and the no nonsense attitude of my Clyde friends. I love the way most of us call a spade a spade, don’t have airs and graces and have a kind of naïve but also an earthy, grounded approach to life. We didn’t know it of course but times were changing at Clyde in the 1970s. The school faced financial difficulties. Enrolments were static and costs were soaring. Attempts were made to attract new boarders; I remember in the first few weeks of 1970 a handful of us were called upon to participate in an all-day photo shoot for a glossy brochure. In it, there’s a soulful photo of Caro playing the guitar and me singing; of me on horseback with others at Fontainebleau; a photo with Moofy Kelly and others splashing in the swimming pool. Four years later there was a photograph in The Age of the six of us who did HSC French seated outside the Log Cabin with Madame peering out the window. It was published as part of an article to attract new pupils. One doesn’t like to think that we were there during the school’s
financial demise but only one year after I left, Clyde School at Woodend closed. Of course it continues to live on in all of us and that’s why we’re here today. What did we look like when we were twelve years old? I remember looking a lot like Caro because we both had the same pantsuit from Georges. I remember a few of us had the same velvet jumpers with a zip at the collar; mine was mustard gold and Lou’s was red. And of course in that first year I had 14 pairs of regulation blue bloomers. As a professional person today responsible for Board agendas I have a canny understanding of a checklist: 7 white shirts; 2 pairs of regulation corduroys; 1 VeeJay; 1 tartan travelling skirt; 2 Fred Perrys; 7 short white socks and 7 long brown; 1 camelhair coat; 1 pair of desert boots and so it goes. Remember those ghastly ‘Off Honours’ punishments we had to endure? Hark back to the forays in the chilly mornings on the golf course to pick bracken! We would come back and nurse our chilblains and warm our bums on the heaters in the Nursery. My friend Melissa Manton remembers having to pick 1,000 pieces of bracken and tie them in bundles of twenty on the front terrace! A memory we both share is being forced to stand in front of the prefects and tell them why we should be ashamed of being Off Honours ten times and what procedures we were going to put into place to avoid a repeat. Melissa’s naughtiest act was setting the Art Room alight. It was several years before my time but definitely rates as one of the best Off Honours. Actually I’m pretty sure she was expelled until her father stepped forward with an offer too good to refuse. Writing a letter to my father in March 1974, as a Prefect in my final year, I wrote that I had supervised eight girls to run around the oval ten times. They were caught smoking and I was trying to get them fit for the ‘Aths’ in three weeks’ time. They were all Faireleight girls and I wanted them to get their ‘Standards’. Remember the school dances and the special bus arriving with the ‘Bulk Order’ from GGS? And eyeing off the talent and wondering who you might pash on Fruit Tuck lawn? Or remember when you were part of the ‘Bulk Order’ to go down to GGS? Mrs Pringle would announce at lunchtime on Saturday that the juniors could check the dresses we would be wearing while we put on our makeup; and then they’d wave us off. And if you had success, and were lucky enough to get a phone call the next week, dozens of girls would be crowding in the hallway behind Miss Brisbane’s office, listening to every word. I think back to the hours spent on Fruit Tuck lawn in summer, sunbaking and swigging on cold milk stolen from the kitchen with a full tin of milo in it. Or in winter, stirring hot water and Milo in the bottom of our mugs, sitting on the heaters, waiting for the hot milk to arrive at 8
supper. There was a lot of freedom to explore and not always with permission. There was nothing stopping you if you felt like sneaking up to Fontainebleau to smoke cigarettes or swim in the reservoir next to the swimming pool. The best bit about it was that you weren’t allowed to do it. But it’s not like anybody was watching. There were no guards. There was no security for the 120 girls sleeping unprotected each night. But there were two German Short Haired Pointers to alert us to prowlers. They belonged to Mr Pringle, who liked to run around with his dogs and his gun and chase the prowlers away. But do you remember the time they did see a prowler? The dogs disappeared faster than a speeding bullet! We loved the craziness of it all and sometimes we’d run outside in our nighties and join in the chaos.
Within three months I met one of the grand loves of my life – Loic Ragoucy. He became my boyfriend for the next few years and I became a Francophile for life. I quit the Au Pair family after six months and enrolled at the University Aix Marseille to study 20th Century French Civilisation. I lived in Aix-enProvence. I had a Peugeot mobilette to get around, and took pottery classes in the grounds of Picasso’s former chateau. C’etait le paradis. I got a job in the summer holidays with the American Embassy at the Paris Air Show where I had to demonstrate, while speaking in French, how to pull a lever that would expel the pilot out of the cockpit and allow him to float to earth in a parachute. Don’t ask me to explain – it was one of the funniest jobs I’ve ever had. After my time in France I returned home to Melbourne and studied typing and shorthand. I was selected for an interview with ASIO, but didn’t cut it. I got a job instead as a bilingual secretary for the legal officer at the Banque Nationale de Paris in Collins Street.
I also recall, with a great sense of shame, how we used to traumatise the German teacher Mr Deutscher. On one particular day we all hid in the cupboards. He came into an empty classroom (it was opposite the Art Room) and when we burst out of the cupboards he ran out the door and down the hill to his cottage and never came back. Guten Abend Herr Deutscher – God we were vile! For everyone who studied final year French you’ll remember the French Table on Wednesdays. We would sit ‘a table’ with Madame at the head, and say things like: ‘Passez-moi le beurre s’il vous plait’ or ‘il fait beau aujourd’hui ‘and try hard to work out how to say: ‘can I take the plates please’? There would be excruciating silence between bursts of muffled giggling before somebody would come out with the next inane pronouncement. When I saw Madame at our 100th anniversary I was moved to hug her and thank her. I had much to be grateful for. She wrote a marvellous reference for me in my first year at Melbourne Uni. I had been hassling the University’s French Department for an introduction to a French family seeking an Au Pair and one day they rang to say there was such a family. I applied, got the job (thanks Madame) and set off for Paris. I was 19. I left Melbourne behind on a 30 degree day on 30 January 1976 and arrived to a Paris covered in snow. I wasn’t met at the airport and had to find my way to the terminal at Les Invalides and then to 44 Avenue Gabriel. The taxi pulled up at the address in an avenue parallel to the Champs Elysee and next door to the Elysee Palace. I entered a vast cobble-stoned courtyard wondering where the apartment was that would be my home. There was much exclaiming in French and with dismay I realised that apparently I’d arrived a day early. I slunk off to my bedroom, a dull room with a cracked window off a side corridor, and slept for 24 hours. When I awoke it was the day they were expecting me so everything was OK. My ‘charge’, Fabrice, was eight years old. He couldn’t do up his shoelaces and didn’t play any sport!
After two years I felt the pull back to Europe. I went to London, bought a Combi Van and waited for my friend Jane Selleck and another girlfriend to arrive and we set off. At the end of our trip they came home and I stayed. I got a job as Assistant to the Press Officer of the London Bus Company off Fleet Street. Whilst on the job I spotted another: Bilingual secretary required for Englishman living in the Maritime Alps. Own Car; Private Suite; Generous Salary; Apply the Times. I applied and got it. In the New Year I was sent a first class ticket to Nice. I flew to the south of France ready for the next adventure. My new home was a gracious villa between Vence and St Paul de Vence – two of the prettiest towns in France. It was an isolated spot. My new boss, Norman, was totally blind and a diabetic but he was sharp. I was his PA. Norman knew everything and he could hear everything – and if he didn’t know, he suspected. My job was to translate everything he dictated to me into French in preparation for a court case. He was suing the builders of our villa. The builders were very unhappy about it and we used to receive terrible threats as well as visits from menacing thugs. This is going to sound weirder than fiction but Norman was a gunrunner; he was buying and selling guns and there was a lot of creepy traffic coming to the house. What was I doing there? It was pretty unnerving and it was a bit risky, but I kind of thought it was fine. Was that dad and Clyde all colliding? One weekend I was asked to make myself scarce. I went to Paris to stay with Loic. Loic rang Norman to ask what train I was on and Norman professed to have never heard of me. When I turned up in Paris and spilled the beans Loic didn’t want me to go back. He said it was too risky and bizarre. But I wanted to return to get my gear. I wasn’t expecting the unfriendly greeting I got 9
when I returned. I was accused of stealing and ordered to leave. I packed my bags, poked my tongue out at Norman and made faces because he was blind and couldn’t see and caught the next plane to London. Feeling like letting off steam I died my hair pink and green and became known to my English friends as budgie. Incredibly, with that hairdo, I got a job with a top tier law firm. I was secretary to a partner at Denton Hall & Burgin in Chancery Lane. At the end of two years I decided to come home. I was back in Melbourne and having dinner with Ginnie Rouse who was married to Charlie Baillieu at the time and one of their guests was Ross Campbell. He was the boss of Melbourne’s oldest advertising agency, which his father had established. Ross had recently added a Public Relations arm to the firm and was looking for someone. I started immediately and was fostered and encouraged by Jill Mitchell, Ross’ right hand. Together we produced his radio program The Good Life on 3AW for the next 3 years. I loved it. In summer I ran the show out of an Outside Broadcast van at the Portsea Pub and interviewed practically everyone who came in for a drink. We made Gabrielle Gaté famous. I had a ball securing and writing up the interviews with everyone to do with food, wine and entertainment. Music was taking a bit of a back seat but writing, which had been important to me at school, was gaining prominence. Film also. During this time I was going out with a guy who wanted to go to England to do his mandatory two years in obstetrics before coming back home to set up practice. I agreed to join him in London and spent another two years away from home – making it seven all up. I got a job with the British Film Institute as the Hospitality Coordinator of the London Film Festival. My job was to co-ordinate every Opening Night Party. And there was an Opening Night Party every Night for seventeen nights It was huge. It was 1984. All the Directors of the world’s film festivals came to the London Film Festival. I met Paul Coulter who was taking over the reins at the Melbourne International Film Festival and he offered me a job as the publicist. I came home. I was heartbroken that my relationship with the gynaecologist (or the ‘fanny mechanic’ as dad called him) hadn’t worked out, but I had a great job. We screened 80 feature films and 98 short films over five weeks and ran ourselves into the ground. When it was over it was over. It was time to look for another job. For the next phase of my career I have Caro Blakiston to thank. Caro was working at Pan Macmillan in Sydney. She said ‘why don’t you get a job in publishing? It’s fantastic.’ The timing was good because an advertisement appeared for a PR Manager at Heinemann. I got the job. Sandy Grant was the
Managing Director and he’d had been at GGS with my brother Peter and we became great friends. We inherited Peter Wright’s Spycatcher manuscript and Sandy was urged to hire a top lawyer to win the Spycatcher trial for us. He hired Malcolm Turnbull. I was dispatched to Sydney during the trial and witnessed Turnbull’s brilliant handling of the defence case. My job was to bring the Australian media onside. Each night Malcolm and I invited the journalists to dine with us. He had them eating out of his hand. During my time at Heinemann, which changed its name to Reed Books, we worked closely with Jill Hickson, a leading literary agent. Jill had something she thought was special to show us and I was sent a copy of Bryce Courtenay’s The Power of One. When I wrote the press release I wrote “it’s the kind of book you read under the covers by torchlight when the lights are out because you can’t put it down.” This was a special Clyde memory. I used to read books under the bed covers by torchlight most nights. When I left Reed Books to set up my own communications consultancy in Sydney they gave me Bryce Courtenay, Blanche d’Alpuget and Lindy Chamberlain to manage. It set me up and I ran a PR business for ten years promoting writers and their books. That first year in Sydney, 1990, Ginnie Rouse and I teamed up to write the screenplay for a film about our years at Clyde. We got funding from Film Victoria and we were well on our way when we saw the film Flirting – the 1991 Australian ‘coming of age’ drama written and directed by John Duigan. It starred Thandie Newton, Nicole Kidman and Naomi Watts. Our film was a replica of his film with similar incidents and dialogue. It was uncanny, but perhaps not that surprising! John’s mother Mrs Duigan worked all my years at Clyde at Swap Shop and Tuck shop and John was the coach for the Lady Robertson Reading Prize, which I won three years in a row. I remember lots of chats with John Duigan. Who would’ve thought he was listening so intently and storing up stories for an AFI award-winning film? I moved on to media and events management, corporate PR and arts fundraising. Five years ago, after running the Australian British Chamber of Commerce in Sydney for a few years, I decided to return to Melbourne to be close to mum. Within a couple of months an extraordinary opportunity came my way: the role of CEO of the Kimberley Foundation Australia – a not for profit which researches, preserves and promotes Kimberley rock art. The requisite skills had been honed in various jobs over the years – as a secretary, event manager, publicist, producer and fundraiser. But essentially the role brings together everything that was cultivated and nurtured at Clyde. 10
Researching this talk I read an article published in The Age in January 1975. In it Mrs Pringle said: “Clyde girls develop initiative and confidence which they do not gain in the classroom.” Clyde certainly helped to shape the person I am today. In terms of pathways, it seems all roads lead to the Kimberley! It’s particularly interesting for me that I’ve come full circle. After seven years in Europe and twenty years in Sydney I’m back in Melbourne. I’ve re-joined the Book Club I co-founded twenty-five years ago and I’m giving the Clyde Old Girls annual address. How weird is that? I hope you’ve enjoyed the journey! Thank you for inviting me to talk to you.
the real sense of the word) around the world through The Cluthan, the AGM and Reunions. Whether we last another 40 years remains to be seen but in the meantime, thank you all for your generous support of the Association in the past and into the future. Peta Gillespie Honorary Treasurer, June 2016 PICTURES FROM THE JUMBLE SALE
TREASURER’S REPORT 2015-2016 This report refers to the Financial Statement of the Clyde Old Girls’ Association Inc for the year ending 30th June 2016. It is with pleasure that I again present the Treasurer’s Report to the members of the Clyde Old Girls’ Association. NOTES TO 2016 BALANCE SHEET
Our income for this year looks exceptionally high and that is because of money coming in for the Garden Tour which will take place in October this year. It should be noted that donations from the AGM are considerably greater than what we receive on the day. COGA is, willingly, subsidising the cost of the AGM hall hire and catering and we are extremely grateful for the generosity of all our Old Girls which allows us to maintain a reasonable balance in our account. THE CLUTHAN
Again, I would like to acknowledge the support of the OGG association and GGS who have covered the cost of The Cluthan for both printing and distribution.
L-R: Mary Hildebrandt (Downie), Annie Spiden (Ross) and Dizzy Carlyon (Clapham) with a 1950s Visiting Sunday picnic set in excellent condition
JUMBLE SALE
Another successful Jumble Sale was held this year and $3,000.00 was forwarded to the Isabel Henderson Kindergarten. This compares to $2,550.00 last year. Jane and her team of hard working helpers do a marvellous job and the new venue at the Toorak Uniting Church worked very well. We have booked it again for next year. I would just like to make a final comment about COGA. In my travels around the country (and the world!), people are always absolutely amazed that I am involved with an organisation that represents a school that closed forty years ago and, when you start to think about it, it is quite extraordinary. It is a testament to all members of our wonderful Association that we can continue to provide financial support to IHK as well as our annual prizes to Braemar College and GGS. We provide a social connection with something like 700 Old Girls (and we are now old girls in
L-R: Wendy Read-Smith (Fenton), Christina Hayward (Pym), Billy Philp (Morieson/Laidlaw) and Debo McNab (Grimwade) at the Jumble book stall 11
BALANCE SHEET AS AT 30 JUNE 2016 2015-16
2014-15
NAB (Opening Balance) 01 July 2015
28,556.59
26,604.47
NAB (Closing Balance) 30 June 2016
49,193.61
28,556.59
0.00
0.00
49,193.61
28,556.59
Assets
O/S Deposits
Total Assets Liabilities O/S Cheques
0.00
Total Liabilities
0.00
Net Assets
49,193.61
28,556.59
700.00
1,075.00
AGM / General Donations
1,265.00
1,675.00
Jumble Sale
4,921.10
4,281.75
332.03
517.43
23,500.00
0.00
INCOME and EXPENSES 2015-2016 Income AGM Lunch
Interest Garden Tour Reimbursements
480.00
History Book Fund
65.00
65.00
30,783.13
8,094.18
AGM Expenses
997.00
1,137.00
Meeting Expenses
264.90
40.00
Jumble Sale Proceeds to Isabel Henderson Kindergarten
3,000.00
2,550.00
Jumble Sale Expenses
1,780.00
1,572.06
Golf Cups (Fun and Inter-School)
460.00
390.00
English Prize to GGS and Braemar
400.00
400.00
Incorporation Fee
54.40
53.00
Reimbursements
335.44
Archives
606.07
0.00
1,956.00
0.00
292.30
0.00
Total Expenditure
10,146.11
6,142.06
Surplus / Loss for year
20,637.02
1,952.12
Total Income Expenses
Garden Tour Gifts
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would we go about obtaining Clyde House old girls’ material, do we want it in our magazine and do we want to therefore have to cut down on our own news?
ATTACHMENT TO THE 2015 COGA AGM MINUTES Sue Schudmak (Sproat) spoke against the motion that ‘COGA should be opened up to former Clyde House girls’ for the following reasons-
The Database, although held by GGS, is still our responsibility to follow up; deaths, address changes etc. It is a credit to COGA that forty years after closure, from a possible 2,066 girls who attended Clyde, half of whom are deceased, we still manage to keep in touch with over 730 COGs, but not without quite a bit of effort. It would not be feasible for us to keep track of Clyde House old girls too, most of whom we don’t know, making it even more difficult.
1. COGA is a Clyde Old Girls Association for Clyde Old Girls, keeping us in touch with one another and sharing past experiences. Are we particularly interested in Clyde House old girls, most of whom we don’t know and have not shared experiences? Just as importantly, are they really interested in us and our goings on? Perhaps a small minority might be but surely the majority don’t feel much allegiance to us or our organisation.
7. A final decision certainly could not be made today and by just a few members. It would require a change to our Constitution. If this was to happen full details would have to be circulated to all our members and an Extraordinary General Meeting would have to be called. The obvious time for this would be with the next year’s Cluthan and then hold the meeting immediately before the next AGM. (i.e. on the same day)
2. A similar motion was voted against in 1990 by an almost two thirds majority because ‘It was felt that their (the Clyde House girls) allegiance should be to GGS’. What would the impact be on the OGGs? 3. There has been some concern as to the future of COGA. At the moment there is enough enthusiasm and commitment from those involved to continue for perhaps another five to ten years. It should not be too hard to keep the AGM and Cluthan going – the two most important functions. Therefore the argument that Clyde House old girls need to be involved to help keep COGA going is not relevant at the moment and anyway would we want them to keep it going in the long term?
Most importantly Clyde House old girls would have to be canvassed, by Clyde House old girls, to see what sort of interest there really is before we begin to go down that track. 8. It is wonderful that Clyde lives on in part through Clyde House and we hope there will always be a connection between Clyde School and Clyde House, but what is this connection? Yes, there are a number of Clyde House girls with direct connections to COGs and yes, there seems to be some intangible ‘spirit of Clyde’ at Clyde House, which is great, and we hope that this will remain, regardless of whether Clyde House old girls join COGA or not.
4. Some concern has also been expressed as to who is going to look after our archives and memorabilia in the future. This is now taken care of. The cataloguing and indexing of our archives is almost complete and very little attention will be required in the future. The archives are housed in a separate Clyde School section in the Library at GGS with GGS now having overall responsibility. As to memorabilia, all items have also been catalogued (with much of it photographed too), and all the glass cabinets in Clyde House and the Hawker Library have been reorganised, now displaying the best of what we have, so it should not be necessary to revisit this.
To summarise, COGA is a Clyde Old Girls Association for Clyde Old Girls. There will come a time when we have to fold, but that should occur naturally when the majority of us are no longer around or able to keep in touch with each other. I see no real advantage to either COGs or CHOGs in opening up membership to former Clyde House girls or keeping COGA going far in to the future.
5. My main concern is what would be the impact on the COGA if membership opened to former Clyde House girls?
Sue Schudmak (Sproat) October 2015
If they joined they would have to become actively involved. Would they really be willing to do this?
The outcome of this debate has now been decided and will be reported at the 2016 AGM and printed in next year’s Cluthan.
Two areas that would immediately feel the impact are the Cluthan and the Database. The Cluthan already takes a considerable amount of work collecting material, editing and circulating. How 13
COGA ACTIVITIES GOLF REPORT
INTER SCHOOL CHALLENGE CUP
FUN CUP
The Inter School Challenge Cup was played at Metropolitan Golf Club on Monday 11 April 2016. The format for the day was a team of four players from thirty schools playing stableford with all four scores counted from each team.
Clyde Old Girls were victorious at the Fun Cup Golf tournament held on Monday 12 October 2015 at Barwon Heads Golf Club. Clyde defeated St Catherine’s by one point in a thrilling finish, with Toorak College in third place. There were 17 players representing Clyde. Anne Stoney (Peardon), Deb Calvert (Moore), Deb Middleton (Noall) and Janet Gordon (Affleck) claimed the trophy, having finished with the four best Clyde scores on the day. Janet was also the individual B Grade Winner.
Our team enjoyed the day and again did us proud finishing in the top nine schools. The day also supports Cottage by the Sea at Queenscliff. With a jam stall full of delicious cakes, produce, plants and donated tea towels and notelets from the Cottage plus a successful raffle prize of two rounds of golf kindly donated by Metropolitan Golf Club we were able to send a cheque off to the Cottage for $3,500 – a really wonderful result for all involved. We have been donating to Cottage by the Sea for twenty years now with a total of approximately $50,000 being passed on to the Cottage. Congratulations to GGS, the winners. A great effort in only their second year of being in the competition. We look forward to next year’s event to be held at Kew on 3 April 2017.
Above: The victorious Clyde team with the Fun Cup trophy. L-R: Anne Stoney (Peardon), Deb Calvert (Moore), Janet Gordon (Affleck) and Deb Middleton (Noall) Anna Tucker (Kimpton) Golf coordinator (M) 0408 540 252 (E) annatucker8@outlook.com
Above: The Inter School Challenge Cup team. L-R: Anne Stoney (Peardon), Angela (Gadge) Alcock (Gardner), Deb Middleton (Noall) and Kate Macdougall (Howard)
Below: Clyde was represented by seventeen players in the Fun Cup
Below: Heather Cameron (Dalrymple) and GGS School Councillor Amanda McFarlane (Gubbins)
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Margie Gillett (Cordner), Katrina Carr (Moore), Dizzy Carlyon (Clapham), Anne Stoney (Peardon) and others worked around the room. Michael says if I have forgotten anyone including Prince Harry please let me know!!!
JUMBLE SALE REPORT On Thursday 23 June 2016 we managed to raise $3,000 for the Isabel Henderson Kindergarten in Fitzroy. On Wednesday evening car loads of goods arrived, Janie Grimwade and Jackie Mackinnon (Kelly) helped sort and display items in the light and warm new venue at the Toorak Uniting Hall, 603 Toorak Road, Toorak. Haydn and Deb West (Blakiston) lent us the van again to help transport Jumble. Several people arrived early on Thursday morning, Christina Hayward (Pym) to the books; Sally Hudson (Mercer) and Wendy Read-Smith (Fenton) to help anywhere and everywhere.
By 12.15 pm, when all the remaining goods were packed up, the Diabetes Association truck arrived to collect the unsold items. We then walked to the Manse CafĂŠ behind the church for a relaxing chatty lunch. Jane Loughnan (Weatherly) Jumble Sale Coordinator (M) 0417 535 862 (E) ejloughnan@gmail.com
Soon the hall was humming with chatter while Annabel Pobjoy (d’Antoine), Anna Tucker (Kimpton), Kate Robinson (Richardson) and Penny Lewisohn (Weatherly) worked unpacking folding and hanging clothing. Debo McNab (Grimwade) and others brought car loads of goods to be unpacked and the produce girls Julie Cole (Baird), Ann Willcock (Thomson) and Andy Wilkinson (Clarke) set up a wonderful stall in the middle of the hall selling plants, vegetables, homemade dog biscuits and cakes etc. made by Clyde Old Girls and the kindergarten mothers. Davina Hanson welcomed the shoppers at the door as they entered. Jackie Merriman (Bryant) and Deb Bray (Finch) were busy with the linen stall while Mary Hildebrandt (Downie) and Ann Rawlins (Hornabrook) sold bric-a-brac. Peta and her mum, Tim Gillespie (Street) checked the dollars.
L-R: Andrea Wilkinson (Clarke), Julie Cole (Baird) and Ann Willcock (Thomson) beside the produce stall Below: The crowd of jumble helpers gathered before the sale in Toorak Uniting Church hall
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GGS after working for some years with the Melbourne University Library as Assistant Archivist – he is not just a real expert, but a lovely guy too!
THE ARCHIVE COLLECTION REPORT It feels like only yesterday since we were submitting our last report! This year it was recently reported (per the ‘Mail Room’ in the May issue of Light Blue) that we have finally “... put the finishing touches to the Clyde School Archives”, after collating and cataloguing its 65 years of information. However! there are many Clyde Old Girls ‘still around’, still establishing themselves, making a difference in some way or another, contributing to life and the continuum of history. The Archives Department is therefore proud to be able to continue to monitor and collect memorabilia and books written by Old Girls – these help build the fascinating and worthy profiles that would otherwise be non-existent and unavailable to researchers or writers! Congrats to Susie Schudmak (Sproat) for her amazing organisational and computer indexing skills, to realise a showcase and easy-to-access COG Archive Collection.
In future all Clyde memorabilia donations should be sent to him, including books and online books, which apparently will now require a GGS registration and owner sign-off before being filed in our Archive Collection. Geoff will also do his best to answer any queries and/or research you might have and you can contact him during the week at the Fisher Library: 03 5273 9869; Email: glaurenson@ggs.vic.edu.au or write to him: Mr Geoffrey Laurenson, Senior School Archivist, Geelong Grammar School, 50 Biddlecombe Avenue, Corio, Victoria, 3214. (PLEASE head up your communication with: Attention to COG Archive Collection.) Two weeks ago I was really pleased to have been invited by our President Margie Gillett (Cordner) to the OGGs meeting to hear Geoff Laurenson being introduced and delivering his presentation – he clearly is a ‘master’ at task. However, I was absolutely delighted to witness our President showing her own skills at running that OGGs meeting. Where she finds time to research and write up such eloquent and comprehensive obituaries is a mystery!
Such an example occurred in April of this year when Jean Hood (Gatenby) sent another wonderful package of ‘goodies’, amongst which were a number of ‘treasures’ that we had never before seen or owned in our Collection, no less than a copy of the book ‘The Secret of Hanging Rock’ (written by a man who wanted to put closure to Joan Lindsay (Weigall)’s ‘Picnic At Hanging Rock’! (Its publication coincided with the launch of the film apparently.) Amongst the newspaper cuttings and a 1954 Clyde Prospectus there were a pair of light blue socks and pale yellow ones too – in Jean’s beautifully written notes she explained she had worn blue for hockey and the yellow were her Clutha House Sports Day socks! *(Please note all fellow ‘Cluthans’: in the ‘1916 Snapshot’ an announcement was made that Clutha House in St Kilda had been acquired by Miss Henderson and would open at the beginning of 1917 – maybe ‘Cluthanites’ would like to celebrate the centenary of Clutha House next year in February, in St Kilda.)
To our Clyde Old Girls community, please keep sifting through those cupboards and shelves for items to send in, including Clyde prize books or those written by COGs or about COGs! Also any early badges, buckles, uniform and of course photos are always most welcome. I intend to check in with Geoff Laurenson every now and then but in the meantime I shall be away for the next few months. If you need to order a Clyde History book, please contact the GGS Uniform Shop on 03 5273 9329 or Sue Schudmak (Sproat) – details on page 3. Our thanks as always to those COG ‘Helpers’ behind the scenes, and to all our librarian friends in the Fisher Library who have always bestowed us with such great support and humour!
We would also like to thank Pam Hartley (Outhwaite) for sending the copy of the ‘Chronicles of Clyde’ which belonged to her mother, Sheila Outhwaite (Stevenson) – it is always such a lovely surprise when there is an early family name inscribed!
Jackie Mackinnon (Kelly) Archives Coordinator (M) 0417 371 496 (E) baftaj@gmail.com
Perhaps the most exciting news yet is that GGS has a new, very professional and very nice archivist, called Geoff Laurenson. It is my understanding that he is working under the wonderful leadership of GGS Senior School Head Librarian, Fran Walsh, as well as expertly helping Michael Collins Persse with his archive collection. Geoff has a slight Canadian background, was educated in WA, finishing with a Bachelor of Arts (WA); received a Master of Archival Studies at British Colombia; has a Graduate Certificate in Information Systems from Melbourne University and comes to
FROM THE ARCHIVES 1916 ‘SNAPSHOT’ OF CLYDE AT ALMA RD
~ After seven years of Clyde’s founding a fourth house called ‘Clutha’ (behind Faireleight) is to be opened. There were 57 new girls this year and several staff changes. ~ The Clyde Old Girls Association revised the consti16
tution with the election of the committee being effected by ballot through the post. Miss Henderson remained president, making a total of ten members on the committee.
REUNIONS THE BUSH WALK GATHERING OF THE FIFTY-NINERS IN OCTOBER 2015 IN THE GRAMPIANS
Eleven merry walkers from old Clyde, some from interstate, gathered for the annual meeting of the ‘Fifty Niners’. This year the venue was in the beautiful Victorian Grampians. The first challenge was climbing the Pinnacle (or at least descending from the heights) which involved a three hour steep descent from the top. It was hot! Our leader Eda Ritchie (Beggs), who had organised this year’s trip, then gave us a tour of the immediate area at Hall’s Gap. After dinner we all collapsed into bed, worn out in both body and voice.
~ There was no Old Girls gathering this year, being replaced by a ‘Gymkhana’ (or ‘gymn-carnival’ as one junior called it), of sports between seven schools all vying for the first prize of an Australian flag! Clyde ran third, as they did at the C of E GGS Sports. The winners of the inter-form flag races (V1) were presented with a new shield by Mr E. Austin. ~ This year was a very wet year with third term almost a complete wash-out with many sporting events having to be cancelled, as portrayed at the end of this poem: “... Wash twice as often as of yore, And help use up the water!” ... AND! “We have discovered a new and infallible method of bringing on rain, one which would prove invaluable in drought-stricken areas – we merely send the Junior and Senior Public Forms on a Geography excursion – and then from the weeping heavens it thunders out (for over two months!)”.
Next day after visiting Bambruk Cultural Centre, we had short walks to spectacular viewing points. Because of the heat and total fire ban restrictions some walks were prohibited so ‘safe’ walks only were taken on day two. Orchids were high on our list and several were sighted. We then set off for Dunkeld where we checked in to the excellent Grampian Cottages. Short energetic walks were welcomed by all and our defacto senior ‘Fifty Niner’, Christina Hayward (Pym) was an inspiration to us all, showing off her fitness.
~ Many Old Girls were involved in Red Cross work (nationally and overseas) and other activities connected with the war thus the Reading Circle met only once a month (by contrast to each week). Fourteen Old Girls started a ‘War Funds Depot’ at Camperdown and in its first year the Balance showed 615 sterling, 15 pounds per month being donated to the Red Cross (for a long time this was all the Red Cross had to depend on!). Donations were also given to other patriotic funds supporting wounded soldiers. Plays such as ‘Pygmalion and Galatea’ were performed to benefit 21 pounds to the school wool fund (providing knitted blankets to French babies or socks and other garments to soldiers).
The final day was full of interest, visiting the glorious walled garden in Dunkeld and viewing the rare native plants and the working green house where seeds for propagation are gathered for the garden. Many thanks to Eda for organising a super efficient three days where enthusiasm and the fun of being together again was shared by all. May we all walk together for many years yet!
~ Taken from ‘The Chronicles of the Balcony’ article: “No ancient order of knights was more illustrious than the present most noble order of the balcony” – they were known as ‘balconyites’ and those who boarded in adjacent rooms were known as ‘semi-balconyites’! Above, L-R: Sue Pender (Rymill), Anne Hamilton (Coy), Christina Hayward (Pym), Fern Henderson (Welsh), Eda Ritchie (Beggs), Ann Carlyon (Clapham), Georgie Matyear (Bright), Lesley Griffin (Vincent), Lil Griffiths (Lobb) and Elizabeth Landy (Manifold) at the Lookout
~ There are accounts of fencing competitions and most popular of all ‘Paper Chases’, as far afield as Camden in NSW, involving ‘hares’ and ‘hounds’ on horseback or foot!
17
Left, L-R: Eda Ritchie (Beggs), Ann Carlyon (Clapham), Lil Griffiths (Lobb), Sue Pender (Rymill), Anne Hamilton (Coy), Georgie Matyear (Bright), Christina Hayward (Pym), Elizabeth Landy (Manifold), Lesley Griffin (Vincent) and Fern Henderson (Welsh)
1956 REUNION
Sandra Finlay (Bayne), Jenny Yencken (Watson) and Marg Millard (Tyson) organised a sixty year reunion for the Class of 1956 and other 50s on April 14 2016 at the Alexandra Club, Melbourne. Forty-four gathered for the occasion including some from interstate and country Victoria; Jan Jones (Leake) Buderim Qld, Merilyn Pedrick (Mortimer/ Marsh) Aldgate SA, Joan Cocker (Taylor) Legana Tas, Helen Hall (Stitt) Condobolin NSW, Anna Middleton (Jensen) Byron Bay NSW, Di Brockhouse (Strutt) Wagga Wagga NSW and Marg Millard (Tyson) Tathra NSW. Upon arrival we were greeted with Brandy Crustas, a drink of the 50s. Sitting down for lunch Janet Calvert-Jones (Murdoch), school captain 1956, said grace, followed by words of welcome from Merilyn Pedrick (Mortimer/Marsh). Delicious duck was served followed by chocolate mousse. Between courses Christina Hayward (Pym) and Meg Hornabrook reminded us of some of the incidents and happenings during our time with Miss Hay. Photos and other memorabilia were produced including Jenny Yencken (Watson)’s photo (right) of the 1956 ‘Winning Pennant’ Basketball team. All eight members of that team are alive and kicking and were at the lunch! WOW how amazing is that. Does this say something about basketball and the Mt. Macedon climate?
1956 Reunion organisers, L-R: Sandra Finlay (Bayne), Jenny Yencken (Watson) and Marg Millard (Tyson)
L-R: Meg Hornabrook, Liz Smart (Goode), Henny Zimmerman (Lindeboom) and Judith Emerson (Shaw)
Concluding a great day all sang the school song with rusty gusto, even though there was the occasional failure of words – probably the only word failure of the afternoon! 1971 REUNION
Angie Lyon (Rouse) hosted a forty-five year reunion lunch for 1971 classmates on Saturday 4 June 2016 in Barwon Heads. A gorgeous strawberry ice-cream cake with cream piping helped to wish Sal McKay (Pearce) a happy birthday.
The ‘Winning Pennant’ Basket Ball team of 1956 All eight members of the team were at the reunion Jan Leake, Marg Tyson, Jenny Landale, Jenny Watson, Sandra Bayne, Sue Maberley-Smith, Pip Harrison and Merilyn Marsh
1971 reunion L-R: Marsali Mackinnon, Shaen McDonald (Whittaker), Angie Lyon (Rouse), Judy Kerr (Stewart), Sally Hudson (Mercer) at back, Sally McKay (Pearce) at front, Gilly Holyman (peeping), Victoria Gluth (at back), Tinky Urquhart (Austin), Pippa Heard (Lawrence) and Annabel Tucker (Kimpton) 18
1956 reunion, L-R: Anna Middleton (Jensen) and Judy Austin (Wettenhall)
OLD GIRLS’ NEWS Diana (Dodie) Marsden (Cash) wrote the following about her work with the African Mityana Diocese. St Mary Bourne, a very small village in Hampshire where I live, is part of the Whitchurch Deanery in the Winchester Diocese which began an official link with Mityana Diocese in the early 1980s.
THE OGG TOWER LUNCH
My first visit to Mityana (about 40-50 miles west of Kampala, heading for the Congo) was in 2004. I went on my own, arriving in Entebbe, I rang them and was told ‘We thought you were coming next week!’ I said I’d wait for them to collect me! They came later that same day and for two weeks I did nothing but ask questions and visit places, look, listen and learn. Since that time I have taken some of the youth groups I run in this village – 2005/08/10/12/14/ and this year, 2016. I’ve accompanied our local secondary school on the link journey with Mityana Secondary School eight times (14 students each time) and taken a variety of adult groups from parishes in our Deanery.
Held in the GGS dining hall, 7 November 2015. L-R: OGG and COGA President Margie Gillett (Cordner), Sally Martin (Browne) with her mother Jess Browne (Moffatt) who travelled from WA for a family reunion that week and Hilary Blakiston (Heath). The annual Tower Lunch is held for those who left school fifty or more years ago.
In the meantime we have twice secured a British Council connecting classroom grant and that has meant we have been able to take a teacher from our 12 linked village schools out to Mityana and bring one teacher back. Mityana Projects Trust (the charity we have established) was set up when we realised that we were missing out on an extra 25% of all donations from tax payers courtesy of the Chancellor of the Exchequer. But of course it was more than that. We had to begin to focus on what we could do well, small though it was, and stick to those things. We didn’t want to spread ourselves too thinly. So our trust deeds have focussed areas where we work: schools, income generating projects, the diocese of Mityana and vocational learning centres.
THE OGG ASIA REUNION
Why Mityana and why me – people ask? Because what we are doing is not about personal preference but corporate commitment. And our link is there. I was ordained in 2003 and, as only a very few of you reading this may know, I spent three years (1974-76) up in the Northern Territory with the aboriginal people at Maningrida. Going to Mityana felt like going home. Our Deanery needed a rep for its Uganda link; I sort of fell into it.
Held in Kuala Lumpur on 10 October 2015. Margie Gillett (Cordner) met past OGG Malaysia branch presidents David Teh and Laurence Eu. Clyde connections – David’s sisters Phoebe Teh and Ruth Teh attended Clyde School in 1970 and Laurence Eu was at GGS during the ‘transition years’ of amalgamation; he remembers Clydies Kammy Cordner Hunt (Cordner) and Ros Adams (Ritchie). FUTURE REUNION – 1966
The key to the link has been in the ‘going and seeing’ and coming back changed. The Ugandans couldn’t believe we would be back (again and again and certainly not 18 times!) and as trust grew and friendships were forged there has been a real exchange, a real partnership built and the link we have formed has been a blessing to them and to us.
A venue has been booked for lunch Wednesday, 30 November, 2016 at 12 noon for a 50th reunion of 1966 leavers at The Flying Duck Hotel, 67 Bendigo Street, Prahran. Vic. More details will follow by email soon. Any queries please contact: Mary-Lou Ashton-Jones (Nielsen) (P) 0417 515 507 or Wizz McCulloch (Bayne) (P) 0408 298 229 (E) sreemc@bigpond.net.au
Making a Difference – there is no better way to open the eyes of our young people. 19
“Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I will understand.” (Attributed to Benjamin Franklin but I think it’s a Chinese proverb!)
and joy of the children; Trying to make sense of my life – memories flood my mind reminding me of what I experienced – they sort of help me now; I learnt a lot about generosity, humility, gratitude, faith and hope; A life changing experience is hard to put into words.
To make an impact on the kids I tell them I am not there to give them an easy time! So – with fundraising their parents can only write a cheque for 1/3 of the full costs. They have to raise 1/3 individually and then we have to raise a 1/3 as a team. As you can guess there are not very many fundraising activities that I have not done, from washing out rubbish bins, cleaning cars and waitressing to serving at curry evenings or big breakfasts and packing bags at supermarkets!
What did you learn about yourself? I just take too much for granted, I’m really lucky, that I have so much stuff! that I should be more grateful ... And advice to others? Enjoy every single moment – it goes so quickly! Of course there’s more – our website will fill you in. http://mityana-projects-trust.co.uk
And when we are there the team steps in at the deep end. It’s a culture/customs/weather/traffic shock but they cope. We visit primary schools – in particular the one that their primary school was or is linked to. We read a story (the 3 Little Pigs, the Enormous Turnip, Goldilocks) and they then act it out and run craft activities and play games. This year we did this at an orphanage. It was a moving experience being with 80 children who did not have a single relative to go to or be looked after by. To give them a fun day including lunch (with meat) meant a great deal. Our team was very moved.
Barbara Botterill (Sargood) wrote to say thank you for the obituary written for her mother Joan Elizabeth Sargood (Withers) in last year’s Cluthan. She said ‘Clyde played a huge role in Mums life, as it did for Susan and myself. We always felt a little bit special being one of the few families who had three generations attend the school. I have a photo (somewhere) of our four signatures together on the wall of the tower. Suzanne Martin (Millear) wrote that the 80th birthday of Robin Pease (Root) was held at the Sergeants Mess Restaurant in Chowder Bay.
We visit a disabled children rehab centre where each child has metal pins or plaster on a variety of limbs, mostly to do with infections in the bones. We take books, stories, games and then play volleyball – mostly with the able helpers. A stunning experience. At the vocational centre we make up a shoulder or mobile phone bag with the girls learning to sew or we help the carpentry boys make a wooden railway engine or car or as we did this year paint the hall and on it goes.
L-R: Robin Pease (Root), Mitzi Begg (Wilkins), John Clark, Susie Martin (Millear), Mary Paton (Beecham), Dallas Kinnear (Heath) and Janet Clark (Armstrong)
In everything we do the spotlight is on getting involved, listening to other people’s stories and sharing their lives. The teenagers all have a buddy and in a matter of hours, they come to know each other well – these relationships enable them to see what cultural differences do to the hopes and dreams of their peers. Adults work in local churches where the faith of those they meet is humbling and their generosity awe inspiring. This year we visited a prison (for lesser offenders). It all challenges them, their thinking, their way of life.
Judy Harris (Cook) lives in a picture-book cottage called Lawshalls in the Essex countryside in England. She wrote to tell the story about her own and sister Susan’s lives:
It is amazing – what they learn, what they can articulate about their experiences, the stories they tell. They go intending to make a difference – which I am sure they do. However the significant difference made is always in them. They come back changed.
“Our parents were British, Gerald Richardson Cook OBE DSC RN and Brenda Edith Burnett. They married in the 1920s and had four children; Wendy Cook 1929-1972; Peter Cook 1931-1935 who died from diphtheria in Malta; Susan Jane Ross (Cook), born 14 April 1934 and died 14 April 2014 after suffering from Alzheimer’s disease for some years; and myself Judith Brenda Harris (Cook), born 3 June 1937.”
And what do they write about after they have returned? As I sit in the comfort of my bedroom there are things that will stay with me forever … the hope
Judy explained how she and Susan came to be in Australia, and thus to attend Clyde: “Our father was a UK career navel officer almost from birth. He attended 20
Keyham preparatory school and then Dartmouth Naval college. He was a good all round sportsman enjoying tennis, squash, athletics and winning a navy cup for Featherweight boxing when a midshipman in 1918, while the Grand Fleet (as it was then called) was based in Malta. He was awarded an OBE on 1 January 1942, and in June 1946 a DSC for distinguished services during the war in the Far East. He retired on 11 August 1952 as Captain (E) RN, then was appointed Aide de Camp to Her Majesty The Queen from 19 February 1952 until retirement. From June 1949 to May 1952, ‘Captain Cook’ was on loan to the Royal Australian Navy as DAMR Australia. On 11 February 1953 he joined the guided weapons project of the English Electric Co. in Luton UK, and was sent to work at Woomera, Australia, testing rockets such as the Blue Streak. He eventually left at his own request, citing personal family reasons.”
Christopher Harris and I were married in December 1960 and had two children. Our son Justin Harris died in 1981. Our daughter Victoria (born 1964), attended Cambridge University to study Modern Languages, married Michael Howell, a microbiologist, and they have two children. Victoria works in publishing and does copy editing from their home in Barnet, North London. Victoria is very close to her cousins in Australia, especially Amanda Tulloch (Wendy’s daughter) of Keith Tulloch Wines in the Hunter Valley, NSW.” Adapted from letters (emails) written by Judy Harris, 9 August 2014 and 8 September 2015. THE FIFTY-NINERS’ LORNE WALK IN MARCH, 2016.
Fifteen ‘girls’ joined Christian Hayward (Pym) early in March 2016 for a ‘Mountains to the Sea’ walk at Lorne. The ‘Fifty-Niners Group’ were in fine form and for three days we explored the area. We were challenged with some sections such as walking downhill for several kilometres following the Erskine and Sheoak Rivers to the coast.
Judy and Susan Cook attended Clyde in 1950-51 while their father was based in Australia. She remembers: “Whilst I was at Clyde there was a really cold winter and we had some snow! Most of the girls had never seen snow before, so were given the afternoon off school and raided the kitchen for the tin trays to use as toboggans. Cookie, fortunately, wasn’t around as he was usually drunk by then and liable to swear at us. His white cockatoo, which used to sit on a perch on the way down to the playing field, used to hurl expletives, learned from him, at us when we passed. I have memories of the trip to Hanging Rock and of happy Sunday afternoons spent down at the Reservoir (the Res.) fishing for yabbies with meat which we had saved from lunch and tied onto a piece of string. We were meant to be revising!”
The wonderful scenery from viewpoints such as Teddy’s Lookout, were highlights. We bravely descended from the Lookout down to the St George River and then followed the old timber-workers tram track around to the Lorne Pier. From here we ventured past the Lorne Sculpture Exhibition (another highlight) until we reached the Main Beach. Many thanks to Christina for organising a great get-together and for accommodating half of the walkers in her holiday home – the others were in a nearby lodge. L-R: Fern Henderson (Welsh), Anne Hamilton (Coy), Christina Hayward (Pym) and Sue Pender (Rymill)
Judy continued in a later email: “My current news is not too jolly in that I have an inoperable cancer. Whilst I am feeling well I am simply disregarding what I refer to as my ‘sitting tenant’ (as I cannot evict it!) but obviously nothing is certain now. I have a super quality of life at the moment, despite being widowed in 2009, and there is so much that I want to do! Whatever, I cram in as much as I can. I live in the depths of the Essex countryside in a cottage that was partly built in the mid-1700s. The house sits on nearly an acre of garden with a stream as a boundary on one side. Nowadays I spend most of my time entertaining, or being entertained, gardening, painting pictures – I have an upcoming exhibition with some friends (November 2015). I belong to a Book Group which has been going since 1996 and I also join friends to go to the theatre in London about four times a year. I enjoy walking even though I get breathless easily.
L-R: Anne Hamilton (Coy), Ann Carlyon (Clapham), Sue Pender (Rymill), Lil Griffiths (Lobb), Georgie Matyear (Bright), Fern Henderson (Welsh), Christina Hayward (Pym), Lesley Griffin (Vincent), Eda Ritchie (Beggs) and Elizabeth Landy (Manifold) 21
Hilary Blakiston (Heath) recently had lunch in Noosa with Xenia Laycock (Gardiner), Tim Gillespie (Street) and daughter Peta Gillespie, (COGA’s wonderful treasurer). She also had Dallas Kinnear (Heath)’s company for two weeks in early June. Bronwyn Willis (Kirton) wrote to say that it was interesting reading the article about Betty Leggo in both the Cluthan and the Light Blue. ‘I never knew her, just knew of her as she had been married to my uncle Roberts Dunstan. When the Light Blue came out with the article I wrote to Katie Rafferty with more family connections to Clyde and GGS.’ Bronwyn also said that she had finally retired at the end of last year and had gone to New Zealand for five weeks.
Above L-R: Ann Carlyon (Clapham), Christina Hayward (Pym), Ann Rawlins (Hornabrook), Anne Hamilton (Coy), Fern Henderson (Welsh), Sue Pender (Rymill) and Eda Ritchie (Beggs) with the ‘Patron Saint of the Chatterers’
In September 2015, Catherine Kinley wrote, from the UK, news of her mother: “I am writing to let you know that my mother, Dorothy Read (Temperley), who attended Clyde from 1929-1933, will be celebrating her 100th birthday on 29 October 2015. Sadly I do not know if anyone of my mother’s Clyde generation is still around, but if so, perhaps you could let us know. My mother is still bright and alert and enjoys the wonderful Clyde book (‘Clyde School An Uncommon History’ by Melanie Guile) which I got for her a few years ago. She receives the GGS magazine (Light Blue) also.” In response to this happy news, the COGA Committee ordered some birthday treats from Fortnum & Mason, which were delivered to Dorothy at Catherine’s house to celebrate her 100th birthday. COGA sent some biscuits (in a ‘happy birthday’ musical tin) and some ‘Midnight Feast’ chocolate hedgehogs – couldn’t resist the name. Sue Schudmak (Sproat) sent Dorothy a birthday card on COGA’s behalf which she was delighted to receive.
L to R: Anne Hamilton (Coy), Eda Ritchie (Beggs), Sue Pender (Rymill), Christina Hayward (Pym), Belinda Philp (Morieson/Laidlaw), Elizabeth Landy (Manifold), Ann Carlyon (Clapham), Lil Griffiths (Lobb), Pam Sinclair (Clyne) and Fern Henderson (Welsh) Missing: Ann Rawlins (Hornabrook), Gillian Storey (Kimpton), Sue Sutherland (Finlay) and Ros Bromell (Gardner)
Recently Dorothy was interviewed for a forthcoming biography about Joan Lindsay (Weigall) for which she wrote the following reminiscence about being at Clyde (at first with her sister Josephine Temperley, 1929-30):
L-R: Pam Sinclair (Clyne), Ros Bromell (Gardner) (obscured), Fern Henderson (Welsh), Anne Hamilton (Coy), Ann Carlyon (Clapham), Christina Hayward (Pym), Eda Ritchie (Beggs), Sue Pender (Rymill), Ann Rawlins (Hornabrook), Belinda Philp (Morieson/Laidlaw) and Gillian Storey (Kimpton)
“I was one of a group of West Australian girls who travelled across to Clyde, starting as a student there when I was thirteen. My older sister, Josephine, and I wanted very much to go when we heard from a friend who was already there that Clyde girls changed for dinner and wore black velvet jackets over their dresses. This seemed the height of sophistication and my sister and I pestered our father to be sent thousands of miles away to school.
Cathie Mahar (left) celebrated Joan Mackenzie (Bloomfield)’s 80th birth day with a superb chocolate cake on 20 October 2014 at Jack Rabbit vineyard on the Bellarine Peninsula
Meanwhile my brother was at school at St Peter’s in Adelaide; there had been discussion about sending him ‘home’ to school in England – a demonstration of the very close ties between Australia and the UK in those days. At one stage it was discussed that my sister and I would go to school in Belgium. 22
We generally travelled to school by train. At Perth my father entrusted us to the care of the conductor or guard. The journey took 4-5 days across Australia, it involved several changes of train, according to different railway companies and gauge changes at state borders. The trains were comfortable in the long sections of the journey, crossing the Nullarbor Plain. We had sleeping compartments with washing facilities in the compartment and a shower at the end of the corridor. In the morning the conductor would bring us early morning hot buttered toast and tea to our compartment which was a great treat. The trains stopped quite often and sometimes for long enough to allow passengers to get off at various station hotels. At one stop where we changed trains I would regularly meet a friend and we would have lunch. On one crossing we saw the famous Daisy Bates, in her Victorian costume, stiff collar and all, who was staying with aboriginal peoples and studying their culture in their settlements on the edge of the Nullarbor Plain, A few times we travelled across to Victoria by ship from Fremantle, which took over four days.
nearby where the owners, perhaps farmers’ wives, would provide nice things to eat. Older girls had to escort younger ones. Once, while at Clyde, there was a bush fire and we senior girls were allowed to help, tucking our dresses into our knickers and forming bucket chains for the fire fighters. Every year we put on a play at Woodend and a play in a large theatre in Melbourne, directed and produced by our wonderful Miss Robson who taught drama and instilled in me a love of theatre. I was not really keen on hearty sport, preferring dance, drama and singing; the photograph of me in a team in the Clyde Book is a fluke as I was put into the team at the last minute! (See Clyde History book, p137, basketball team 1933) I remember that our meals were good; we were very proud of the lunches provided to visiting school teams and we changed tables in the dining room every so often. Only French was spoken at the French table, presided over by Mlle Prevost who was supposed to have taught at the Russian court before the Revolution. I liked French and was quite good at it – having learned well at my junior school in Perth – and I studied German in my last year. I have very clear memories of the poetry and literature we were taught and can still recite chunks of Shakespeare and other poetry.
I have no memories of feeling homesick at Clyde. Aspects of it might seem spartan by today’s standards, but it cannot have been too uncomfortable as most of us came from comfortable homes and it didn’t seem so different from home life. We were only allowed one bath a week but we had a shower every day so no hardship there.
We had church services at the school on Sundays, which took place in the front hall of the School and were officiated over by, alternately, a Church of England vicar and a Presbyterian Minister.
Clyde was a great success as far as I was concerned – the half terms were too short to go home to Perth so I stayed with school friends whose parents lived in or near Melbourne. I took to its busy social life like a duck to water, being photographed out and about much too young, to my parents’ surprise.
Our Headmistress (Miss Tucker) made sure that we were aware of the Depression and our responsibilities to help our parents, who were making a sacrifice by sending us to Clyde. We used to go to the drawing room in the evenings where she would read to us on Sundays. She was a wise woman in many ways. I remember that some boys from Melbourne Grammar rowing crew decided to come and visit me unannounced. It must have been towards the end of my school days, and they appeared in a car. Instead of ticking them off she invited them to join me for afternoon tea with her, in her drawing room and then said I could accompany them on the car’s running board to the end of the drive.
When I was a new girl at Clyde, in one of the dormitories I woke to see a possum sitting looking at me from the end of my bed, not something we were used to in Peppermint Grove WA! We used to go to a picnic at Hanging Rock every year. The littlies went in the truck driven by Bedwell, the prefects went in a cart pulled by Blossom, our horse. The rest of the school walked. We knew about the mystery of the disappearances at Hanging Rock but I do not remember anyone really discussing it in any detail. We used to do a lot of picnicking in the countryside at weekends and some took windup gramophones out on our walks. We were allowed, when older, to go for tea and cakes at various houses
MISSING ADDRESSES Does anyone know of the new addresses or emails for the following COGs? Liz Yoffe (Mann Cl’66) Anne O’Shea (Burchell-Cox Cl’66) Graham Maxwell-Russell (Maxwell Cl’74) USA? Susan Murphy (Crouch Cl’53) Anne Tweedie (Richardson Cl’46) Please contact Sue Schudmak (Sproat) (P) 03 9867 2663 (E) susanschudmak@icloud.com 23
worked hard throughout her time at the College. She was Cadet Under Officer of the Braemar College Cadet Unit after spending six years in the unit. Lucinda completed multiple Defence Force leadership courses. She was a Prefect and served the College with responsibility and dedication. Lucinda always volunteered to be involved in all aspects of the College and did so with generosity.
CONGRATULATIONS TO THE FOLLOWING AWARD WINNERS Anne Kantor (Murdoch) Officer (AO) in the general division of the Order of Australia. For distinguished service to the community through philanthropic support for a range of environmental, social welfare, arts and educational organisations, and to psychotherapy.
CLYDE HOUSE REPORT 2015/2016 It has been a busy, hardworking but most of all fun first semester in Clyde. At the end of the last year, we said goodbye to our much loved head of house, Ross Patterson who has moved to the peninsula to become the head of campus down there at Peninsula School. We wish him and his wife Joanne and their three, soon to be four, cheeky sons all the best. We also said goodbye to Jane Headly as she has taken maternity leave as well as some of our other tutors, Caroline Gorden-Johnson, Dianna Martin and Timmee Grinham. At the start of this year, we welcomed our new head of house, Denise Whitten into Clyde with open arms. We also extended a warm welcome to our new tutors Nicola Perkins and Kay Long. We were pleased to have our house assistant Vivien Murrell with us again this year; she provides us with her yummy suppers and the support and guidance that is very much appreciated. Lastly we welcomed in the new year 10s from Timbertop and also outside of the Grammar community. They have transitioned into senior school and Clyde very well and are enjoying all the activities that take place around the school and in Clyde.
Anne’s service includes Founder and Deputy Chair, Dara Foundation, since 1998. The Foundation provides ongoing support to a range of charitable, environmental, educational and Indigenous organisations. COGA PRIZE FOR ENGLISH GEELONG GRAMMAR SCHOOL
Alexandra Cash and Hugo Bienvenu Hugo sent the following letter to thank COGA: As winner of this year’s Clyde Old Girls’ Association Prize for English I would like to extend my most sincere thanks to you and the entirety of the Clyde Old Girls’ Association for funding the award. The generous sum of money that comes with the prize was put toward a hardcover collection of Charles Dickens’ most recognised works which I will be able to enjoy in my now extensive spare time. With the award in its fifteenth year the generosity of COGA has afforded Geelong Grammar School a consistent means with which to recognise and encourage talented students of English or Literature and, in consequence, to nurture the study of English at the school. From this I take a great deal of personal peace of mind, as I am sure the English faculty do also.
The house captain for Clyde 2016 is Lucy Stewart, who has done a wonderful job so far in making the house a welcoming, fun environment for us to be a part of. We also have eight other girls with a prefect role, Mathilda Harley (vice house captain), Sophia Balcombe Ehrlich, Alice Chirnside, Sasha Culley, Izzy Hope, Coco Hynes, Anna Keenan and Issy Luxton.
COGA PRIZE FOR COMMUNITY SERVICE BRAEMAR COLLEGE
Brendan Judde Brendan was a member of a local youth group based in the Macedon Ranges Shire who developed a new initiative called ‘The Field Trip’, which billed itself as “Scouts for the 21st century” – from the Leader Newspaper. Four concepts define the Field Trip; adventure, invention, initiative and unity with weekly meetings held by leaders aged from seventeen to twenty. The Leaders facilitate sessions for younger people aged from ten to sixteen. It is a peer-led model empowering youth to empower and inspire each other.
To kick start the year off, we had our swimming competition, with Clyde (yet again) coming out with a win with help from our house swimming captains Mima Hart and Anna Keenan. We all came together as a house and everyone in some way helped achieve this victory by either swimming in various races or cheering and chanting very loudly on the side line. House music is always something that we’re not the best at so usually everyone is not as enthusiastic as they are for other events. However with the tremendous work from our music captains Matilda Finckh and Issy Luxton and also a little white lie (telling the year 10s we do in fact go extremely well in house music) we managed to come fifth overall which we were all very proud and quite surprised about. The whole house choir theme for this year was ‘The Beatles’, so
THE DAME ELISABETH MURDOCH AWARD
Lucinda Harrison Lucinda was very academic, being Dux Proximus of Braemar College in 2015 with an ATAR of 98.1. Lucinda took her studies very seriously and consistently 24
we sang ‘Here Comes the Sun’, while small group which consisted of Matilda Finckh (Cl’12), Mima Hart (Cl’12), Zoe Burgess (Cl’11), Lucy Needle (Cl’11), Julia Tallis (Cl’11) and Fleur Mclachlan (Cl’10) sang ‘Roll Up your Sleeves’ by Meg Mac. For our solo, Madeleine Lowi-Genn played a beautiful violin piece.
‘Letters to Juliet’ to finish off with a romance movie set all around Italy. Stepping back into 2015, we came away with another win at the athletics carnival which is the biggest event at GGS. The weather was lovely and each girl who participated tried their best and we were very proud. Two girls who performed very well for Clyde were Lauren Ryan (sprinter and long distance), who this year has gone to represent Australia at the International Association of Athletics Federations in Poland as well as representing Australia at the World Schools Cross Country in Budapest in which she came second, and also Xenia Brooks (long jump). We are very proud of what these girls have achieved.
Our house outing at the beginning of the year was to Luna Park in Melbourne. This was a very fun day filled with many rides such as the roller coaster, pirate ship, haunted house and the scary scissor ride. We enjoyed a day filled with sunshine and friends and by the end of it, almost every girl fell asleep on the bus back to school. In term two Elise Giagnorio (Cl’12) and myself, along with Viv’s help put on a makeup night to raise money for breast cancer. We had a makeup artist come in and teach the girls how to correctly apply makeup and, as well as this, Viv put on one of her famous super suppers which consisted of cakes, slices, sausage rolls, soup, sushi, punch and many more delicious foods. This was a terrific night and we raised just over $700. Elise and Viv also put on an Italian night for the last weekend of term two. This was a huge success with not many leftovers. After our stomachs were full, we put on the movie
Again we also said goodbye to the 2015 year 12s, who completed their VCE and IB exams, we wish them all the very best for their futures and hope they come back to visit Clyde. Clyde has been a very successful house for the first semester, with lots of friendships made within the house and we can’t wait for what it has in store for us in the second half of the year. Annabelle Stewart (Cl’12)
25
CLYDE HOUSE GIRLS WITH A CLYDE SCHOOL CONNECTION – 2016
Student Serena Brookes (Yr11) Matilda Carnegie (Y12)
Reationship Niece Grand-daughter Great-niece Great-niece
Clyde Old Girl Susie Lowing Carmen Clarke Sylvia Clarke Georgina Clarke
Married Name Brookes Carnegie McLachlan Bragg
Clyde Years Cl’69 Cl’50-56 Cl’60-67 Cl’55-60
Alice Chirnside (Yr12)
Great-niece Great-niece Great-niece Great-niece Daughter Niece
June Chirnside Judy Chirnside Ann Ramsay Mary Ramsay Annette Devilee Rosalyn Devilee
Rogers Bey Hope-Johnston Sutherland Devilee Whish Ferguson
Cl’34-39 Cl’34-36 Cl’38-43 Cl’43-48 Cl’/GGS 74-78 Cl’/GGS 74-77
Niece Niece Daughter Great-niece
Annette Devilee Rosalyn Devilee Jane Fleetwood Helen Kennedy
Devilee Whish Ferguson Rollo
Cl’/GGS 74-78 Cl’/GGS 74-77 Cl’/GGS 74-77 Cl’39-44
Grace Hill-Smith Yr10 Jamima Jamieson (Yr11)
Grand-daughter Great-grand-daughter Great-great-niece Great-niece Great-niece
Helen Lane Betty Anderson Flo Jamieson Joanne Jamieson Carol Jamieson
Hill Smith Jamieson Calvert Jackson Hancock
Cl’34-36 Cl’23-24 Cl’17-19 Cl’41-49 Cl’49-54
Zara Lane Yr11 Ella Lansell Yr10 and Giselle Lansell Yr10 Isabelle Luxton (Yr12)
Great-niece Great-niece Great-niece Grand-daughter Great-niece Great-niece Great-niece
Helen Lane Audrey Lansell Peggy Lansell Margot Davey Deirdre Davey Margaret Luxton Elizabeth Luxton
Hill Smith Warren Scott Woods Naylor Roffey Howard
Cl’34-36 Cl’25-29 Cl’33-37 Cl’46-53 Cl’48-54 Cl’33-38 Cl’25-30
Olivia McFarlane (Yr12) Chloe McGregor (Yr10)
Daughter Great-niece
Amanda Gubbins Patricia Mackinnon
McFarlane McKenzie
Cl’/GGS 73-79 Cl’45-51
Fleur McLachlan Yr10 Georgie Manifold Y10
Great-niece Great-niece Great-niece
Sylvia Clarke Elizabeth Manifold Prue Manifold
McLachlan Landy Plowman
Cl’60-67 Cl’55-59 Cl’57-63
Anne Coy Jenny Robinson Kate Richardson Peggy Robinson Joan Bloomfield Madge Taylor Aileen Taylor
Hamilton Sanders Robinson Coldham Baillieu Mackenzie Bloomfield Stewart
Cl’51-58 Cl’68-73 Cl’70-75 Cl’14-15 Cl’44-52 Cl’15-20 Cl’14-17
Georgie Spiden (Yr10) and Lizzy Spiden (Yr12)
Grand-daughter Great-niece Grand-daughter Great-niece Great-niece Great-great-niece Great-grand-daughter
Valerie Clarke Margaret Southey Ann Ross Helen Ross Rosemary Ross Mary Ross Susan Staughton
Southey Mims Spiden Taylor Borthwick Winter-Irving Ross
Cl’35-38 Cl’36-38 Cl’56-61 Cl’58-63 Cl’59-65 Cl’35-40 Cl’29-31
Annabelle Stewart (Y12)
Great-niece
Susan Finlay
Sutherland
Cl’54-59
Julia Tallis (Yr11)
Grand-daughter
Mary Learmonth
Tallis
Cl’48-55
Sasha Culley (Yr12) Olivia Devilee (Yr11) Lucy Fletcher (Y12) Mathilda Harley (Yr12)
Great-niece Niece Niece Great-great-niece Mietta Rouffignac (Yr12) Grand-daughter Great-grand-daughter Great-niece Claudia Nance (Yr10) Georgina Robinson Yr11
Scarlett Southey (Yr11)
26
On 23 February 2016 at the Fisher Library annexe, GGS Corio, the COGA committee visited the recently completed Clyde Archives, the fruit of many years’ hard work by many people in particular Sue Schudmak (Sproat) and Jackie Mackinnon (Kelly), pictured by the index on display by the relevant shelves. It’s been a huge task; we congratulate and thank Jackie, Sue and all the other helpers for such dedication and commitment! The committee were welcomed by new Head of Clyde House, Denise Whitten. (The picture below was taken in Denise’s office, with backdrop collage of Clyde history photos.) The committee enjoyed the opportunity to meet Denise, and we were delighted to explore the memorabilia and archival material on display at Clyde House. Thank you to Denise for showing an interest in the history and traditions of Clyde School – we feel the principles and spirit of Clyde are being appreciated and will create a sense of continuity and identity at Clyde House. Our best wishes to Denise and all the students for a happy and successful school year.
L-R: COGA vice president Fern Henderson (Welsh), COGA treasurer Peta Gillespie, COGA/OGG president Margie Gillett (Cordner), Head of Clyde House Denise Whitten, Lesley Griffin (Vincent), COGA database coordinator Sue Schudmak (Sproat) and Elizabeth Landy (Manifold) 27
VALE Jane Aubrey Austin (McFarland) 17 August 1927 – 22 August 2016 Clyde 1941 – 1944
Jean Marjorie Lester MBE 30 November 1920 – 5 February 2016 Clyde 1935 – 1938
Patricia Barton (Moore) 13 November 1917 – 28 March 2015 Clyde 1927 – 1934
Jane Alice Camilla Macgowan (Casey) OAM 7 October 1928 – 26 August 2015 Clyde 1945 – 1946
Rouvray Boocock (King/Kirton) 20 March 1942 – 18 October 2013 Clyde 1953 – 1960
Prudence McFarlane (Ross Fenner) 27 September 1932 – 12 February 2014 Clyde 1947 – 1948
Jean Campbell (Kemp/Dalrymple) 30 June 1919 – 4 August 2016 Clyde 1930 – 1931
Mary Gwenelian Collier Perkins 23 April 1912 – 4 December 2011 Clyde 1925 – 1928
Patricia Alice Crawford (Steuart) 29 June 1921 – 17 November 2015 Clyde 1938
Priscilla Ann Hebden Steele (Hosgood) 4 November 2015 Clyde 1944 – 1948)
Jessie Selina Gray (Cumming) 14 August 1922 – 5 January 2016 Clyde 1935 – 1939
Prudence Margaret Tallboys 16 February 1959 – 11 October 2015 Clyde 1967 – 1968
Helen Gibson (Cooley) 19 September 2015 Clyde 1939 – 1942
Johanna Catharina ten Brink (Ideler) 11 December 1924 – 14 April 2016 Clyde Staff 1962 – 1975
Rosalie Joan Denise Grieve OAM 23 October 1931 – 25 September 2015 Clyde 1945 – 1948
Elizabeth Marion Turnbull 29 August 1929 – 8 January 2014 Clyde 1943 – 1947
Lady Sallie Sinclair Ferrall (Barnett/Thyne) 15 May 1932 – 10 September 2015 Clyde 1947 – 1948
Rosemary Vaughan-Smith (Gipps) 23 September 1930 – 22 April 2013 Clyde 1947 – 1948
Helen Margaret Happell (Macdougall) 8 November 1935 – 9 August 2013 Clyde 1947 – 1953
Barbara Anne Walker (McKenzie) 31 December 1947 – 16 February 2016 Clyde 1960 – 1965
OBITUARIES
her husband through his many distinguished appointments. Among several major awards, including the Amelia Earhart Medal for aviation, Maie Casey was made a Companion of the Order of Australia (AC) in 1982. She is the subject of much reference material including a biography, ‘Glittering Surfaces’ written by Diane Langmore.
Jane Alice Camilla Macgowan (Casey) OAM 7 October 1928 – 26 August 2015 Clyde 1945 – 1946 Jane Casey was born in London on 7 October 1928, two years after her parents were married there in 1926. Her father, Richard Gardiner Casey (18901976), who became Baron (Lord) Casey in 1960, was an engineer, politician, diplomat, British minister of state, governor of Bengal, foreign minister and Australian Governor-General 1965-69. He was the second Australian to sit in the House of Lords. In 1928, Casey was based in London as Australia’s Liaison Officer in the Commonwealth Public Service.
Both Jane and her younger brother Donn (Richard Charles Donn Casey, 1931 2009), led much quieter lives out of the public eye, but they inherited their parents’ strong sense of community service and both went on to make a significant impact in their chosen fields. Donn became a specialist in population control, developing the Filshie Clip, a reversible sterilising device used by 10 million women worldwide.
Jane’s mother, Ethel Marion Sumner Casey (nee Ryan, 1891-1983), always known as Maie, was an equally impressive figure. Maie Casey became a close friend of Joan Lindsay (Weigall), she was an artist, writer, arts patron and keen aviatrix, and supported 28
In 1931, the Casey family moved back to Australia, where they divided their time between the family seat, Edrington, a redbrick Arts and Crafts house at Berwick, Victoria, and a house at the Royal Military College at Duntroon. Casey won the Federal seat of Corio in December 1931 and the family chose to live in Canberra. Edrington was jointly owned by Maie and her brother, Rupert Ryan, whose son, Patrick Ryan, spent much of his childhood with the Caseys. As cousins, Patrick and Jane were particularly close throughout their childhood and adult life, until his death in 1989.
Helen Clarke, Mary Monckton and Jane Nevile).
In 1940, Richard Casey was appointed to head the Australian Legation in Washington and the family moved there. Jane continued to be educated in Australia, travelling back and forth to Washington. In 1942, Winston Churchill offered Casey the position of Minister of State in the Middle East, based in Cairo. Casey and Maie left for Cairo, leaving the children in the care of their governess and nurse. Jane and Donn were unhappy without their parents but were later allowed to join them in 1943, and attended the British school at Heliopolis.
With the influence of her artistic mother and greatgreat-aunt the botanical illustrator Ellis Rowan, Jane’s upbringing was interwoven with art. She became a generous arts patron and philanthropist. In 1974, she helped to established the Brandling Art Society (now the Brandling Street Painters), a collective in Sydney whose artists concentrate on drawing and painting from life models. It was established at a time when this was very expensive and unfashionable in art schools. This collective, a mix of professional artists, hobbyists and students, first met at the home of Penny Janyak, a book illustrator and painter. Later they moved on to meet in Jane Macgowan’s eastern suburbs home and at the Sydney School of Arts building in Pitt Street. In 1983, together with a friend, Jane bought an old canning factory in Alexandria and donated it to the group as a proper studio space. Her generosity enabled the group to flourish and their creative sessions increased from once to six times a week. In 1998, Jane was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for service to the arts.
Jane and Murray Macgowan moved to Sydney in 1955, then, following Murray’s work, went on to live in Adelaide in 1959, then Melbourne and Brisbane. Jane did not enjoy the frequent moves but in each city she sought out the local art world and became a regular sight at galleries, including Roy and Betty Churcher’s Brisbane studio. In 1960, Jane became The Honourable Jane Macgowan, when her parents became Lord and Lady Casey with ‘honours’ to their offspring. The Macgowans finally returned to Sydney in 1963.
In 1944, Casey was appointed governor of Bengal and the family moved into Government House, Calcutta. The children were educated at a school in Darjeeling, renowned for being the highest in the world. Jane and Donn were eventually sent back to school in Australia, as Maie wanted them to grow up with a sense of belonging here. In 1945-46, Jane attended Clyde School where she gained her Leaving certificate and joined the Birthday League committee. Under the leadership of Sister Neville, Jane’s committee held an entertainment in aid of the Royal Children’s Hospital. Competitive dances and games were arranged and according to The Cluthan 1946, “Sister distinguished herself by becoming a plum pudding and singing a duet …” Jane also wrote essays in The Cluthan about life in Egypt and Cairo. In truth, she preferred to be at home, and in later life endeavoured to keep her own children away from boarding schools.
Jane was an enthusiastic person. Throughout her life she pursued some form of art practice – painting, drawing, printmaking and etching – she was never without drawing pad, pencil or pastels to capture some face or scene. Art brought her great pleasure and companionship and this came from both the work itself and friendship with those who practised it. She had great friends in the Sydney art world including Rudy Komen , Kim Bonython, Lucy Swanton, Frank
After Jane left Clyde she attended classes at the Invergowrie Homecraft Hostel, then spent her early 20s working and travelling in Europe. She was twentyfive and working at Guy’s Hospital, London, when she met Murray Wynne Macgowan, an Australian engineer. They returned to Melbourne in 1954 and announced their engagement. Her parents, who had asked the industrialist Essington Lewis to ‘do some investigating’ of the prospective groom, eventually pronounced Murray a suitable match for their daughter. Maie threw a pre-wedding party for Jane and Murray at the Lyceum Club and they were married on 12 March 1955, with a reception at Edrington.
The Casey family at Duntroon
Note: Essington Lewis had three daughters at Clyde, 29
Watters, Ray Hughes, Marea Gazzard, Guy Warren and Randi Linnegar. A regular face at gallery openings, she acquired many works, often on what she referred to as the ‘never never’.
school’s closure in 1975, died unexpectedly at her home in Woodend on 14 April 2016, aged 91. She had lived at her cottage in Woodend for fifty years. Although she was widowed for many years and lived alone, Madame was an integral part of the Woodend community, well recognised in the district and she had a wide circle of friends, including new students who learned from ‘bonjour’, or former students who continued to visit her for tutoring to the highest university level of French studies, long after she retired from fulltime teaching at both Braemar College and Assumption College in Kilmore.
Jane loved to cook and entertain, and she loved a party. She often compared herself to her paternal grandmother Evelyn Casey, who, according to family myth, lost two of her husband’s fortunes by dint of too much entertaining. Every year Jane held a Christmas party, renowned for her personal preparation of hundreds of chicken sandwiches. These were always tasty, but often a little crunchy and semi-frozen in the middle!
Madame ten Brink was the beloved sister of Dr Eugene Ideler of Brussels. She arrived in Australia from Belgium with her husband in 1959, and was appointed to Clyde by Miss Joan Montgomery in 1962. Under Madame’s guidance, students consistently achieved outstanding results at external examinations and the state-wide Alliance Francaise poetry competitions. Given the freedom to develop her teaching ideas, Madame followed the modern approach of ‘communication’ with a focus on the oral (listening and speaking) component of language learning. She pioneered the use of audiotapes in class (considered by her academic peers as prohibitively expensive), and she organised professional development weekends for her fellow language teachers. Madame was a superlative teacher, strict and uncompromising, a perfectionist, a formidable academic in her field of languages, a sparkling personality, greatly loved and respected (or slightly feared!) by her students and her peers. Her professional skills were recognised outside the school; she won several awards including a French Government scholarship in 1972 to study in France over the summer.
Jane also loved reading and poetry, the classical world and choral music. For many years she volunteered with the organisers of the annual second-hand book sales at the University of NSW. Jane is survived by her four children Anna, Marian, Tempe and Richard, and grandchildren Billy, Callum, Adelaide and Frances. Adapted from the obituary by Amy Ripley, Sydney Morning Herald 28 Nov 2015 and edited to include Clyde information. The Berwick Mechanics Institute and Free Library houses the Casey Collection of art and memorabilia. Following the initiative of her parents, Lord and Lady Casey, Jane Macgowan also became a generous benefactor to the Institute. Johanna Catharina (Annie) ten Brink (Ideler) 11 December 1924 – 14 April 2016 Clyde Staff 1962 – 1975 Very sad news was received in April by many former French and other students who attended Clyde in the school’s last years.
From 1967 she helped to foster a popular program of outdoor education at Clyde, arranging overnight camping trips to local properties. The Clyde log cabin, secluded in the eucalyptus forest above the school with a distant view of Hanging Rock, became her exclusive French classroom where she created an ‘elite’ domain of French culture, music, literature and poetry. She hosted French lunches in the Clyde dining room for her senior students and encouraged them to feel like a special group. However, any misbehaviour meant you were left to stand outside the log cabin in the freezing cold for most of the lesson …
“C’est incroyable et terriblement triste – Madame est morte” was the message flying around many email addresses. Madame Johanna Catharina (Annie) ten Brink, former Clyde School French teacher from 1962 until the
Madame valued her Clyde connections for the rest of her life; she attended the Clyde history book launch at GGS in 2006, the Clyde Centenary lunch in 2010 and frequently attended COGA AGMs. In recent years she ran a French club lunch group attended by local Clyde Old Girls and other French language enthusiasts in the Woodend region, including Libby Peck (McPherson) and Belinda Winter-Irving.
Anna Affleck (Durham) with Madame 30
Madame’s funeral was held at St Ambrose Catholic Church in Woodend on Tuesday 3 May, attended by over 150 people including several Clyde Old Girls, and students from Braemar and Assumption College. Among the congregation were: L-R: Peta Gillespie, Belinda Winter-Irving, Jackie Mackinnon (Kelly), Kammy Cordner Hunt (Cordner), Shaen McDonald (Whittaker), Margie Gillett (Cordner), Madame’s top Braemar College student, Sammi Gates and Joanne Rankin (Mirams). Front: Libby Peck (McPherson), Mary Hildebrandt (Downie) and Rosalind Adams (Ritchie).
MADAME AT THE CLYDE CENTENARY LUNCH 2010
Back: Sandy Taylor (Dalrymple) and Kammy Cordner Hunt (Cordner) Front: Madame and Mrs Kiera Foletta
Many others wrote messages reminiscing about Madame and her unique charm. The vicar obviously knew Madame (Annie) well and fondly told some quirky stories about her. He put the Lord’s Prayer in French on the memorial service sheet, and in telling us to read it aloud he said, “All of you who mispronounce your words, be greatly afeared – you know who you are, and so does Madame – and she is listening!” as he nodded towards her petite pearly white coffin covered in beautiful flowers. The congregation laughed and read out the Lord’s Prayer in French, pronouncing very carefully!
L:R: Shaen McDonald (Whittaker), Madame and Margie Gillett (Cordner)
The eulogy was given by local doctor and distinguished citizen Dr Conron, who is married to Jo Rankin (Miram)’s sister Jenny. They have known Madame since 1959; she taught French to four generations of their family. Jo’s daughter Lucy was given an introduction to the Australian Embassy in Paris by Madame, where she worked for years, met and married a Frenchman and is now raising three French children, Jo’s grandchildren. After the service there was a burial in the Woodend cemetery (howling gale and rain), then tea and scones in the church hall, followed by champagne at the beautiful Woodend house of a friend of Madame’s. It was lovely to know the ceremony had done justice to Annie ten Brink.
Miss Joan Montgomery OBE AM and Madame (“… and do you remember how those girls raided the staff tea trolley and thought we didn’t know?”)
Information from Clyde history book, and personal contributions from former students. 31
Rosalie Joan Denise Grieve OAM 23 October 1931 – 25 September 2015 Clyde 1945 – 1948
tor to community organisations. At Lucindale as a young girl she joined the Brownies, becoming an adult leader with the Girl Guides when she moved to Naracoorte.
Rosalie Joan Denise Grieve, always known as Denise, was born on 25 October 1931, the eldest of four children to grazier and wool producer SF (Ford) Grieve and Doreen Grieve. Denise had a brother John who died in 2000, and two sisters Bettine Smith (Grieve Cl’46-53) and Patricia Pex (Grieve Cl’48-55). The Grieve family’s home was their agricultural property Karana at Conmurra, near Lucindale, 290 kilometres south-south-east of Adelaide in South Australia.
Golf became a big part of her life in the 1960s, while she also became a driving force behind the Naracoorte Art Gallery. She served as secretary, board member, exhibitions officer and chairman, eventually being awarded life membership. In 1978, Denise became the first female councillor in the Corporation of Naracoorte (encompassing Lucindale Council), and in 1989 she was elected Mayor of Naracoorte – a position she held for over nine years, making twenty years’ service on council. During her time on council, Denise was the instigator and first chairman of the Naracoorte Tidy Towns committee and in 1994, as mayor, participated in the national awards in Sydney, with Naracoorte being awarded the title of Australia’s Tidiest Town. While on council, she also established the Naracoorte Nature Park and the major upgrade of the Naracoorte Town Hall.
During the war years of the 1940s, Denise’s family moved to Melbourne to further the children’s education. Denise attended Merton Hall (Melbourne Girls’ Grammar School) in South Yarra, and then boarded at Clyde School from 1945-48. Her sisters Bettine and Patricia Grieve followed soon after. At Clyde, Denise gained her Intermediate certificate in 1937, was on the Debating team 1946-48, secretary of the Art Club, and acted in school plays (as Mrs Welwyn in ‘Tilly of Bloomsbury’), or in Faireleight house entertainments (as Mrs Blunt in ‘Such Goings On’ she had the audience “rocking with mirth” at her comical antics). In 1948, her mother Doreen died, and Denise left school aged sixteen, returning to Karana to help her father run the property.
Later she was a driving force behind the formation of the Naracoorte Soroptimists, part of Soroptimist International (SI), a global volunteer movement of professional and business women working to transform the lives of women and girls. The organisation was founded in 1921 in Oakland, California and has a network of 80,000 members in 132 countries and territories. Their global network is made up of international, national and local Soroptimist groups whose projects focus on violence against women; safe and healthy environments; equity and equality; education, employment and empowerment; leadership and practical skills for women and girls.
For the next six years, Denise worked on the farm and looked after her three siblings when they returned home from school in Victoria for the holidays. Happily for Denise, Karana’s country homestead was a ‘blaze of colour’ and decorated with flowers for her 21st birthday dance, celebrated on Saturday 25 October 1952 with her sisters Bettine and Patricia allowed home from Clyde to help with the entertaining.
Denise had a long involvement with the Naracoorte Croquet Club as secretary and three stints as president. She was passionate about the Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) and helped form the Naracoorte and District RFDS Support Group. The Grieve family have had a long association with the St Andrew’s Presbyterian Church and Denise was on the church board of management for twelve years, as secretary for eleven years and treasurer for six years. Because the Presbyterian Church and Dunbar Homes (residential aged care facilities) are affiliated, Denise was also a foundation member of the Dunbar Homes board in Naracoorte. With her Scottish heritage, Denise became involved with the Naracoorte Caledonian Society, serving as secretary and treasurer for several years.
In 1953 her father met and married Rosemary, and there followed two more children, half-brothers for Denise: Peter born in 1954, and Graeme Grieve in 1955. Sadly Denise’s stepmother Rosemary contracted poliomyelitis in 1955 and became a quadriplegic for the next 32 years. Denise stepped into the breach and cared for Rosemary and the extended family. Despite the workload at home, Denise wanted to earn an income for her own future and started doing clerical work for the Lucindale Motor Company, 22 kilometres from Karana. Later the Grieve family moved to Naracoorte, and Denise started work as a secretary and bookkeeper for the Oates Stock and Station agency. She was subsequently employed at the Naracoorte Medical Clinic where she was practice manager for many years.
In 1983, Denise was awarded the Naracoorte Australia Day Citizen of the Year for her tireless and generous work in supporting the community. The Lions’ Club of Naracoorte recognised Denise’s achieve-
Denise was always an active and dedicated contribu32
ments, honouring her in 1997 with the Melvin Jones Fellowship Award. Other recognition came from the Prime Minister in 2001, the International Year of Volunteers; the Cancer Council in 2004 for ten years’ service; numerous Certificates of Appreciation from the RFDS; the Red Cross as she was a volunteer driver for many years; and an award during National Volunteers’ Week in 2012 from the Limestone Coast Volunteer Service for her extraordinary voluntary work in the community.
served on the CHA committee in 1937; in 1938 she joined the Music Club committee, Camera Club committee, the CHA committee, gained her Leaving and Matriculation certificates; she was elected a school prefect for 1939, but left school in 1938. She enjoyed drama and appeared in a number of school plays, including a memorable stint in 1938 as ‘God’ in an amphitheatre production of ‘Everyman’, a 15th century morality play held to raise money for building the new log cabin: “The weather was perfect and the voices carried so well that even God (Jean Lester) up above the reservoir was able to hear his cues … God’s voice was really awe-inspiring and the voices of the angel choir sounded beautiful coming from ‘Heaven’.” (The Cluthan, 1938)
In 2000, Denise was recognised for her work as the chairman of the Naracoorte Jubilee 150 Committee. All of these achievements culminated in Denise Grieve being awarded an OAM in 2002. In delivering the eulogy at Denise’s memorial service, her half-brother Peter Grieve said, “It really beggars belief, the number of commitments, organisations and charities that one person can be part of. I will try and impart what a huge role this amazing woman has played in the shaping of Naracoorte. In the words of Winston Churchill, ‘We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give’.”
After leaving school and completing secretarial studies, Jean embarked on a remarkable career at Government House, Canberra, as the personal assistant to the wives of several successive Australian GovernorsGeneral. For decades from 1947, Miss Jean Lester was the trusted personal assistant to Lady Aileen Slim, Lady Katherine Dunrossil, Lady Muriel Brooks, Lady Jacqueline De L’Isle, Lady Anne Kerr and Lady Alison Kerr. Loyal, efficient, reliable and highly respected, Jean’s role afforded her a unique insight and involvement at the forefront of Australian politics. Gough Whitlam’s memoir, The Truth of the Matter (p48-49) describes how Jean, as the private secretary of the late Lady Kerr, accompanied Governor-General Sir John Kerr on a personal visit to dine with Rupert Murdoch and his senior staff members at Cavan, Murdoch’s pastoral retreat and merino stud at Yass, fifty kilometres from Canberra on the banks of the Murrumbidgee River. It was a hot afternoon on Sunday 17 November 1974, the guests included cartoonist Paul Rigby, James Hall, editor of The Australian, Ron Boland of The News in Adelaide, Owen Thomson, editor in chief of The Daily and Sunday Telegraph, and finally the Governor-General and Jean Lester. The lunch was hosted by Dame Elisabeth Murdoch (Greene) beside the swimming pool with its long sweeping outlook over the river. This is just one example of a day in Jean’s professional life, which became closely aligned to her personal life and friendships. In 1976, Jean was awarded an MBE: The Order of the British Empire, Member (Civil) for her service to Government House, Canberra.
Loved and appreciated by her whole family, Denise was the “fond and much loved Aunty Den to 14 nieces and nephews, and great-aunt to eleven”. A remarkable and generous soul, she gave so much to so many. Information from the eulogy written by Peter Grieve; obituary in Naracoorte press; The Cluthan 1948-49. Jean Marjorie Lester MBE 30 November 1920 – 5 February 2016 Clyde 1935 – 1938 Jean Marjorie Lester was born on 30 November 1920, one of four children to HW (Hugh) and ME (Marjorie) Lester (nee Ritchie) of the pastoral property Dueran, at Mansfield. Her siblings were John, Tim and Bill (RW Lester). The Lester and Ritchie families both have strong affiliations with GGS and Clyde. In the 1930s Dueran was already a historic and prominent sheep and cattle property in the Mansfield district. Hugh Lester was an efficient farmer, a generous and well-regarded employer of local stock and station hands, some of whom had to leave the property to sign up for service in WWII. (See memoir by Sjt. Oswald H Stafford, To the Green Fields of Kastina.)
The National Library of Australia (NLA) holds three boxes of Jean Lester’s manuscripts and papers described as follows: ‘Letters, photographs, invitations, programs, menus, itineraries, typescripts of speeches, newspaper cuttings and other printed material. The papers primarily relate to Lester’s work at Government House, Canberra, and her travels in Australia and overseas. They document such occasions as the 1959 visit of Princess Alexandra of Kent, the visit of
Jean boarded at Clyde School from 1935-1938. She gained her Intermediate certificate in 1936, and 33
Queen Elizabeth II in 1963 and Sir John Kerr’s 1975 trip to India, Iran, Nepal, Afghanistan and Pakistan’.
when Jessie was young, with kangaroos leaping from the bush and taking refuge on the sandy beaches of Peterborough. There were social gatherings, picnics on the beach and children’s parties enjoyed by many families from Western District pastoral properties, especially during the summer holidays. Known for his horse-racing interests, Jessie’s father George G Cumming once managed Rupert Clarke’s property Rupertswood in Sunbury, and helped to found the Sunbury Racing Club (secretary 1901-1915). After serving in WWI, he took up sheep farming and dairying at Peterborough, sadly dying at Mulyumbool, aged 66 on 24 August 1934. In 1940, Jessie’s mother married Robert Hugh Aitken Cochrane, a civil engineer for the Country Roads Board who designed many Australian roads and airports, and was wartime director of evacuation. Jessie’s mother and stepfather, Hugh Cochrane, continued to live at Mulyumbool in Peterborough.
There are also two sound files (audiotapes recorded 10 October 2005) and a collection of portraits of Jean Lester, taken during an oral history interview by Sir David Smith at the NLA on 7 October 2005, now located in the NLA Pictures collection. The breadth and nature of this material gives an idea of Jean’s career and responsibilities, and her status as a highly valued member of the Australian Government community in Canberra. Jean died peacefully aged 95, after spending her last years at Sheridan Hall, Brighton. A family tribute described her as the “loved and devoted aunt of Kim; Richard, Eve, Tom and William, and great aunt of Emma and Grace; Matilda; Hal; Miranda and Rory.” She will always be remembered for her kindness and warmth.
In the early 1930s, Jessie loved to enter puzzle and poetry competitions run by The Argus junior sections, with success in 1934 when young ‘Jessie Cumming of Mulyumbool, Timboon’ won a camera for her ‘potted rhyme entry’ about Little Bo-Peep.
Information from The Cluthan 1938-39; Gough Whitlam’s memoir (see ref. above); Stafford memoir (see ref. above); National Library of Australia records. Jessie Selina Gray (Cumming) 14 August 1922 – 5 January 2016 Clyde 1935 – 1939
Jessie attended Clyde School from 1935-1939, entering at age thirteen. Her valete in The Cluthan 1940 shows that she was dux of form Vb 1936; achieved her Intermediate in 1937, her Leaving and Matriculation certificates and a Form Prize in 1938; played in the senior Tennis VIII and left in first term 1939.
Jessie Selina Cumming was born at St Aidan’s private hospital in Moonee Ponds on 14 August 1922, the only daughter of Mr George Gordon Cumming and Mrs Jessie Scott Cumming. Jessie had a brother George Cumming, born 13 March 1924, who married Lois Stansfield of Warrnambool in January 1947.
Jessie and her family were an integral part of the Western District social scene; she played in district lawn tennis tournaments at Camperdown and attended parties and dances with others of her set.
The Cumming family descended from pioneering pastoralists, the founders being John Cumming and his wife Anne (nee Forrest) who arrived in Van Diemen’s Land from Aberdeen in 1833. After trials and tribulations typical of the era, John established Cumming’s brewery in Geelong, and by March 1849 he owned over 15,000 acres of the Stony Point run on Mt Emu Creek, Darlington. This he gave to one son, Jessie’s grandfather Thomas Forrest Cumming (1842-1918), a founder of the Australian Sheepbreeders’ Association, who married Selina Dowling, daughter of the Rt. Hon. Thomas Dowling (1820-1914) of Jellalabad, a prominent merino sheep station at Darlington. John Cumming subsequently bought the Mt Fyans station for his younger sons George and William Cumming. During Jessie’s childhood in the 1930s, her grandmother Selina was the Cumming family matriarch who lived to her late 90s, celebrating her 92nd birthday with a gathering of the clan in 1937.
On Friday 13 August 1943, Jessie shared her 21st birthday celebration with Doris Nevett, daughter of the Hon. Mrs E Nevett, hosted by their mothers at Nine Darling Street, South Yarra. On the same night, Jessie’s engagement was announced to LS-A Reginald E Gray, RANR, only son of Mrs WH Bailey of Sparrowvale, Geelong (a 1,400 acre property on the Barwon Heads road, which had once been Geelong’s first racecourse, and became the State agricultural college.) Two years later on 17 August 1945, Jessie and Reginald were married at Toorak Presbyterian Church. The bride was given away by her stepfather, Mr RH Cochrane, and wore a gown of ivory french weave with a limerick lace veil. Predeceased by her husband, Jessie Selina Gray of Hawthorn died on 6 January 2016. Her family wrote that she was the ‘loving mother of Lenora Clarke, loving Auntie Jess to Anne Wessner (dec), Geraldine Condon, Jeffrey Cumming, Stephen Cumming and their families’. Jessie was a fun-loving person who led a fulfilling and happy life.
Jessie’s family lived at Peterborough on a property called Mulyumbool, on the east side of Curdies River. It was a picturesque place to call home. There were bushfires in the Timboon and Boggy Creek district 34
Information from The Cluthan 1938-1940; The Argus newspaper, Trove NLA; The Age; The Australian Dictionary of Biography (Cumming and Dowling).
home they built together at Lebanon, in the foothills of Mount Macedon. It was a wonderful life for Jean then, surrounded by many friends and family. Peter and Jean Kemp raised four children: born 1949 Wanda Huntington Kemp (Cl’67), 1951 Andrew Peter Somerville Kemp (GGS’68), 1953 Simon Dalrymple Kemp (GGS’70) and 1957 Caroline Somerville Kemp (Cl’74).
Jessie’s daughter Lenora was very good in packing up and donating several boxes of Jessie’s lovely old inscribed leather-bound Clyde prize books which helped boost our Archives Library Collection in 2014/15.
In 1963 Peter and Jean moved to Albury, NSW, and after separating from Peter in 1968, Jean moved back to Gisborne to once again manage the family property Glenluce, after the untimely death of her brother Ross. While running Glenluce, Jean built her second home at Baringo in 1970.
Jean Campbell (Kemp/Dalrymple) 30 June 1919 – 4 August 2016 Clyde 1930 – 1931 Jean Dalrymple was born on 30 June 1919, the third child of Wanda (nee St Pinnock) and William Alexander Dalrymple. She grew up on the family’s 1,300 acre pastoral property Glenluce on Jackson’s Creek, between Gisborne and Sunbury, originally part of the extensive 30,000 acre Clarke estate. The property had a substantial woolshed, and a picturesque homestead built for her parents in 1916 in the ‘craftsman bungalow’ style. Glenluce was named after a small town in Scotland, home of Dalrymple family ancestors. Jean’s siblings were her sister Alison Dalrymple, and brothers Sydney Ian Dalrymple and William Ross Dalrymple – see next page for the family’s extensive Clyde and GGS connections.
Jean later married again, to John Dugald Campbell, becoming stepmother to his four children: Jenny Black (Campbell Cl’73), Christina (Trina) Campbell (Cl’75), Ian Campbell (GGS) and James Campbell (GGS). In 1976 Dugald and Jean Campbell moved to Holbrook NSW, where in 1978 they purchased together the pastoral property Woodlands which became their home for the next 32 years. Dugald died in 2002, and Jean remained on Woodlands on her own, efficiently running and managing both Polled Hereford and Angus breeding cattle. She installed a deep bore to get through the drought years of the mid-2000s. According to her family, Jean never rested or wasted a moment. Farming was in her blood, both people and
Jean attended school at Clyde for two years in 193031, then was taught by a governess at home after her father died in 1931. She boarded at St Catherine’s in Melbourne from 1934-37 where she became a prefect and captain of sport. Jean’s brother Ian (GGS’34) came home to run Glenluce in 1937, but during WWII it was left to young Jean and her brother Ross Dalrymple (GGS’41) to run the property with the help of a great mentor, Humphrey Dixon (GGS’18) who taught them so much about farm management. Jean spent a lifetime on the land with horses, she became a great rider, mastering the art of horsemanship – hunting, jumping and winning Gretna Green competitions. Jean did not start riding the ‘mechanical variety’ until she was in her sixties, and she continued to use her ‘quad’ daily for farm work until she was in her nineties. In December 1948 Jean married Peter Somerville Kemp (GGS’42) at St Paul’s Anglican church in Gisborne, officiated by the retired GGS vicar, Rev. Joey Allen, and attended by Ann Millear (later Grunwald). Peter was a ‘dashing young fighter pilot’ who in 1947 had returned from Japan (77 Squadron in occupation force). The newlyweds lived initially at Bulla, near Sunbury and then moved to a beautiful first 35
stock, and she entertained at Woodlands as long as she could, never being happy unless tennis was being played, children were on horses or more usually on her quad bike, children helping her to collect the eggs, or the dining-room table filled with people all making a load of noise as is the ‘Dalrymple Kemp’ manner. New people to the district were never allowed to escape being brought to Woodlands for a meal to meet the locals. With many dams on the property, Jean warned young children they were full of crocodiles to ensure no-one went near the brown water without an adult. Those children still shudder at the sight of bubbles in a dam – might be a crocodile lurking!
Patricia Alice Crawford (Steuart) 29 June 1921 – 17 November 2015 Clyde 1938 Patricia Alice Steuart, usually known as Trish, was born on 29 June 1921, the daughter of Roger St Clair Steuart and Audrey May Steuart (nee Lascelles) who were married in St Kilda in 1920. Trish’s father was born in New Zealand, the son of a Scottish immigrant father and Australian mother from Geelong. He qualified as a doctor and surgeon, and settled in Melbourne after the war. Trish’s mother Audrey (1893-1973) was the daughter of Edward Harwood Lascelles and Ethel Lascelles (nee Dennys), part of the prominent Geelong wool broking firm, Dennys Lascelles.
One of Jean’s great highlights was attending church at her beloved St Paul’s, Holbrook, and on one occasion she found she was sharing a church service and communion with Prince Charles (GGS’66) and Lady Diana, Princess of Wales. Her 90th birthday party held in Albury in 2009 was an occasion of great pride for her family when so many people spoke of the complete and utter respect and love they had for her. Jean fell ill in late 2010, just after her wonderful birthday party, so Woodlands had to be sold and she moved into varying stages of care until her peaceful death in Holbrook on 4 August.
Trish’s childhood home was in Kensington Road, South Yarra, with her early education and possibly some parenting being provided by a governess (who, according to Trish, had a wooden leg). One day a week, Trish was tutored by a French governess, until she started formal schooling. She attended Merton Hall (Melbourne Girls Grammar School) from 19321936, when she left having gained her Intermediate certificate. She spent most of 1937 studying at Emily McPherson College, apparently preparing to undertake nursing studies, but the untimely death of her father meant she was sent to board at Clyde School for one year in 1938.
As a mother, aunt, stepmother, grandmother, greatgrandmother and step-grandmother, Jean was the sort of matriarch that other families dream about.
After leaving Clyde, Trish trained and qualified as a nursing and theatre sister at the Alfred Hospital, where her father had been the senior honorary surgeon. She also completed midwifery studies at the Queen Victoria Hospital.
Note: Jean had extensive Clyde and GGS family connections. In addition to those mentioned above, other close family members who attended Clyde were her sister Alison Molesworth (Dalrymple Cl’30), mother-in-law of Georgina Molesworth (Bieri Cl’67); her nieces, daughters of her brother Ian and Molly (nee Turnbull) Dalrymple: Anne Latreille (Dalrymple Cl’63), Susan Dalrymple (Cl’65), and Janet Coombes (Dalrymple Cl’67); her nieces, daughters of her brother Ross and Libbie Dalrymple (Hughes Cl’47): Fiona Slocombe (Dalrymple Cl’73), Heather Cameron (Dalrymple Cl’75) and Sandra Taylor (Dalrymple Cl’76). Jean’s mother-in-law, Nancy Kemp (Peck Cl’17) and Nancy’s sister Louie Earp (Peck, first school captain 1910) also attended Clyde. At GGS were Jean’s brothers Ian and Ross Dalrymple, her husband Peter Kemp, her sons Andrew and Simon Kemp, her brother-in-law Edwin Molesworth, her nephews Tony and Richard Molesworth, her nephew Alick Dalrymple, and her stepsons Ian and James Campbell. Quite a network!
In 1948 Trish married Alan Francis Crawford (19181997) at Barwon Heads and settled to live in Geelong. Alan and Trish Crawford raised four children: sons Roger Francis, Michael Alan, Christopher Harwood and a daughter Caroline Alexander Crawford (married name Brockman). For over twenty years Trish was active in the Geelong and District Nursing Services, serving three years as President. In 1950, her registered address as a midwife was Millbrook, Barwon Heads. Her great loves apart from family were music, dogs and church. A committed Christian, she was an active parishioner at St Paul’s Anglican Church, Geelong, serving on numerous committees, community groups and guilds. There is a tapestry at St Paul’s, based on a wall painting dating from c350AD, found in a Christian chapel within a Romano-British villa at Lullingstone, Kent UK. The design of the tapestry affirms the purpose and goals of life for all who enter the Church. Trish was a needlewoman on the tapestry team which created this remarkable tapestry for St Paul’s Geelong.
Adapted from an obituary written by Simon Kemp, with Wanda Lowe (Kemp) and Caroline Thomson (Kemp); also from internet. 36
Trish’s husband Alan predeceased her; she died peacefully on 17 November 2015, the proud and loving mother of her four children, and according to their family tribute, the “loving mother-in-law of Wendy, Robbie, Jim (dec), Heatherlea (dec) and friend of Jo. Loving grandmother of fourteen and proud greatgrandmother of sixteen”.
Prudence Margaret Tallboys 16 February 1959 – 11 October 2015 Clyde 1967 – 1968 Prudence Margaret (Pru) Tallboys was born on 16 February 1959, one of four children born to Margaret and Richard Gilbert Tallboys CMG (1981) OBE (1974) ASM (FESR) AASM (Malaysia) FCA FCIS LLB (Lond) BComm (Tas). Pru’s siblings were Roger, Sarah and Peter Tallboys. During Pru’s childhood, the Tallboys family lived in many places. Richard Tallboys’ career, first as a chartered accountant, then as an Australian Government international trade commissioner and businessman, then twenty years (196888) as a British foreign service officer with Her Majesty’s Diplomatic Service involved various international postings: Singapore, Johannesburg, Nairobi, Jakarta; London 1968-69 and 1974-76; Brasilia 196972; Phnom Penh 1972-73; Seoul 1976-80; British Consul-General, Houston 1980-85; British Ambassador to Vietnam 1985-87. He was CEO of the World Coal Institute, a Lt. Commander in the Royal Australian Naval Reserve and had been a Merchant Navy seaman.
Adapted from the family obituary provided by Caroline Brockman, written for Merton Hall and the Alfred Hospital; also from the Aust. Dictionary of Biography (re Trish’s great-grandfather Charles John Dennys 1818-1898 and the Dennys Lascelles wool empire). Lady Sallie Sinclair Ferrall (Barnett/Thyne) 15 May 1932 – 10 September 2015 Clyde 1947 – 1948 Sallie Sinclair Thyne was born in Tasmania, a member of the Sinclair Thyne family founded by Mary Bertha (nee Sinclair b1836) and James Thyne (b1825). The family established and ran a woollen textile mill in York Street, Launceston from 1926-1979. She was educated in Launceston and Victoria at Clyde School where she boarded in 1947-48. At Clyde she gained her Intermediate certificate, and won special prizes for drama, pottery and for her expertise in drill exercises. She performed in Faireleight house entertainment ballets and plays, including a comic role as Mrs Sinclair in ‘Such Goings On’ (1948).
In a memoir of his twenty years as a diplomat, Richard Tallboys described life for his family as exciting, memorable, fascinating and, particularly on the active fringe of the Vietnam war, sometimes dangerous with nearby bombs and firefighting. Richard and Margaret Tallboys created a happy partnership during their diplomatic postings and he frequently mentions her and the children in his memoir. While in Cambodia, there were evacuations of British wives and children, and in July 1973 the Tallboys decided that instead of having their children in Phnom Penh for the school holidays, Margaret should return with them to London.
For forty years Sallie lived at Quamby at Hagley where she led its restoration with her husband John Barnett. After her husband John died in 1985 Sallie married Sir Raymond Ferrall CBE (1906-2000) and lived at Elphin House in Launceston, where she hosted a number of open garden days raising funds for charity.
The family’s real home was Tasmania, and they returned to live there for Pru’s father’s retirement. Richard Tallboys died in Hobart on 2 November 2013 and was buried at sea.
She was patron of Motor Neurone Disease Tasmania, Miniature Art Association of Tasmania and Northern Hospice and Palliative Care Foundation. Her son Guy Barnett, MP for Lyons and Parliamentary Secretary to the Premier of Tasmania, said in May 2016, “I am honoured to be Ambassador for Motor Neurone Disease Australia, thankful for the opportunity to raise awareness and be a voice for the MND community. My father died in 1985 after battling with the disease for three years. My late mother with the support of many wonderful locals and our family, supported the establishment of MND Tasmania.”
Among the many journeys and destinations of her childhood, Pru Tallboys was very young, only nine years old, when she spent two years boarding at Clyde in 1967-1968, while her father was working as an Australian trade commissioner in Jakarta. After school, Pru married and had a son, Benjamin Tallboys, in Melbourne before developing but surviving cancer of the larynx. For the last three decades of her life, Pru lived and worked in Sandy Bay, Tasmania. She enjoyed a number of careers, and from 2002-2011 she was a bookkeeper and qualified MYOB certified consultant operating her own business ‘PrudenT Bookkeeping’. She was also a member of the Queen Mary Club and a member and Treasurer of the Australian American As-
She has four sons – Simon, Nicholas, Mark and Guy Barnett – and many grandchildren and great grandchildren Adapted from an obituary in The Examiner, Launceston; also from internet. 37
sociation’s Tasmanian branch. She studied accounting at the University of Tasmania from 2008-2011. For two decades she also made the anniversary cake for The Hutchins School in Sandy Bay, Hobart, where her son had previously been a student.
Junior tennis doubles, Junior tennis champion, Junior Best All-Round Sport, CHA Committee, Sports committee, Intermediate 1932; Tennis VIII, Baseball IX, Hockey XI, Sports committee, prizes for Scripture, Latin and Roman history, and Cooking, Dux of Pass VI, Leaving, Oakley Rhodes Prize 1933;
In 2007, Pru was interviewed in the national press when her brother Roger Tallboys, a banking executive based in Hong Kong, miraculously survived a plane crash. A Garuda flight GA200 had burst into flames after crash-landing at Yogyakarta airport on the Indonesian island of Java, killing twenty-one people. Roger Tallboys was one of nine Australians, including diplomats, journalists, RAAF personnel and Federal police on board the one-hour flight. In the newspaper interview, Pru expressed her relief and gratitude to know that her brother had survived.
Baseball IX, Captain of Hockey XI, Captain of Tennis VIII, Senior tennis champion, Captain of the winning Braemar house teams for basketball, tennis and hockey, Sports committee, Dramatic committee, Camera Club committee, Editress of The Cluthan, Captain of Sport, Captain of School, she was awarded the Honours prize Form VI, prizes for Drama and Drawing, Best All-Round Sport and the Oakley Rhodes Prize for sport, work and leadership 1934.
While health issues remained a constant in her life following surgery complications, she was a devoted mother to her son, family and friends, and always put others before herself. Pru passed away peacefully at St Ann’s Nursing Home in Tasmania on Sunday 11 October 2015 following a series of health complications. She had expressed her wish that her ashes be laid to rest at sea. She was described as a “loved daughter, sister and mother”.
According to reports in The Argus, Pat became engaged in August 1940, and on 14 December 1940 she married Lieutenant John Lacey Barton at Littlejohn Memorial Chapel, Scotch College. Joan’s two younger sisters Margaret (Mickie) Moore (later Ryan) and Valda Moore (later Kettlewell) were her bridesmaids, and she wore the lace wedding veil previously worn by her mother and sister Roma Sellars (Moore) who lived in Singapore. Pat’s husband John Lacey Barton (1912-1991) was the second son of Mr and Mrs JL Barton of 16 Barrington Avenue, Kew. He served in WWII, service number VX43181, and was admitted as a barrister and solicitor in March 1937. Pat and John spent much of their married life in Launceston where John ran a legal practice. John died in 1991.
Information from Ben Tallboys; ‘A Memoir of Twenty Years with Her Majesty’s Diplomatic Service 1968-88’ by Richard Tallboys CMG OBE; The Australian newspaper 2007; The Mercury newspaper 13 October 2015; also from internet. Patricia Joan Barton (Moore) 13 November 1917 – 28 March 2015 Clyde 1927 – 1934
There had been a long enquiry into the Barton family tree by war historians, trying to correctly identify Alan James Barton (Pat’s brother-in-law) and after several attempts, Pat Barton was tracked down in Tasmania via her husband’s former legal practice. At last the war medals were safely returned to the Bartons, and Pat was given some well-researched details of the Barton family tree!
Patricia Joan Moore, known as Pat, was the second daughter of Mr and Mrs Walter J Moore, of Hollyburton, Clarkefield near Mount Macedon. She had an older sister Roma, and two younger sisters Margaret (Mickie) and Valda Watkinson Moore who all went to Clyde School.
Pat died peacefully at Mt Esk Aged Care in Launceston on 28 March 2015, aged ninety-seven years. She was described as the “devoted and loving wife of John (dec), mother and mother-in-law of Pam and Winston, Ian and Gill (dec), Susie (dec) and Marg and Stephen. Grandmother of Catherine and Julie, Alex and Madeleine, Andrew, Tom, Kate, Lauren and Alison. Proud great-grandmother of Emily, Imogen, Harriet, Hamish, Oliver, Freya and Chloe.”
Pat attended Clyde from 1927-1934, serving as school captain in her final year. She was an exceptional allrounder who contributed to all aspects of school life. Her valete in The Cluthan 1935 reflects her significant achievements: Junior tennis doubles 1929; Hockey XI, Baseball IX, Junior tennis doubles, Dux Va Hons 1930;
Born with abundant natural intelligence, sporting ability and an aptitude for leadership, Pat led a full and rewarding life, greatly loved by her extended family.
Hockey XI, Baseball IX, Tennis VIII, Basketball VII, Junior tennis doubles, Junior tennis champion, Junior Best All-Round Sport, Dux Vb 1931;
Information from The Cluthan 1933-1934; The Argus 1940; Launceston press 2015; war history websites.
Hockey XI, Baseball IX, Tennis VIII, Basketball VII, 38
Yea with her parents for the party, as did her grandmother Mrs Webb-Ware and cousins Pat, Barbara and Ken Webb-Ware from Yirraba, Yea. At the time, Elizabeth was living in Melbourne doing an occupational therapist assistant’s course with the Red Cross and her two flat mates Cynthia Miller of Cathkin, near Yea and Helen Tyson of Molesworth were at the party. Helen made the birthday cake which was much admired. The photograph below is from The Age, 30 August 1950, page 5.
Rouvray Boocock (King/Kirton) 20 March 1942 – 18 October 2013 Clyde 1953 – 1960 Rouvray Kirton went to Clyde in 1953 followed by her sister Bronwyn Willis (Kirton) in 1957. Their mother Lynette Kirton (Dunstan) and her sister Dymetha Blackford (Dunstan) also went to Clyde and their brother Roberts Dunstan went to GGS. He married Betty Leggo who later married Lloyd Berrell. (Betty’s story came to light in extraordinary circumstances and her obituary was in the 2015 Cluthan.)
Elizabeth worked at the Heidelberg Hospital and she also travelled and worked overseas for several years in the 1950’s.
Rouvray’s mother was from Mount Eliza and her father, Alfred Kirton, from Mornington. He represented Mornington as a noted Member of Parliament, later followed by his son Roberts (Rouvray’s uncle and godfather) who was Victorian Minister for Public Works and a delightful man with a wry sense of humour. The family moved around a lot as their father was always buying and selling properties often in the country with quite a lot of time spent in the Western District.
Elizabeth and Jocelyn’s father died at a young age and both girls returned to the property at Cathkin, Alexandra which they then continued to run for the next thirty years. Elizabeth eventually moved to the Darlingford Nursing Home, near Yea. She was laid to rest in the Cathkin cemetery.
Rouvray contracted polio at a very young age however, according to her sister, she was quite a battler and would never let anything stop her. She played tennis and basketball at Clyde and was the Birthday League Secretary. She was also Ingleton’s Community Social Service representative and on the Senior Library Committee. She was well known for her horsemanship and general skill with horses and horse training. This she inherited from her mother who was quite a horsewoman herself; hunting and playing polo – she even had her own racing colours. Rouvray married Geoff King and later Barry Boocock living with him in Queensland and then in Lismore, New South Wales where she passed away. Elizabeth Marion Turnbull 29 August 1929 – 8 January 2014 Clyde 1943 – 1947 Elizabeth Marion Turnbull was born on 29 August 1929, the elder daughter of Mr and Mrs JR Turnbull of the pastoral property Eungalook, Yea, in North East Victoria. Elizabeth boarded at Clyde from 1943-1947. She joined the Junior Library committee in 1944, was a member of the Running VIII team 1945-47, gained her Leaving certificate in 1946, and in 1947 was a member of the Birthday League committee, the Art Club committee and the senior Hockey XI team. Her sister Jocelyn Turnbull also attended Clyde from 1946-49.
Ed: Thank you to those who have provided obituary information about family and friends this year; some remarkable life stories have emerged. We carefully research, write and edit these obituaries and greatly rely on biographic material provided by COGs and relatives. If you notice errors or omissions please send amendments to coganews@gmail.com. Thank you to Bronwyn Willis (Kirton) who, after reading Betty Leggo’s obituary in last year’s Cluthan, emailed us to tell us of the connections with her mother and aunt, filling in parts of the relationship puzzle.
It was reported that in August 1950 Elizabeth’s 21st birthday was celebrated at a cocktail party-cum-buffet dinner given by her parents at Nine Darling Street with seventy friends. Her sister Jocelyn came from 39
Delightful thank you card designed by the children at the Isabel Henderson Kindergarten
The school play ‘Daddy Long-Legs’, 1950 or 1951, photo sent in by Judith Harris (Cook) 40