ROLLAND, The Very Rev Sir Francis William Kt, CMG, OBE, MC, MA, DD (Centenary History Text, 1961)See Also
ROLLAND, Francis William Kt, CMG, OBE, MC, MA, DD (1878-1965)The following text is an excerpt from the
'The Geelong College 1861-1961' (Centenary History), published in 1961:
Chapter 8. 'YEARS OF FULFILMENT.' '1. 'A Presbyterian Minister'
AT THE BEGINNING of the year 1920 the Rev. F. W. Rolland, tall, quiet, almost shy, entered the Geelong College as its Principal. He had never been a schoolteacher, far less a headmaster, though he possessed other important qualifications for such a post. He approached his new task modestly, with some misgivings as to his ability to discharge it.
Francis William Rolland was the son of an Old Collegian, the Rev. W. S. Rolland, and the grandson of the Rev. A. J. Campbell, the real force behind the foundation of the College. He was born at Geelong on June 12, 1878. From Toorak College and Scotch College he proceeded to the University of Melbourne, and there took the Master of Arts degree. After studying Theology at Ormond College and pursuing post-graduate courses at Edinburgh he was ordained to the Ministry in 1905.
His first posting was to the Smith of Dunesk Mission at Beltana, South Australia, where his work was immensely valuable in laying foundations for the later Australian Inland Mission. His only charge in Victoria was that of Noorat, from which he resigned in 1915 to enlist as a Chaplain with the A.I.F. He served with distinction, being mentioned in despatches and receiving the Military Cross. He won also the devotion of the men of the Fourteenth Battalion, in which he served for three years. On demobilization, he studied at Oxford for six months.
He was a talented sportsman, excelling at tennis, in which he gained his Blue at the University of Melbourne and represented Victoria in inter-state matches.
While Mr. Rolland was in England in 1919, he received a cable, asking him to come to Geelong. He wondered if this could be a genuine invitation. The College, which his grandfather had helped to establish, was now calling him to lead a generation of young Australians into the difficult days of peace. Here was a challenge, one which appealed to him, and it was not long before this deceptively gentle, knightly adventurer had accepted it.
When he reached Geelong in 1920, Mr. Rolland found the school badly run down, starved into inefficiency through drought and war and lack of income. He recognized that the task ahead would be arduous and long if he were to rehabilitate the College and make it a great Public School, rich once more in tradition and renown, to which parents would desire to send their boys, and from which might go forth men of integrity to be leaders of the nation.
Circumstances dictated a slow rate of progress. Some weaknesses might be remedied at once, but others would need time and perseverance. The College was still in debt. Discipline was not strong. The new Principal began by seeking to know his charges better. He talked with senior boys, individually and in the mass, on matters of life and conduct, arousing their admiration and a desire to raise their standards for his sake as well as their own. He had a great affection for small boys and quickly won their friendship; he read them interesting stories on Sunday evenings and joined in their games, where his ball sense fascinated them. Parents were stimulated by his speeches of quiet, consummate beauty, delivered with telling effect.
The College Council soon saw that here was no ordinary man. Members who had held the reins tightly in the past now found that they were being guided by Mr. Rolland.
He was an incorrigible dreamer, with the determination to make seemingly impossible dreams come true. Soon, as the position improved, he revealed his plan for a school of about five hundred boys, accommodated in buildings of uncommon and lasting beauty and great architectural merit, surrounded by equally beautiful playing fields. It must be small enough to be a close-knit family, yet, at the same time, a truly great school.
In this, despite the long intervening years, Mr. Rolland was the direct successor of Norman Morrison, to whose hard work and sacrifice he now added his own wisdom and imagination. Discerning Old Collegians, realizing this, found many points of favourable comparison between the new and the old, and even saw physical resemblances in the two men. Mr. Rolland certainly possessed that same gift of rallying about him, on the Council and on the teaching staff, men who, as they identified him with their own hopes for a greater College, were to become his friends and devoted followers through long years of service.
In the fullness of time Mr. Rolland was able to seize the opportunity of translating his ideas into action. In a brilliant creative period of little more than a decade, in and about the nineteen-thirties, the College was transformed, inwardly and outwardly. New buildings appeared along with new educational principles; a new spirit animated the boys at work and play. The severe financial depression was successfully weathered—a contrast to the war period fifteen years earlier. There was a great increase in public interest, and a wave of outstanding scholars passed through the school. These Were not isolated incidents, but the interrelated effects of an irresistible force operating within the College.
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What were the secret resources of this outwardly quiet, modest, soft-spoken clergyman? He was, of course, educated and cultured in the fullest sense, and possessed of a perspicacity as keen as his seemingly gentle, yet deadly accurate, tennis stroking. To his natural thoughtfulness, giving insight into the weaknesses and problems of his fellow men, he added a tender, Christlike sympathy with their needs and sufferings. He sought out the good which he knew to be part of everyone's make-up, and had a strong faith that all things must finally work together for the right.
His prayers, short, simple, beautifully expressed, revealed a great humility and a sense of responsibility before God for the boys committed to his charge. He frequently addressed the whole school at length on matters of moment, counselling tolerance for the viewpoints of others. His discipline, at times rather bewildering to his assistants, was based firstly on forgiveness and reasoned persuasion, but his rare anger, the more terrible for its rarity, could reduce an apprentice wrong-doer to abject shame. His annual report was invariably preceded by a thoughtful discussion of some aspect of education, calculated to lift the minds of parents and boys at least part of the way to his own high plane.
There was, of course, a more human side to Mr. Rolland's character. He could be sublimely absent-minded and slow to grasp what did not interest him at the moment. Whether pose or preoccupation, this attitude protected him from the importunate and was their despair. When seeking money for a favourite project, he could be most persistent in his demands. Thus, in different departments of life, people found it easiest to let him have his way, and there can be little doubt that he knew and used this power. For practical support and guidance in everyday matters, he owed a great deal to his wife. Mrs. Rolland, a lady of great intellect and strong personality, understood both his greatness and the difficulties of his position, and was able so to influence him that his talents were always turned to best account.
Inside the school, after carefully choosing his assistants, he relied heavily on their loyalty and judgment, and was always quick to acknowledge this indebtedness.
It was inevitable that Mr. Rolland should become famous, along with his school. In 1936-7 he was Moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Victoria, and from 1936 to 1939 Chairman of the Headmasters' Conference of Australia. In the earlier years of World War 11, he undertook two overseas trips for the Commonwealth Government. The strain of work and years began to tell; Mr. Rolland was afraid that he was not doing well enough at school, particularly in his personal contacts with boys. He suggested to the College Council in 1939 that the time had come to appoint a successor, but the Council did not favour this proposal. The war intervened, and the matter was left in abeyance till 1945, when he finally retired after twenty-six years as Principal.
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Mr. Rolland might possibly have led the Geelong College successfully for many years longer. Whether he felt that he had exhausted his powers in this direction, whether in his wisdom he foresaw the peculiar difficulties of post-war years, or whether his ample spirit longed for new adventuring, it is impossible to guess. Be that as it may, at the age of nearly seventy years this remarkable man began a new life of outstanding service to the Church and the community, a career which some of his associates have evaluated even more highly than his work at the College. He was largely responsible for the reorganization of the training of Deaconesses at Rolland House, named in honour of his distinguished father. Then he became a key figure in the Council for Christian Education in Schools as it took up the challenge and sought to exploit the tremendous new opportunities offered by an amendment to the Education Act. In 1954 the Presbyterian Church of Australia extended to him its highest honour when he was installed as Moderator-General, an office he filled with great distinction, making a point of travelling to remote areas of the continent not often visited by Church leaders.
His outstanding service to Education and the Church was on three occasions given royal recognition in Honours Lists. In 1953 he was admitted to the Order of the British Empire, while in 1955 he became a Companion of St. Michael and St. George. A knighthood was conferred upon him in 1958, and he became the first clergyman in Australia to receive such an honour. A further distinction was gained in 1960, when the Edinburgh University bestowed upon him the degree of Doctor of Divinity. All who had known Sir Francis's work at the Geelong College were gratified to see his ability held in such high estimation in the wider world.
The diversity of his character and projects, coupled with the fact that he has become a kind of oracle, whose opinion is sought on numerous problems connected with Church affairs, gives point to the question which Sir Francis asked another headmaster who was contemplating retirement: "Are you sure your doctor will allow it?"
2. Building the House
MR. ROLLAND'S YEARS at the College did not open with revolutionary brilliance. The enrolment of 208 boys in 1920 was a definite advance, but, as the numbers had increased also in the previous year, it seemed clear that the war, and not any fault in management, had earlier depressed the school. Examination results continued less than mediocre. In sport the two years—1919 and 1920—were equally disappointing, not a single win being registered in either by senior teams. There was an early clash between the authorities and some senior boys who were not tolerant of restraint and did not appreciate changes in school routine.
A severe setback was experienced at the outset through the illness and death of Mr. Charles Shannon, Chairman of the College Council since its inception. Mr. Shannon served the school loyally, with faith in its future, and his name deservedly remains a part of it. Only one man was thought of as his successor—his friend, Stanley Calvert, who, as honorary secretary both of the Council and of the Old Collegians, had made the welfare of the College almost his chief aim in life.
The resignation of Mr. A. H. Harry at the end of 1922 brought another serious loss. Mr. Harry had been at the College for nineteen years, Vice-Principal for the last five. Primarily the senior Classics and English master, he had taken part in most school activities, especially football, athletics, debating and "The Pegasus". He was the College's poet laureate; from 1909 to 1922 there was scarcely an issue of the magazine without some of his verse.
It was fortunate that Mr. A. H. MacRoberts, another "Morrison man", had returned from military service and was available to take the position of Vice-Principal. He was a history teacher and before the war had also been cricket master and first editor of "The Pegasus". He changed from the quiet, almost jocular man, to be the stern ruler whom the new situation demanded. In matters of discipline his attitude was complementary to that of Mr. Rolland. He was, to some extent, the iron hand in the velvet glove. While the Principal worried over finance or architecture or public relations, Mr. MacRoberts grappled with problems of internal order. His weekly inspection of the boys' records caused even bravest hearts to quail. As flagellator-in-chief he had a remarkable eye for multiple underwear. The fact that he found it hard to relax as the position improved is some measure of his sacrifice for the College when a show of strength was needed. To the last he loved cricket, and the boys who made a good score in a Public School match would possibly be called to "the bookroom", not for the usual dread purpose, but to receive a ten-shilling note. Mr. MacRoberts remained Vice-Principal till 1938.
Financially, the College was by no means well placed when Mr. Rolland took charge. Shortly before his appointment, the Council, needing £8,000 for urgent maintenance and development, had been able to procure only £3,500 when some Old Collegians personally guaranteed the interest on this amount for five years. Some relief was provided by the sum of approximately £6,000 collected at the end of the war, partly for a war memorial and partly to mark the Diamond Jubilee of 1921. This provided the bronze War Memorial Tablet and a number of scholarships for sons of ex-servicemen, and permitted the building of the Preparatory School and the Hospital. In 1921, too, the enrolment jumped from 208 to 258, and for the first time there were over 100 boarders. This was good progress, an indication that the College was moving to firmer ground; it led up to a still greater improvement in 1924. In that year Mr. Calvert, the Rev. J. B. Rentoul and the Rev. J. Crookston visited hundreds of Old Collegians in and beyond Victoria and communicated to them something of the new enthusiasm which was growing up at Geelong. This was one of the great turning points in College history. In a few weeks the sum of £25,000 was raised, freeing the Council and the Principal from their dragging burden and assuring a brisker future.
Since 1920 there had been gradual improvements and additions to the buildings, with the Preparatory School the most significant product of these lean years, but now it was time to plan the great College of the future. There was a division of opinion on whether the school should move to a site out of town, as the Grammar School and the Presbyterian Girls' College had done.
A confidential, printed letter, sent in 1927 to "representative Old Boys" of the various decades, posed four possibilities for the College's future:—
1.Stay where we are and as we are, refusing to take more boarders.
2.Stay where we are and as we are, building a self-contained Junior House to accommodate 70 boarders at a cost of £17,000 on a block recently bought in Talbot Street.
3.Stay where we are and re-fashion our school by degrees.
4.Buy a new site and build a new school.
In enlargement of the last suggestion it was revealed that an option had been secured over three hundred acres of land on Bell Post Hill, which could be secured for £21,000. It was thought that the old site might bring in £40,000, while the erection of a new modern school would cost about £80,000.
Results of this census were never published, but the consequent decision is clear.
Evidences of the new permanence and new planning appeared rather quickly. First of all, and perhaps longest awaited, was the Morrison Hall Clock. A fund, started in 1913, was diverted during the war to the Belgian Relief Fund, and little further was done until the senior prefect in 1928, J. R. Adam, made a special appeal which resulted in its purchase. Next and greatest came the dining hall and refectory block built in 1929. The magnificent hall was generously endowed by friends. The panelling, the electroliers and the large east window were the gifts of the ladies of the College; the stone carved overmantel, the tables and the chairs were presented by Old Collegians; the stained glass in the east window was the work of the boys of Winchester College, England, providing an interesting link with the mother of English Public Schools.
In the same year Mr. Rolland announced plans for a Junior House, new administrative and science blocks in the south wing, and the beginnings of the cloisters. It was not long till the first stage of this work was completed and, at the end of 1933, the old wooden buildings—gymnasium, physics laboratory and classrooms, accumulated since 1871—were moved to the western boundary for further service. Symbolic of the old disorder, "Gun Alley", the one-foot wide defile between wood and brick (the south wall of the present room "C"), vanished in an instant. Here opposing streams of boys, meeting head-on, had clashed in fury at recess times for almost twenty years.
This move left space for the completion of the quadrangle. From now on, each stage in the building of the main block came to have meaning, adding to its beauty and harmony and creating an atmosphere worthy of education in the highest sense. The south wing was built immediately, some of the rooms coming into use before the end of 1934. Two years later the old Senior House area was overhauled, with radical rearrangement of ground floor sitting rooms, masters' common room and library, the whole permitting the correct alignment of the eastern cloisters.
To maintain a balanced development it was necessary to attend further to the grounds and boarding houses. The top oval, formed in 1936, was a gift from the Old Collegians to celebrate the seventy-fifth anniversary, and a few years afterwards the "Prep." Oval on the western boundary was reconstructed. These moves marked the end of the original, correctly designated Cow Paddock, but the name still applied to the remnant situated between the three ovals.
Although many minor additions and improvements continued to be made—structural alterations, a classroom and a tennis court at the Preparatory School, the purchase of new properties—the great work which remained to be done was the erection of Mackie House. Mr. Rolland probably was proudest of this among all the improvements of his time, particularly because it was the fourth boarding house at the College, and, in more ways than one, another important step towards his ideal. Modelled upon an English Tudor manor house and looking across the grounds to the House of Music—its counterpart—it gave the College a new axis and a balance that before was lacking. In beauty and convenience, in light and air, Mackie House can have few equals in Australian schools. It was first occupied in 1939.
As soon as the position improved towards the end of the war, the Principal, with time working against him, announced first the building of the MacRoberts classrooms—made possible by a bequest from the former Vice-Principal—then the purchase of a magnificent new site. "There", he stated, "we can have immediately additional playing grounds, and some day possibilities of such development as may seem necessary". It could be that even Mr. Rolland did not appreciate the full significance of this remark.
In 1945 it was decided to erect a memorial to Collegians who served in the war, which should be both beautiful and useful, namely, the completed cloister and quadrangle and the west wing of the main school building. Thus it was that Mr. Rolland returned in 1951, as a visitor and honoured guest, to see the final realization of the central feature of the College buildings.
3. The Family
IN HIS EARLY EFFORTS to inculcate a more positive school spirit at the College, Mr. Rolland sought first to teach self-respect. Steps were taken to smarten the College dress and so, indirectly, to influence the boys' outlook. After some experiment the present cap was evolved and the wearing of the green tie was introduced. Parents were given to understand that a high level of conduct was expected of the boys at all times.
Internal rivalry, which would eventually resolve itself into school pride, was fostered by the Sports House Competition between Warrinn, Barwon, Morrison and Shannon Houses. (In 1925 Barwon was renamed Calvert, and in 1952 Warrinn became McArthur, so that all four now bear the names of leading College families.) For a time class work also influenced the House aggregate.
To give a wider view of education and life than could be conveyed by simple academic instruction and sporting contests, there were frequent opportunities to see and hear important visitors. On Tuesday mornings for many years there were lectures and concerts in the first period after morning assembly.
Mr. Rolland was a firm believer in the educational value of a hard fight. One reason for his desire to keep the College small was that sports teams would then always have to struggle. As the boys came to appreciate this point, and not to limit their ambition to being good losers (too long the College attitude) , so their results in both scholarship and sport began to improve. The football premiership of 1925 and the championship in 1927 were neither unexpected nor unheralded. The time had come at last when the College would no longer be excluded from a share in the laurels, and every few years since that first break-through it has repeated its demands. One of the brightest moments came in 1936, the College's seventy-fifth year and its twenty-ninth as a Public School, when at last the crew won the Head of the River boat race. Things could never be the same again.
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After the founding of the Preparatory School in 1921 the Principal prophesied in his Annual Report that "in a few years the senior school will feel the full influence of having a stream of boys coming to it already well-grounded in its subjects and imbued with its spirit". This stream was destined to become a torrent in comparison with any other source of enrolments.
At first, classes were held in St. David's Sunday School until the Preparatory School building was opened on May 14, 1921. Mr. K. W. Nicolson was the first Headmaster and, under his direction and with the help of Miss Trumble, the young school adopted a wide range of activities, including annual dramatic performances and the production of its own magazine, the "Prep. News". Mr. Nicolson left for England at the end of 1927 and Mr. J. H. Campbell became Headmaster.
At the beginning of 1929 Miss Sylvia Baird joined the staff to open a kindergarten. This was housed with the Preparatory School until 1936, when it moved to a separate building and site, where it has remained since. Other devoted and talented ladies who directed the Kindergarten included Miss M. Radford, Miss L. Hamer and Mrs. J. Sweetman (who is still in charge). By them many a Collegian was introduced to the delights of learning.
With the appointment of Mr. L. J. Campbell as Headmaster in 1931, there began a period of such brisk development that in 1933 it was considered appropriate for the Preparatory School to have a Speech Night of its own.
Growth in numbers and maturity was rapid, and the concept of "a school within a school" became increasingly fulfilled. For example, it became necessary in 1941 to have a separate morning assembly. When the war years made recruitment of male staff difficult, the school was fortunate to find teachers of the calibre of Mrs. B. McPhee and Mrs. M. Wright to maintain its progress.
The development of the "Prep." called for parallel expansion of boarding accommodation. In earlier days the youngest boys had been housed at Warrinn, where they were the particular charge of "Maggie", but it now was evident that they must have their own home, and in 1929 they were accommodated at the Hospital—known as the "Baby Health Centre"—under the care of Miss K. Holmes. Eventually the Junior House, later to be known as Rolland House, was opened in 1932, and the organization familiar for the next thirty years was established under the housemastership of Mr. L. J. Campbell, with Miss R. Fraser as matron.
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The part played by the senior teaching staff in the College's progress cannot be over-estimated. In the early 'twenties the arrogance of groups of indolent seniors—a legacy from the staff problems of war years—was not at first easily suppressed. Several assistants left after a very brief sojourn some of them later winning great success and respect at other schools. Others, less sensitive or more obstinate, stayed and fought it out. By the year 1930, the position had almost returned to the steadiness of pre-war days. One by one, there had been assembled a group of masters of the needed character and ability who were willing to adopt the College as their calling and identify themselves with its struggle.
Such were Messrs. A. T. Tait (1920), K. W. Nicolson (1921), L. J. Campbell (1922), V. H. Profitt (1925), J. H. Campbell and B. R. Keith (1927), R. Lamble (1928), T. Henderson (1929), C. F. H. Ipsen (1931) and E. B. Lester (1932). (Mr. Lamble had been House Master for over twelve years before going to the war in 1915).
In senior positions in school work, sport and other activities, these men strongly influenced the pattern of College education for one-third of its 100 years. Not all of them have taught continuously at the College; some went away for a time, only to be drawn back after a few years; some have retired and the rest will soon be approaching that stage.
This long-service group was reinforced a few years later. Mr. Tait, who had become Principal of Scots College, Warwick, Queensland, in 1931, returned in 1939 to succeed Mr. MacRoberts as Vice-Principal. Mr. Nicolson, after some years in business, resumed in 1942. Newcomers were Messrs. H. L. E. Dunkley (1935), G. Logie Smith (1937), D. Webb (1939), the Rev. E. C. McLean and Messrs. J. A. Carrington and I. R. Watson (1940), and Mr. D. D. Davey (1943). The majority of these men too are still at the College in positions of special responsibility.
Mr. Rolland was always generous in his praise of the masters' work, in and outside the classroom, and on one occasion, after absence overseas for the greater part of the year, he emphasized his attitude by stating solemnly that it was the College's best year since his appointment!
Inevitably there were losses as well as gains. The death in 1939 of Mr. Stanley Hamilton-Calvert, Chairman of the Council since 1921 and Honorary Secretary of the O.G.C.A. since 1901 deprived the College of one of its best friends and hardest workers. Living in Geelong as he did, Mr. Calvert had been in every sense close to the school, personally acquainted with many of its members as well as its problems and successes. His position as Chairman was taken by Mr. A. W. (now Sir Arthur) Coles, another Old Collegian, who was then Lord Mayor of the City of Melbourne.
The year 1940 brought the resignation of Miss V. M. Reeves, who had begun duty as bursar in 1918. Her powers and enthusiasm grew with the work; she investigated school problems overseas and became manageress of the College with control over the whole of the business and domestic departments.
Edwin Walter Rankin, who died in 1944, had been head groundsman for most of his forty years at the College. A brilliant footballer in his younger days, "Teddy" was for long the coach and adviser of senior teams. His gift of humour and his memory for faces and events endeared him to present and past boys, of whom over seven hundred subscribed to his memorial, the gateway at the north-cast entrance.
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While the Second World War naturally brought difficulties to the administration, the school was now better fitted to meet them. Messrs H. L. E. Dunkley, I. R. Watson, A. E. Simpson, V. H. Profitt and G. J. Martin (Bursar) joined the Forces, but the basic structure of the staff remained unchanged.
After the long series of discouraging reports of defeats in Europe through 1940-41, came Japan's meteoric entry into the struggle and the threat of an invasion of Australia. Detailed plans had been drawn up for the evacuation of the College to a country area, a move which was felt at one stage to be only a few days off. The Cow Paddock was criss-crossed with trench shelters for use in case of air raids; a first-aid post was set up under the Morrison Hall. It must be admitted that the interest and, at times, hilarity associated with rehearsals in the use of these adjuncts belied their sinister significance and lessened the tension. A strict "black-out" at night had certain advantages in the dormitories but reduced the efficiency of study periods. The gloom of winter teas in the feebly lit Dining Hall was relieved to a great extent by the cheerfulness with which boys carried out their chores of setting, serving and clearing tables, made necessary by the shortage of domestic help. There were severe restrictions on building and travel, inter-school sport was curtailed and the College community was thrown back on its own resources.
The threat of danger at home never materialized, but hundreds of Old Collegians were going overseas, many of them fresh from the classroom, and news was being received of their exploits. As in 1915, along with the recitals of adventure, promotion and decoration, there came the inescapable casualty lists. Ninety Old Boys gave their lives for their country in this conflict and several were prisoners of war. Those who had known these gallant men as pupils or fellow Collegians rejoiced and suffered with them, and even younger boys came to see something of the seriousness and solemnity of it all.
In time came peace, rejoicing and thanksgiving, and the return to less trying conditions.
4. The Work
THE FACT that the Geelong College is a Church School is one of the most potent influences on its nature and work. Being part of the body of the Presbyterian Church of Victoria, it is committed to teach the Holy Scriptures and develop Christian ideals according to the Church's principles. Yet, in view of the fact that not all boys in the school are Presbyterians, denominational differences are not emphasized.
Mr. Rolland, being ordained, carried out most Chaplain's duties himself during his Headmastership, but he was always assisted by the minister of St. George's, as well as by various masters who conducted formal classes in Scripture. The majority of the boarders attended St. George's, where the Revs. J. B. Rentoul, J. McMaster and W. L. Simpson in turn occupied the pulpit. These men visited the College once every week to take part in morning worship and on Sunday afternoons to conduct classes among the junior boys, and also were responsible for Confirmation classes. Canon Wheeler, Vicar of All Saints', ministered to the Anglican boys for twenty-eight years. For a time there was a Christian Union which met on Sunday mornings, giving senior boarders an opportunity for informal discussion on subjects of religion and morals, but its activity was only spasmodic. It was in 1944 that a group of senior boys urged Mr. D. D. Davey, who had been active elsewhere in the Presbyterian Fellowship of Australia' to organize a group in the College. The Headmaster's permission was sought and received, and a live branch has since flourished amongst the boarders.
The Debating Society, which has the distinction of giving the longest continuous service among clubs and societies at the College, enjoyed its heyday in the 'thirties, when Mr. T. Henderson and Mr. C. F. H. Ipsen were in command and the boys' enthusiasm was high. As well as regular Saturday evening debates during winter term, there were contests with other schools, keenly fought, amusing and well attended by the public. Each year a banquet was held; a rule, insisting that only those who had spoken during the season might attend the feast, encouraged many a nervous young man to deliver his maiden—and sometimes his only—speech. Another popular activity was the aptly named "Mystery Night", a programme of short plays and original sketches, often distinctly cryptic in character.
Membership of the society later declined when the House of Guilds and the Glee Club offered a range of interests, but it is still active. It has endured through fifty-three years, for more than thirty of which Mr. Henderson has been the driving force and principal instructor, earning the gratitude of unnumbered Collegians for the early training they received.
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Mr. Rolland was particularly attracted by the problem of occupying a boy's spare time. There are always those in whom the "extra" subjects, the clubs and societies, and the various sports do not awaken interest, and it was in answer to this question that the House of Guilds came into being in 1935. The Principal stated that it was to be the centre of the leisure hour life of the College, a home for all the homeless clubs of the school and all the new ones yet to be formed.
It has been an unqualified success, making the College less institutional and more human, affording its denizens relaxation from the sterner demands of life, offering many of them their only opportunity to gain prestige among their fellows. The crafts pursued in its twenty-seven years of existence have suffered the fluctuations of fashion, but radio, leather work, photography, weaving and model making (particularly of aeroplanes) have always been popular. Articles have been produced as gifts, or to use at home, or for the sheer love of making, and have ranged from a crystal radio receiver built into a "signet" ring to full-sized canoes and yachts.
The House has been fortunate in its staff. The first warden, Mr. J. M. Béchervaise, was an artist and craftsman of unique abilities, with an infectious pleasure in making and doing. Though he spent altogether only six years at the College he gave the House of Guilds a character it has never lost. Mr. D. Webb has been Warden for seventeen years, and brought to the work an amazing versatility combined with the true craftsman's love of perfection. These have been years of consolidation, during which the enthusiasm and eagerness of the early days was organized and harnessed to a regular pattern of activities.
Some, other than the individualistic hobbyists, may remember the House best for its contribution to the Gilbert and Sullivan operas—the designing and painting of scenery, the printing of programmes, the making of coronets and cutlasses, beards and suits of armour, gondolas and headsmen's axes—activities in which Mr. Webb's artistic and creative skill was clearly evident. Others must always think of it as the base camp of the Ramblers' Guild, and later, of the Exploration Society, which catered for a boy's love of adventure and travel with trips ranging from Saturday picnics to a week or two in the bush. Several masters led these "hikes" over the years, notably Messrs J. M. Béchervaise, J. H. Campbell and B. R. Keith.
Hundreds have benefited for life from skills developed in the House of Guilds; some have based careers on the engineering or photography or art practised there; a few are teaching the same work in other schools. All, however, have learnt self-discipline in the planning of a job and the care of tools and materials. The management of the House by a Council of boys representative of the various guilds has given many a boy an insight into local government, leading to higher positions in the College and elsewhere.
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For the boy who enjoyed music, the College had not a great deal to offer in the opening years of the Rolland era. Occasional periods of community singing under Messrs. W. Sampson and R. J. Dickson, and concerts by individual artists or instrumental ensembles, were appreciated by those with developed tastes, but the Philistine remained unmoved. A rather active Dramatic Society presented "Trial by Jury" in 1921 and a series of full-length plays from 1923 onwards, a number of these being produced by Mrs. Dulcie Meakin. Boys of the Preparatory School, trained by Miss Trumble, were doing "curtain raisers" like "Peter Pan", "Alice in Wonderland" and "The Wandering Minstrel" (a version of "The Mikado").
An important forward step was taken when Mr. E. B. Lester formed a school choir which first performed at a "Mystery Night" in 1934. At the same period the Old Collegians' Choir, organized by Col. F. C. Purnell, gave a number of concerts, and a group of younger boys was formed into a Fife and Drum Band under Mr. J. H. Campbell. Mr. Lester and Mr. Ipsen inspired and supervised a healthy Glee Club, which became still more effective with the appointment in 1936 of Mr. Roy Shepherd as part-time director. At the beginning of 1937 Mr. Shepherd introduced as his assistant a young man who was to exert a powerful influence on the life of the College, Mr. G. Logie Smith, later Director of Music.
The new interest in music had presented a challenge which was met by this appointment and by the opening of the House of Music, a pioneer among such buildings in Australian schools.
Music now had a home and was directed by a man who was free to devote his whole time and very considerable talents to it, so that its growth in popularity and prominence at the College was quite spectacular. Under Mr. Smith, music and drama were joined in the production of Gilbert and Sullivan operas, an eagerly anticipated event in the school calendar, which captured the enthusiasm of the people of Geelong and beyond. For twenty years, after the tentative "Trial by Jury" in 1938, came the cycle of "H.M.S. Pinafore", "The Pirates of Penzance", "The Mikado", "The Yeoman of the Guard", "The Gondoliers", "Iolanthe" and "Princess Ida".
Each year the presentation of the selected opera was a triumph of co-operation as members of the House of Guilds, under the supervision of Mr. D. Webb, prepared scenery and properties, musicians combined to form the orchestra, Sister Wilson and Mrs. Carrington acted as accompanistes, school matrons and boys' mothers made colourful costumes, while a very large number of boys threw themselves into the task of learning their parts. Many of the principals sang and acted remarkably well, and the dozens of beautiful maidens in the chorus—growing later into burly peers, pirates or policemen—were a source of perennial delight to crowded audiences.
The School Concerts, held in the Morrison Hall, were more intimate affairs, though no less enjoyable, affording a scope for a wide range of experiment and experience in instrumental and vocal performance and composition. Here several prominent musicians of later years made their first public appearance, and none took his art more seriously than the members of a cornet trio or a kindergarten percussion band.
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In the story of a school such as the Geelong College it might be easy to overlook the every-day work of the classroom. Possibly this should be taken for granted. So it was in the Morrison days, when, from its foundation, the College gained remarkable placings in open competition. But during the first World War scholastic results fell away most deplorably. It required some years to re-establish a tradition of success, and since then, as the College has grown in size, it has become normal for a record number of passes to be won at the various examinations.
School subjects have come and gone. Today the candidate has a wider range of choice than ever before, yet admission to the University has become increasingly difficult. Possibly the greatest influence on school work in this century was the introduction in 1944 of the new Matriculation examination, which passed down a share of the University first year work to the secondary schools and provided a stricter selection of students.
The comment has sometimes been made that, while College boys do fairly well at school, a considerable number of them achieve their fullest powers only in the succeeding years. It would be impossible to generalize on such a point, yet there are certainly many men in the universities and the professions, and in business, who, long after leaving school, have continued their growth to a higher than normal level of maturity. It could be that the College has developed and is imparting, in some cases at least, a training which goes beyond mere learning, and is a basis for independence, self-reliance and responsibility.
The College History published in 1911 attempted to give details of Old Collegians in the professions. If it were possible now to give such a list, its size and range would be most impressive.
To limit comment to pure scholarship, and to the Rolland years, it is significant that five pupils of that period have recently been appointed to University chairs. They are Professors E. C. Slater (Physiological Chemistry, Amsterdam), R. W. K. Honeycombe (Physical Metallurgy, Sheffield), G. M. Badger (Organic Chemistry, Adelaide), C. M. Williams (History, New England, N.S.W.) and J. D. Legge (History, Monash) . There is good reason to expect that other men will soon join them, and every year sees an increase in the number of Old Collegians in other University positions.
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The Rolland years were the College's coming of age, and its sponsor was the man who liked to say that he was not a teacher, but who undoubtedly was one of the great leaders of Australia, a prophet not without honour among his own people.' * * * *
Sources: The Geelong College 1861-1961 by G C Notman and B R Keith. Chapter 8, pp 46-65.