Reminiscences: Barrie Howard Smillie (Pupil, 1944-1948)

I enjoyed the old photos. The rowing series understandably included none of the Fifth Four, which of course did not figure in Head of the River. However, our Fifth Four in 1947 came third in the Fourth Fours race at Riverview (St Ignatius College) and after covering ourselves in glory we were swamped by pouring rain and chop as we rowed back to the boatshed at Iron Cove. A water police launch rescued us and towed the Charles J Smith ignominiously home behind us.

Bombs on Darwin (on 19 February 1942) had made Australians realise that we were living in a war zone, and parents dug slit trenches in school grounds. Air raid shelters went up everywhere. The glass windows in double decker buses were replaced with tinny slides and the buses were painted in camouflage colours.

When we began school at High in February 1944, our tuck shop was a counter in a small space at the rear of the Great Hall. Only in August 1945 did we see the canteen area underneath the building for the first time. I recall buying Gartrell White jam tarts (fully three inches in diameter) for threepence or fourpence there.

News of peace was in the air as we boarded the school spec on the day Japan surrendered and it was only 9.30 when the big ship’s bell called a special assembly. The war was over and the Federal government had given us the rest of the week off. But getting home was not easy: the school buses had all gone back to their usual runs and we had to walk to Darlinghurst to catch a tram. People there were going mad in the streets. Public transport was cram packed and passengers hung off the running boards of the toast-rack trams.