Reminiscences: Earle Christmas Grafton Page (Pupil, 1895)

Sydney High School, established by Sir George Reid's Government in 1883, offered six bursaries a year, which were of three year's tenure and available for competition among New South Wales students under the age of fourteen. Being awarded one of these bursaries at the age of eleven, I achieved the first step towards competing for the Struth Exhibition. My parents, however, considered me too young to live in Sydney, so far away from home.

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I was bundled down to Sydney High School for a final year's studies. The school was then under the headmastership of Joseph Coates, a former international cricketer, with a high reputation in the teaching profession. Two other talented teachers supervised the sixth form. William Crompton taught us Classics and English. He was a product of Winchester and Balliol and a grandson of the inventor of the Crompton spinning mill. Lawrence Stephenson, a senior wrangler of Cambridge, taught mathematics, and, because of the clarity with which he expounded the subject, sent up a procession of University scholarship winners. Under their tuition I learnt at school my first-year Arts honours work while preparing for my honours in matriculation. As a result, despite my youth and my absence from home, I led in general proficiency at the critical examination in first-year Arts and was awarded the Struth Exhibition.

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Good fortune brought me not only accomplished teachers but also an incomparable galaxy of good friends throughout my student days. A remarkably large number of my contemporaries were destined to follow distinguished careers in many walks of life. Our trails frequently crossed in later years. Their loyalty and advice, given freely, never failed to renew the inspiration of early years and assist me in the tasks I had undertaken.

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At Sydney High School, too, were boys in whose horoscopes were written future careers of outstanding service to Australia and the world. Three were to become distinguished professors at the University of Sydney. In the sixth form was F A Todd, who attained distinction as professor of Latin, a talented classical scholar and a patron of the arts and music. At school he displayed his musical prowess on the slightest provocation, often delighting us with an oboe solo when the master was absent. J P Madsen, Professor of Engineering, was knighted for his brilliant work on electronics during the Second World War. W G Woolnough, Professor of Geology, co-operated with Sir Edgeworth David in his monumental work on the coral atolls at Funafuti and served the Commonwealth Government as adviser on oil research for many years.

S A Smith, Sir Grafton Elliot Smith's younger brother, for some unknown reason known as "Soapy", was also at the school. He told us that he was forced to learn German so that he could translate scientific treatises for his brother. "Soapy" became one of the founders of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians and leader in the fight against rheumatism. At school he demonstrated that he was an accomplished black-and-white artist who could dash off cartoons on the blackboard with the greatest rapidity. I found him a superlative asset when I became secretary of the University Medical Society because of his facility in making dry technical papers palatable with the light relief of cartoons and illustrations.

I was destined to see a great deal of these and many other old boys of the High School in the course of my career. Sir John McLaren, who became Secretary of the Prime Minister's Department and Official Secretary at Australia House, London, was closely associated with me during my Ministerial career; Robert Ewing was Commonwealth Taxation Commissioner when I was Treasurer. He had a remarkable mathematical mind and I suspect that he worked out the simplest problem by resort to the differential and integral calculi.

The presence of Clarrie Chapman as Under-Secretary of the New South Wales Treasury renewed a happy school association when I was negotiating the financial Agreement between the Commonwealth and States. With Alf Pollack, I worked closely in the fight for Clarence River development. W H Myers, fifty years after our school association, gave outstanding assistance in the arrangement of interconnection between the Newcastle and Clarence electricity transmission systems during the war. The sage advice and profound actuarial knowledge of Andy Sneddon and Arthur Eedy were freely available to me when, as Treasurer, I produced the National Insurance Bill of 1928 R. T Mackay, Vice-Chairman of the Sydney Metropolitan Water and Sewerage Board and one of the earliest advocates of the scheme to use the waters of the Snowy River, inspired and advised me in my campaigns for water conservation.

Thus, in my schooling at Grafton and Sydney, I gained not only a sound grounding in academic education, but also a panel of distinguished friends whose wisdom and Companionship have since supported me on many a weary political expedition.

Extracts from Page, E C G, Truant Surgeon, pp 12 - 16.