Reminiscences: Oscar Ulrich Vonwiller (Pupil, 1895-1898)

When, a few weeks before my thirteenth birthday, I was enrolled as a pupil at Sydney High, then in Mary Ann Street, Ultimo, an early impression, a pleasant one, was the marked contrast between class accommodation there and at Paddington Superior Public School, where I attended for the previous four years. At Paddington, we sat on plain backless benches at long desks heavily scored with carved initials and names of pupils of earlier times; in one large room there were four blocks of such benches and desks, four classes were conducted simultaneously in the one room; in another room, three. In the High School, we had comfortable individual seats arranged in pairs,each with folding desk and receptacle for personal articles, and each class had a separate room. Another important point was that instead of the unhygienic slate and pencil of the primary school, our class exercises at the High were written on paper.

In our interviews with the Headmaster, he questioned us on our knowledge in various subjects, and, largely on our mathematical attainment, assigned us to our main form, then on our knowledge of Latin and of French, to classes in those subjects, whereas at Paddington, the one teacher taught us in all subjects.

It may surprise some to learn that in those days Latin was taught in the Upper and Lower Fifth classes, the top classes, in Paddington and other primary schools, that is in the boys' school; in the girls' French was taught in those classes; so that I and most of the other Scholarship holders were placed in the second class for Latin, the first being for beginners. In French, we were in the lowest class.

We found that each teacher had his own room, pupils moving from room to room, as the classes changed. The first hour each day was given to Latin, on three days in the week. The second, to French, while the remaining time was spent on the work of our main form, English, History, mathematics, etc. Optional subjects were Greek and German, one of which could be taken. Physics was a subject studied in some years, the class being held in the Technical College, and conducted by teachers of that institution; thanks to the good equipment there, far superior to that in any school, High boys did well in that subject. However owing to time-table difficulties, those of us who took Greek or German, had to give up Physics after one year's work.

We had good teachers; all I think were graduates of Australian or British Universities and in those years from the foundation in 1883, to the end of the century, a remarkable number of the pupils, considering the small enrolment, gained high academic posts in Australian and overseas universities; high distinction in the several learned professions; and eminence in commercial and industrial activities. On the other hand, during my four years, the record in sport was almost nothing: apart from an annual athletic meeting, there was no organised effort.

In one sense, I think this was the nadir of the School's existence; after a healthy start and steady growth, during which it became a member of the Great Public Schools Association, it suffered badly in the financial catastrophe of the eighteen-nineties, numbers falling greatly, and consisting largely of non-paying pupils. (Each half year, eight scholarships were awarded, with free tuition and text-books for three years, and a number of bursaries, other pupils paying two guineas a quarter). There were rumours among pupils, and staff, that the School would be closed, scholarship holders being sent to the Grammar School. Whether such proposals were considered by the Government, I don't know; however the School survived and, later, flourished. Unfortunately membership of the Great Public Schools had lapsed , some years before I joined, and it was only after many years of sustained effort that it was restored.

The Old Boys' Union, founded early in the School's life , had also gone out of action; certainly we never heard of it. As the School's oldest Old Boy could not have been more than about twenty five in 1895, it is likely that in the great depression, most were not in a position to give us much help. Early in this century, it was revived, thanks largely to the efforts of Arthur Eedy and Percy Pratt, the first and the last of the original forty enrolled in 1883; and through it, I was privileged to enjoy the friendship of these and other Old Boys. One of the original Old Boys I met at Eedy's home was A C MacKenzie, the first High boy to represent N S W in cricket; he was an opening batsman with many fine performances who narrowly missed selection for Australian teams going to England. Here I must mention another High Boy, a contemporary of mine, of whom I have not read any note in High publications - Spragg, I cannot remember his initials, he was known as 'mother Spragg' for some reason, both at school and later by the football crowds. I do not remember whether he played for N S W but later he captained the Queensland fifteen, and Australia against New Zealand.

Our facilities for sport were negligible. The School'grounds' consisted of a small asphalt area, with an untidy grass strip, about fifteen feet wide, along which masters sometimes played after school hours.

Although no doubt records are available of the teachers at the School, some personal notes may be of interest, giving the picture formed by a school-boy. During my time there were eight masters, and as two changes were made, I knew ten in all. In appearance they differed from those of today; six were bearded, and the other two sported a full moustache, as did the two who came later. The beards varied; closed clipped, luxuriant, and rather straggly. Outside the classroom, the masters wore academic trenchers , but not gowns.

Our Headmaster was Mr Joseph Coates; he had been a master at Newington, and took office a few months after the School opened. He was an elderly man, with a decided limp, and reached the retiring age, during my second year. During my first year, I was in his Latin class, and I remember his hostility to false qualities; however we found him a kindly and sympathetic gentleman. He had been a good cricketer, representing N S W in the early days of intercolonial cricket. I recall an episode that interested us; one afternoon he took our form in the absence of the regular master, and in the course of the hour, he called out a boy to whom he gave an instruction, that we did not hear; the boy left the room, and returned about ten minutes later, telling the head something. In those days, telephones were few, and the School did not have one; the boy had been sent to get some information through the office telephone of the Technical College; that information, Mr Coates gave us,'New South Wales has lost 7 wickets for 327, Mr Iredale is not out 137' (I am not sure of the numbers)'that is very good, but perhaps it would have been better, to have got fewer, and had to follow-on; however perhaps we'll top them.' And top them, we did, South Australia had made 400, Mr C Hill not out 206, and N S W made 428. In the second innings, S A made 200, and NSW won by 7 or 8 wickets; Mr Iredale again making a big score. I wonder if there is any other instance of a side scoring exact hundreds in each innings.

Mr Coates was held in high regard by his old pupils, who subscribed generously to a testimonial on his retirement. He died a few months later, and most of the masters and pupils marched in the funeral procession, from his home in Moore Park Road, to the Waverley Cemetery . He was succeeded by Mr J. Waterhouse, who had been acting Headmaster at Sydney, at the opening of the School, until Mr Coates got his release from Newington .

The second in seniority was Mr W. C. Crompton, M. A., of Oxford. He taught seven classes in Greek, Latin, Ancient History, English and French; of mathematics, he professed profound ignorance and lack of interest. I have better recollection and more memories of his teaching than of any other in the School. Teaching subjects in which he was a ripe scholar, he gave them life, with frequent relevant digression, based on his wide reading; his classes were never dull. Sometimes his digressions covered a wide field, seemingly far-removed from our subject matter; I recall discussion on mixed marriages , on problems to arise with the Federation that was to come a few years later, on religious differences, together with tales of his experiences, of his school days at Winchester, during the Crimean War, where his father served. He expressed great anger against Ireland based on the prejudices of the age, and in particular, in the fact that his father narrowly missed assassination, while an Officer of the British army in Ireland. I think he was a disappointed man, who had missed out in his career, through faults of his own, and he resented being passed over in the appointment of a successor to Coates.

He was frequently absent through illness, and a few years after I left, he had a complete breakdown. My last meeting with him was on a visit with another Old Boy, to a private hospital, in which he died, a few months later; in spite of the difficulties of his infirmity, he talked cheerfully about our progress, with no reference to his own sad condition. In the course of years, I have met many Old Boys of the time before, and after, mine, and heard varied opinions of Crompton; some in admiration of his learning and teaching, others condemning him as a bad influence on schoolboys, because of coarseness, and freedom of speech on topics not discussed with the young in those days. Undoubtedly he had faults, some grievous ones, but it was a good thing to have had contact with him. I agree that it would have been bad, if all the masters had like qualities, and I agree that is improbable that he would have been the success as a headmaster, that Waterhouse was, in that very difficult period of the School's life.

About the same age as Crompton, was Mr Stephenson; our specialist teacher in Mathematics. I don't know his initials - for some reason he was known as'Boo'. He was a tall grey-bearded man, MA of Cambridge, and an effective teacher. We never made the contact with him and the other masters, that we did with Crompton, probably because Crompton often treated us as people, not pupils, discussing matters as he would with men of his own age, a practice with good and bad points; while the other masters maintained the distance between men and boys. We did occasionally get some interesting digression from Stephenson, who certainly was not lacking in sense of humour. I recall on the occasion of Mr Coates' funeral, as the march started, Mr Stephenson exhorted us to occupy our minds, by going over the trigonometrical formulae for SinA+SinB, etc no doubt, to check idle chatter that might arise in the course of the long walk. Crompton, who had, I think, more in common with Stephenson, than with the other masters, told us a story that Stephenson had related. When a schoolboy, probably in the eighteen fifties, he was present at a conversation between his father and an elderly friend. Stephenson Senior was telling his friend of important changes in the University rules and practice; the older man was becoming more disturbed at what he heard, and at last burst out,'Do you mean to tell me Stephenson, that a man who has conformed with the College rules, attended Chapel regularly, and eaten his dinners in Hall, is refused his degree, just because he does not pass an examination!'

Mr J. Sharp (Johnno) was my form master, in my first year. A graduate of a Scottish University, he was credited with learning in Early English. Physically, he looked soft, and though younger, he and Crompton displayed the'middle aged spread', notably absent from all the others. He was a pleasant, if not inspiring, gentleman, and an effective teacher. as far as I know, he and Crompton were the only teachers who made any social gesture to pupils, by inviting them to their homes. Sharp had comfortable bachelor quarters, in Summer Hill, where I recall some interesting paintings and etchings of episodes in the Peninsular War. a few years after I left, he was appointed headmaster of a school in W. A.

Mr A J Studdy was my [master] after my first promotion, and at one time, I was in his class for French. He was perhaps, the most popular master, a good teacher, with some novel methods of maintaining interest, and therefore efficiency. I think he was in his mid-thirties at that time. A few years later, he left the School, to take up pastoral work, I was told.

Mr Elphinstone, I knew only as my first teacher in German. He was a well-built man, I would say in his thirties, with reddish hair, and full moustache. I remember little of him apart from a few mannerisms, but think he was a good teacher; some boys who were in his form, thought him the best teacher they had worked with.

Even less, I knew Mr (?T. B. ?) Trebeck, in whose class I was in, for my beginning in French. He was a slightly built man, I think in the forties, with a rather untidy looking reddish beard. I recall no contact with him outside the class-room.

The junior master was Mr G Saxby , an Old Boy of the School, who had graduated in Sydney a few years earlier, and was probably not more than 24 or 25; a well grown beard made him look older. I was never in any of his classes, but made contacts with him outside; arising from our small numbers, I think every master knew every boy, at least by name. In later years, as a member of the Council of the OBU, I had more contacts with Saxby, on occasional visits to the School, to inform ourselves for representations we were making to the authorities, on behalf of the School. Later Saxby became successful Headmaster, and the Saxby family was the first to have three generations of High Boys. To Mr J Waterhouse, who succeeded Mr Coates as Headmaster, I owe a great deal, as does the School, through his wise and painstaking direction, during the years of recovery from the financial crisis. he was a good teacher, thorough in instruction, and in his administrative duties, with no dodging of difficulties. I think he took my Latin class in preparation for the Junior Examination of 1897. Waterhouse was most punctilious in behaviour and speech, and I cannot imagine him uttering an indelicate or course remark, which perhaps makes me remember an episode that amused us all, at the time. We were reading A Midsummer Night's Dream, the text set by the University for English in the Junior Examination; one day, our regular teacher was away ill, Mr Waterhouse took the class. He obviously had not read the work lately, and called on boys to read passages, stopping the reading from time to time, to make comments. With good reason he found our delivery depressing, and after protesting at its lifelessness, decided to read a little himself, no doubt to show us how it should be done. The passage was that in which puck introduces himself, telling of his mischievous pranks, including that in which he takes the form of a stool, on which an aged, somewhat tipsy crone seats herself. [We] keenly watched as our extremely proper Head approached the words 'Then slip I from her bum, down topples she.... etc.' Though in those days, we used such words among ourselves, we never contemplated their use in the presence of our seniors, Mr Waterhouse, coming without warning on the word, for a moment was nonplused, but quickly recovered, and with a laugh told us that in Shakespeare's time a concession of occasional vulgarity had to be made for the common people. In this same connection, a story was told that Trebeck, whose form studied the same play, had told the class, that to avoid the indelicacy, they should say 'Then slip I from behind her... etc.'; he then called on a boy H. to read the so amended passage. He did so, but coming to the fateful line, he read 'Then slip I from her behind.....' H. was regarded as rather dull, but I wondered.

A point of interest concerning this play is indicative of the times, when the University announced its selection for the Junior, there was a well-supported protest against such a word for reading by boys and girls, aged from 14 to 16. I never heard just what passages were deemed objectionable, but imagine that one was the conversation between the eloping lovers, benighted in the woods. In those days, there were worthy people who evidently could not imagine innocence in the young, unless accompanied by ignorance. The objections were so emphatic, that the University gave an alternative text, a book called Perkin Warbeck; I do not know the author, and have never read it, but am confident that I could do so without raising a blush.

Mr Smith was appointed to replace Mr Elphinstone, when he left the School. My only contact with him, was in the German class, where I found him most painstaking and thorough, with many of the characteristics of our Headmaster. Thanks to his work, and that of Elphinstone, most of us did reasonably well in German, in the public examinations, Junior and Senior. Mr Smith later became Headmaster of the School.

In the Physics class, our teachers were members of the Technical College Staff. The first was Mr S. H. Barraclough, (later Sir Henry); he had lately returned from post-graduate work at Cornell; and left us to take the post of lecturer in Engineering at the University. I have been told that he is an Old Boy of the School, but I have not been able to confirm this. After his departure, Mr Rumsey, an elderly man, taught us; I recall many beautiful classical experiments in Optics, for which the crowded syllabus of today, cannot give time.

Outside the classrooms there was little provision for comfort. Most of us brought cut lunches from home, that we ate on the grass strip bordering Mary Ann Street, or in a shed near the other street frontage. Some took luncheons at the Technical College dining room, provided for the cooking class. The only approach to a tuck-shop was a visit in the lunch hour by a fat elderly man named Joe, who brought a large basket of fruit for sale. Until a few years ago, a dark patch on the wall of the Technical College building, showed the site of his operations, but building changes have obliterated this.

I think the only other high school was that at East Maitland so that we had a number of country boys, some of whom returned home for week-ends, while others, living in more distant parts, only during vacations. The week-enders received free rail transport, and I think holders of Bursaries received a living allowance.

Courses of study at the High School and at other secondary schools were based on the requirements of the University, for the Junior and Senior Public Examinations, and for matriculation. The requirements for Matriculation, which could be satisfied at the Senior Examination, and at the Junior for the faculty of Arts, were two languages, Latin and Greek or French or German, and three mathematical subjects, Arithmetic, Algebra, and geometry; English was not a necessary subject, being taken for granted with pupils who had studied Latin and another language.

When the University opened in 1852, the only thing I remember of an Oration given by a distinguished graduate, Sir Samuel Griffith, later the first Chief Justice of the High Court, was his regret at the abolition of compulsory Greek, with the inevitable loss in our culture. Compulsory Latin for Matriculation, naturally led to its prominent place in secondary school work, and no doubt this same influence was the cause of Latin being taught in the top classes of the primary schools. For many years women were not admitted to the University, which may explain the substitution of French in the girls' schools, a more satisfactory subject, for those not proceeding to a secondary school.

Today, no doubt, many feel that the time devoted to Latin, might well have been spent in more profitable studies,a view that I held for many years, though later I changed my opinion. Now we have no difficulty in naming a substitute, but conditions were very different then, science hardly counting. Two happenings in my school days, indicate the vast changes of the past seventy years. I remember during a lunch hour, running eagerly with the boys to the fence, on hearing someone cry'Look, here comes a horseless carriage', the first we had seen. Then, one morning in the cable-news, we read that Professor Roentgen, a German scientist, had discovered a new kind of light, that penetrated many materials, ordinarily found to be opaque, such as human flesh, wood, etc., of great value in Medicine, allowing fractures of bones to be examined, and foreign bodies, such as bullets, to be located in the tissues. In next day's paper, a reporter described his experiences in interviewing people deemed qualified to give an opinion on this; with on exception, all dismissed the story as improbable, the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, for example, saying,'Roentgen. . . have never heard of him; you can take it that it is a hoax, a stupid hoax'. In those days few had education beyond the primary level, and most of these had little knowledge, and less interest in Science; to most the word'Physics' conveyed the idea of a kind of medicine. Hence if an alternative had been sought to Latin, it would not have been Science. As a matter of fact, without knowing it, we were in what Lord Rutherford used to call the'Heroic Age' of Physics, the years of the fundamental discoveries, of the electron, radioactivity, etc., the foundations of the vast developments of the present century.

I am grateful for having been given the opportunity of attending our School, and for what it did for me. In particular, I am happy in the memory of many friendships formed during those years, some transient, and some lasting; the most valued of these, alas, are ended, a sad result of living to be very old.