Honour Caps

There are 43 Honour Caps known to have been awarded since 1884.

In the 1880s through to the 1920s they were awarded intermittently, but in large numbers. 

In the early years, honour caps were awarded for prowess in sport, and were analogous to the present system of the award of "Blues". In 1886, the honour caps were awarded on the vote of the members of the football team.

The 1884 honour caps were of blue velvet with silver braid, and a silver tassel at the end of a long cord. In 1885, the honour caps were chocolate and blue velvet to reflect the school colours that had been chosen by the headmaster’s wife.

After a long gap, honour caps were awarded again for the first time since the 1880s, in 1917. In that year caps were awarded for the following qualities:-

1. Ability in a particular sport.

2. General interest in the school.

3. Credit brought to the S.H.S. in representative sport.

In this period, honour caps were awarded on a vote of the Sydney High School Union. The honour caps were maroon to match the colour of the blazers at the time. The chocolate and blue was restored to blazers and honour caps in 1928 following the school's move to Moore Park.

Since 1926 honour caps have been awarded rarely and to a single recipient on each occasion, initially on the basis of “general proficiency in sport”.

In the 1950s and 1960s, the school’s badge regulations stated that: “An Honour Cap may be awarded to a boy who has shown outstanding merit in a number of sports, provided that such award is in accordance with the regulations governing the awarding of Blues.”

In 1985, the regulations provided that: “An Honour Cap may be awarded (by the Blues Committee) to a boy who has shown outstanding merit in a number of sports, providing that such an award is in accordance with the regulations governing the award of blues".  The bases of recommendations for the Blues Awards were:  "a) Excellence in a branch of sport; e.g. having obtained the standard of those selected in the 1st or 2nd grade G.P.S. representative teams. b) Sportmanship."

The known recipients of honour caps are:

1884 Arthur Malcolm Eedy (football club)

1884 Archibald H MacTaggart (football club and cricket club)

1884 A H Eden (cricket club)

1885 Archibald H MacTaggart (football club)

1885 Arthur Malcolm Eedy (football club)

1885 L Wickham (football club)

1886 L Wickham (football club)

1886 R Frazer (football club)

1886 T Broughton (football club)

c 1888 Walter Suttor

1917 Walter Stuart Bain

1917 Frank S Bradhurst

1917 Sydney George Webb

1917 Sidney Alfred Willsher

1918 Sydney George Webb

1919 Selby John Wright Burt

1919 Kenneth McAlpine McCredie

1920 Selby John Wright Burt

1920 Thomas Ephesus Housden-Fussel

1920 G Robertson

1921 Selby John Wright Burt

1921 Frank Farrell

1921 George Grafton Lees Stening

1921 Ronald G Bain

1922 Sydney Charles King

1922 Norman Henry Parbery

1922 Edward A W Newton

1923 Sydney Charles King

1924 Sydney Charles King

1926 Kenneth Caton Hardy

1932 Reginald Vaughan Clark

1938 Robert Higham

1954 Brian John Allsop

1973 Neil McGill

1977 Bruce J Ramsay

1982 Alan Robert Davies

1985 Andrew McGill

1988 Adam Terry Magro

1993 Sohail Mohideen

2005 Mischa Steen

2007 Dakshika Gunaratne

2013 Ivor Metcalf

2015 Leonard Mah

2019 Samuel Yu