"Scholars come and scholars go, / The School goes on for ever."
The above remark is a truism, but, nevertheless, apt even if it is a parody on "The Brook." All of last year's Upper Sixth, and many of the Upper Fifth have left us, but still, owing to the influx of some two hundred new boys, the average attendance of the School is higher than it has ever been. It has, therefore, been found necessary to erect new buildings, which are now in course of construction, while a new playshed has been completed.
The teaching staff has also been enlarged by the addition of Messrs. Kaeppel, Clark and Fischer, and we take this opportunity of welcoming them to the School.
(The Editorial then reviews the season: the cricket captaincy passing from A. F. Paton to K. B. Fraser, and the football captaincy from L. A. A. Forbes to A. J. Hammond.)
Drill has again started, and owing to Captain Bousfield's appointment as Battalion Commander, F Company is now commanded by Lieutenant Kaeppel. The work is now entered into with enthusiasm, as every day we see men who ere long will go to the front to defend the Mother Country. We are publishing in the present magazine a list of Old Boys who have offered their services in defence of liberty, and the Empire which is itself the personification of liberty; and the least we can do is to wish them a speedy and safe return. The list now includes one hundred and seventy-three names.
The President for both 1914–15 and 1915–16 was Mr. Justice L. O. Lukin (re-elected at the 1915 Annual General Meeting); Mr. J. G. Nowlan continued as Hon. Secretary & Treasurer. As the war deepened, the Association's central task became recording the rapidly growing list of Old Boys on active service.
Old Boys' Association (Founded 1898).
No award. The Reginald Heber Roe Memorial Bursary had not yet been founded (first award 1933).
The 1915 issues publish a growing list of Old Boys on active service (173 names by April 1915), under way well before the casualty rolls of later years.
The 1915 issues carry the WWI service lists and Old Boys' registers; not reproduced here.
Source: The Brisbane Grammar School Magazine, April, August and November 1915 (three termly issues, combined). First full year of the Great War. Notation: Bracketed "(year)" = year of ENTRY. (No R. H. Roe Bursary before 1933.) School Captain 1915: J. G. Wilson (first-named School Prefect). Head Master: F. S. N. Bousfield, M.A. (also Captain — appointed a Battalion Commander of the Cadets).
In this era, an Old Boy's year designation was the year he entered Grammar; the convention today is the year he finished. A boy who started in 1993 and finished in 1997 was (93) but is now '97.
Brisbane Grammar School Old Boys' Association · Old Boys History. Part of the OBA Knowledge Project.
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