"The voice of a school-boy rallies the ranks, / 'Play up — play up, and play the game.'"
Public schools are not merely for the purpose of teaching us Latin, English and Algebra. If that were their only function, they would not be the success they are. When, however, a number of young men or boys gather together to study and to play in one another's company, there is slowly and unconsciously fostered in them that great team spirit in which lies the true worth of a public school.
Thus, the boy who strives his hardest, merely "For the sake of a ribboned coat, / Or the selfish hope of a season's fame" is not a true public school boy. He has lost sight of the spirit of self-sacrifice, of giving his best for his comrades and for his school.
Many of our noblest acts of self-sacrifice reported during the last war were performed by public school boys, and were the outcome of that team spirit born and engendered in them on the playing fields at school. Another proof of the effect of this schoolboy spirit is the fact that friends made at school are often the truest and staunchest friends of our lives. We always feel a strong attraction for the men who have stood by us and worked with us in our school days, and been our rivals either at lessons or sports.
Our predecessors have shown in their lives what this "play the game" spirit can accomplish. They have borne this ideal through life, "like a torch in flame." They have discovered that the noblest ideals by which one can regulate one's after life are those to which they aspired when at school.
Now, when the call comes to us — "Quit you like men, life's battle lies before you" — we must in our turn grasp the torch and run the race. Let it then be our care that we keep the torch burning brightly, that others may see by its light, "And falling, fling to the host behind — / Play up — play up, and play the game." Our public schools will then not have functioned in vain.
The President for 1925–26 was Mr. H. W. R. (Wilton) Love. At the 1926 Annual General Meeting Colonel A. H. Marks was elected President for 1926–27, with Brigadier-General C. H. Foott as Vice-President and Mr. J. G. Nowlan as Hon. Secretary & Treasurer. (Marks and Foott attended the funeral of R. H. Roe as OBA President and Vice-President — see the Vale below.)
Old Boys' Association (Founded 1898).
No award. The Reginald Heber Roe Memorial Bursary had not yet been founded (first award 1933). (It would be established a few years after Roe's death this year, as his memorial.)
Reginald Heber Roe — Head Master of the Brisbane Grammar School 1876–1909, a founder, first Secretary and later President of the Old Boys' Association — died in 1926. Beyond the School he was a founder and President of the Brisbane Literary Circle (in succession to Sir Samuel Griffith, the Hon. T. J. Byrnes and Brunton Stephens); a devoted oarsman, President of the Queensland Rowing Association and chairman of its Central Council for nearly 20 years; and an authority on lawn tennis. Before the University of Queensland was established he was selected for a leading role in it (he became its first Vice-Chancellor). His representative funeral was attended by University, judicial and civic dignitaries. His surviving children included Dr. A. S. Roe (namesake of the later A. S. Roe Scholarship), Mr. E. H. (Edward Heber) Roe, Charles William Roe, Mrs. P. D. Paterson, and Misses Maud May and Annie Margaret Roe. The R. H. Roe Memorial Bursary, founded by the OBA in 1933, commemorates him.
Both 1926 issues carry Old Boys' registers; not reproduced here.
Source: The Brisbane Grammar School Magazine, June 1926 and November 1926 (two termly issues, combined). The year of R. H. Roe's death. Notation: Bracketed "(year)" = year of ENTRY. (No R. H. Roe Bursary before 1933.) School Captain 1926: R. M. Brand (first-named Prefect). Head Master: F. S. N. Bousfield.
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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