What is tradition? To many of us the word means little. It is perhaps an abstract term bandied about so much that its significance has been lost. The dictionary gives its meaning as "a body of beliefs handed down from generation to generation".
When we say that the greatness of the Brisbane Grammar School hinges on its tradition, we do not mean on the achievements of the many men who have been educated there. We mean that the school is only achieving its purpose when it is encouraging and guiding its scholars along the same road as their predecessors trod.
A Grammar School is more than an institution in which boys are taught the basic subjects of the curriculum, and encouraged to represent the school in sport. For it is during these years that characters are moulded, and boys are prepared for a life of triumph, purpose, and service to mankind.
This year is Queensland's Centenary Year, and we recall with pride the achievements of our forefathers who have contributed to the progress of our State. Many of the State's great men of the past century began their careers at Brisbane Grammar School. We, too, have a part to play in the advancement of our State in the years to come, and our years at Grammar are of great importance in our preparation for later life.
The pages of this magazine give a representation of the academic and extra-curricular activities of the boys of the School. Many of them have put into verse or prose their meditations, humorous or otherwise, on various aspects of school life, and on other subjects which provide food for the creative spirit of budding poets and authors. The magazine is an indication of what life at the Grammar means to its eight hundred students.
If, during our years at Grammar, we have come to feel that life is worth living, and worth making a success of, let us go out into the world with the traditional spirit alive within us. Let us set ourselves a goal, and determine to overcome all difficulties until that goal is obtained. We will thus have learned the formula for a happy and prosperous life, and our years at B.G.S. will not have been in vain.
— W.R.T.
Dr. F. R. Vincent
It is with pride that the members of the B.G.S.O.B.A. recall that in this, the Centenary Year of the State of Queensland, the Brisbane Grammar School has been in existence for more than ninety of those one hundred years. The boys who attended our School in its first year were born before this State attained independence from New South Wales. Since then the School has produced men who have achieved fame and esteem in most walks of life and who have assisted in the growth of a most progressive and virile State of the Commonwealth of Australia.
Despite the fact that there are many more Great Public Schools now than at the turn of the last century, and that the resultant competition between them is fierce, it is comforting to know that the B.G.S. has never been in a better position to maintain its pre-eminence in secondary education.
A stroll around the School will convince anyone who has been absent for a few years: there is a refreshing vigour and enthusiasm abroad that are not confined to the gleaming paint on the old buildings. Recent additions and terraced gardens, together with new buildings and playing fields in the course of construction, betoken well for the future.
The keynote behind this awareness of the part that the School has played and will continue to play, is in the wonderful team spirit within its confines; a spirit that stems from the Trustees and the Headmaster and is carried down through the Staff and the present boys.
I exhort all members of the B.G.S.O.B.A. to take an active interest in their Old School; to work for its well-being so that it may be said of us in another one hundred years that we were as worthy as our predecessors, and that we too "passed the torch eternal".
During his years at the B.G.S. (1924–1929), in the last of which he was School Captain, Fitzgerald Roxburgh Vincent, as well as applying himself to his studies, excelled in the sporting life of the School. For four successive years (1926–1929) he won his Colours in both Athletics and Swimming and in addition gained Football Colours and Honour Cap in 1927, 1928 and 1929. In 1929 also the Noel S. Robertson Memorial Challenge Cup was awarded to him.
He kept up his football during his periods of study in the Faculty of Dentistry at the University of Queensland and at the University of Toronto (Canada), gaining his Blue at each. He played also for the Australian Combined Universities and in International Rugby on the Tour of Japan in 1934.
After graduating in Queensland (L.D.S., 1934; B.D.Sc., 1935), he proceeded to the University of Toronto, whose D.D.Sc. (with Honours) was conferred on him in 1936. His interest in his profession is evidenced by his service as a member of the Faculty of Dentistry of the University of Queensland from 1953 to 1955, and as President of the Australian Dental Association (Queensland Branch) for 1954.
From 1940 to 1945 in the 2nd A.I.F. he was Senior Dental Officer with the 1st Australian Armoured Division and later with the Seventh Division of the A.I.F. in Borneo, being Mentioned in Despatches.
He finds relaxation from his busy practice in the hobby of fishing, but his sporting activities are limited to tennis. However, his son is carrying on his father's athletic tradition at the B.G.S. (The father of Mrs. Vincent, H. F. Pratten (1884), was himself a Champion Athlete at the B.G.S. and a member of the 1st XV and 1st XI — one of six brothers who attended the B.G.S.) In his work as Chairman of the Committee organising the G.P.S. Centenary Dinner, our new President has already made an outstanding contribution.
Old Boys' Association (Founded 1898).
Subscription — Annual: 15/-, due 1st July. Boys joining immediately on leaving school, 5/- to 30th June. Life Membership: £15.
There was an attendance of about 50 when this meeting was held in the Great Hall on September 16th. Members stood while one minute's silence was observed in honour of Old Boys who had passed on during the year. After the Council's Report and Statement of Accounts were received and adopted, the new office-bearers were elected. Among those present was Mr. J. J. Betts, Instructor in Gymnastics from 1911 to 1956.
Celebrated Saturday, 28th February, marking the first visit of the Governor of Queensland, Sir Henry Abel Smith, and Lady May Abel Smith, to the School. The Vice-Regal party was received outside the new Entrance Gates with a fanfare of trumpets especially written for the occasion.
Reginald Heber Roe Scholarship — Founded by the O.B.A. in memory of R. H. Roe, M.A., Headmaster of the School 1876–1909.
1959 Roe Scholarship: J. B. Douglas, who was School Captain in 1958; son of W. M. Douglas (1905), for many years on the B.G.S. Staff.
J. G. Nowlan Bursary — Founded by the O.B.A., to the boy entering the School with the highest pass in the State Scholarship Examination who receives no other assistance than the State Scholarship subsidy.
1959 Nowlan Bursary (shared, two boys equal): Warren (W. J.) Kinston and Ian (I. S.) Lincoln. (The Headmaster's report names them "Warren Kinston and Ian Lincoln"; the OBA awards page "W. J. Kinston and I. S. Lincoln". Surname spelled as in the scan — possibly "Kidston".)
(Headmaster's Annual Report, entering-boy awards: Trustees' Scholarship — Richard Kemp; Joseph Evans Memorial Bursary — Neville Patterson; J. G. Nowlan Bursary — shared Warren Kinston & Ian Lincoln; Cobb & Co. Bursaries — James Fitzgerald and Graeme Macnish.)
O.B.A. Prizes (presented at last year's Speech Night) — Essay: Senior, J. B. Lawrence; Junior, R. Love.
1958 Scholarship & Bursary winners (photo caption, for reference): Reginald Heber Roe Bursary — J. B. Douglas; A. J. Mason Scholarship — M. A. H. Thurlow; Open Scholarships — W. H. Messer, J. B. Lawrence, J. R. Anderson.
The 1959 issue carries Old Boys' Births / Marriages / Deaths registers and a personal column, not reproduced here.
Source: The Brisbane Grammar School Magazine, December 1959 (Queensland Centenary year; School's 91st Foundation). Notation: Bracketed "(year)" after a name = year of ENTRY to the School. School Captain 1959: W. Cooper. Dux of the School 1959 and Lilley Gold Medallist: David Brown.
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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