KING’S COLLEGE

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 78, Issue 7017, 9 February 1949, Page 9

KING’S COLLEGE

OLD BOY’S JUBILEE THIS YEAR’S IMPORTANT FUNCTION The following article written by Mr Clive Tidmarsh for the Auckland Star will be of special intei'est to many old boys of King’s College, who are now resident in Te Awamutu and district. Just before the turn of the century an ambitious teacher with an arts degree - decided to found a school in Auckland. Running your own school was as common as running a baker’s shop in those days. Some of them lasted only a few months. But this one endured. This year will be jubilee year for its old boys—the old boys of King’s College. It was about two years after scholarly, bearded! Graham Bruce founded King’s at the old McCosh Clark home in Remuera Road that the first old boys—most of them sporting the thin, drooping mqustaches, high collars and straw boaters of the era—got together and started an association; and some of the original members, all hale and hearty, will raise their glasses to their alma mater during the big round of festivities planned for June this year. This will be the old boys jubilee—not to be confused with the fiftieth anniversary of the college two years ago. Nevertheless, the college and the association are blood brothers, so closely linked that the history and traditions of one belong, inseparably, to the other. Strange as it seems, not all old boys went to King’s College. That is because in 1896 King’s was formed w’hen it broke away from another school which, 16 years later, amalgamated with it. As Archbishop Averill, whose affection for the college has never faltered, has put it—“the stream that divided came together again.” If this seems a little complex, here are the facts: Though King’s College proper dates back only half a century, its ancestry can be traced to Bishop Selwyn, who put up the first church school in New Zealand,*St John’s College, at Waimate North‘and later at Tamaki. Headmasters who guided the destinies of St John’s through the Nineteenth Century included Archdeacon (afterwards Bishop) Abraham, Rev. S. Blackburne, Rev. T. F. King, and finally Rev. (now Canon) P. S. Smallfield. Now in his 91st year, Canon Smallfield figured largely in the chain of events culminating in King’s College as it is to-day. The action of his first assistant, Mr Graham Bruce in breaking away and starting King’s caused a sensation. Many St John’s boys went over to the new school./ Mr Bruce, dogged by ill-health, died in 1905 and in the following year King's College was bought by the late Mr C. T. Major, one of the original masters, who had gone to Nelson* College on his return from the South African War. Meanwhile Mr Smallfield was carrying on St John’s at The Pah, Epsom, to which he had moved in 1901. When he purchased King’s, Mi Major declared it would be his life’s aim to unite all the Church of England schools in Auckland and to found a boys’ public school on best English lines, one that would take a foremost place in the Dominion. It was many years before this ambition was fully realised. But in 1912 “the stream came together”* with the merger under Mr Major of King’s and St’John’s. At that time Mr Major offered the goodwill of the college to any responsible body which pledged itself tofound and build his “dream school” and in 1914, the offer was taken up by a board of which Archbishop Averill, then Bishop of Auckland, was a most active member. The project was hampered by wartime difficulties, but at last, in '1922, the new college at : Middlemore, costing more than £lOO,000, was openfed. As King’s School

under a separate board, the prepatory classes remained at the old site in Remuera. Selwyn’s and later Mr Major’s ideal reached full maturity in 1930, when King’s College was transferred to the St John’s College Trust Board, probably the oldest ecclesiastical foundation in New Zealand. To-day members of the King’s College Old Boys’ Association embrace not only old boys of the college and of St John’s Collegiate (when it was located at Tamaki and at The Pah, Epsom, and both before and after King’s was formed) but also surviving past pupils of the Parnell Church of England Grammar School. How does this last-mentioned school come into the picture? Chiefly because, when the the school went out of business about 1903, the pupils were transferred to King’s College. Moreover, a trust fund of £15,000 belonging to the Parnell Grammar School was years later applied for the benefit of King’s. Both schools too, at different times, were linked with the St John’s Trust. Giants of Yesteryear Chatting about old days recently, Mr Edward Smith, of Herne Bay, who was an original pupil at King’s, expressed the view that Mr Graham Bruce’s name as the founder should be perpetuated. “Had he lived,” said Mr Smith, “he would have been the greatest headmaster in New Zealand history. He had all the attributes of the famous Dr Arnold, but not his physical strength.’’ ; Remuera of those times was very rural. Many boys went to school on horseback. It was a rough, muddy track to Newmarket. Surburban development was in its infancy and “civilisation” virtually ended at the top of Victoria Avenue. In these days of experiment and more secularism in education the value of schools based on Christian principles and. sound academic* train-* ing is apt to be overlooked. Mr H. B. Lusk, a former headmaster of King’s, put it this way: “Education should not be easy. Its main object should be to develop character and the power to think. That is the only protection against propaganda.” It happens that King’s through the years, has had some outstanding masters and outstanding “headj” . . . Charles Thomas Major will ever remain a legandary figure. An individualist of the old brigade, memory of his qualities as a teacher, soldier and gentleman will long survive the generation he served. Archdal 1, Peart and Lusk —these were headmasters who played no small role in developing the school and its traditions. First always to acknowledge this is the present head, Mr Geoffrey Greenbank. Though his work in guiding King’s to further achievement began only recently, Mr Greenbank’s quiet modesty, deep sincerity of purpose, strong qualities of leadership and brilliant academic background augur well for a long and successful stewardship. When the old boys forgather in June to toast “absent friends,” they will feel close to a noble company—the masters of yesteryear, mostly just names to the present generation but ever remembered and honoured for their solid worth in building assets for King’s. These men—Fred Stuckey, George Bigg-Wither, A. Plugge, R. H. Bayly, “Jock” Collins, “Jimmie” Fagan, i “Buzzy” Hunt and “Teddy” Strong—were the warp and woof of King’s. Nor should the contribution be overlooked of three senior members of the present staff, Messrs H. T. Revel, A. Thomson and V. Maxwell. Unquestionably the magnificent chapel, erected after World War I, as a memorial to the fallen, is the focal point of old boy’s interests and activities. Designed by one of them. Mr R. Atkinson Abbott, it was financed mainly by old boys, hundreds of whom make an annual visit there.