Historic Photographs: The Jubilee Collection from 2012

These images are an eclectic collection of re-photographed old photographs, artifacts and documents from the earliest days of the School to modern digital photographs of construction and events. Some groups have images which are unrelated, other groups are more or less themed. Sometimes there are two images of the one thing, such as two sides of a document.

Albertians, or family members, have donated many of the objects and where this is known acknowledgements are made. Most items have explanatory text, those that don't are self-explanatory. There are 20 sets that make up this jubilee collection for 2012. Curated by Brian Murphy, archivist.

Set 20

Cadet Officers 1941

During the cadet years, and especially during wartime, the members of staff were cadet officers. In 1941 a number of masters were on active service. Many of the senior boys in 1941 would have been in uniform the following year and, after basic training, shipped off to war.

The men in the photograph are:

Back Row: 2Lt. FE Coulthard, 2Lt. GL Weir, 2Lt. J Horrocks, Lt. HL Towers, Lt. NB Body, Lt. MJ O'Sullivan, Lt. JH Jenkin, 2Lt. CB Floyd, Lt. WE King.

Front Row: Lt JG Brown, Capt. WR Martin, Capt. HL Calder, Major CT Harris, Capt. JM Tait, Capt. R Willmott, Lt. WCJ Perry.

Absent: 2Lt. JJ Harvey.

The photograph is a gift from the estate of Nelson Body.

An Early Projector

This piece about a Balopticon was from the editorial of The Albertian 1935 p.6.

The second image is of a 1925 advertisement for a home Balopticon. The advertised one is an opaque projector of the epidiascope type. The type suggested in the editorial is of the through- the-lens magic-lantern type. (The manufacturers, Bausch and Lomb, still have their international headquarters in Rochester, NY. They now make contact lenses and other eye products.)

Pen and Ink Drawing by Newton Wickham, 4A, 1932

The dirigible that is 4A has already flown over the foothills of the J.F.P., the Junior Free Place. A Junior Free Place was awarded to any pupil who passed the Proficiency examination by a certain age. This examination was at the end of Standard 6. (Which became Form 2, which became Year 8.) Any child who did not get enough marks to enter a "secondary school", either had to pay to go to a such a school, or try to get into a Technical School, or give up the idea of continuing with school.

The uplands of the Senior Free Place loom at the end of the year. Those who passed this hurdle at the end of Form 4, Year 10, could continue into a third year and attempt the mountains of Matric., Matriculation or University Entrance. Those who were serious about going to university returned for a year in the Lower Sixth Form (Year 12) and a smaller number still returned for a fifth year in the Upper Sixth Form.
The Free Place system was abolished by the First Labour Government in 1935, giving every child the right to a secondary school education.

Athletics Champions 1937

This image is rephotographed from a copy of one that appeared in The Auckland Staron Monday 5 April 1937. It was a gift of Alan Thom, in July 1999, who is the brother of Norm Thom, the Senior Campion.

Coronations Remembered

This plaque was erected by the then City of Mount Albert in a tiny fragment of the grounds of the old School House. An old House Boy of the period claimed that the oak he remembered was planted elsewhere in the grounds. (The only way to know for sure is for core samples from candidate trees to be examined by a dendrochronologist.)

The Albertianof 1937 reported on a ceremony in the Hall on the day of the Coronation of King George VI, (12 May 1937). After that ceremony, The Albertianreported that:
"After the address in Hall Sir Algernon Thomas planted the Coronation Oak in the grounds of the School House. He referred to the historic significance of the occasion and explained that the tree had been grown from an acorn from Westminster Park.
"Miss [Constance] Jackson, who was present at this ceremony, had also attended the planting of oaks in the School House grounds on the occasion of the coronation of King Edward VII. [22 January 1901] and of King George V. [22 June 1911]. There are now three coronation oaks in the School House grounds."

Miss Jackson was there because she was related to Sarah Jackson, who was in charge of what became the School House when it belonged to the Child Welfare Department.