A letter from Private John McCallum opens the very first edition of the Parramatta High Magazine describing the sights of Egypt while on active duty near Cairo and referring to the command of his esteemed colleague Lieutenant A.Smith (another member of staff).

Students and ex-students also served with distinction. In all, thirty-five students served in WWI. A.Saundercock was the only student to be killed in action while R.Mottershead, A.Ironside, V.Harding and E.Hodges were wounded.

Reg Mottershead sent this highly regulated postcard to Miss Mott in 1916, whilst he was still on active duty, about seven months before he was wounded in action.

An Ode to ANZAC Day, 1916 appeared in the first School Magazine - June 1916.

In the March 1917 Magazine Mottershead wrote:
      "I am still in hospital... I was buried by shellfire on October 26th and have been incapacitated ever since."
Signaller Harding makes perhaps the most telling comment on the impact of war on Australians:
      "You know we used to talk of England as ' Home' in the pre-war days, but now it is always Australia that is meant after we get back."

Mr Mulvey was also of interest for his growing romance with the much admired colleague - "a universal favourite", Miss Taylor (they eventually married). Another teacher, the renowned "Auntie May Crouch" formed a Red Cross Unit - called the "Babies of Allies Society" at the school, sending bundles of clothes each month to the Belgians and parcels to the members of staff and ex-students who had enlisted.

The Magazines from these early years list some of the parcel's contents - 72 new cream flannelette or white woollen articles and 78 washed worn articles - also 170 pairs of socks for the War Chest. The school also collected 1300 eggs in three days during September 1918 for the war effort. The Unit continued to function well after the War, doing good work at Parramatta District Hospital.

The monarchists among us will be pleased to learn that the end of the War was received with great joy - "Oh, Joy of Peace", "God Save the King" was sung as the Union Jack was unfurled first on the school's "splendid new flag-pole" followed by the raising of the Australian ensign to the sound of "Advance Australia".

All the students received a Peace Medal following a march past the Headmaster - Mr Atkins. Many speeches were made - the highlight of which was the "racy and humourous speech" of Senior Inspector Blumer. After a short interval, the school was marched down to the Park to join in the Peace festivities. It was "a glorious, wonderful day - a day which made one feel, and fully realise, the full significance of 'peace on earth'.

Parramatta High School did not escape the ravages of the 1919 Spanish Influenza epidemic. Indeed, the school was closed at the beginning of the year in 1919 because of the epidemic, with large numbers having to stay away "on account of illness, or illness in the home". Earlier records also show students being taken to the Parramatta Town Hall for mass inoculation against smallpox in 1914 and the wearing of "little gauze covered shields to protect sore arms".

Being the first co-educational school in the state, Parramatta High School had both male and female prefects. Interestingly though, there were no girls' school captains until 1920. While leadership may have been a male bastion until 1920, girls were Dux of the School for the first four years of Parramatta High School.

Another first was the creation of a Parents and Citizens Association in 1913. The P&C held its first fete on August 23 1913 and raised the grand total of £70. The P&C continued until mid-1915 when it lapsed because of the War, not to be re-formed until the end of the Second World War in 1946.

Such was the pride in the school that an Ex-Students' Union was formed on May 25 1918 to "build up the tradition of our as-yet youthful school".

Perhaps the best appraisal of the school of those early years comes from Eunice Davies:

"It is sometimes true, and I think in the case of Parramatta High School this was exemplified, that difficult conditions and adversity give a challenge which calls for more loyalty and co-operation than would softer conditions, where routine is already well ordered. Its goal was clouded by poor environment and diversity of material. Its staff and pupils were pioneering a new realm. Its light was not one strong torch steadily lighting the way onward, to unity of purpose, but many small candles, striving to come together to create consciously or not, a strong beam which would light the way to great achievement..."