More than anything the 1920's seems to have been the era of "nicknames" at Parramatta High School. A glance through reminiscences reveals the affection with which various personalities at PHS were held, an affection usually demonstrated by a nickname. It becomes quite clear from the reminiscences that it was the people who made Parramatta High School memorable and that events were of secondary importance.

While the origins of the nickname of the first headmaster, "Tommy" Atkins, are clear, the source of others is a little more obscure. Consider teaching luminaries such as "Aunty May" Crouch, Art and Needlework teacher, legendary for her astute and profitable management of the school tuck shop (opened in 1922).

Aunty May

Digger Smith General Smuts

"Suggestions for improving our business are always welcome and should be handed, in writing, to Miss Crouch".   "Digger" Smith, (aka General Smuts) French teacher- notable for occasionally turning up with a "chestful of military medals";   Duncan St Clair "Bugs" Maclardy, Latin teacher- who taught onomatopoeia through yodeling;   Paddy Ingram (first name - not Patrick) - drama teacher;   and "Moonlight Moggie" Bertha McIntosh, teacher of Latin.

Bugs Maclardy

Moonlight Moggie

Other nicknames for staff were "Soapy", "Gussie", "Gunnar", "Baidy" and "Bruiser". Among the students were "Pecker" Thornley and "Bill" Kerr, who performed with distinction at Athletics at CHS, "Ullah" Jefferies, who rode a noisy motor-bike around the playground and Douglas "Dad" White, who became a distinguished academic.

Gussy Gordon

Even two portable buildings came to be known as "The Ark" and "The Tower of Babel".

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Tommy Atkins

"Tommy" Atkins continued to loom large on the Parramatta High School horizon whether it was as a Latin teacher, scornfully rejecting "newfangled" Latin pronunciations, or lecturing young male students on how to be gentlemen not "yahoos" especially in the presence of young ladies or for his "fervent Royalist" ceremonies each Monday morning "involving the flag and certain recited verse".

More recent anecdotal evidence from students of the 1930's, refer to the Headmaster's fondness for lunch at the Woolpack Hotel, a famous Parramatta watering hole. Such was the esteem and affection held for "Tommy" the only condemnatory conclusion reached was that it was better to see him about important matters before lunch. In these days of Royal Commissions and codes of conduct one can only speculate on what current reactions might be.

Nonetheless, as was written in the 1963 Golden Jubilee Phoenix, "Tommy" Atkins presided over the destiny of Parramatta High School for twenty years. "It was he who pressed home demands for a school in the Parramatta district; it was he who was the first headmaster; it was he who kept the school going".

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As with present day-students , uniform was focal point, - "Girls! Do you remember those huge pleated black sateen bloomers, they made us wear for Gym? They certainly did not do much for our figures" - "Our tunics were not the lovely royal blue of today's uniform but dark navy..." and of course the Firth Boys "turning up to school in cream trousers, blazers and flat straw boater hats, driving an immense Isotta-Fraschini..."

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Sporting achievements were duly recorded and it was with some pride that the 1921 efforts of Ken Coates were acknowledged in winning the mile and 880 yards - "the first time that Parramatta will figure on the Record List of the Combined High Schools' A.A.A. The main winter sport for boys was soccer - interesting given the subsequent premiership successes of the Parramatta "Eels" in Rugby League and the "Two Blues" in Union. In football and in cricket the name of Louis Benaud (father of Richie and John) figures prominently in the 1920's.

Photographs from the time reveal that girls played basketball (now netball), and were A-grade winners of the hockey and vigoro.

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The School Athletic Carnival - or one event at least - featured on the front page of the Telegraph News Pictorial (27 August 1927).

The PHS School Magazine, curiously, records the results of the sack race only in the "Girls' Events".
The results were: I.Head (1), D.Holmes (Dorothy Holmes, prefect) (2), E.McLean (3).

Here is a 1924 sketch of the floorplan of the main building. Click it to enlarge it. (28k)

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Paddy Ingram

Parramatta High School, through the sterling efforts of teachers such as Paddy Ingram, had a substantial cultural life. The annual Play Day saw Shakespearean delights presented - the performance of "As You Like It" is vividly described by Mert Potter, remembering not so much the quality of the performance but a biggish boy Scott "prowling about the stage importantly, declaiming about Yellow Stockings and wearing some bright yellow hosiery".

The end of term concert and the 4th-5th dance were also popular. E.Brown remembers the rafters ringing "to the strains of... Walking My Baby Back Home" (and) "Tip-Toe Through the Tulips"... It was E.Brown who also remembers the impact of the Depression with uniforms "darned as a sign of the times".

The 1920's are most noteworthy for the establishment of Parramatta High School as an entity, as no longer a fledgling school but a school which was establishing its tone and tradition. Miss Mackaness, a teacher at the school in the 20's summed it up best when quoting an objective observer from the Teachers College: "I can always tell a student of Parramatta High School. There's something about them that makes them stand out."

Mabel Mackaness

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Editor's note: At this point the editor (and web designer) would like to point out a slight divergence in opinion. A usually unimpeachable authority has ascribed the above facility ("lunch at the Woolpack") to another individual, one J.J."Happy" Hudson - Master of the Department of English from 1933 onwards. The same authority went on to describe Tommy as one of particularly sober habits and upright manner.

This mystery is bound to unfold - piece at a time - as this work progresses. ...Ed.

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