There were four headmasters of the school during the 1940's
(five—if you count Porter's reign as acting-headmaster).
Remembered with affection by ex-students as a firm disciplinarian but also as a kindly
"father-figure", T.J. Clyne returned to Parramatta High,
where he had previously been Science Master and Sports Master, as Headmaster from 1943-45.
Then there was C.P. Smith - headmaster, 1946-47 -
"an austere, bespectacled presence".
Finally there was Mr G. Barr who was determined to build an assembly hall and provide adequate housing for a new library.
| Indicative of the post-depression years and the austerity demanded
by war-time, the school buildings during the 1940's became rather
run-down and the grounds "inadequate and unattractive". Much the same as today - "the main two-storied brick building wrapped itself around the three sides of the top quadrangle and extended, on the eastern side, along the lower quadrangle, where it became three-storied, housing the science laboratories [it still does in 1999 !] on its lowest level. |
 Click to enlarge 1936 plan of the school. (61 k) |
 Here is a 1924 sketch of the floorplan of the main building. (28k) Click to enlarge. |
Student numbers had obviously increased by the 1940's.
Several references have been made by ex-students to the "portables" -
"pre-fabricated temporary classrooms on the lowest level of the school
grounds behind the gym". Such was the extent of the dilapidation Gwen Barclay -4A- felt compelled to write, in the 1949 Phœnix, of the school's "major deficiencies" in an impassioned article entitled "School Needs". |
The "constant roar of traffic" on the Western Road meant study was impossible and during rainy weather - "the mud is particularly treacherous and has caused many a lamentable mishap".
On a concluding note Gwen writes - in words that would sound only too familiar in many state schools today:
| "with extra finance and public agitation a great deal could be done to improve our school". |
