Mac Nicoll (Alexander MacLeod Nicoll) attended Essendon Grammar School from 1943 to 1951, having spent his Prep years at Lowther Hall.

Essendon Grammar, in 1943, numbered 120 students from Prep to Matriculation. World War II dominated the students’ lives. Mac Nicoll, in Form 1A, was aware of the stringencies of food and clothes rationing, of an air raid-shelter in the backyard of his home at 48 Hoddle Street and the flurry and excitement of the regular air-raid patrols. His drawings, in his primary school years reflect the contemporary pre-occupation with aeroplanes, bombs and bullets.

He watched proudly as the School’s Roll of Honour listed annually an increasing number of Old Essendon Grammarians fighting for their country and mourned, at School Assemblies, for those who, tragically, died on service.

By 1948, the school population had reached 180. The Presbyterian Board of Education had taken over the school, endowing educational and financial stability. The War was behind them and things were on the up. 12 May 1948 brought the customary end-of-term hike.

From the Triune (the school magazine) of that year, the senior students and school chroniclers (A. D. O’Neil and G. Sewell) responsible for A Grammarian’s Diary wrote:

May

12th: End-of-Term Hike. This took the form of a geography excursion from Beaumaris to Sandringham around the beach and cliffs. Mr Foxcroft was in charge and from time to time he gave little talks and explanations of the geology and geography of the area. At Beaumaris, the boys made collections of fossilized sea-urchins (lovenias), and on the rocks at Rickett’s Point, lunch time camp fires surrounded by huddled figures presented a picture that could have been 150 years old – that of aborigines cooking marine delicacies on their kitchen middens. The occasional incoherent shouts and whoops heightened this impression.

These photographs, part of the collection of Essendon Grammar memorabilia which Mac has generously donated to the archives, give us glimpses both of our former students on their hike and of the then-untouched beauty of the bayside environment.

Margaret Hagger
Former PEGS Archivist
(with thanks to Mac Nicoll)

Our Archives

Mac Nicoll

Cliff top walk, Black Rock, Half Moon Bay, 1948
view larger image

The Lineup, Black Rock, 1948
view larger image

Mr Ron Quinn (L) and Mr Bert Foxcroft
view larger image