I attended Perth Modern School 1956-1960. These are some random photos of my cohort and of the building. As usual, click/tap on any image, and you may or may not be rewarded with a larger version.
Ellen Reid (Boyle) sent this me this precious photo of Vm in 1960, but I'm not in it, nor is Geoff Owen. However, Bob Lawson is, at the back. He was inevitably called 'Henry'. He's just to the left of centre. (We three did French. Most boys did not.) The teacher next to Bob is Maths teacher Harry Orriss, who terrified me in first year but turned out to be a nice guy when I met him as a lecturer in Maths Education at Claremont Teachers College in 1961. Why one other boy, Lex Watson (who, like the girls, did Physics and Chemistry, not French) was in that class is a (timetabling) mystery.
Ellen has kindly identified everyone in the photo, as follows:
Side wall: Mr Slucarzcyk (Physics), Val Kerruish, Astrid Dunsis.
Girl on lowest step: Bronwyn Denness.
Second lowest step: Anne Rudland, Russlyn Millar, Janice Collingwood, Mrs Vera Wrightson (German), Lex Watson, Ellen Boyle.
Middle step: Diane Wilson, Elaine Henderson, Joan Rapley, Pam Rowe, Terry Woolf, Eve Morris, Mr Staples (history).
Top row: Janet Ranford, Pam Burgess, Robert Lawson, Suzanne Osborne, Mr Harry Orriss (Maths), Sandra Stock, Mr Brown (Chemistry), Patricia Wrightson, Mr Maurice Jones (English).
Another (very cute) photo probably from the same occasion. >
Vera Wrightson has a cardigan on which she has taken off in the later (?) group photo (above). Joan and Bronwyn are obviously quite fond of her. It's most unusual to see a student touching a teacher, but Bronwyn has her hand on Mrs Wrightson's waist. (Thanks again to Ellen Reid for the snap.)
Some of Vm in Room 1
Back row: Garry Gillard, Sandy Stock, Geoff Owen, Joan Rapley
Middle row: June Kelly, Ellen Boyle, Pam Rowe, Pam Burgess, Suzanne Oborne, Elaine Henderson
Front 'row': Terry Woolf, Astrid Dunsis, Eve Morris, Barbara Collins, Eleanor Williams and Janice Collingwood - behind Elaine Sanderson
David Norgard, Wendy Dowsett (now Fenton), Bruce Williams, Patsy Collings. This was taken on the one day of the year - Sports Day - 1960? - when the girls wore the 'summer uniform', which was all white. Wendy was told off for wearing a blouse which was b/w striped.
Nedlands Primary School scholarship winners 1955: Wendy Dowsett, Frances Meadows, Elizabeth Cameron and Barbara Hunt. ... Below, the same four girls in 1960.
Hockey team: second or third year - faction?
Back row: goalkeeper? Barbara Collins, Jennifer Chessell, Mrs James? Bronwyn Denness, Diana Day? Suzanne Osborne
Front row: Mary Crabtree ? ? Kay Gully, ? Muriel Adams, Ellen Boyle
I attended the 50th reunion, 24 October 2010. These are the few photos I took on that occasion.
I only took half a dozen snaps - and not of people, but only in and on the belltower. These are the last flights of stairs to the platform.
Some of us wondered where the wooden chairs from the hall had gone. We found fifteen of them up here in the tower.
One of these fifteen chairs had the name Lutz on it. Edeline Lutz was one of my teachers at Maylands Primary School. When I got a scholarship to PMS at the end of 1955, Miss Lutz made a point of telling me that when I got there I might see a chair with her name on it. I did occasionally look for it while I was at Mod, but never saw it until ... 2010: fifty-five years later! She was at Mod 1923-27.
Once outside, we could closely admire the castellated belltower. Old tower, new flagpole.
The belltower is still equipped with a bell, which we all had a go at ringing. Well, we'd waited more than fifty years for the opportunity!
I guess the little tower thingy might be called a belvedere.
That's Roger Atkinson, not only another old boy, but also an ex-colleague from Murdoch University. Roger was ranked second in the state on the basis of his General Exhibition (2) in the Leaving examination results in 1960. PMS didn't identify a dux back then, but if they had, it would have been Roger.
Garry Gillard | New: 24 August, 2019 | Now: 14 November, 2023