Garry Gillard > Perth Modern School >
The names of people granted entrance to Perth Modern School from 1956 were published in the West Australian newspaper 15 October 1955. I personally had never seen this list until August 2019, so find it fascinating.
The scanned copy I was sent in August 2019 was poor. This issue of the newspaper is not yet available in Trove. I've typed out from the scan what I think are the names, and indicated those that I'm not sure of, but there may be others that are incorrect. I would be grateful if a better scan became available, and if anyone sent me any correction.
Click/tap on the image for larger size. It also appears at the bottom of this page. >
I believe 60 boys and 60 girls were admitted to Perth Modern School in our year – four classes of 30 each. There are 120 names in the two lists below – 51 scholarships and 69 entrances. Some offers were not taken up, and as a result some people not listed below were admitted to the School in a second round. Examples I happen to be aware of are Ellen Boyle, Marie Bonds, David Ellis, Isla Patton, Fleur Price, Janet Ranford, Kaye Stephens, and Megan Sutton.
Applicants were ranked with a unique number from 1 to 120 and beyond, so that people could be moved up as offers were not taken up. The complication was that places had to be given to males and females in equal numbers, so some people may have been disadvantaged because of their sex.
Rankings were entered onto the school records of individuals, and I have been told that Bruce Williams' record shows S1 – meaning that he had the highest score on the entrance examinations/tests. Bruce was the highest ranking entrant; Roger Atkinson was the highest ranking leaver (see results).
The names of 53 children who won secondary school scholarships on the results of examinations held by the Education Department on August 25 and 26 have been released.
The winners of the awards are as follows:
[These are the people who got 'scholarships' as opposed to an 'entrance'. These 51 people got the highest results on the 1955 tests.]
Lynette Appleyard
Roger Atkinson
Cameron Blakemore
Pamela Burgess
Frank Campbell
Murray Campbell
Jennifer Chessell
Trevor Cole
Rodney Coleman
Peter Cooper
Walter Corish
Raymond Dawson
Diana Day
Wendy Dowsett
Peter Driver
Astrid Dunsis
Peter English
Barbara Gallop
Harry [?] Harris
Elaine Henderson
Graeme Hillier
Anthony Hobson
Terence Hoffman
Robert Jarvis
Geoff Lilburne
Rod Lyall
Roger McHugh
John McMath
Daphne Milligan
Kimberley Millstead [?]
Robert Mitchell
David Norgard
Peter Norris
Suzanne Osborne
Michael Phillips
Belinda Pickford (attended Albany High School)
Frank Pitman
Joan Rapley
Jeffrey Rice
Elizabeth Sanderson
Margaret Scambler
Howard Scott
Egils Skele
Dale Swepstone
Geoffrey Taylor
Jeffrey Tompkins
Joan Turner
Alexander Watson
Howard Wheatley
Bruce Williams
Patricia Wrightson
ENTRANCES
Metropolitan high school entrances - tenable at Perth Modern School or other specified high schools were won by:
[These are the people who got an 'entrance' as opposed to a 'scholarship'. In other words these 69 people got the next highest results on the 1955 test after the 51 above.]
Rex Bevan
Graeme Blackman
Colin Binns
John Bowden
Robert Bower
John Bremner
Valda Brodie
Anne Browning [?]
Elizabeth Cameron
Janice Collingwood
Hugh Collins
John Collins
John Coxon
Douglas Cross
Joseph Doepel
Ronald Dolphin
John Downie
Margaret Dunphy
Elizabeth Elliott
Robert Ellis
Frederick Grader
David Feldman
Kaye Gardener
Garry Gillard
Edward Ginney [?]
Kay Gully
Philip Harvey
Judith Hetherington
Barbara Hunt
Ian [?] Jennings
Gloria Jones
Trevor Keeley
June Kelly
Catherine Kennedy
Valerie Kerruish
Charles Lancaster
Margaret Lawn
Robert Lawson
Edward Lazarus
Marlene Lockhart
Michael Manning
Roderick Mason
Allan McCulloch
Denis McLeod
Frances Meadows
Rita Morachini [?]
Eve Morris
Marjorie Mortret {?]
Richard Ould
Geoffrey Owen
Neil Patterson
Philip Phillips
Julianne [?] Pollard
Lois Preston
Brian Rogers
Pamela Rowe
Gary Russell-Brown
Janet Selwood
Maxwell Smith
Roger Sor
David Steinberg
Colin Stevenson
Sandra Stock (misspelt in the paper as Stack)
Margaret Thackrah
Peter Underwood
Penelope Wells
Eleanor Williams
Lynette Woodhams
Terry Woolf
COUNTRY SCHOLARSHIPS
Country high school scholarships have been awarded to:
Ernest Anderson, ... etc.
I don't recognise any of the names, so assume none of the people listed attended PMS.
A notable absence from any list is the name of Brian Molinari, who got seven Distinctions in 1960 and was probably the top winner of a General Exhibition and quite likely also won the Maths Exhibition (as he became a Maths Professor). Belinda Pickford, however, did get a scholarship, but chose to attend Albany High School. She would also have won a General Exhibition (probably the fourth one). She also got seven Distinctions - like four people who went to Mod: Astrid Dunsis, Elaine Henderson, Geoffrey Taylor, and Peter Norris.
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