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Editorial . . .
"THE MAGAZINE"
The school's first annual magazine was published in 1947, when Mr. E. W. C.
Holdaway, B.A., M.Ed., was principal. Staff members of that year included
Miss C. M. Cameron and Messrs. E. Clegg and B. A. Lee. The results of Public
Examinations of 1946 showed that four candidates had passed Senior, 36 the
Junior Examination, and 61 the Scholarship.
The Crusaders' activities for the year included a "bike-hike" and a
"sausage-sizzle". On Speech Night 1947 it was raining.
In 1948 Warner Batchelor was runner-up in the five stone division of the
Queensland Schoolboys' Amateur Boxing Championships.
A most successful year for sport was 1949, when Wynnum girls won the
President's Cup for Athletics, while the boys were runners-up, repeating the
performances of the swimming teams earlier in the year at the Valley Baths.
The first Open Scholarship won by a student of the school was awarded to
Errol Thrift, an achievement which was matched by the Byrnes Memorial Medal
winner of the same year, Gregory Crane, who gained 10 A's in Junior. (Both
subsequently studied medicine at the Queensland University.)
The school's first Deputy Principal, Mr. S. Garrett, B.Sc., was appointed in
1950. Bobby Cook was one of the Brisbane Rugby League representatives in the
six stone division. Classes were held during the year in the Drill Hall while the
"temporary" wooden buildings were being built. The magazine labelled these
"the Bush School", contrasting, as they did, with the fine brick edifice which
they flanked.
Football played in the High School that year, and for several years after,
was Rugby Union. The swimmers retained the cups won the previous year. The
girls' Athletics team obtained three points at the G.P.S., "this being a reasonable
result", wrote the then editor of the magazine.
1951 School captains were Ron. Thurecht and Valerie Smith (now practising
dentistry and medicine). The school diary recorded on February 5th, "the only
addition to the teaching staff this year is Miss Nixon"; on September 21st,
"Had a visit from the manufacturers of a popular soft drink, who distributed
free drinks to the whole school. Business very brisk".
The Foreword of 1952 acknowledged the tenth year of the school's existence
in these words : "On the first day (February, 1943) 366 pupils came to their
new school, with all its windows taped as a safety measure against bomb blast,
and with slit trenches in the grounds to provide shelter from air raids". (These
precautions had no connection with the fact that L. T. O'Mara arrived at
W.H.S. from Gympie in 1952.)
The first Cross Country took place in 1952, "amazing the inhabitants of
Manly and Lota". The winner, Ray Bayles, timed 24.5 minutes. G.P.S. score for
Wynnum was eleven points.
On June 2nd, 1953, Mr. Gunn, M.L.A., officially opened the school tennis
courts. A member of the Girls' Athletics team in 1952 (cup winners) was
Annette Curtis. Guidance came to Wynnum in the person of Mr. Radford.
Mr. Holdaway, who had been Principal since 1943, retired from active
service on June 30th, 1954, and the school welcomed Mr. F. H. R. Cafferky,
B.A., A.Ed., to the position. The 1954 magazine published the eighth article on
the "men's staff room". It rained during speech night.
The Teachers versus Students' football match was featured in the 1955
magazine with a lengthy Shakespearean poem, the introduction to which read,
"Late in July, a motley assortment of teachers representing types of footballers
from the good old days, dressed in footy togs, redolent of moth balls,
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