Scotch College

His monument is all around us

Bob Horne: his name is worthy of our attention, and his deeds are deserving of our thanks.

Words: Stephen Kong Photography: Kathryn Cairney, Tim Shearer and Stephen Harman

Bob Horne did not attend Scotch as a student, but he was present here in 1920 when Sir John Monash laid the foundation stone for the Memorial Hall.

Bob Horne was not a teacher, but he knew and was well known by the two long-serving principals, Alexander Morrison and William Littlejohn.

Bob Horne was not a rich benefactor who donated money to the school to build Scotch’s impressive facilities, and yet it is doubtful if any one man did more to shape the school grounds we enjoy here at Scotch.

Bob Horne was the groundsman at Scotch from 1885 when the school was at East Melbourne. In 1914 Scotch purchased the Glen Estate. It was 60 acres (24 hectares) of rolling farmland, virgin bush and boggy paddocks, dominated by a pine-clad hill rising steeply to a plateau. Photos on display in the Lithgow Centre give some idea of the original condition of the campus that Scotch College now calls home.

Bob Horne laid out and developed the grounds at Hawthorn. The first sports ground he produced was the Lower Oval. When he started to form the Main Oval, there were some who declared it an impossibility to make a decent ground there.

Bob Horne did not attend Scotch as a student, but he was present here in 1920 when Sir John Monash laid the foundation stone for the Memorial Hall.

Bob Horne loved his work; he was always on the job and ready to give sound advice to young footballers as well as cricketers. The wickets he prepared, the care he gave to the grounds with limited equipment and help, and his capacity as the universal friend, qualify him for the role of schoolboy hero. Many a cricketer from all the public schools hoped for a game on the Scotch grounds, so that he might play on one of Bob Horne’s pitches.

Geoff Donaldson (’30) fondly recalled watching Bob and his ‘Darkie’ (the horse who pulled the mower and roller at Scotch for Bob Horne) at work on the Main Oval. ‘He was wonderfully talented and committed. He would shave the pitch with a scythe day after day. He would then run an emery stone over the pitch to maintain the edge.’

Bob Horne died late one afternoon in 1929 while rolling the wicket. At his funeral, the coffin was draped in the school flag and the boys lined Callantina Road as his funeral passed by. Darkie was the old horse that had pulled the mower and roller at Scotch for Bob Horne, and in accordance with his wishes, Darkie pulled the hearse to the graveside.

The only explicit memorial to Bob Horne is a drinking fountain, originally placed outside the sports pavilion at the western end of the Main Oval. When the pavilion was demolished in 1963 to make way for the Art and Biology building, the fountain was relocated to the rear of the scoreboard, where it gradually fell into disrepair.

The Class of 2007 decided to recreate and reinstall the drinking fountain back to its original condition and position on the western side of the Main Oval. Jim Derham (’56) was central to this task. The School thanks them for their generosity and support. GS