Scotch College

James R ALGIE ('20)
Graeme ANDERSON ('39)
Michael D ARMITAGE ('63)
James M BOWDEN ('47)
D Rodney BULL ('36)
Robert A BURROWES ('30)
John H CHINNER ('29)
Eric C COHEN ('32)
Peter B COOPER ('43)
Russell H R COUTTS ('29)
Alan W CRAWFORD ('34)
Ray G DURSTON ('17)
James W GEMMELL ('28)
Ian C HEINZ ('31)
John B HEWITT ('42)
Alan G HOSKING ('34)
Ken LAKE ('71)
Ian C LAWSON ('50)
John W MARR ('45)
Ken L McDIARMID ('40)
Neil P MORGAN ('33)
Barrie W G NICHOLLS ('58)
Grant R OLDFIELD ('35)
Peter J PATERSON ('53)
Darrell G PEACHEY ('39)
Reginald A PURSER ('35)
Ian T SHERWEN ('46)
Alexander M TENNANT ('46)
Don A TRANTER ('46)
Paul N WALLACE ('48)
Neil A WATTERS ('53)
John O WICKING ('33)
John R WILSON ('37)

Sir Benjamin Keith Rank ('28)

Educated at Scotch College and Melbourne University, Sir Benjamin ventured outside Victoria for the first time at eighteen. To visit an aunt in Hobart, where he met her husband's niece, Barbara Facy. It was a start of a life long romance and a marriage that lasted sixty two years and produced four children.

He went to London for postgraduate training in the late 1930s and became fascinated with the new speciality of plastic surgery, then practised in London by only four surgeons, three of them émigrés from Dunedin.

With typical persistence, he found his way in to the group as its first resident officer.

Within four years he was heading up his own plastic surgery unit at the Heidelberg Military Hospital treating men with extensive wounds requiring multiple operations over long periods.

The best known was Flight Lieutenant John Gorton, whose shattered face he reconstructed at Heidelberg. Gorton, a RAAF fighter pilot, was injured while ditching his aircraft in the sea near Singapore.

After the war, Sir Benjamin spent half his week in unpaid work at the Royal Melbourne and half at his private practice.

He also became a national and international leader in his profession, serving as President of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (1966-68).

In 1963, he brought specialists from diverse hospitals together to form the Victorian Plastic Surgery Unit at the former Preston and Northcote Community Hospital. He later devoted years to operating on cancer patients at the Peter MacCallum Clinic.

Lady Barbara Rank died in 2000 and Sir Benjamin is survived by his children, Helen, Andrew ('60), Julie and Mary, eight grandchildren and one great grandson.

Arthur Mitchell came to Scotch in 1941 as Master in charge of Geology. He trained as a metallurgist, but as there were no jobs offering in the Depression, he returned to teaching, first at Melbourne Grammar (his old school) and then at Geelong College.

His teaching was marked by enthusiasm, clarity of exposition and the high standards that he expected; his students gained first place in Victoria on a number of occasions.

As a keen member of Melbourne University Rifles, it was natural that he became a greatly respected Cadet Officer at Scotch. He was also in charge of rowing. Through his keenness, skill and long-term planning,

Scotch won every race at the Heads of the River in 1951, the Centenary Year of the School. He also did duty in the Boarding House. It was he who started Scotch at Cowes, setting a format and standards which have been followed ever since. He secured for Scotch the property at Cowes, formerly the Public Schools Camp. He supervised boarders' reviews and produced the School Play.

For a number of years he and Alex Lyne ran GeoTours in the holidays to different parts of Victoria.

Arthur was also an active member beyond the school. During the war he taught Maths in the evenings to Air Force Cadets, and led fruit picking camps at Shepparton each year for 120 senior boys from many different Melbourne Schools. In 1956, he organized a monster fair in the Scotch grounds, involving all the independent schools, in aid of Mercer House, the teaching training school run for the independent schools of Victoria.

Always an asthma sufferer, Arthur's health reached crisis point in 1956 and as a last resort he was advised to live north of the Dividing Range. He was at Alexandra High School for five years, before going to Timbertop, where he became mentor to Prince Charles, then Headmaster, and after retirement, the first Bursar. At the same time he conducted a very successful Dorset Horn Stud Farm, at Taggerty, and later a grazing property at Ancona where he did some outstanding reclamation work, and he built his third home.

He retired to live in Alexandra until his health forced him to an aged peoples' hostel in Mansfield, which he and his wife had worked hard earlier to establish. Arthur and his wife Irene (assistant matron) will be remembered with affection and respected by members of the Scotch family of the 1940's - 1950's.

By Mr Alec Lyne.

Frank Paton ('24) an Old Boy of East Melbourne and Hawthorn, son of an Old Boy, joined the staff in 1947. Before that he had a varied career. After a short time in a city warehouse, he became a Primary Teacher in the Education Department, then a Resident Master at Ballarat College.

There followed a year at Ormond College, before he was appointed Assistant in charge of Industrial Training at the Teachers Training Institute, Tangoa, New Hebrides ( now Vanuatu).

Health problems drove him back to Australia, where he served as assistant minister of the Presbyterian charge of Orange (NSW); but teaching called him back in 1936 to a two year stint at Caulfield Grammar School in charge of Arts and Crafts, and a year as Senior House Master at Albury Grammar.

During these years he worked diligently at night school and qualified for the highest certificate available for teachers of art in secondary schools.

Thus Frank was well equipped to become an Art Master at Scotch. He and his friend 'Bill' Helms transformed the art classes from a rather unpleasant chore for most boys to periods where they could use their imagination and explore talents which they had never thought of using.

Frank recognised and encouraged special gifts so that some students became artists; many others found they had the ability to produce the pictures which always amazed the viewers at the annual sports day exhibitions; all those with any sensitivity were influenced by his enthusiasm, his knowledge and his love of beauty, his integrity and his gentle manner.

Besides his work in the art classes, Frank contributed to the life of Scotch in other ways. He was a Scout Master and QM for fifteen years; for twenty years he supervised the boys who painted scenery for school plays. He was president of the Common Room Association, in his final year, 1971.

Throughout his time at Scotch he was a leader in the ASCM. During the 1950's and 60's he conducted ASCM camps every year for girls and boys from independent schools.

These mixed camps were well ahead of their time, but through his meticulous planning, firm leadership and integrity, Frank had the complete confidence of parents and heads of schools.

Beyond his school work Frank was a councillor and assistant secretary of the Victorian Assistant Masters Association and an active member of the United Nations League of Nations Organisations, Amnesty International, and Art Groups, an Elder and lay preacher in the Presbyterian and Uniting Churches and a talented water colourist.

He was a man to inspire young people to good citizenship and a full life.

He is survived by three children, two daughters and one son, twelve grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren.

By Mr Alec Lyne.

Ian Falconer ('63) died in late January, after battling cancer for well over a year.

Ian worked for the Rio Tinto Group for 28 years, where he made important contributions to the development of Bougainville Copper, as well as to the company's treasury and investor relations functions. He was the Company Secretary for nearly 10 years, and believed passionately in shareholders' rights.

He also held senior positions in the Chartered Secretaries' Association, both nationally and at state level.

Among Ian's many interests were sailing, Rotary and cars - he was a keen collector of cars. Ian was also a member of the Old Scotch Bushwalking Club, and he and his wife Marg were noted for the quality of the lunches they brought on bushwalks. The smoked salmon or shaved ham sandwiches and exotic dips were the envy of their fellow walkers! Ian is survived by Marg, and their children Andrea, Hamish and Richard.

Geoffrey Maddock Shillinglaw ('53)

Geoffrey lost his battle with lung cancer on 11 September 2001, at his home in Scotland. He attended Scotch from '45, and was School Captain in '53.

On leaving school, he became a resident at Ormond College, and graduated with BA from Melbourne University.

Geoff left Australia in '59, and except for brief visits with his family, lived permanently overseas. He took a Master in Economics at the London School of Economics, and then lectured at a school of Oriental and African Studies in London. This later led to consultancies in the field of aid to small farmer co-operatives and other rural aid programmes in developing countries, for agencies such as the FAO and World Bank, which continued until he retired.

Geoff married twice, and leaves his wife Beatrice, two daughters and a son, and one grandson in England, and his sister, Lynette McAlister in Melbourne.

Mr Ray Durston ('17) after leaving Scotch, Ray joined the Australian Army as soon as he turned 18, deferring a scholarship to Melbourne University's Ormond College to follow his two brothers into the army. He had been on a Scholarship at Scotch College when Norman, seven years older, was commissioned a Lieutenant in the first group to graduate from Duntroon.

Mr Durston spent most of 1919 with his older brother Sid, a warrant officer at the Australian HQ in London, where they helped organise the trip home for more than 150,000 diggers.

During World War II, Mr Durston headed the Ministry of Munitions' machine tools division.

He and his wife Isabel had three daughters, Angela, now 67, Joan 65, and Elizabeth, 59.

Peter James Paterson ('53) attended Scotch from '45 to '53. After leaving school he studied Medicine at Melbourne University.

He was a keen member of the Old Scotch Football Club, where he distinguished himself playing in the 1958 and 1959 'A' Grade Grand Final teams.

Peter had contributed significantly to the development of women's health services in Victoria through pioneering gynaecological microsurgery for infertility, and laser direct surgery, and in helping to define the ethics for in vitro fertilisation.

He became noted for his judgement and surgical excellence and staked a claim in the advancement of surgical techniques in developing skills in laparoscopy - a form of keyhole surgery, that many regarded with scepticism at the time.

After publishing a report of the procedure in the Medical Journal of Australia, Peter was invited to step up training programmes in the new technique. The technique later facilitated in egg harvesting for IVF programs.

A gifted teacher, Peter was appointed senior lecturer in Monash University's Obstetrics and Gynaecology department, where he proved to be an inspiration to young doctors.

He established the Southern Memorial Gynaecology Service and when the Queen Victoria, Prince Henry's and Moorabbin hospitals amalgamated into the Monash Medical Centre at Clayton, Peter became the president of the senior medical staff.

He was later appointed chairman of the Monash Obstetrics and Gynaecology division, and in 1985, Peter was appointed to the standing Review and Advisory Committee on Infertility.

This statutory committee was the first such body established in Australia. As such it developed reproductive technology guidelines and succeeded in publishing the successes and the difficulties in this new area of medicine.

In February Peter lost the battle with cancer, and is survived by his wife Helen, and their children Kate, Michael and Georgina.

Keith Heatley Williams 1912 - 2002

Keith grew up in Footscray, the youngest of six children. At the age of fifteen, for no explained reason he was transferred from Footscray Tech to Scotch College, the only member of his family to travel across town to school.

Keith's first impression was the most perfect football oval he had ever seen. The word quickly spread that this skinny kid from Footscray wanted to play football, so 'why not give him a go'.

He was chosen to run in the school 'C' side and kicked eleven goals in the first game.

He was quickly moved to the 'A' side and played for two years in the highly successful first eighteen teams of 1928/29.

Following in his father's footsteps (a captain and coach of the Footscray AFL team) he had explosive speed and a keen eye and went on to represent his house in both cricket and tennis.

So his love of football and Scotch College was developed. He maintained this interest until the last year of his life he would often be seen on the sidelines cheering the Scotch team to victory.

Keith's two sons Rex and Ray attended Scotch in their secondary school years, but apart from Nick Howell who went to Scotch briefly, his other grandsons did not attend Scotch as their families moved interstate early in their lives.

It was testament to his interest in the school and his son's friends from school that so many attended his funeral to wish 'Spot' God Speed.