Page 9 - Potted History 2017

1887 1890s
Alexander Forrest was elected the first member of the Legislative Council for the By 1890 numbers at the High School had still not risen much above the initial enrolment
Kimberley. His horse First Price wins the inaugural Perth Cup, with an initial stake of 250 of twenty pupils. The arrival in September 1890 of Charles Faulkner from New Zealand
pounds. and the advent of the 1890s gold rush period brought a change in the fortunes and the
prospects of the School. A year after Faulkner’s arrival numbers had risen to 33 and by
1890 August, 1891 the roll was 41; a year later it was 81. The School’s future was assured.
21 October : The Western Australian constitution receives royal assent.
Late 1890s
22 December: The Governor appointed John Forrest as the State’s first Premier. Four After C.Y. O’Connor committed suicide, Old Boy Alex Sanderson was one of the
of the five man cabinet were Bishop’s School Old Boys, including Septimus Burt as engineers to complete the Kalgoorlie pipeline (O’Connor’s sons attended Hale School).
Attorney-General, with Alexander Forrest as Cabinet Secretary (the ‘Sixth Minister’).
1895
Leader of the Opposition in Western Australia was Bishop’s School Old Boy Stephen
Henry Parker (later Chief Justice of Western Australia). Bishop Hale died aged 84, at Clifton, Bristol. He is buried in the family plot next St
Kenelm’s Church in Alderley, Gloucestershire
John Forrest’s right hand man in the civil service (as Under-Treasurer) was the first student
enrolled in Bishop’s School, Laurence Eliot. High School Old Boy George Leake became leader of the opposition in Western
Australia, opposite John Forrest. In 1901 he was appointed Premier and Attorney-
Septimus Burt: F C Faulkner (1889-1914) General before dying in office in 1902 at 45 years of age.
Anglican politician, 1888. He was supported
by the West Australian, was a foundation
member f the Weld Club and believed that 1899:
Horgan possessed a free flow of adjectives The Boer War broke out. Each Australian colony sent contingents in support of the British
‘like all his countrymen’. Army. Western Australia was ultimately to send 9 contingents to South Africa. 36 High
School Old Boys served, including 10 in the first contingent, before the war ended in July
1902.
High School Old Boy Frank Parker earned a Distinguished Service Order after
commanding a group of 22 Western Australians in a day long occupation of a kopje
against a force of 400 Boer troops intent on attacking the nearby British encampment
at Slingersfontein. The British commander, Major-General Clements named the kopje
‘Westralia Hill’ in honour of the gallant defence. Frank subsequently became Crown
Prosecutor for Western Australia.

Old Boy Anthony Forrest, son of Lord
Mayor of Perth Alexander Forrest, School
wicketkeeper and the bow in the crew which
won the inaugural Head of the River in
1899, joined up but was killed in an action
at Brakpan in the Eastern Transvaal in May,
1901 at the age of sixteen and a half years.
High School Old Boy Henry (‘Harry’) Maley
also served in South Africa. He was later
appointed to State Cabinet in 1921. He
Laurance S Eliot CMG Stephen Henry Parker: served as leader of the Country Party,
The first boy enrolled at the School, June 1858 Lawyer, politician, Mayor of Perth and Deputy-Premier and Minister for Agriculture.
speculator in urban real estate. Hon. George Leake QC He was also a member of the Rottnest Board
of Control, and Maley Street on Rottnest is
named after him.

Francis Maitland Wyborn Parker