1995 School Magazine

6irlg' Grammer $cljool I8risbane 1995

JU-IE MARGARET HAMMER

Tn 1991 ltrlie Hammer was made a I wing Commander in the Royal Aus- tralian Air Force. This promotion means that she is the only female \fing Com- mander in the entire MAF. Julie Hammer was born in Brisbane and attended Brisbane Girls' Grammar School from1967 until 1969. She finished her Bachelor of Science, majoring in Phys- ics, in 7974, and went on to complete an honours year. Her postgraduate Honours thesis discussed "The Theory of Quantum Beats in Beam Foil Spectroscopy". In L977 Julie joined the RAAF as an Education Officer, with the rank of Flying Officer. During the next few years, she instructed in Electronics, Radar, Naviga- tion Systems, and Electronic rVarfare at Laverton in Victoria, and in the Electronics Category of the Engineer Branch as

Julie Hammerthen attended the Royal Air Force College in Cranwell in the United Kingdom. It was there that she completed the RAF Advanced Systems Engineering Course. She obtained her Master of Science in Aerosystems Engi- neering while in England, and her Mas- ters thesis was on "Decoupling and Stabilisation of Speed and Height in F-4 Phantom Aircraft using Output Feed- back". After this she returned to Can- berra, working as Project Engineer for the major Acquisition project in the Joint Intelligence Organisation. In1.991. she was promoted to the rank of Nfing Commander, making her the most senior female officer in the RAAF (with the exception of nursing officers). Since 7992 \fling Commander Hammer has been Commanding Officer in the impofiant role in education, just as it does in L995. "Sport is hugely important," say Daphne, "because it is a great teacher. It teaches one to win and lose with grace, as well as to compete to the best of one's ability. The person who fails is the person who never has a go." These words are indeed fitting coming from a woman whose sport has taken her around the world. Her many achieve- ments on the national and international tennis circuit over the years have made her one of the best women tennis players to come out of Queensland. She has won a number of Open Singles and Doubles Titles, and she played at Wimbledon in 7955 and 7956. When asked of which title she is most proud, she answers instantly, "... the STEPHANIE HACK

Julie Hammer addressing guests at the 1 994 Valedictory Dinner.

Electronic'W'arfare Squadron, RAF Edinburgh.

Avionics Officer at Amberley. She was also an Instructor in Engineering Management in Melbourne, and in 1985, she became the first female engineer to be promoted to the rank of Squadron Leader.

DAPHNIE FANCUTT

T\ aohne Fancutt knows better than IJnr-ruor," how dillicult it is to start at a new school half way through the year, especially as a boarder al a large institution like Brisbane Girls' Grammar. A country girl from Rockhampton, Daphne says she was scarcely noticed by anyone when she first arrived at the school in 1947. If anyone had approached this lonely girl to tell her she would some day become one of the most outstanding women in Queensland tennis, she would most probably have laughed in their face. It was her talent for tennis, however, that came to make herwell-known at B.G.G.S., just as it is tennis that has made Daphne Fancutt a household name in Queens- land today. The prestigious title of School Tennis Champion became hers when she beat the head girl in the final match of the tournament in her first yeat at Grammar. Quite unlike today, in the 1940s tennis, athletics and basketball, which Daphne also played, constituted the only competitive sports available. Nonetheless sport played a very

Queensland Open. I hadn't played on the Australian circuit lor two years and I was up against top players from overseas." This victory was made even greater considering she was three months pregnant with her first son, Charlie. "It was 115 degrees in the shade and I found I had to disrr"rpt the

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