Grammar Gazette- Issue 2, 2010

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IN 2009 THE OLD GIRLS ASSOCIATION CELEBRATED ITS 110 YEAR ANNIVERSARY. THIS ACCOUNT OF THE ASSOCIATION’S PAST WAS WRITTEN IN 1999 BY SCHOOL ARCHIVIST AND OLD GIRL JAN RILEY FOR THE ASSOCIATION’S CENTENARY. GIRLS ASSOCIATION OLD

and 1960s many girls made their debut at the balls held at Cloudland and City Hall. A popular

As reported in the first issue of the BGGS Magazine of 1913, the Old Girls’ Association had its first general meeting early in 1899. The first President was Miss Fewings, the then current Headmistress, the Secretary Miss Mackay, and the Treasurer, Miss A Carson. The first meeting was an enthusiastic one attended by over eighty past students including some “who had been among the first pupils of the school”. By June 1937 the membership had grown to 627 and it was claimed in the Magazine of that year that the Association was the biggest in Australia. It is also probably one of the oldest. The Association has had the honour of having two Old Girls who became headmistresses of the School amongst its office bearers. Miss Mackay became President in 1906 and then again from 1914 to 1917. Miss Lilley was a member of the committees of both the OGA and the Senior Group and was president of the OGA in 1926. ACTIVITIES AND ACHIEVEMENTS For those girls leaving BGGS the Old Girls’ Association has “served as a continuous link, keeping past girls in touch with one another and with the present girls”. This has been achieved most effectively through the Old Girls’ Notes in the School Magazine where announcements of engagements, marriages, births and deaths were to be found. News of girls at the University has been a regular feature as well as details of activities and achievements of Old Girls around the world. In more recent years the Newsletter of the OGA has served this purpose. As well as maintaining links between past students, one of the Association’s objectives is to promote good fellowship amongst them. River picnics, musical and dramatic entertainments, euchre and bridge parties, dances, socials and balls, several being held in conjunction with the Grammar Old Boys’ Association, have contributed to this objective. During the 1950s

annual event was Old Girls’ Day at the School where from 1900 up until the 1960s the Old Girls played the present girls at tennis and later basketball. This was later transferred to School Day at which the OGA became involved in the very successful Art Show. The Association has also promoted and hosted a number of general reunions over the years, culminating in the ultimate such occasion, the OGA Centenary Dinner in March this year. Maintaining “an interest in the welfare of the School” was another of the Association’s objectives. Over the past 100 years the OGA has contributed considerable time and money to support the School’s need for equipment, buildings and sporting facilities and contributed to important events in the life of the School. With regular income of only 2/6 per member rising to the current $10, the OGA has raised enough funds through social activities and sales of memorabilia to assist with projects such as the establishment of a “proper running track”, the Kathleen Lilley Library, now remembered through Kathleen Lilley wing, and subsequent library facilities, silky oak table and seats, the swimming pool, an organ in the Auditorium, restoration of the Honour Boards and the Restoration of the Building Appeal to name just a few. Since 1900 the OGA has funded an Old Girls prize every year. There are now three such prizes awarded. The most recent project of the OGA has been the funding of two beautiful stained glass windows. The first was installed in the Original School Building to commemorate the OGA’s Centenary year. This year a matching window to the Eagles window was completed and installed in the Library foyer in time for the Old Girls’ Centenary dinner. SERVICE TO COMMUNITY AND COUNTRY Through its branch clubs the Senior Group, later to become the Welfare Group, and the War Work Group Fund, the OGA has also given service to community and country. The Senior Group was

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