Giddy and guileless Grammar Girls Cartoons

The 1960s ushered in a golden period of clever depictions of Grammar life. One artist, Creina O’Dwyer (1965), was prolific in her renditions of Grammar girls and her sketches featured in many School magazine entries of her time: 1962-1965. Creina was also remembered for her contribution to the photograph album her VID Form class gifted to their Form Mistress, Miss Doreen Thomas .

1965 Miss Thomas separates Christine Steindl and David Purvis by Creina O’Dwyer. Doreen Yeates Album Collection Creina’s cartoon in this instance features the esteemed, yet formidable, Miss Thomas (later to become Mrs Yeates), a teacher of Modern History and a senior Form Teacher. O’Dwyer tells us a lot about the ‘60s and long before, where fraternising with a boy, and—gasp—a Brisbane Grammar School student was strictly off limits. Rules were rules. The lines were then clearly drawn for separation in the laneway of Kalinga Ave as the two schools’ border zone or ‘no man’s land’. Miss Thomas wore a classic 1960s’ hat. So here she is wielding her umbrella to chase away the unseemly behaviour of ‘boy meets girl’ in school uniform within