Mollison Cup

What’s in a name? Miss Mollison’s Challenge Cup or The Athletics Challenge Cup? Miss Mollison may not have minded that her name does not decorate this beautiful silver cup – or perhaps she never intended that it would. Labelled The Inter-House Aggregate – The Athletics Challenge Cup, why was it called Miss Mollison’s Challenge Cup on prize lists and by the students in magazine reports for years. So, is this a Grammar mystery that can be solved? The Inter-House Aggregate – The Athletics Challenge Cup has an interesting history and celebrates so much of what Girls Grammar is and what it represents. It records our belief in the necessity for competitive athletic pursuit; links this with service; acknowledges our pastoral care vehicle of Form groups and Houses; celebrates one teacher’s philosophy of education; and illustrates our respect for the prodigious history of the School.

The Interhouse Aggregate – The Athletics Challenge Cup

One might ask, how can this all be represented in a trophy? What can a “silent” trophy say? It is the uncovering of the history of this trophy that reveals these aforementioned Grammar intentions.

In 1917, the first “sports day” was introduced to raise “Patriotic funds” for World War I. Sports was a loose term. To 21 st century students, including events like a “flag race” (believed to be a shuttle relay) and a “chariot race” – involving three girls, lead strings, and a set formation seem like novelty activities rather than serious athletic pursuits – especially when you examine the strange contraption that the “chariot race” required. In 1918, hurdles were added which one assumes heralded a more modern compliance to what we know as athletics. However, in 1919, the flag and chariot races remained popular, with the flag race regarded as the most important event.

1920: A chariot Race group. One would wonder how modern Health and Safety regulations would view this activity! Enter the Mollison Cup. This elegant, hallmarked silver cup was first presented in 1920, three years after the interform “sports” competition was introduced to Girls Grammar. 1920 also saw the introduction of more novelty events: the tug-of-war (popular at the early Olympic Games) and egg and spoon races. Though these events would be regarded as “little weight” in the athletics arena, the entertainment they added to the competition contributed to the financial outcome, which was always a focus in these early years. Different charities such as the Nurses’ Quarters Fund and the Red Cross, benefitted from the funds raised. It is now that serious sleuthing is required: the Interform/Interhouse Athletics Aggregate Cup does not bear Essie Linsday Mollison’s name. That raises the question of why an athletics cup would have been donated by a Science teacher employed at the Brisbane Girls Grammar School from 1916 to 1918? Who was she and why would she donate an athletics trophy or have one named in her honour? Essie Lindsay Mollison was educated at the Presbyterian Ladies College (PLC), Melbourne from 1907 to 1912 where she was a school prefect, a member of the Debating Society, and graduated as Dux of

Physics and Chemistry. To quote School historian, Helen Penrose, “An outstanding scholar, she won university exhibitions in Anatomy, Physiology and Botany. Graduating with a Master of Science in 1917. Her first teaching post was at Brisbane Girls Grammar School.” (Penrose, 2023)

In Essie Mollison’s acceptance letter to the BGGS Trustees, dated 8 February 1916, she states:

Miss Mollison’s acceptance Letter dated 8 February 1916.

The School Trustees’ Minutes state that Miss Mollison B.Sc. would receive “£120 resident 3 months’ notice on either side. To take effect in March from the date of taking up duty.” (Trustees Minutes January 1916) It appears that, as well as her Grammar responsibilities, she also gained her Masters degree while employed at the School. As Assistant Mistress, Essie was expected to teach her allotted subjects, Senior Botany, Physiology, and Biology as well as perform “any teaching work as the Head Mistress requires”, and it appears that these duties included co-ordinating athletics, where Eleanor Hart (1919), Basket Ball captain and Assistant Honorary Secretary of the BGGS Sports Committee, thanked her for “giving up so much time to us”. Although there is no evidence of Essie being involved in school sport at PLC, sports were an integral part of the PLC curriculum and, as an intelligent, strong leader, she no doubt saw their value to young women. It appears she was a charismatic teacher introducing fieldwork trips to her Botany classes when “chalk and talk” was de rigueur in the classroom. Her success as a teacher is evident when it was believed that Head Mistress, Annie Mackay, used Essie Mollison’s high standards set in Science as the benchmark for the hiring of subsequent Science staff and recorded in Trustees’ Minutes was that her resignation was accepted “with regret”.

1916 Photograph of a picnic at Redcliff[e, including Miss Essie Mollison [back left] and revealing her total involvement in Grammar activities. It appears that she left with significant credibility as a staff member and person and in good favour with the Headmistress and the Trustees. She submitted her resignation with regret as her “relations with the Grammar School have always been most pleasant”. With these sentiments in mind and her role as Athletics co-ordinator, it is likely that she would have been keen to donate a trophy for Interform Athletics to a school where she had happy memories and made a significant contribution.

1916 staff with Miss Mackay. Note the academic gowns worn by staff who had graduated from university.

Names of 1916 staff with Annie Mackay.

Interestingly, there is no reference made in the Trustees’ Minutes of the receipt of the trophy or of presenting a trophy in Miss Mollison’s honour. Perhaps, if the School still had the Sports Club Minutes prior to 1928, light would have been shed on these details. However, the 7 December 1928 Sports Club Minutes state: The Miss Mollison Challenge Cup shall be awarded to the form which obtains the highest aggregate of points at the Interform carnival. Points for the different events shall be awarded as the Interschool Sports, and points for additional novelty events shall be 3, 2, and 1. The programme shall be drawn up by the sub-committee and arrangements for morning tea, gate, etc. shall be in the hands of such responsible persons as the sub-committee shall appoint. What is intriguing is the engraving on this cup. The engraving reads Inter-House Aggregate – The Athletics Challenge Cup. However, research has confirmed that this is the trophy referred to as Miss Mollison’s Challenge Cup (Sports) on School Special Prize lists dating from 1920 to 1932 and then Miss Mollison’s Challenge Cup (Athletics) from 1933 until 1941.

Front detail of the Interhouse Aggregate Athletics Challenge Cup or Miss Mollison’s Challenge Cup.

In 1942, there was a change in formatting the Special Prizes in the Annual Reports and the trophy was no longer referred to as Miss Mollison’s Challenge Cup (Athletics). It was still referred to thusly in the School magazines up until 1957, with the exception of a few years. The significance of, and reference to, Essie Mollison appears to have been lost from this date. Another anomaly is the engraving of Inter-House Aggregate . Houses were not introduced until 1964, so one can assume that this engraving was added no earlier than that year. Since Houses have been the foundation of the pastoral system, Gibson has been the most successful Athletics House with Woolcock, Griffith, and Lilley all sharing second place. As these successful Houses filled the surface of the cup, a pedestal was added to provide extra room for the engraving of the winning groups and to maintain the elegance of the trophy.

The Interhouse Athletics Aggregate Cup

It is a mystery why Essie Mollison’s name was not engraved on the trophy, that there is no reference to the donor of this trophy, and yet there is the complete understanding and acknowledgement that it is her trophy. Essie returned to Melbourne in 1919 to teach at PLC followed by an impressive lecturing career at the University of Melbourne in Botany and Zoology from 1921 to 1957. Did she donate the trophy after leaving Girls Grammar? Or was the trophy created by the BGGS Sports Club and named in her honour as the first QGSSSA Athletics co-ordinator? It is a mystery which, until more evidence comes to light, we cannot unravel.

Miss Essie Mollison at Melbourne University in the 1950s.

However, the facts which can be verified are that Essie Mollison was a committed, creative teacher; she was fully involved in the co-curricular program – both swimming and athletics; and the trophy we now refer to as the Interhouse Athletics Aggregate Cup was named in her honour from 1920 to 1957; and, in 2024, we celebrate 104 years of the awarding of this trophy. Whatever the true name of this trophy – Miss Mollison’s Challenge Cup or the Interhouse Aggregate – The Athletics Challenge Cup – it represents Girls Grammar’s commitment to athletic pursuits, teamwork, leadership; a community conscience; and a celebration of a woman who believed in an education that was well-rounded and strove to establish high standards.

Pauline Harvey-Short (Harvey 1971)

School History and Culture Manager

The Interhouse Athletics Aggregate Cup with Olympian, Barbara Wilson’s (Jordan 1969) spikes.

References

BGGS Annual Report 1917

BGGS Magazines 1918-1930, 1945-1950, 1958-1970.

BGGS Trustees Minutes 1916

Fitzpatrick, K 1975 PLC Melbourne The First Century 1875-1975 The Presbyterian Ladies’ College, Burwood. Harvey-Short, Pauline To become fine sportswomen – The History of Health, Physical Education and Sport at Brisbane Girls Grammar School 1875-2010 Brisbane Girls Grammar School, 2011.

Mollison, E. Correspondence to the BGGS Trustees, 8 February, 1916.

Penrose, H Email correspondence 25.03.2024.

Penrose, H. PLC in Print , issue 118, September 2023, pp. 44 – 45

Staff Confidential Book 1918.