Objects of Substance- 1882 Board of Trustees

On Friday 21 st July 1882, the old, combined Board of Trustees had their last meeting. Here Lilley was voted Chairman of the Board of the new girls’ school, Griffith Vice-Chair, and Mr John Scott MLA, Treasurer. At this meeting, Lilley reported that the Governor of Queensland, under provision of “The Grammar Schools Act of 1860” had appointed four current members of the Brisbane Grammar Board to complete the new Board.

John Scott MLA, Treasurer, Sir Arthur Palmer and Charles Mein.

It is an interesting turn of events that, three years later, when the next Board was to be elected, the Trustees did not follow the original suggestion to select a new Board for the girls’ School. The “old guard” did not seem to want to let go. No “fresh blood” was introduced as Dickson was unfortunately too pre-occupied at the time with the job of Colonial Treasurer, to object. The core of the ‘Old Guard’ of trustees, with their association to BGS, was re-elected and continued for over eighty years. There was no clean break; the separation of the Boards was gradual, and it was not until the 1960s proved to be the decade to introduce the change suggested by Charles Lilley in 1882. In 1965, four of the newly elected Girls Grammar Board members were not also on the BGS Board. The shift continued when, in 1968, Yvonne Bain (West 1945), became the first woman on the Board and, in mid-1969, Konrad Hirschfeld, Judge G Seaman, and Harry T.F. Bolton all resigned from the BGS Board. This meant that, finally, no Girls Grammar trustee was directly connected to the Brisbane Grammar Board and two separate Boards finally operated. Hirschfeld and Seaman continued on the Girls Grammar Board until 1976 and Bolton until 1981 when, on his retirement, “fresh blood” could truly be introduced as trustees at Girls Grammar.