Objects of Substance - Fifty metre Freestyle Trophy

valuable forms of physical exercise”. She noted that, with the hope of encouraging more girls to develop their prowess at swimming, Sir Charles Lilley offered a series of Speech Day prizes. While only one prize was awarded in 1890 to Annie H. Ferguson (1891), who “easily distanced all rival competitors (Pells, 1890), swimming and swimming awards has become a fixture in the School’s prize lists. In the early 1900s intramural swimming competitions were introduced and held at the Spring Hill Baths. A variety of prizes was given with the most significant being the 25 yards School Championship. In 1911, we see the first mention of a swimming championship, with a Lower School Championship also awarded. In 1912, only one student was awarded the School Championship, which was the terminology that was used until the late 1950s. Mary Lilley, who was first awarded the Championship in 1910, went on to be the first four-time winner, achieving this recognition from 1910 to 1913. The Lilley family certainly embraced this activity.

Mary Lilley, centre front, captain of the Swimming Club in 1913. Seated next to her is Joan Lilley – second four-time winner. (School Magazine, 1913, pg.8)

Intramural sporting competitions have been, and continue to be, an integral part of the School’s life and reflect the QGSSSA sporting calendar. Swimming, one of the QGSSSA modern core sports, has enjoyed this status within the intramural program, whether organised at interform or interhouse competitions. Subsequently, trophies were added to the prize list as the 20 th century progressed. Included in the new additions are The Burrell Cup (1915), the Dr Lockhart Gibson Memorial Prize (1917), Lieutenant-Colonel Plant Memorial Cup (1933), and the Lilley Challenge Cup (1964). Disappointingly, two of these trophies have been lost to history: the Dr Lockhart Gibson and the School Championship Cup. However, the Freestyle Championship/Individual Swimming Trophy remains the award presented every year since its inception. In 1954, the Interform Swimming competition moved to the Valley Baths (Pool). This move, as mentioned in the Annual Report of that year, enabled “us to have races of the correct length” (Crooks, 1954). Barbara Bell (1958) recalls winning the 50 metre Freestyle Open Swimming Championship Race from 1955 to 1958 becoming the third four-time recipient of the Championship. Like a number of the recipients of this award, she did not fully appreciate the significance of what she had achieved. “They made a bit of fuss the first time I won it in III Form. I didn’t realise the significance until VI Form. I just loved sport of any description!” (Email, 21/4/23).