Objects of Substance – The Calico Sling Bag

The concept of a sling bag was common enough; however, what could be put on it to make it attractive, Girls Grammar identifiable, School approved, and make Grammar Women proud to use it? While attending a Grammar reunion late in 2013, Salliann was talking with Grace Cochrane (2014), one of the Year 11 volunteers who assisted the OGA at their various events and functions. When standing in front of the Cherrell Hirst Creative Learning Centre ’s wall displaying The Intent , Salliann mentioned to Grace how much she liked the words so centrally and elegantly presented. She asked Grace if these words resonated as strongly with her, and Grace responded that, in reality, it was the war cry that truly bonded Grammar girls. Regardless of what decade the Grammar girl, the war cry was known, remembered, and repeated with gusto not only while at School but also at reunions. It is a thread that binds all Grammar girls together.

2013 The Intent

The history of the war cry is difficult to research, as it was passed on by word of mouth rather than written down. However, with the formalising of competitive sport in 1908 and the establishment of the Queensland Girls Secondary Schools Sports Associatio n (QGSSSA), a ‘call to arms’ was deemed necessary by the girls of the 1920s. In an interview in 1973, Old Girl and BGGS English Teacher, Marjorie Elliott (1922), spoke about the creation of the war cry in 1923 by the form group of her younger sister, Phyllis (1924). The first written reference to a war cry is found in the 1919 School Magazine when Ellen Doak (1922) wrote a poem commencing with the words:

Go it, Grammar! Blue! Blue! Blue!

The sound swells up in th’ Assembly Hall,

And echoes loud from wall to wall,

This shout that erst our old girls knew,