Objects of Substance- The Mackinlay Honour Board

1914 The original board with eight panels in the Annie Mackay room.

Mary’s “kind and genial” manner coupled with her able leadership of the School had thus led to a doubling of student numbers and the establishment of its finances on a stable footing. It was most likely her transformation of this experimental branch of Brisbane Grammar School that inspired the Board of Trustees to create a separate and independent school for girls the year after she left. She must have taken great pleasure, in March 1884, to return to the School as a member of the official party to witness the opening of the fine new building of the independent school for girls on Gregory Terrace. Mary retired from Girls Grammar at the end of 1881 to marry a widower, James Robert Dickson on 5 th January 1882, at St Paul’s, Carcoar, New South Wales. Dickson was a successful business owner and politician, and amongst his political appointments were those of Colonial Treasurer, Premier of Queensland and, in 1900, he was elected as Australia’s first Minister of Defence. In the following year, Dickson received a knighthood, making Mary, Lady Dickson.