Objects of Substance- Wilkinson Banner

1964 House Captain Regina List (left) and Vice-Captain Elizabeth Hardcastle

Wilkinson House flourished, girls dressed in bottle green socks to represent their House on the sports field, in the swimming pool, on the netball and tennis courts, and in the Gymnasium tumbling on the floor mats or singing, debating, and acting. These were all performed under the watchful eyes of staff members, Miss June McNamara and Miss M. E. Eckermann, and captain, Regina List and vice captain, Elizabeth Hardcastle. When conferring with Regina’s family what unfolds has shed some light on the creation of the banner. Regina’s family established Freedman and Company, well known tailors in Fortitude Valley. Regina and her mother, Sheba (1935), were avid seamstresses and the family consensus is that it is highly probable that Regina and her mother created the House banner. Regina, being highly organised, thorough, and someone who sewed her own clothes, would have been more than capable of creating this neat and precise banner. Sadly, the banner was not going to get extended usage. The comradeship developing in Wilkinson House was to be short lived as two years later with roughly only 70 students per House, the staff found that the co-curricular program was too difficult to sustain or make competitive. A large proportion of students were in the Junior School, and frequently students left after Year 10 to enter the workforce, thus impacting on each House’s effectiveness.