Maylands/img/mps.html
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[[../../../index.html|Fremantle Stuff]] > places > Maylands > MPS. See also Inglewood Primary School.
Maylands Primary School
I attended Maylands Primary School for the seven years 1949-1955.
Our first two years were spent in the Infants School. Its building was, and still is (tho it now says Constable Care lives there) on the other (NE) side of Sixth Avenue from the main Primary School. What is now called Grade 1 was then First Infants. Our teacher was C. Ogilvie, according to my report.
I can put very few names to faces. The only person other than me who has looked at these scanned photos is Don Wright (dec.). I apologise to anyone I've identified incorrectly or forgotten. I hope that others may happen upon this page and let me know what I've got wrong. These are the people I think I can pick out, seventy years later.
Row 6: —, Brian Tyler, —, Chambers twin (Ron?), —
Row 5: —, —, Smith twin (Lorraine?), Kay Reardon (Palmateer), —, —, —, Smith twin (Lucille?), —, —, —
Row 4: —, —, June Dawson, —, Carole Layton-Smith (Cherry), —, —, —, —, —
Row 3: —, —, —, —, —, —, Judith Coultas (Reudavey), Lois Naylor, —, —
Row 2: Avon Moyle, Donald Thompson, —, —, Chambers twins (Colin?), Robert Hall, Alex Cargill, Bill Meehan, Garry Gillard (leaning into the front row), Richard McDonagh
Row 1: —, —, Don Wright, Robert Halverson, —, —, —, —, —
What is now called Grade 2 was Standard 1, tho we were still in the Infants School (as seen behind us). Our teacher was K. Davies. (Her report says, inter alia, that [Garry's] ' ... work could be much neater than at present'.) I'm bottom right.
The few names Don Wright and I thought we could recall are as follows, from left to right.
Row 5 (back): Peter Stevens (?) unknown, Brian Evill, unknown, Eric Schulstadt, unknown, unknown, Ivan Pilton, Barry Draffin
Row 4: David Hooper, Lance Spoors, unknown, unknown, Lois Naylor, unknown, unknown, unknown, unknown, unknown
Row 3: Judith Coultas (Reudavey), June Dawson, unknown, unknown, unknown, June Powell (Gamble), unknown (Hall?), unknown, unknown (Kira Slavin?), unknown, unknown
Row 2: the Smith twins, Lorraine and Lucille, Carole Layton-Smith (Cherry), unknown, unknown, unknown, unknown, unknown, unknown, Kay Reardon (Palmateer), unknown, unknown
Row 1 (front): Alex Cargill, unknown, Robert Hall, Donald Thompson, Ray Dawson (?) Bill Walsh, unknown, Trevor Latimer, unknown, Garry Gillard
We then moved over the road to a building that is now a School of Instrumental Music. We were in Class 2 (Grade 3) and were taught by Miss Enright. I was 'excellent' at most things in her report, but my 'Writing' (I assume this is penmanship, not literary style) was only a C: 'v. Fair. Could try harder'. Miss Enright's own penpersonship was rather poor, and she wrote the report with a cheap ballpoint pen, it's worth noting (this was 1951) tho my report in 1952 is written with pen and ink - by both class teacher and headmaster. I'm Row 4 (from the front) second from the right. I think this was the class in which we spent a helluva lot of time chanting six nines are fifty-four, seven nines are sixty-three, etc., a zillion times - which still comes in handy sometimes.
I can remember very few names, only two or three of the girls - and it's not a very clear photo anyway. I'm hoping others will remember more. From left to right:
Row 5 (back): David Hooper, Don Wright, Donald Thompson, unknown, unknown, David Tofts, Trevor Latimer, Robert Hall
Row 4: Robert Halverson, unknown, Richard McDonagh, June Dawson, unknown, unknown, Brian Evill, Garry Gillard, Lance Spoors
Row 3: unknown, unknown, one of the Smith twins, Lorraine or Lucille, unknown, unknown, unknown, unknown, the other Smith twin?, unknown, Roberta Haile (I remember her because I was in love with her), unknown, Lois Naylor
Row 2: Carole Layton-Smith (Cherry), unknown, unknown, unknown, unknown, unknown, Judith Coultas (Reudavey, having married my cousin Rod), Dale Swepstone (who went on to Perth Modern School with me), unknown
Row 1 (front): Lewis Hanna, Alex Cargill, one of the Chambers twins - possibly Colin, Robert Foley, unknown, the other Chambers twin - possibly Ron
The boys side of the lunch shed at Maylands Primary School
I don't have a photo for Class 3, tho I do have a report - unfortunately it's not signed. Perhaps it was Miss Lutz.
For this Class 4 photo - the most recent I have (tho my mother kept all my reports) - we were separated from the girls: I guess it made for a better composition, with the numbers reduced. I'm right in the middle. Our teacher in Class 4 was Mrs E. M. Brinkworth, who wrote me a very nice report, tho she did say that I could 'be very naughty'.
It was obviously summer, and the wind was from the direction we were facing, north-east.
You can't see my feet, but they would have been bare, as they remained throughout primary school. Some of the pansies are wearing sandals: one, Avon Moyle, is even wearing a tie - tho I don't remember us giving him a hard time about that. Everyone was easy-going, as I recall.
I'll have a go at the names - and I hope others will be able to supply the ones I can't. From left to right, as usual.
Row 4 (back): the Chambers twins, Colin and Ron, I think in that order, unknown Yugoslav? - I think he was the one boy in the photo who was not born in Australia, Bill Walsh, Eric Schulstadt (his father built boats on the Maylands peninsula), Brian Evill
Row 3: Robert Halvorsen, Don Wright (who married my first cousin Thia [Cynthia] Reudavey), Trevor Latimer, Peter Stevens (or Stevenson?), Lewis Hanna, Brian Tyler, David Hooper, Robert Hall
Row 2: Donald Thompson, Robert Foley, Lance Spoors, Richard McDonagh, Garry Gillard, David Tofts, unknown, Barry Draffin, Alex Cargill
Row 1 (front, holding the slate with one finger, as instructed): Bill Meehan, Avon Moyle
The only other information I can add at this time is that in Class 4 our teacher signed herself Gwyn Benney, and the Head Teacher at the time was one J. Beckett. My report ('Scholar's Report') is stamped "Maylands Senior School".
And in 1955 our teacher was one (Miss, I think) A. Ellis. As I recall, the poor woman had to deal with 55 of us! I 'tied for 3rd place in the class'. (My [hand]writing continued to be poor.) Another student, a girl called Dale Swepstone (now Nolan), also won a Scholarship to Perth Modern School. I didn't meet her again until the PMS 50th anniversary.
The toilet block, Maylands Primary School, from the boys end.
Ellen (nee) Blackham's photos from 1949
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Ellen's brother Francis Blackham is in the second row from the back second in from the right between a girl with ribbons in her hair and a boy in black.
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In this second photo, Ellen is in the second row from the back third in from
the right.
(In 1949, I was in the class between Francis and Ellen, but don't remember them, or anyone else in her two photos.)
If you know the names of anyone in these two photos, please let Ellen West (as she now is) know. Click on either photo to see it in larger size.
Anne Bowley nee Pight's photo of Standard III from 1955
Second from left back row: Lloyd Tonkin, fourth John Mitchell, end of row Malcolm Sweetman
Second back row: third in, Geoff Luff, Tony Clapp
Third row: two guys, Iris ? unknown, Val Beasley two guys
Front row: Dorothy Jones,two girls, Dianne Risdon, Gloria ?, Roxy Sinclair, me, Anne Pight, Betty Foley
Standard VI (or 7) from May 1951
Article from the (an?) Eastern Suburbs newspaper 6 February 1996 about a reunion to be held 23 February 1996 at the Windsor Hotel South Perth. The newspaper article identifies the class as "sixth standard in 1966" and the slate in the actual photo has "May 1951 Class 1 Std". The reunion was organised by Joy Pember, who is therefore probably in the photo somewhere.
The 1956/1996 Reunion
Glenys de Lacy in Class II in 1949
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Ron de Lacy writes: "Front row ... second left John Paterson ... second right Bobby Jones
Middle row ... second left Elsie Nunn ... then sister Glenys Jeffreys (de Lacy)
Back row ... Second left Ken Loughten ... Rest unknown"
Ron de Lacy's photo of Class V in 1953
Ron de Lacy in Standard II (2) [year 3] in 1950
Ron writes that he is "... front row third right next to Ken Loughten right. Del Stokey is directly behind me. Len Simms is third row back on the end (right). I was a boy soprano and sang with Del Stokey in Miss Tracey’s class."
This next photo was published in the MHPS newsletter for August 2022 without any identification. The date looks like 1953 (rather than 1955).
References, Links, Acknowledgements
Thanks to all the contributors mentioned above for sending the photos.
Heritage Council page for the buildings, 1903-12, and 1915.
Heritage Council Register page.
Maylands Peninsula and Historical Association - website.
See also: all my primary school reports.
This page incorporates material from Garry Gillard's Freotopia website, that he started in 2014 and the contents of which he donated to Wikimedia Australia in 2024. The content was originally created on 20 October, 2009 and hosted at freotopia.org/maylands/img/mps.html (it was last updated on 22 March, 2023). The donated data is also preserved in the Internet Archive's collection.