Abbotsholme College was an open-air private school in Sydney,

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

, Australia. It operated from 1909 to 1925 in the suburb of

Killara Killara is a suburb on the Upper North Shore of Sydney in the state of New South Wales, Australia north-west of the Sydney Central Business District in the local government area of Ku-ring-gai Council. East Killara is a separate suburb and ...

. Pupils during the school's brief existence included two future

prime ministers A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is no ...

William McMahon Sir William McMahon (23 February 190831 March 1988) was an Australian politician who served as the 20th Prime Minister of Australia, in office from 1971 to 1972 as leader of the Liberal Party. He was a government minister for over 21 years, ...

and Harold Holt.

History

Abbotsholme College was established in 1908 and began taking students the following year. The school's founder and principal was John Fitzmaurice, who was born in Ireland and was a nephew of the naval engineer

Maurice Fitzmaurice Sir Maurice Fitzmaurice CMG (11 May 1861–17 November 1924) was an Irish civil engineer. He was apprenticed to Benjamin Baker and worked with him on the Forth Railway Bridge before going to Egypt to build the Aswan Dam for which he was a ...

. He fought with the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

in the

Boer War The Second Boer War ( af, Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the Sou ...

, after which he moved to Australia for health reasons. He was a proponent of

progressive education Progressive education, or protractivism, is a pedagogical movement that began in the late 19th century and has persisted in various forms to the present. In Europe, progressive education took the form of the New Education Movement. The term ''pr ...

, and named his new school after

Abbotsholme School Abbotsholme School is a co-educational independent boarding and day school. The school is situated on a 140-acre campus on the banks of the River Dove in Derbyshire, England near the county border and the village of Rocester in Staffordshire. I ...

, which had been established by Cecil Reddie in Staffordshire, England. The ''

Sydney Mail Sydney Mailmay refer to: * Sydney Mail (train service), a train service that existed between 1888 and 1972 going from Brisbane to Wallangarra, where passengers would transfer at Wallangarra for the Brisbane Limited. * The Sydney Mail, an Australi ...

'' reported in 1920 that Abbotsholme had buildings and equipment worth £30,000 and grounds of . It was promoted as an

open air school Open air schools or schools of the woods were purpose-built educational institutions for children, that were designed to prevent and combat the widespread rise of tuberculosis that occurred in the period leading up to the Second World War. The s ...

, and advertisements often claimed that its students had one of the lowest rates of illness in the state. At the height of the 1919

Spanish flu The 1918–1920 influenza pandemic, commonly known by the misnomer Spanish flu or as the Great Influenza epidemic, was an exceptionally deadly global influenza pandemic caused by the H1N1 influenza A virus. The earliest documented case wa ...

pandemic it was one of the few schools that remained opened. Abbotsholme initially accepted both day students and boarders. However, by 1922 all 160 pupils were boarders, ranging in age from 6 to 19 years. In 1920, Fitzmaurice established a scholarship scheme for the sons of soldiers who had died in

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. It initially consisted of 50 scholarships valued at a total of £10,000, and was expanded through later endowments. The scheme drew the attention of Edward, Prince of Wales, who gave permission for them to be called the Prince of Wales Scholarships. Fitzmaurice was prominent in local

Freemasonry Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities ...

circles, and in 1923 he gave free-ride scholarships to Abbotsholme to all the former students of the Charles Kolling Masonic College, a school for the sons of deceased Masons that had been forced to close.

Death of Fitzmaurice and Closure

Fitzmaurice died suddenly in January 1924, aged 41. ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was f ...

'' reported that his death was likely to endanger the scholarship schemes he had established, as there were no specific provisions in his will for their continuance. Abbotsholme closed in April 1925, and two months later it "burned practically to the ground" in suspicious circumstances.

Legacy

The school's WWI Roll of Honour board is displayed at St John's

Anglican Church Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of the ...

Gordon Gordon may refer to: People * Gordon (given name), a masculine given name, including list of persons and fictional characters * Gordon (surname), the surname * Gordon (slave), escaped to a Union Army camp during the U.S. Civil War * Clan Gordon, ...

. Fitzmaurice is buried in St John's cemetery.

Notable pupils

* Harold Holt, Prime Minister of Australia 1966–1967 *

, Prime Minister of Australia 1971–1972 * Frank Packer, media entrepreneur, patriarch of the

Packer family The Packer family has played a significant role in the Australian media, political and social sphere since the beginning of the twentieth century. The family has had numerous interests in Australian business, most notably in media, property ...

Packer, Sir Douglas Frank (1906–1974)
'' Australian Dictionary of Biography'', Vol. 15, 2000.

References

{{reflist Private primary schools in Sydney Private secondary schools in Sydney 1908 establishments in Australia Educational institutions established in 1908 1925 disestablishments in Australia Educational institutions disestablished in 1925 Defunct schools in New South Wales