Anthony James Morell Rae (1927-2000) was an

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

n-born

headmaster A head master, head instructor, bureaucrat, headmistress, head, chancellor, principal or school director (sometimes another title is used) is the teacher, staff member of a school with the greatest responsibility for the management of the school ...

of a GPS School and

chairman The chairperson, also chairman, chairwoman or chair, is the presiding officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office, who is typically elected or appointed by members of the grou ...

of the

Headmasters' Conference of the Independent Schools of Australia The Headmasters' Conference of the Independent Schools of Australia (HCISA) was founded in 1931 and amalgamated in 1985 with the Association of Independent Headmistresses to form the Association of Heads of Independent Schools of Australia. It is ...

Early life

Tony Rae (the familiar form was part of his persona) was educated at

The Scots College , motto_translation = O that we may be worthy of our forefathers , location = Bellevue Hill, Eastern Suburbs, Sydney , country = Australia , type = Independent single-sex primary a ...

and graduated from the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's si ...

with a

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...

and

Diploma of Education The Diploma of Education, often abbreviated to DipEd or GradDipEd, is a postgraduate qualification offered in many Commonwealth countries including Australia, Sri Lanka, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. Overview The diploma can build on the ...

. He completed a

Master of Education The Master of Education (MEd or M.Ed. or Ed.M.; Latin ''Magister Educationis'' or ''Educationis Magister'') is a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. This degree in education often includes the following majors: curriculum a ...

at the University of New England.

Teaching career

Rae began his teaching career as a schoolmaster in 1948 at his alma mater, Scots, and spent four years there before teaching

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

and

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. He returned to Scots in 1956 and in 1959 he was appointed Deputy Headmaster at

Toowoomba Grammar School , motto_translation = Faithful in All Things , city = Toowoomba , state = Queensland , country = Australia , coordinates = , type = Independent, day & boarding , denomination = Non-denominational , established = ...

. In 1964 he moved to Trinity Grammar School, Summer Hill as a housemaster and later served as Senior Master from 1966 until 1968. James Wilson Hogg

MBE Mbe may refer to: * Mbé, a town in the Republic of the Congo * Mbe Mountains Community Forest, in Nigeria * Mbe language, a language of Nigeria * Mbe' language, language of Cameroon * ''mbe'', ISO 639 code for the extinct Molala language Molal ...

, then the Headmaster of Trinity, wrote of him: "He was of formidable stature, tall and striking looking, a headmasterly figure long before headmastership. He habitually moved with a measured pace, gravely and with dignity." Albury Grammar School (now

The Scots School Albury The Scots School Albury is an independent, K-12, co-educational day and boarding School, located in Albury, New South Wales, Australia. It draws students from the local area and other parts of Australia. It is associated with the Uniting ...

) appointed him as Head in 1969.

Headmaster

In 1972, Rae returned to

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

as Headmaster of Newington College. In ''Our Proper Concerns: A History of the Headmasters' Conference of the Independent Schools of Australia'', Wilson Hogg says that, "His was an imaginative appointment. Despite the fine qualities of such headmasters as Lawrence Pyke and Douglas Trathen, the school had been passing through a protracted period of uncertainty and difficulty ... a decade before Tony Rae's assumption of office no one would have suspected that Newington would emerge in the eighties as a leading school in the arts; notably in drama, and pre-eminently in music." It was not just the arts that prospered during Rae's leadership. In 1992, for instance, Newington teams won all eight summer sporting premierships in the GPS competition: 1st/2nd basketball, 1st/2nd

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

, 1st/2nd

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

, 1st/2nd rowing eights – a record never before achieved by any school. Rae retired from Newington in 1993. Robert Buntine, his deputy of longstanding who had acted as head during his sabbaticals, was appointed as acting headmaster of Newington until Michael Smee OAM was appointed to the position mid-way through 1994.

Honours

On 26 January 1992, Rae was made a Member of the

Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, on the advice of the Australian Gove ...

for "service to education as headmaster of Newington College and through the Association of Independent Schools".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rae, Tony 1927 births 2000 deaths Australian headmasters Members of the Order of Australia Chairmen of the Headmasters' Conference of the Independent Schools of Australia Staff of Newington College People educated at Scots College (Sydney)