Great Scot December 2017 GreatScot_152_Dec_Online | Page 94

Archives
A pioneer
Scotchie’s
book
comes
home
ABOVE: DR GEORGE WATERS WITH JOSEPH
CADE’S PRIZE BOOK FROM 1855.
LEFT: JOSEPH CADE
94
When Joseph Wright Cade entered Scotch
in 1851 he was one of about half a dozen boys in
attendance.
Born at Melbourne on 1 April 1845, he
was six when he entered Scotch, in what is
presumed to have been the first month, if not the
first day, of Scotch’s existence. It had opened
on 6 October 1851 and was then called the
Melbourne Academy. On 19 December 1855 he
was awarded the prize book My Schools and
Schoolmasters: The Story of my Education by
Hugh Miller. It is inscribed (probably by Principal
Robert Lawson): ‘Prize awarded to Master
Joseph Cade for good conduct, by the votes
of the pupils. Scotch College, Melbourne. 19
December 1855’.
Interestingly, 1855 is the earliest that the
school was known as Scotch College, although
Melbourne Academy was interchangeably
used as late as 1857. Joseph left Scotch the
following year, becoming a chemist, and started
a family that for generations has made a mark
on the medical world. Although his three sons
attended Melbourne Grammar School, and many
great-grandsons and great-great-grandsons
attended Xavier College, two Cade grandsons
and three Cade great-great-grandsons (including
2000 School Captain Tom Cade) have attended
Scotch, along with some McFarlands.
At the 1911 Diamond Jubilee celebrations,
Joseph was introduced at the Jubilee Dinner to
the youngest boy of 1911 as the oldest boy of
1851. He died at home at 64 Avoca Street, South
Yarra on 31 January 1917.
Like many things that find their way back
to Scotch, this book’s route was circuitous. It
was held by Joseph’s MGS grandson, Francis
Anthony Michael (Frank) Cade (1915-70), at
Currimundi, Mount Macedon, where his sons
were cared for by housekeeper and carer Ms
Alice Waters. Frank bequeathed Currimundi to
her. Many of its books went to her sister-in-law’s
house in Bendigo, and when she died, her
son, anaesthetist Dr George Waters, found this
book. He generously donated this rare artefact
of Scotch’s earliest days to the Scotch College
Archives, where he says it belongs.
Great Scot Number 152 – December 2017