Great Scot December 2019 Great Scot 158_December_ONLINE | Page 85

THE SCOTCH
COLLEGE AND
GRAMMAR SCHOOL
UNITED FOOTBALL
TEAM OF 1864
When Scotch and Grammar
took on the Dees
With the advent of Trove, the National Library
of Australia’s repository of digitised newspapers,
among other things, quirky and heretofore
unknown aspects of Scotch’s history are
occasionally revealed.
One such example is the game the Melbourne
Football Club played on Richmond Paddock from
2pm on Saturday 4 June 1864 against … Scotch
College and Grammar School United. Scotch
and Melbourne Grammar School challenged
the Dees (as they subsequently became known)
to a game to be played with 20 per side, with the
United team having 10 players from each of Scotch
and MGS.
The game drew ‘a large attendance of the public’.
The ‘youngsters played with great pluck’ and it was
‘contested with a vigor [sic] that would have gladdened
the heart of a Rugbeian’. However, ‘the superior weight of the
club team insured them the victory’. Tait, of Melbourne, kicked
two goals to the United team’s none. Melbourne was captained by
Henry Colden Antill Harrison, a cousin of Tom Wills, both of whom
framed the early rules of Australian Rules Football.
The 10 Scotch players were named as ‘Weigall, Cumming,
Barfoot, Symonds, Harrison, Wills, E. Mills, Colles, Pinnock,
Maloney.’ This was a very useful discovery, as there was otherwise no
record of Scotch’s 1864 footballers (nor those of 1859 or 1862-67, with
only fragments known of those of 1858 and 1861).
Teachers played in early Scotch teams. Albert Bythesea Weigall
(born 16 February 1840, died 20 February 1912) taught at Scotch from
1863 to 1866. He was headmaster of Sydney Grammar School from
1867 to 1912. Donald Cumming (born 5 February 1847, SC 1862-64,
died 24 November 1874) was Scotch’s captain in the game against
Royal Park on Saturday 6 August 1864, the only other game Scotch
is recorded as having played that year. Being two years older than his
Scotch brother, Angus, suggests that he was the correct Cumming.
The others were Wilton Barfoot (born 6 June 1845, SC 1864,
died 7 February 1901), Charles Edward Symonds (born 24 February
1847, SC 1863-64, died 2 June 1934, who was the eldest Symonds at
TOP: EGBERT
SPENCER
WILLS.
BELOW:
HORACE
SPENCER
WILLS
Scotch by three years, making
him the likely player), Horace
Washington Harrison (born 3 March
1848, SC 1857-64, drowned 9 February
1869, who was H C A Harrison’s brother), Horace
Spencer Wills (born 16 June 1847, SC 1863-64, died 8 October
1928, who was Tom Wills’ brother, the eldest Wills boy at Scotch
that year, and later a Geelong VFA player), Thomas Francis Colles
(born 5 November 1848, SC 1863-65, died 18 October 1929), Robert
Denham Pinnock (born 2 January 1849, SC 1863-65, died 2 April
1902) and James Moloney (born 5 October 1847, SC 1863-69, died 2
January 1931), who played football for Carlton in 1867 and became the
Member of the Legislative Assembly for Carlton South (1897-1900).
‘E Mills’ seems to be an error, as there were no Mills then at
Scotch. It seems likely he was instead E Wills: the fact he was the only
one with an initial to distinguish him suggests he was another Wills
brother, Egbert Spencer Wills (born 11 November 1849, SC 1863-64,
died 9 November 1931, another brother of Tom Wills), although this
is dependent on when, during 1864 (the exact date is unknown) he
returned to Geelong Grammar School.
Perhaps it is time for Scotch and Grammar boys to reunite, and
challenge the Dees again?
www.scotch.vic.edu.au Great Scot
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