Great Scot September 2019 Great Scot 157_September 2019_ONLINE | Page 100

Obituaries
as timekeeper for its 1st XVIII matches. He
was a popular figure around the club.
Ian enjoyed participating in a wide range
of other Old Scotch activities including the
OSCA Annual Dinner, and he and Rhonda
regularly attended OSCA’s Mornington
branch functions. Ian, together with Rhonda,
was a longstanding and participating member
of the Old Scotch Bushwalking Club, serving
on the club’s committee. He was President
of the Old Scotch Bowls Club from 2017 until
his death.
A member of the Old Scotch Freemasons
Lodge, Ian was a Past Master of the Lodge
(2005/06) and at the time of his death he was
the Lodge Almoner, looking after the interests
and health of his fellow brothers.
In his working life, Ian was at ICI from
1959-61, and from 1962-2001 he managed
US and UK companies in the toy industry. He
lived variously in Melbourne (1941-77), Sydney
(1977-1986), the United Kingdom (1986-1998),
back in Melbourne (1998-2014) and finally in
Dromana from 2014 until his death.
Ian died at Beleura Private Hospital,
Mornington, on 12 June 2019.
TOLSON, Geoffrey
Samuel (’41)
Geoff’s sons, Mark and
Andrew, wrote:
‘Show me the boy and
I will show you the man’.
Born at Alphington on
5 February 1924, Geoffrey Samuel Tolson first
walked through the gates of Scotch College
in 1930 and into Miss Miller’s ‘bubs’’ class.
His devotion and ‘giving back’ to Scotch
would continue for the next 89 years until his
death at Kew Gardens Aged Care, Kew, on
15 June 2019.
A day boy in Gardiner and MacFarland
Houses, Geoff boarded in School House as a
member of Littlejohn House in 1938. He was
a member of the 1934 Under 11 cricket team
and the 1936 Junior School cricket team.
Geoff completed his Intermediate Certificate
(now Year 10) and left in 1939.
In 1940 Geoff commenced his Diploma
of Electrical Engineering at Melbourne
Technical College (now RMIT), at which he
later lectured on illumination engineering,
which fascinated him. He joined the family
business, W Tolson & Co Pty Ltd, eventually
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Great Scot Number 157 – September 2019
becoming its Managing Director. It carried
out work throughout Australia, with projects
including the Westgate Bridge. In 1954 Geoff
became President of the Electrical and Radio
Federation of Victoria, and, in 1964, President
of the Electrical Contractors Federation
(Victoria).
On 11 December 1948, Geoff married
Barbara Mary Selleck at St John’s Anglican
Church, Toorak. They were parted, after
celebrating their 70th wedding anniversary,
by her death on 26 December 2018. Their
sons and grandsons followed Geoff at
Scotch: Andrew (SC 1958-69) and Mark
(SC 1962-73), and Ben (SC 1990-2002),
Chris (SC 2001-04) and David (SC 2001-06).
Geoff was a kind man, slow to judge, with
great respect for other people. Having been
in Miss Goodenough’s class in 1931, Geoff
met her again when Andrew was a new boy
at Scotch. She remarked: ‘Geoffy Tolson,
you always had your cap pulled down over
your ears’. That night he looked at some old
photos, and Miss Goodenough was right:
there was young Tolson with his cap pulled
right down over his ears.
Writing of his enduring respect and
gratitude for his teachers at Scotch, such
as Miss Miller and Miss Goodenough, and
of Scotch itself, Geoff wrote: ‘We owe an
insurmountable debt to all those who
directed and nurtured us during our most
formative years. You made our heart beat
and never stop.’
Never a taker, Geoff was always a
giver. Anything he could do to support his
family, friends and ‘the School’, he would
do. Andrew recalled: ‘When dad told me he
was going to start the Archives at Scotch,
because it had never been done and it was
something the School needed for all the
Scotch Collegians to be able to see and
connect with their heritage, my response was
“Well that’s great, I hope you’re feeling fit;
you’ve only got 134 years of work ahead of
you”. It was the perfect mix – his love for the
School and his love of history.’
Geoff had retired, and, in 1985, set
about creating the Scotch College Archives
from scratch. He gathered together records
and artefacts from around the School,
and advertised in newspapers and Scotch
publications for archival material and
information. Geoff busily responded to
growing requests for information, set up and
proudly took visitors through the Museum,
and promoted a knowledge of Scotch’s
history to its boys.
Scotch owes much of what the Archives
is now to Geoff. As in all aspects of his life,
Geoff went about the task in a committed
and professional manner, always respectful
of the history of Scotch and its many Old
Boys who, like him, have given so much.
His approach to his responsibilities as
an OSCA Councillor (1972-95) and OSCA
President (1983) echoed this philosophy.
Over his 95 years, hundreds of Scotch
boys were stopped in the street, with Geoff
remarking, ‘I like your tie. What year was
Scotch founded?’
Having passed the-then mandatory
retiring age, Geoff retired from Scotch at
the end of 1992, but continued his archival
passion at Kilvington Grammar, the Police
Academy, the Baker Institute, the National
Gallery of Victoria; and only in 2018 did he
cease volunteering at the National Sports
Museum.
There was no more fitting tribute than to
farewell Geoff at a memorial service in the
Littlejohn Memorial Chapel, on 12 July 2019,
with the familiar sounds of a piper penetrating
the bitterly cold wind. The lighting and power
in the Chapel were provided by Tolson
Electrical, as was the lighting in Monash Drive.
Geoff was a gentleman, a man who
was good, gracious and decent. These
old-fashioned qualities meant he was sincere,
honest and dependable. Rare qualities for a
man who lived by the Scotch mantra ‘for a
goodly heritage, proud traditions and
cherished memories’.