Great Scot September 2019 Great Scot 157_September 2019_ONLINE | Page 93

Archives
MR PAUL MISHURA
SCHOOL ARCHIVIST
UNEXPECTED
GEMS OFTEN
ARRIVE IN
ARCHIVES
Recent donations to Archives are
indicative of the Scotch treasures in
the community
Although the Archives is still seeking some past editions of The
Scotch Collegian, Satura and Great Scot to complete its collections,
and still wants some Scotch caps, it often receives or is offered
editions or types of caps that it already has by the bushel.
It is therefore a pleasant surprise when unique items are donated
back to the School. Three recent examples are worthy of mention,
with the hope that other unique items will inspire their custodians to
consider donating them to Scotch too.
On 4 April 2019 two boxes of items belonging to Gordon Duff Fisher
(born 12 September 1922, SC 1929-41, died 3 September 2003) were
donated by Gordon’s daughter, Gillian. He was a member of the 1940
Athletics team, the 1940 and 1941 1st XVIII, and the 1939, 1940 and
1941 1st VIII. Add to that the fact that he was the 1935 Junior School
Vice Captain, 1940 and 1941 MacFarland House Captain, a 1940
Prefect, and 1941 School Captain, and kept everything, it all added
up to a Scotch treasure trove. Fisher stroked the winning 1941 Head
of the River crew, breaking a 14-year Scotch drought. At that time, the
stroke always held the position that is now called Captain of Boats. To
mark the great occasion, Lady Beverley Nelson (nee Wood) Robinson
(born 1911, died 19 October 1997), the wife of the Chairman of the
School Council, sewed and presented Fisher with what Archives’
textiles expert, Dr Margot Yeomans, described as a ‘hand embroidered
cushion with felt Scotch pennant forming the centre area. The cushion
is done in back stitch using thick wool of red, blue and yellow. It has
a backing of coarsely woven fabric also in red and has thick corded
border in the same colour – this is further embellished with a yellow
coloured cord’.
The cushion has been well used, but has earned its retirement
inside the expanded and renovated Archives and Museum.
Thomas Robert Claude Warburton (born 15 December 1909, SC
1926-27, died 6 July 1951) was in Hong Kong in 1933. We know this
because a portrait photograph of him with that inscription was donated
to the Archives. More incredible, though, was the blazer donated
with it. Bought together by Matthew Douglas (SC 2006-11) at the
Camberwell Market several years ago, and no doubt Warburton’s own
1920s Scotch blazer, it is unique for its incredible pocket: oars crossing
THE ARCHIVIST,
PAUL MISHURA
(LEFT) RECEIVES
GEORGE HARVEY
NICHOLSON’S
TREASURE TROVE
FROM HIS SON
MIKE (’72).
TOP: THOMAS
ROBERT CLAUDE
WARBURTON’S
UNIQUE BLAZER
www.scotch.vic.edu.au Great Scot
91