AOSA CENTENARY HISTORY 1841 - 1941
Chapter
XII
THE WORK OF THE COMMITTEE: 1896-1940
Contents
Chapter I
Chapter II
Chapter III
Chapter IV
Chapter V
Chapter VI
Chapter VII
Chapter VIII
Chapter IX
Chapter X
Chapter XI
Chapter XII
Chapter XIII
Appendix
The minutes of the Committee in the twentieth century progressively decline in human interest. They become increasingly chary of detail; they grow more formal; they confine themselves to laying down the broad lines of policy and finance; the details are usually left to the normal sub-committees, or to sub-committees appointed for a specific purpose, or to the chief officers of the School. Thus the minutes, though all-important as a record, omit the intimate personal touch which abounds in and lightens the minutes of the first half-century.
The Committee, however, has never lacked members of outstanding personality or ability or devotion. The method of filling vacancies on the Committee, though a little casual, has resulted in securing for the School the continuous services of several Friends who, if the practice had been followed that prevails elsewhere of a compulsory retirement, might have lost touch and not again accepted appointment. What actually happens is that the General Meeting appoints a small nominating committee to consult with the men members of the General Committee as to the filling of places left vacant on the expiry of the term of appointment-four years-or for other reasons. In practice Friends who have given good service are usually reappointed, with a suitable filling up with new blood as opportunities arise. The women members are appointed by those who remain behind for the purpose, when at the close of General Meeting all the men members depart.
Thus it comes about that from 1889 to 1920 Henry Kitching presided
over the Committee. Officially he was called the secretary, actually
he was in many matters almost a dictator. Henry Kitching was not an
easy man to know; his undoubted loyalty to the School and his eagle
eye on expenditure, were combined with an unconquerable distaste for
any change, that made it necessary at times to carry through essential
developments in spite of the evident, if silent, disapproval of the
secretary. His long experience made him an invaluable reference when
the headmaster was in a difficulty; and there was never a question
of the utter fairness of his decisions. When he retired the Committee
marked its appreciation of his long and faithful service by creating
him its first life member.
In 1920 Henry Kitching delivered the reins of government into the capable hands of Sir John Pease Fry. At the same time the designation ‘secretary’ became ‘chairman,’ a word in fitter accord with function. The new chairman was the eldest grandson of one of the School’s founders, John Pease. A member of the Committee since 1887, he had in 1897 already signalised his inherited interest in Ayton by the creation of the scholarship that bears his name, and that has played such a useful part in completing the education of each year’s leading boy or girl. Living within half a mile of the School, at Cleveland Lodge, he has always been most accessible, and a ready help in times of trouble. It would be impossible to overstate the value of his guiding hand and ready tact shown even more outside the Committee than at its official gatherings. It is to Sir John that the School owes the first idea of the large additions immediately west of the dining room, though the generous financial and practical help of an old scholar, William Harding, had much to do with its fulfilment.
Contemporaneously with the present chairman, Henrietta Whitwell presided for forty years over the women’s committee, and her wise advice on matters of domestic staff, catering, and household problems generally was greatly valued. On relinquishing her official position in 1939, she was presented by the School with a handsome travelling bag to mark the respect and affection in which she was held, and was made a life member of the Committee.
Another of the old standards who served the School for many a long year was William Hallam of Middlesbrough. His short stocky figure in its black coat of almost Quaker cut, on Committee days came swinging down the road from the station; and his dry humour often enlivened meetings that might otherwise have been aptly termed humdrum. His occupation of timber merchant well qualified him to take charge of the trees on the estate; he was largely responsible for the erection of the present sanatorium, a wooden building, in the design of which he took a keen and most effective interest. But it is for the Lake, sometimes referred to as ‘Hallam’s Water,’ that he will be specially remembered, as this had been his dream for half a lifetime, and he was overjoyed to be entrusted by the Committee with the supervision of its creation.
Return to:
Homepage