Topic: School days

My Great Grandfather Francis (Frank) Darchy and most of his nine siblings were born on remote pastoral properties in early outback NSW in the 1850s. Initially they were educated by a private tutor and/or governess, but eventually all seven boys were sent one by one to a prestigious boys’ school in Melbourne, Scotch College, where most of them excelled at sport.

The school retains their records. Recently a cousin offered them a silver cup won by one of the boys for “Vaulting and Steeplechase” in 1871. It was awarded to “F. Darchy” – but which F? – Francis my great grandfather or FritzEdward, his brother? The school says “Usually if two boys of the same surname and initial were at school at the same time they would be distinguished from one another in some way, but I have seen no indication of that thus far in their cases.” However, the general consensus is that it was Francis. FritzEdward has been identified as the top sportsman who played in the first cricket teams of 1869-71 and the 1st Football teams of the same years. Louis was also a member of the First XIII in 1877.  The oldest of the brothers, Thomas, who entered Scotch in 1861, was a member of the First XI in 1963 and sadly died later that year during the school holidays after a fall from a horse.

Drought, a rabbit plague and a severe Depression came along in the 1890s; much of the family’s fortune was lost, and the children had to go out and earn their livings. They became stockmen, a wool sorter, an outback mailman …. Occupations far removed from those envisaged during their early schooling and young-man-about-town days in the Melbourne Social scene – the photos were taken about that time.