Recollections of PETER STAPLETON (1946)

I was one of the foundation students of Chevalier who launched the college in 1946. I was a day student from Bundanoon. We followed an academic curriculum set by the Department of Education and students were frequently not allowed to sit for Department exams if the College thought they might fail. There was virtually no Manual Arts, Music or Art in the school.  We had what they called Physical Culture from a visiting teacher.    One incident in my school career that I can recall with humour is when Father Tyler kicked me out of his Maths class because he thought I was being cheeky. I had to see the Principal, Father Burford. There was a strap on his desk. He asked me why I had been sent. I said, “I asked Father Tyler a question in Maths.” Father Burford could hardly restrain a smile. He said, “I’m going to give you a salutary warning.” I didn’t know what he meant, but I figured it was better than getting the strap. One day the former Rector, Father Reid, returned to the college and he said to some students standing around, “As I grow older I have a deeper faith in the workings of Divine Providence.”
(Recollections of Peter Stapleton 1946)

Recollections of TREVOR BOUFFIER (1946)

In the five original class rooms, the only heaters were the old type single bar radiators and these were only switched on for the night time study.  For the first two or so weeks, there was no hot water available, and showers were cold.

After tea, and before the rosary and study, we used to play running games out under the big floodlight on the water tank stand, situated at the end of the classrooms.  These games included releasing and cockylorum.  It was one way to get warm.  Brother George Souter was in charge of the infirmary, and his standard remedies were use of Iodex for external problems and Epsom Salts for any internal upsets.  The weekends, because we were only allowed visitors on the last Sunday of the month, were spent bike riding, rabbit hunting – digging out burrows - and swimming in the Bong Bong River.  If it was raining, and this was quite frequent, we would spend time in the library or classrooms, playing monopoly, chess and card games or reading.  There were no wirelesses, and newspapers were not allowed, so we were in a vacuum as far as world events were concerned, until we read the papers if we were outside the college grounds.

The syllabus for fourth and fifth years was English, Physics, Chemistry, Maths 1, Maths 2, and the choice of Latin, French or Greek. What a wonderful selection.  In addition we had Father Butler’s class on Saturday morning teaching us etiquette. In my three years at the college the maximum number of students in any of my classes was five, with the result there was no chance of misbehaving, but none of us realised how lucky we were that we virtually had individual tuition.
(Recollections of Trevor Bouffier 1946)

In 1948 the football teams ran down to the Burradoo Railway Station for the weigh in.  The school did not have any scales, so we used the railway’s freight scales.  Another item of interest was the Chevalier bus.  Once acquired it became well known and was our home away from the College on trips to Sydney for football against such prestigious colleges as Riverview and St Joseph’s. We played their fifth grade I believe.  Also of high esteem at the time were the College Cadets.  These provided a much needed outlet for us boys with no outside contact with the world, apart from family. Annual camps were a delight, and specialist camps, Mortar, Bren Gun and Vickers Machine Gun, at Ingleburn and Singleton, were much sought after.  Chevalier was represented at the Australian celebrations of Federation held in Canberra in 1951.  Each cadet unit in Australia selected and sent one cadet to the camp in Canberra.  The camp was situated on the right side of the approach to the War Memorial, where there is now a suburb and many memorials. It was all just fields and thousands of tents at the time.  I attended that camp and march past, representing Chevalier. (Recollections of Peter Gerrey 1948 to 1952)

 

Recollections of ROGER HINE (1956)

I enjoyed my time at school even if the first arrival, covered in train soot, at Bowral railway station, was somewhat daunting. The smaller physical scale of the school buildings, and having these facilities set in the beautiful landscape of a small rural holding, was in itself inviting. Getting to know the 136 students (I think that was about the number) took little time, and this was assisted by the fact that just about everyone participated in the range of sporting activities conducted by the school.   With Mass every morning, dormitory duties, school timetable, sports practice and cadets, there was no time to be idle. To say nothing of the land clearing exercise to create the playing fields alongside the drive.  Fortes in Fide.(Recollection of Roger Hine 1954 to 1956)