From the Head of Barker

On Sunday 28 August, the community gathered in the Barker College War Memorial Chapel to conduct a Service of Thanksgiving and Memorial for the life and boundless contribution of TJ McCaskill, the School’s 6th Headmaster.

The Service we enjoyed was largely prepared in advance by Trevor McCaskill. We followed his requests to the letter. It was through his leadership of Barker that the School enrolled girls in the Senior School in 1975, returning Barker to its original coeducational state. In 2022, there now are girls in every Year cohort and we delight in being fully coeducational. This reality was celebrated among the many other legacies set in place by Trevor McCaskill. We stand at this point in the history of Barker College. We acknowledge today that this is only the second time in the life of this Chapel that a beloved Headmaster is sung to his rest – our fourth Headmaster, William Leslie, in 1957. And today, our 6th Headmaster, in 2022. I’m pleased to share with you my speech given at his Memorial Service in front of a full Chapel of his family, friends, former Barker staff and students, as well as current students and staff. We are a school of 2800 students and nearly 1000 staff. There are over 1100 girls from Pre K to Year 12 at Barker College. In addition to this site, we rejoice in our beautiful Outdoor Learning space at The Grange in Mount Victoria. We cherish three little schools for Indigenous children – in Yarramalong among the Darkinjung People; at Wollombi among the Wonnaruah People; and in NE Arnhem Land at Gunyangara among the Gumatj Clan of the Yolngu People. In 2022, we are a community comprised of more than 40 different faith, cultural and language traditions, and we yearn to do something good and beautiful in the world beyond the Mint Gates. This generation and those to come still our hearts and honour with deepest thankfulness to God the profoundly important legacy of our 6th Headmaster, Trevor John McCaskill. We live at a time when the contemporary mind pays little regard for the past and perhaps even has ceased to wonder how things came to be as they are. Perhaps it is, as some writers have observed, an unintended consequence of the digital age. Whatever its cause, the consequence of being overwhelmed by the present is to forget the past and cease to be curious about our origins. “The longer you look back, the farther you can look forward”, said Winston Churchill. As an historian, I see the wisdom of this observation only too keenly. We must not forget the past nor fail to honour the shoulders on whom we build on future hopes and dreams.

A few years ago, Mandy Loomes and Morwenna Dixon (whilst still on the staff of Barker College) asked if it might be possible to interview the 6th Headmaster to gather his reflections on Headmastering at Barker College. The resulting sessions have been collated into an invaluable monograph in Trevor’s own words. You can collect a copy at the end of the service. With remarkable perspicacity and unexpected openness he revealed: Two questions remain in my mind from the interview I had with the Council of Barker at the time of my application for the Headmastership… The first was from the Chairman, who asked me, “how long has the word ‘majoring: been a verb in the English language?’ Miraculously, I remembered I had used the word in my application to describe a subject for my degree to which I had devoted most attention. Perhaps somewhat pathetically, I responded that the English language was constantly changing and that the term was in fact in widespread use in the US. The second question came from the Treasurer who asked “Did I think I could do the job?’ Several smart answers came to mind… but I … simply said “With all due respect, that is a matter for you to decide”. My wife was asked a leading question: “What do you see as the main job of the Headmaster’s wife in the School?” She replied that she thought the main responsibility of the wife of the Headmaster was to ensure his good health and maintain his emotional and mental stability. Hard to argue against that!” He also recalled his School Council: A member of Council for whom I had the greatest respect was Merlin Loxton, MC, QC, a member of the School Council for 38 years until he retired in 1970, a former President of the OBU, whose strong moral sense and support for the best traditions of the School from the days of William Carter were invaluable to me in my early years as Headmaster. We would quote the words of Henry Newbol: ‘To set the cause above renown, to love the game beyond the prize’, to remind me of the meaning of the School’s motto. Honor Non Honores – this motto binds the generations and sets a light on the path to our future. It has been said that “the past is a foreign country. They do things differently there”. In this monograph, Trevor McCaskill shares his experiences of the past

with all its differences and charms. Yet his reflections are hauntingly familiar. We sense the presence of past figures, past issues, past problems, and past moments that have shaped the Barker College of today. These things are the antecedents of the Barker culture. The buildings that are now crucial markers in our landscape took their shape during his generation. So many customs and traditions that are now crucial elements of the rites of passage at Barker originated in those years. Perhaps the crowning achievement that sets Barker apart from similar schools in Australia is the advent of senior coeducation in 1975. It is fitting that in 2022, Barker is now coeducational in every year cohort for the first time in our history. This alone represents a shout of victory over a vision that was first imagined in the late 1960s. Culture may be briefly understood as that which occurs when no one makes it so. Culture is just what we do without telling. It is expressed in how we speak to one another, how we acknowledge what is sacred and ceremonial, how we address each challenge and opportunity, and how we care for others in our community. Culture is greatly reinforced by remembering our past and celebrating the people and the moments that shaped us. Our 6th Headmaster, Trevor John McCaskill, set in place a legacy that continues to nourish us more than four decades after he left our School. We will not forget. His faithfulness to education pre-eminently as a Christian calling was blessed by the Lord whom Trevor McCaskill served throughout his life and his career and through whom God blessed the community of Barker College. The School remembers with profound gratitude our 6th Headmaster. May flights of angels sing him to his rest.

Phillip Heath AM Head of Barker College