Scots All Saints Past Students Association

It was a very frosty and cold morning as Year 12 students took a moment to mark their 'last first day' at College.
Best wishes to all Year 12 students for the busy term ahead.

MAJOR (Later Lieutenant-Colonel) HAROLD McINTOSH. Prominently displayed on an honour board in the Dining Room on the Junior Campus (the former All Saints’ site) is the name of Major Harold McIntosh, a former student of All Saints’ College and one of its notable Old Boys.

Born in Bathurst in 1868 to a family of solicitors, McIntosh was School Captain of All Saints in 1885. He attended St Paul’s College at Sydney University and read for an Arts degree in Law. He completed his articles at his family’s legal firm. His career, however, was to be devoted more to the land than the law, settling on the family property, “Bunnamagoo” at Rockley. In 1895 he joined the army (NSW 12th Light Horse Regiment), and was involved for the rest of his life in the military. He was in an army contingent that represented Australia for Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee. He served in the Boer War, and in World War I, where he died at Gaza in April of 1917 from a shrapnel wound. He was buried in the Kantara Cemetery in Egypt. His name is on the Boer War Memorial in Memorial Park in Bathurst.

As well as the mention on the Honour Board, Harold McIntosh is commemorated with a plaque in the All Saints’ Chapel. The Old Bathurstians' Museum collection includes Harold McIntosh’s medals. These appeared in 2017, and appear to have been given to All Saints’ when the Lee family moved from “Karralee” in 1932. Florence McIntosh’s brothers both attended All Saints’, and someone made the decision that the medals should come back to his old school.

The Lee family and later Scots School neighbours on O’Connell Road were Edwin and Nell Ray, and later their daughter Lorna. A new chapter in the story of Harold McIntosh opened a few months ago when Edwin’s grandson John Gibson contacted the Archives staff seeking information on “Major McIntosh”. Among Lorna’s effects, the family had found a mess jacket with the name “Major McIntosh” on it, and a satchel that had also been with him when he was Lieutenant McIntosh in South Africa. We were able to assist with this, forwarding a copy of research on Major McIntosh undertaken by Father Paul Woodhart to John Gibson. Recently John advised us that the family had decided to give the jacket and satchel to Scots All Saints, and he and his brother Richard delivered them to us during the last holidays. They will now take their place in the Old Bathurstians' Museum with Major McIntosh’s medals.

How the jacket and satchel came to be in the possession of the Ray family is not entirely clear. The satchel has the name of another owner written in it: Pilot Officer Arnold Ray, Edwin Ray’s only son and Lorna’s brother. It saw active service again in World War II, and was returned with Arnold Ray’s personal effects after he was killed in the crash of a Hudson bomber in the Frisian Islands in World War II. That is a story in itself. It is highly likely that the items were given to the Ray family around the time that the Lee family sold “Karralee” in 1932.

Given that Bathurst had a population of around 9,000 people in the early 20th Century, it is not surprising that McIntosh had many connections, including to the other side of the Macquarie River to what became The Scots School. His wife Florence was the daughter of John Lee of Karralee. His best friend at school and for many years was also an All Saints’ Old Boy, Charles Lydiard, who married Florence’s sister Ethel. Charles Lydiard was considered the fastest sprinter in Bathurst in his youth. Lydiard and McIntosh volunteered for the Army in 1895, and served together in the Boer War. Charles Lydiard’s granddaughter Diane Morton has been a great friend of the Scots, All Saints’, and Scots All Saints through her connection to the Lee family of “Karralee” and her relationships to Harold McIntosh and Charles Lydiard.

Our knowledge of both has been enriched over the years by the information she has supplied. Diane’s husband Bill was a “Karralee Boy” from 1942. A third sister, Kathleen, married Percy Macphillamy, the son of a well-known Bathurst family who in the 1940s and 1950s had a sporting house at The Scots School named for them. In 1992, Harold McIntosh’s “Bunnamagoo” became the property of the Paspaley Pearl family and the manager of the property enrolled a son at The Scots School.

***THE SCOTS MUSEUM WILL BE OPEN 10:00 am - 12 NOON.*** The first match for the day begins at 9:00 am. First XV match kicks off at 12 Noon. Full details available at: https://scotsallsaints.nsw.edu.au/sports-draw/

FIVE YEARS AGO THE CLASS OF 2021. There are a few events coming that can be mentioned in this post. On 20 June, the College will be holding it Alumni Rugby Day at the Senior Campus on O'Connell Road. Details of times and fixtures will be advised when they are finalised. The games will be with St Stanislaus.

The Class of 2021 are also planning a reunion for Friday 23 October.

To mark both occasions, the intention was to find some Rugby Photos from 2021, but there are not many from that year. Covid restrictions were still about, although were less of an issue tnan they had been the previous year. There were some from a visit to Rugby training by the Waratahs.