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From Record Book of Work Done 1830-33 (University of Toronto Archives)

Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2012

http://archive.org/details/uppercanadacolleOOhowa

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE 1829-1979

H.R.H. The Prince Philip, K.G.,K.T., Duke of Edinburgh

Visitor

RICHARD B. HOWARD

Upper Canada College
1829-1979

COLBORNE'S LEGACY

MACMILLAN OF CANADA
TORONTO

any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,

recording, or otherwise, or stored in a retrieval system,

without prior consent of the publisher is an infringement

of copyright law.

Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data

Howard, Richard B., date

Upper Canada College, 1829-1979

Bibliography: p.

Includes index.

ISBN 0-7705-1843-5 (deluxe ed.)
ISBN 0-7705-1844-3 (trade ed.)

1 . Upper Canada College - History. I. Title.

LE5.T6H68 373.2'22'097i354i C79-094709-9

The author and publisher have made every effort to assign proper

credit for photographs used in this book. Information will be

welcomed which will enable the publishers to rectify any reference

or credit in future printings.

Printed in Canada for

The Macmillan Company of Canada Limited,

70 Bond Street, Toronto

M5B 1x3

FOR PEGGY

Table of Contents

Foreword: HRH The Duke of Edinburgh ix

Preface xi

Acknowledgements xiii

Introduction xv

SECTION A THE ANOMALY

i. Setting (1791-1828) 1

2. Beginnings (1828-1838) 6

3. School Life under Harris (1 829-1 838) 30

4. Growing Pains (1838- 1 861) 41

5. School Life in the Forties and Fifties 71

6. Maturity (186 1 -1 88 1) 84

7. School Life under Cockburn (1 861- 1 881) 97

8. Metamorphosis (1 881- 1900) 106
9. School Life in the Eighties and Nineties 135

SECTION B THE PHOENIX

1 0. Independence ( 1 900- 1 9 1 7 ) 1 63
11. School Life under Auden (1900-1917) 176

12. Rejuvenation (1918-1935) 191

13. School Life under Grant (19 18- 1935) 210

14. Unsettled Years (1935-1948) 222

15. School Life in the Late Thirties and Forties 235

16. Emergency (1949-1965) 242

17. School Life under Sowby (1949- 1965) 250

18. The Recent Past 260

SECTION C OF SPECIAL INTEREST

19. The College Times 269

20. Games 314

21. Cadets 331
22. The Prep 352

23. Norval 371

24. Epilogue 383

APPENDICES

One: The College Motto and Crest 393

Two: Governors 396

Three: Principals 398

Four: Headmasters 399

Five: Quarter-Century Club 400

Six: Head Boys 402

Seven: Editors of The College Times 405

Eight: J. Herbert Mason Medal Winners 407

Nine: Commanding Officers of the Cadets 412

Ten: Head Stewards 414

Eleven: Head Prefects' Trophy Winners 415

Selected Bibliography 4 1 7
Notes 426
Index 455

Foreword

H.R.H. THE DUKE OF EDINBURGH

EDUCATION IS THE MOST IMPORTANT FACTOR in the development
and continuation of a civilized and humane society. To be able to
look back on 150 years of providing the highest standards of educa-
tion is a very proud record and I know that all the admirers of Upper
Canada College are delighted that the anniversary is being recognized
by the publication of the history of the College in Colborne's Legacy.
There could be no more knowledgeable and sympathetic author than
Richard Howard, who experienced eleven years as a boy at Upper
Canada College and thirty-six years on the staff.

Arguments about the form and structure of education will never
cease, but there will always be a significant proportion of any free soci-
ety which believes that the brightest young people should have the
opportunity to benefit from the best possible education. The somewhat
chequered career of Upper Canada College recorded in this book
reflects the intensity of the debate about education in Ontario over the
last 150 years, but the remarkable feature of the College is that no mat-
ter what the political, financial, or administrative difficulties, the aca-
demic, moral, and sporting standards were never allowed to fall below
the very best.

The celebration of the 150th Anniversary is a tribute to all those
who have kept the College going in good times and bad; but schools
exist for the future. Fashions and attitudes may change, but so long as
the Upper Canada College boy of the future fits roughly into the
description given by John Ross Robertson in the nineteenth century, all
will very definitely be well.

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

To paraphrase the quotation in Chapter Three, I hope the boy of
the future will also be "a sort of medium boy, an average all round
youth, one who could converse with a computer with one eye open,
translate at sight the best of French literature into decent English, ren-
der political issues in everyday speech (and perhaps use Anglo-Saxon
too freely in so doing), see clear through a mathematical problem, and,
after thus performing his duties to himself and parents, swing a cricket
bat, run a foot race, jump a hurdle, swim across the bay, enjoy a pillow
fight, and then declare that if he were a member of Parliament he
would pass an act to hang old Morgan who provisioned the boarding
house with steak that was an infringement upon an india-rubber
patent "

Preface

7^his BOOK is written as part of the 150th Jubilee of Upper Canada
College. Its shortcomings are a result of both the author's inadequa-
cies and the magnitude of information available on UCC, especially
during the nineteenth century when it was surely one of the most con-
troversial topics on the political and educational scene of Ontario. Re-
ports and correspondence, debates and legislation about the College
abound in the Public Archives of Canada, the Ontario Archives, the
Baldwin Room at the Toronto Public Library, the University of To-
ronto Archives, the Legislative Library, the Robarts Library and the
College records themselves, to say nothing of the hearts and minds of
ex-students. The problem was what to leave out.

The story divides naturally into two parts: from 1829 to l900 when
UCC was a government school, and from 1900 to the present, its inde-
pendent phase. Following a suggestion by Professor G. M. Craig, many
chapters were paired: one chapter on the administrative problems, the
second on life in the school. Some areas of College life take on a special
vitality of their own, and rather than intersperse them with other
material, they are given separate sections at the end.

Four areas of UCC life have been very sparingly treated, largely for
reasons of time and space. They are the College's contribution to the
two world wars, university honours, famous Old Boys, and games, espe-
cially first-team statistics and details. It is hoped that too much disap-
pointment will not be felt at these omissions. The Old Boys at war
deserve a much deeper and more lasting tribute than could be fitted
into these pages. The university honours have not been seriously dealt

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

with for several reasons. The enormous number is an obvious one. The
state of competition is another reason: in its early years UCC had a vir-
tual monopoly of university honours; there was no other institution pro-
ducing students for what we would call post-secondary education. By
contrast, at the present time there are so many Ontario Scholarships it
is almost impossible to make any kind of judgment of the standards
required to win one. All that needs to be said is that the College has
striven for a high standard of academic attainment and has an honour-
able record. In regard to Old Boys in after-school life, over 15,000 stu-
dents have left the College, a large number of whom have become rich
or famous (or infamous) or successful or all three. The educational mer-
its of UCC and the subsequent careers of its graduates have never been
proved to be causally connected. Moreover, education cannot be mea-
sured accurately in terms of product. It is really a process of moving
from cocksure ignorance to thoughtful uncertainty. The subject, there-
fore, calls for an entire volume on its own as do the voluminous sports
records. To repeat: what do you omit?

Source notes created a dilemma. To omit them altogether in a book
based totally on researched material would be wrong. To footnote
everything in the manner of a doctoral thesis would make the text unat-
tractive to the average reader. It is hoped that the compromise achieved
is satisfactory not only to such a reader but also to the academic com-
munity, the members of which are not the book's primary audience.

Acknowledgements

A volume SUCH AS THIS is inevitably a team effort. Although the
author may be the captain, he had better listen carefully to the
crew's advice or the ship is headed for the rocks. Carrying the
analogy a little further, as the ship nears port, the captain must prepare
a vote of thanks to the crew. He looks for some way to steer between the
Scylla of the Hollywood Oscar variety and the Charybdis of saying
nothing, thereby claiming all the credit for the trip. On the whole I
prefer Scylla, even with six heads and twelve feet.

The largest debt is owed to the Canadian historians and academics
who shared their time, their wisdom, and themselves without stint:
J. H. Biggar; Alf Chaiton, whose special interest is W. L. Grant; Terry
Cook, an expert on George Parkin; Gerald M. Craig, who is writing the
first half of the history of the University of Toronto; Robert Gidney,
whose insight into Ontario's educational history is profound; Robin
Harris, the co-author of the University of Toronto's history; William
Kilbourn; Gerald Killan; Bruce Litteljohn; and above all George
Glazebrook.

Too much credit cannot be given to archivists across Ontario and in
Lennoxville who went out of their way to help this project, especially
Robert Taylor- Vaisey of the University of Toronto, who developed an
exceptional curiosity about Upper Canada College, and William Coo-
per of the Ontario Archives. The research of David Keane and Aurelia
Shaw, Gerald Ranking, Sandra Ryder, and Pamela Tate helped me
immeasurably, as did the concern of Wallis King, Robert Pepall, and
H. A. Roberts. Michael Carver and Timothy Ryder supplied photo-

xin

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

graphic expertise. The enthusiastic and accurate typing of Carole Col-
lier, Mary Foley, Christine Garment, and Carole Laidlaw was supple-
mented by Isobel Smith's endless photocopying: all of this was indis-
pensable. The deep personal interest and cheerful support of Robert
Kilpatrick and the kindly but judicious blue pencils of Sydney Wooll-
combe and Patricia Kennedy kept the ship on course, and for the
design I am indebted to the talent of Richard Miller. To Robert and
Nancy Elgie I owe a particular word of gratitude for the use of their
Eastbourne Shangri-la. Many thanks to Michael Turner, a special mes-
senger of utmost dependability through rain and shine, and to Joseph
Vankay, whose Christmas pencil wrote the whole thing.

Many members of the College community wrote to me or allowed
themselves to be interviewed; I am much in their debt.

Finally a salute to my colleagues, who allowed me to get on with it.

R.B.H.

xiv

Introduction

7 "'HIS IS THE STORY OF UPPER CANADA COLLEGE, a unique and, by
Canadian standards, ancient school. Over the space of fifteen decades
it has lurched unsteadily from crisis to crisis, on several occasions
coming close to its end. Its survival is owed to several factors, which will
emerge as the history unfolds. Some facts about the College should be
remembered.

It was conceived by, and saw the light of day through, the imagina-
tion and determination of a single man: Major-General Sir John Col-
borne. It was not at its inception, nor has it ever been, intended as an
exclusive, rich man's school; for decades its fees were relatively modest.
It has never had any official religious affiliation. From its opening in
January 1830 until November 1900 it was anything but an independent
or private school: it was a provincial grammar school, an anomaly in
the system, to be sure, but nevertheless heavily dependent on govern-
ment funds. Until it attained its freedom in 1900, it never had a charter
of its own, spending most of its life as an appendage to the University of
Toronto. During the nineteenth century virtually all the personnel
appointments were made by the Lieutenant-Governor (or the Governor
General) on the advice of a committee or council or board. In the late
eighties and early nineties the Minister of Education virtually ran the
institution.

Today's College is in so many ways different from that first College.
And yet, under all the stress and strain, two things have remained
almost untouched: its primary goal and the means of reaching it. The
goal — high academic attainment and the full development of each boy.

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

The means — a faculty of remarkable talent, versatility, eccentricity,
devotion, and, often, longevity. The goal has been obscured from time
to time and there have been exceptions among the teachers, but in
those two elements, ucc 1979 and ucc 1829 bear a singular resem-
blance.

xvi

SECTION A

The Anomaly

CHAPTER ONE

Setting

1791-1828

F^OR FORTY YEARS before Upper Canada College was founded, edu-
■" cation was a subject of lively interest among the inhabitants of the
Province of Upper Canada. As the province filled and the governing
structures became firmer, the educational system was developed and
shaped by several conflicting influences.

The first factor was the dual character of the United Empire Loyal-
ists who began settling in what is now Ontario in the 1780s. On the one
hand, they had fled from a New World society that had strongly condi-
tioned them to democratic principles; on the other hand, they were
deeply loyal to the Crown and other British institutions. Some of them
were used to life in the Thirteen Colonies, where there were grammar
schools, colleges, and universities; they arrived in a province which had
none. (The first school was started in Kingston in 1786.) In the 1790s
the chief source of immigrants continued to be the United States, and
many of the early teachers in Upper Canada were American. Thus,
American republicanism vied with Lieutenant-Governor Simcoe's con-
cept of an ideal British colony.

A second influence was Governor Simcoe's personal view of the role
of education. At the same time as he was encouraging settlement from
across the American border, he was corresponding with the British gov-
ernment about the kind of education that seemed most important to
him — "the education of the superior classes."1 He believed that educa-
tion for the "lower" orders did not matter much. Schools for the higher
class, being more expensive and more urgent, needed help from Britain.
If such help did not come, children would go to school in the United

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

States — a thing to be avoided at all costs. Simcoe's beliefs stemmed from
his own background — Eton, Oxford, Church of England, Tory — and
had a powerful influence on Ontario educational history. His concern
was the education of the country's leaders; this was to be accomplished
through grammar schools stressing the classics, and a university. In
those days before a public school system evolved, the question Why
have schools at all? would have been answered thus: to produce a civi-
lized and competent elite equipped to preserve and extend Christian
civilization in the New World; to preserve and extend British political
institutions as a bulwark against American republicanism and democ-
racy; and to promote the aims of the churches. This desire for a classical
education for the few was contrasted with the frontier philosophy of
pragmatism: practical solutions to everyday problems. The debate
about these opposing purposes of education is still alive today.

Simcoe did not succeed in persuading the British government to
finance a system to educate leaders for the colony. It was not until 1798,
after he had left Upper Canada, that a large land endowment was set
aside for the establishment of free grammar schools in each district of
the province and then, in the process of time, "other seminaries of a
larger and more comprehensive nature"2 — generally interpreted to
mean a university. In fact, the sum of money required to build all these
institutions would have far exceeded the funds to be realized from the
land grant; at that time the grant yielded barely enough to cover the
cost of a single grammar school. (People were not going to buy or lease
the educational land when they could obtain other land virtually for
the asking.)

By 1807 grammar schools were set up in the eight districts of the
province; the teacher received £100 annually, and the students paid
fees. These schools were, except in York, mainly boarding-schools for
the well-to-do, usually staffed by Anglican clergymen and in the classi-
cal tradition. They were important because the colony needed educated
leaders; there was no university and the common schools were in a
wretched state. Their weaknesses were their cost and their location:
they were limited to those who lived reasonably close or could afford to
board. York itself contained the Home District Grammar School, also

SETTING

known as the Royal Grammar School. (In order to have one especially
good school in each province, the British government had created two
Royal Grammar Schools which offered £200 salary per year, in addi-
tion to the normal £100. The Upper Canada school had been in King-
ston, but Lieutenant-Governor Maitland had moved it to York by
1825.) To supplement the grammar schools, private schools were
started in many parts of the province — Kingston, Niagara, Napanee,
Port Hope, Belleville — a few of which were excellent, many of which
were grim. By 1816 there were about two hundred of these of different
sizes, both day and boarding.

Yet another strong influence on education in the young colony was
religion. The Church of England, to which belonged the lieutenant-
governors and most members of the executive legislative councils, sup-
ported the concept of an educational system dominated by the state and
the established church; that is, their church. Almost no one questioned
religious domination of education, but many questioned domination by
the Anglicans, who not only were not "established" but were not even
in the majority. The most powerful opponents were the Methodists,
who had considerable rural support and many of whose clergy were
American-trained.

Finally, in government, there was seldom agreement between the
executive and the legislature on matters concerning education. An
Anglican, Tory oligarchy, misnamed the Family Compact, had a stran-
glehold on the executive branch of government; moreover, the execu-
tive was not responsible to, and in the fact had a veto power over, the
House of Assembly, where a variety of opinions were represented. The
Family Compact consisted of a dozen or so well-to-do families who were
tied together, not by blood or economic ties, but by a common ideology.
The basis of their power was political, and they dominated the affairs of
the Province of Upper Canada throughout the early eighteen-hun-
dreds.

The most powerful man in Upper Canada at this time was John
Strachan. He was a Scotsman, the most brilliant teacher of his time in
the colony. He had run a grammar school in Cornwall for some years
before he came to York in 181 2 to take over the Home District Gram-

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

mar School. Many of the Family Compact were former pupils of
his — John Beverley Robinson, Peter Robinson, James Macaulay, the
Boultons, and others. In addition to his educational expertise, Strachan
was an archdeacon in the Anglican Church and a member of both the
executive and legislative councils.

With all the confusion and uncertainty in education, Strachan was
the one man who could impose a pattern and conceive of an entire sys-
tem. He was not concerned simply with the elite: he wanted a univer-
sity for all denominations, he wanted to strengthen the district
grammar schools, and he wanted good common schools everywhere. He
also wanted a central board of education, with himself at the head, to
run the system. In 1815 he produced a comprehensive report on educa-
tion; this formed the basis for the Common School Act of 1816, itself the
foundation of the provincial system for twenty- five years.

The lieutenant-governor from 1818 to 1828 was Peregrine Mait-
land, a man whose views coincided with Strachan's. In 1823, on Mait-
land's recommendation, a Board for the General Superintendence of
Education was formed. The first president was Strachan; the other five
members were all Anglicans and closely associated with him. The
board's job was to sell lands, engage teachers, and supervise the school
system. The board was never popular because of its Tory, Anglican
flavour and it lasted for only ten years.

Soon after the board was formed, Strachan began to give more con-
sideration to higher education — namely, the university which Simcoe
had hoped for thirty-five years before. The purposes of such a university
were clear: to propagate British, Tory principles; to train local clergy-
men; and to stop the drain of students going to the United States for
their higher education. Strachan's original plans for this university
were, for that period, liberal from the religious point of view; in Britain
they were seen as too liberal. Thus the charter for the University of
King's College, granted by Britain in March 1827, had Anglican char-
acteristics which raised howls of protest in the colony. A year later the
university received almost 226,000 acres of land as an endowment. This
was the university's legitimate share of the original 1 798 land-grant for
education, but it did not go down well with those who remembered that

SETTING

the grammar schools, not the university, had been the prime target of
the original grant. A King's College Council, with Strachan as presi-
dent, was formed to oversee the proposed university. The British Colo-
nial Office, recognizing the strength of the opposition to the university,
backed away and threw the problem into the lap of the colonial legisla-
ture.

This, then, was the situation in York and Upper Canada when Gov-
ernor Maitland was recalled in 1828: in politics, a highly charged
atmosphere of suspicion and distrust between the executive and the
legislature; in religion, a small, Tory, Church of England oligarchy
standing off a more numerous group of heterogeneous Christian denom-
inations accusing it of a monopoly of wealth and privilege; in educa-
tion, a somewhat impoverished school system with much unsaleable
land and a stalled university; overall, a general feeling of loyalty to the
Crown, plus a mixed envy and fear of a more populous and dynamic
United States, whose culture, if not armies, might overwhelm the prov-
ince.

Maitland's successor took this legacy and gave to it the special
flavour of his own experience and character. He found a short-term
solution to one political problem by creating another longer-term prob-
lem: Upper Canada College.

CHAPTER TWO

Beginnings

1828-1838

ON THE afternoon of November 4, 1828, Major-General Sir
John Colborne stepped off the steamboat Canada on to the main
wharf of the town of York, to be greeted by his retiring predeces-
sor, Peregrine Maitland. The oaths of office were administered at three
o'clock. Upper Canada's new lieutenant-governor had arrived.

Born on February 16, 1798,' Colbourne had attended two of Eng-
land's greatest public schools, Christ's Hospital and Winchester. He
had been a mediocre student, who had chiefly distinguished himself
during one of the frequent uprisings at Winchester by hurling stones
down at the masters — the basis, so he said, for his future military career.
He had joined the army at sixteen, campaigned with Sir John Moore in
Spain, and been a hero at Waterloo. In 182 1 he had become the lieu-
tenant-governor of Guernsey, where he spent much time and energy
reviving Elizabeth College. This public school, founded in 1563, had
fallen into decay under deplorable management, and the enrolment
had dropped to only sixteen. A local businessman had written to Col-
borne with ideas for a complete reform of the school. Sir John had
stepped in, had corrected some of the irregularities, but still had not
been satisfied. In 1823 he had appointed a committee to inquire into
such abuses as remained. The committee's sweeping proposals were
accepted, and the next year the college had opened on a new footing
with thirty-eight students, the first two of whom had been James and
Francis Colborne. Elizabeth College, which became the pattern for
Upper Canada College, still flourishes, with a student body of almost
seven hundred.

BEGINNINGS

With this experience behind him, Col borne came to Canada: a life-
long soldier, brilliantly successful, and a man of sterling character; but,
despite Guernsey, he was not really an educational expert nor an astute
politician. He found York much as described — dominated by a reac-
tionary oligarchy, which was in turn dominated by Strachan.

Unlike his predecessor, however, Colborne was not impressed by the
Family Compact. He took three or four weeks to settle in and assess the
situation before sending a message about his educational ideas to the
King's College Council. This body, chaired by Strachan, had been
meeting for six months, but had suspended operations pending Col-
borne's arrival. On December 6, 1829, Sir John declared to them his
intention of altering the Royal Grammar School in York to make it
"accessible to all"2 and to prepare students for King's College when
that institution should come into existence. In his view improvement in
the grammar-school situation was the most important item on the edu-
cational agenda.

Three weeks later he abruptly and rather brutally suspended the
university charter, dumbfounding the members present. Although he
had instructions3 from London which encouraged such a move, Col-
borne refused to let his advisers see them. From this point on, his course
of action was independent both of his superiors in Whitehall, who were
exasperated by him, and of his councillors in York, who were baffled. It
followed the direction Simcoe had indicated forty years before in its
devotion to the need for the education of the superior classes.

Having delivered his bombshell, Colborne returned to the theme in
his speech from the throne, January 8, 1829. He planned to reform the
Royal Grammar School and incorporate it with the university, the one
preparing students for the other. He mentioned wishing to attract able
masters to this country, evidently assuming, without much time to
gather evidence on the subject, that there was a shortage of them in the
province. The House of Assembly warmly approved of this scheme and
appointed a select committee to look into education generally, to sug-
gest changes, and to report on the practicability of putting Colborne's
idea into operation. The Legislative Council also approved the plan,

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

though more coolly, asking Sir John for his instructions, which he
refused to reveal.

Golborne hammered away at the same tune all through January, to
both the House of Assembly and the Legislative Council. He also sug-
gested that the university charter should be amended to connect the
Royal Grammar School with King's College in such a way that the
school's chief support might depend on the funds of the King's College
endowment. It is clear that during this legislative session Colborne was
solving in his own unique way the educational dilemma in which the
colony found itself. The two legislative houses could not agree about the
university, and the British government refused to make a decision. By
suspending the university charter, Colborne pleased the House of
Assembly, who jumped at his solution. He also threw a bone to the Leg-
islative Council by offering a superior school that resembled the univer-
sity they were losing. In other words, his new school was to be a classic
political compromise.

Towards the end of the sitting, the House of Assembly reported to
Colborne their further thoughts on the reformed grammar school: it
should be free from sectarian influence; it should not be incorporated
with the university; and it should be called "Colborne College."4 The
most able masters should be hired; the fees should be low; and King's
College funds should be used. They hoped it would be economical and
would start soon, but they questioned whether York was the best place
for it. Only some of their wishes were granted.

The Legislative Council, on the other hand, recommended not
interfering with the King's College endowment.

Having laid the foundations for his new school in York, Colborne
moved swiftly to secure his position in England. On March 31, 1829, he
wrote two letters, one to R. W. Hay, permanent under-secretary for the
colonies, the other to Dr. Jones, vice-chancellor of Oxford. In these two
letters, Upper Canada College was actually conceived — the name is
mentioned for the first time. Nine months and four days later it was
born.

The letter to Hay went over familiar ground: Colborne's disagree-
ment with Strachan and his group about the university; the lack of a

BEGINNINGS

school to prepare boys for it; his faith in an excellent school attracting
boys from every part of the province; his distrust of American educa-
tion; his desire to fit students for the professions. Getting down to spec-
ifics, he had three main concerns. First of all, he was convinced that he
must import good masters from England. Second, he had decided to sell
at least one of the nine townships (549,000 acres) that were set apart for
the endowment of schools, for the support of "the Upper Canada
College."5 Third, he had worked out in rough detail the financial
arrangements. The principal would get the enormous6 sum of £600 per
annum, a house, and the right to take boarders. He would take the
principal of the Royal Grammar School and make him vice-principal.
He decided on £8 as an annual fee, and coolly suggested an annual gov-
ernment grant of £1,000 from the land sales of the Canada Company.

His letter to Jones specified his ideas about the masters. He wanted
from England, besides a principal, three classical masters and a mathe-
matical master to fill out his faculty of ten, which included two French
masters, two writing masters, and a drawing master. This was an
absurdly extravagant arrangement not only in numbers but in salaries:
the junior classical men and the mathematician were to have £300 per
annum each, a house, and boarders. Colborne also caused £1,500 to be
sent to England to cover expenses for the masters, whose salaries began
on embarkation. His letter to Dr. Jones, the first official record we have
that Colborne's intentions had crystallized, was tabled by John
Strachan before a meeting of the Board for the General Superinten-
dence of Education on April 4, 1829.

How was this new school going to be paid for? Colborne reckoned
the annual salary expense to be £2,500 — a prodigious amount for one
grammar school. Revenue was to come from a variety of sources: one
hundred pupils at £8 each; the government grant of £100 for one
teacher plus £200 for the principal of the Royal Grammar School; the
sale or lease of the grammar-school ground, which he thought should
yield £400; the sale of Seymour Township — £500; and the imperial
grant of £1,000. This would give a surplus (soon proved illusory) of
£550. The Royal Grammar School, or Old Blue School as it was known,
stood in College Square, six acres of ground bounded by Church, Ade-

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

laide, Jarvis, and Richmond streets. The Executive Council began con-
sidering the division of this area into lots to be sold to create a fund to
help pay for the new buildings, reckoned to cost £5,000.

There was much chatter in the town about the new school. York at
the time had a population of about twenty-three hundred, and the pro-
spects of a luxurious alternative to the suspended university must have
been puzzling. In a percipient moment Robert Stanton, the King's
Printer, saw UCC as in fact a rival of King's College, though it was not
intended to be anything but a preparatory school for it. George Mark-
land, a crony of Strachan's and a member of three councils — executive,
legislative, and King's — was critical of the new development because he
thought few people could afford to send several sons to both a prepara-
tory school and a university. He felt that the provincial grammar
schools would have made better preparatory schools.

The Board of Education wanted the site for the proposed extrava-
gance to be on Peter Street at the end of King, but Colborne wanted it
in the more convenient Russell Square, bounded by King, Simcoe, Ade-
laide, and John streets. Colborne got his way, and in May tenders were
called for buildings on the Russell Square site.

When the first tenders were too high, the completion date was
extended to August I, 1830, and the whole exercise had to be done
again. Finally, the contract was awarded to Matthew Priestman for
£5,268. J. G. Chewett, who had designed the legislative buildings and
had been an old pupil of Strachan's, was the architect.

Since the completion date was now well on in 1830, and Colborne
was anxious to start the school immediately, temporary quarters were
needed. The Old Blue School7 was shifted to a 70' by 120' plot at the
south-west corner of Jarvis and Lombard (then a street of ill-repute) in
early August, for the sum of £64. The building was repaired and fitted
up with a separate room for each master, an unheard of procedure in
an Ontario school.

Towards the end of 1829 Colborne continued to write to Murray
and Hay in England converting them to the cause: the Royal Gram-
mar School at York was bad and needed to be reformed; a superior
school was required; the province was wealthy enough to support it;

BEGINNINGS

Upper Canada College graduates would counteract the democratic
influences entering the province; and so on. This sort of propaganda
was doubtless necessary, since it was becoming increasingly obvious that
the College was to be an expensive operation from all points of view.
Murray wrote to Colborne in September expressing considerable exas-
peration and concern. He conceded the wisdom of Colborne's decisions
regarding King's and the superior grammar school. At the same time,
however, he regretted Colborne's actions in engaging masters and
incurring other expenses without consulting him first. There was virtu-
ally no Canada Company money, and therefore no grant from the terri-
torial revenue. Colborne was asked not to spend any more money until
further notice.

It was, of course, too late to turn back, or even to cut back very
much. Colborne's friends in England had been busy engaging masters
while he was getting on with arrangements in York. William Boulton of
Queen's College, Oxford, had been appointed a classical master in July
and advanced £100. On September 29 the French master, J. du P. De
la Haye, was the first to arrive in York, eager to see his new house,
which his agent had told him would be free of all expense. George
Anthony Barber, the English master from the Royal Grammar School,
was appointed Receiver of the College Dues, of which he could keep 3
per cent plus £25 cash instead of a house. By year's end, advances to
masters totalled well over the £1,500 set aside.

An annoucement for the January opening of the College appeared
in the Canada Gazette of December 17, 1829. The course of instruction
included classics, mathematics, English composition and history, writ-
ing and arithmetic, geography and French. Only drawing was optional.
It was made clear that those who completed the course would be pre-
pared for university, while those who did not would be qualified for
business.

The government of this extraordinary project was vested in a board
of managers designated the "President, Directors, and Trustees"8 of
Upper Canada College; in reality the group turned out to be the Board
for the General Superintendence of Education, whose president was

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

John Strachan. There was no other group to which supervision could be
entrusted.

The key to the College's survival lay in the men sent for by
Colborne — the "cargo of masters"9 and their successors down through
the years. The most important element in any school system is the peo-
ple in the classroom; success or failure lies in their qualities. It seems
that Colborne made no effort to find teachers close at hand; perhaps,
given the generally low status of the profession in Upper Canada, good
men would have been hard to find. In any event, the group of Cantab-
rian masters collected in York by November 1829 must have presented
a startling picture to the small and isolated settlement. The first princi-
pal, the Reverend Joseph H. Harris, DD, age twenty-nine, had distin-
guished himself as a Fellow of Clare Hall and was much at ease in the
classics. The vice-principal, the Reverend Dr. Thomas Phillips of
Queen's College, Cambridge, was a student of the Latin poet Horace
and had been principal of the Royal Grammar School, where his stu-
dents used the same grammar and textbooks as at Eton. The Reverend
Charles Mathews of Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, was a brilliant classi-
cal scholar, proficient in Hebrew, and well known to Lord Byron and
Wordsworth. He was fond of inventing epigrams such as, "People
should map their minds as well as mind their maps."10 The Reverend
William Boulton, son of Mr. Justice Boulton of York, was second classi-
cal master. The Reverend Charles Dade of St. John's and a fellow of
Caius, Cambridge, had earned a first-class degree in the Mathematical
Tripos and was also a fine classicist. Mr. De la Haye, an experienced
French teacher from St. Malo who had taught in England, was known
mainly for his poor discipline and enormous stock of canes. Mr. George
Anthony Barber, a teacher of English, writing, and arithmetic at the
District Grammar School since 1825, became famous to the cricketing
fraternity as the father of Canadian cricket. Little is said of Mr. Drew-
ry, who painted around Niagara Falls and the White Mountains, or of
Mr. (later Reverend) J. W. Padfield. From this base of talent there
developed a striking, long-lived homogeneity in the core personnel of
Upper Canada College — English, Anglican, classical, and clerical, with
a distinct leaning to Cambridge." Boulton, the only Oxford man, prob-

BEGINNINGS

ably was hired because of local connections. Colborne's British commit-
tee, all like-minded to him, chose masters who were not in fact experi-
enced teachers, but who probably became good ones. In all the furor
surrounding the College's founding, funding, and administration over
the next sixty years, there was relatively little criticism of the actual
teaching.

Thus, Upper Canada College was conceived and brought to life, not
by committee, not by a consensus of the best and brightest, but spring-
ing like Athene out of the head of one decisive, strong-willed, arrogant
man, who was not very knowledgeable about either education or the
environment in which he was operating, and in opposition to the brain-
child of another decisive, headstrong, arrogant man who knew more
about education and the local scene than anyone else. One wonders
whether Colborne had not already decided on the College's format
before he arrived in York. Whether he considered alternatives, we shall
never know. It would have been unlikely for him to give much thought
to the sad state of the common schools, but to have put money and
thought into the province-wide strengthening of the grammar schools
would have been a statesmanlike act. It seems not to have occured to
him; perhaps he was hypnotized by his successful Guernsey technique.
Again, sending to England for masters, when there were probably half a
dozen fine men in Upper Canada already, was a curious touch. If he
was in a hurry, local appointments could have saved much time. "We
cannot expect to succeed except we obtain Masters of reputation from
England."12 Was this the insecurity of the new boy looking for support
from home, or had he done his homework and found the colonies
wanting? No matter; his decisions about building-site, masters, and
endowment were his and his alone. Perhaps everything could and
should have been done differently, but not by Sir John. We see him,
once again, at Waterloo wheeling the entire 52nd Regiment without
any orders from his superior officer and breaking the French Imperial
Guard. We see him rebuilding the ancient edifice of Elizabeth College.

What Colborne's curious educational creature was, nobody quite
knew. They did not even know what to call it: The College of Upper
Canada, Colborne College, Minor College, Upper Canada College and

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

Royal Grammar School. It little resembled any English public school.
It was not private nor was it public, though it received funds from the
sale of public lands. It had a strong Anglican bias to its teaching staff,
but it was non-denominational. Altogether it was unique, an exotic tree
on muddy Canadian soil.

On January 4, 1830, the Old Blue School was ready for its new
identity. On that day, fifty-seven boys trudged through the snow to
meet two old acquaintances — Phillips and Barber — and seven new
ones. The year before, the Royal Grammar School had also had an
enrolment of fifty-seven. Whether the two groups were identical, it is
impossible to say, but it is certain that the College took over most of the
grammar school's pupils. Two boys lived with De la Haye, five with
Phillips, one with Padfield, and four lodged in the town. The age
groupings were promising: twenty-six entered the preparatory school,
seven went to the first form, nine to the second form, six to the third,
seven to the fourth, and two to the top form. Throughout January and
February new pupils dribbled in, so that by the end of the first term'3
the total enrolment was eighty-nine, of whom seventy lived at home.
Half the boys were in the preparatory.

The roll-call included just about everybody who was anybody in
York. The first boy enrolled was Henry Scadding, who became head
boy for four successive years and later returned to teach for a long time.
Archdeacon Strachan's sons were second and seventh on the roll. John
Beverley Robinson and his brother were tenth and eleventh. There
were two Powells and two Sherwoods, two Denisons and three Jarvises,
four Ridouts and three Richardsons, a Boulton, a Ketchum, and three
Hewards. Many of these boys reached positions of responsibility and
influence in the life of the colony when they grew up. It was not Col-
borne's intention, however, to attract only the sons of the Family Com-
pact. The fees of £8 for day boys and £25 for boarders were reasonable
enough that a relatively broad segment of society could attend. Never-
theless, grammar schools were known as the schools for the well-to-do,
and Upper Canada College was clearly something over and above an
ordinary grammar school. The very name "College" gave it almost the
status of a university; it had a principal, not a headmaster. From the

BEGINNINGS

day it opened it reflected the image of exclusiveness which it never lost.
It began to attract critical attention of segments of the community not
sympathetic to a somewhat aristocratic tradition, and eventually it was
almost destroyed by jealousy and envy.

The College from the beginning had high academic standards and,
before it was two months old, drew admiring glances from as far away
as New York. The Albion noted the plan of instruction that was similar
to that at Eton and Westminster, the low fees yet attractive salaries
which had brought men from Oxford and Cambridge, and "the thor-
ough grounding in the classical authors" which had produced so many
English leaders.14 (As a matter of fact the curriculum was not a far cry
from that which Strachan had drawn up for the district grammar
schools many years before.)

If the curriculum was good, the regulations were strict. In an age
when truancy was a problem, the College in theory would have none of
it. Punctuality was strictly required. Sickness and "domestic calam-
ity"'5 were the only excuses for absence. Pupils detained at home on
frivolous pleas for more than two or three periods lost their standing
and went to the bottom of the form.

Most new establishments undergo a period when their various ele-
ments are getting the feel of one another before settling into fixed rela-
tionships. The year 1830 was such a time for the College. The House of
Assembly agreed with Colborne that the general educational system
was poor, but after seeing the names in the opening enrolment, they
inveighed against the idea that the College would resemble some of the
exclusive European establishments that had caused so much unhappi-
ness there. That perennial gad-fly William Lyon Mackenzie wasted no
time in asking where the money was coming from. Colborne's response
was honest but scarcely diplomatic. Income at the moment was thin but
he promised to try to get for UCC an endowment which would "counter-
act the influence of local jealousies, or of ignorance, or vice to which, in
a new country, it may ... be exposed."'6 This message may not have
endeared Colborne to Mackenzie, but on March 2 the House of Assem-
bly passed, unanimously, "An Act to establish Upper Canada College."

John Strachan, having sent two of his sons to the College, observed

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

its first few weeks and proposed a series of very flattering resolutions in
the Legislative Council. He believed UCC was equal if not superior in its
appointments to any school in the mother country. The Legislative
Council supported Strachan, and congratulated the College, which,
they said, deserved that appellation. Because of the great benefits that
the College bestowed, they agreed unanimously that it should be put on
a permanent footing. They then turned around and rejected'7 the
Assembly's bill on the grounds that it was a university bill — too com-
prehensive, too complicated. UCC was "deemed" to be a university; the
bill called for a chancellor, professors, degrees, and so on. It was
designed as a protest against the King's College charter and, as such,
was doomed to failure. Upper Canada College received no charter of its
own; it was officially recognized in the King's College Charter of 1837.

The masters, too, were shaking down in their new environment. The
influx of Anglican divines caused a stir among the nearby churches,
some of which did not have resident clergymen. Mathews, Dade, and
Boulton were noted taking services without pay in churches as far away
as Thornhill, not only on Sundays but during long vacations. Dr. Har-
ris and Boulton wanted some improvement in their houses to the tune of
£60 to £75. Barber wanted a raise, which was refused. The members of
the classics department — Phillips, Mathews, and Boulton — questioned
Colborne about their position vis-a-vis Harris. They had thought they
were to be his colleagues; he was treating them as assistants or ushers.
De la Haye and Drewry, for their part, demanded to be seated in pray-
ers on the same level as the classical masters.

The financial situation was somewhat precarious, despite Colborne's
sanguine expectations. He went to great pains to keep in touch with
Murray in the Colonial Office to convince him that Upper Canada
College was an absolute necessity, and that though the expenses were
great, they should be greater yet. Murray concurred with the College's
foundation, though somewhat grudgingly: at least the university prob-
lem was temporarily shelved, which was a blessing, and he was happy
about the non-denominational aspect of the new school.'8 He insisted,
however, that the expense should be moderate, especially in buildings.
Colborne now pressed for more. He had obtained a £200 grant from the

BEGINNINGS

British government and now hinted that one of the townships set apart
for the maintenance of schools'9 might be appropriated as UCC's endow-
ment. He wanted eight exhibitions of £40 and ten scholarships of £25
each, all to run for four years and all to be paid for out of the King's
College endowment. He made it clear to the King's College Council
that King's College would not be built until he was satisfied that it
should be; in any case, no pupils would be ready for it for three years.

Murray agreed to increase the annual grant to £500 and to allow
the endowment of one township;20 he refused the request for scholar-
ships and exhibitions. This land endowment was of enormous conse-
quence. Though it was of little value in 1830, income from it helped the
College significantly in the eighteen-sixties and -seventies, and was the
cause of a province-wide outcry against the College for about twenty
years. Eventually most of it was taken over by the University of Toron-
to.

In December 1830 Murray was replaced as colonial secretary by
Lord Goderich. (Colborne had to deal with six colonial secretaries dur-
ing his seven years in office.) Goderich followed Murray's line: do noth-
ing about the university; grammar schools must be on a secure footing
first; the most important was the "Royal Grammar School of Upper
Canada."21 He was clearly provoked, however, by Colborne 's lack of
consultation, by the number of "professors," and by the size of the sala-
ries. Colborne was told firmly that he was not to increase the expense
"in the smallest degree" without permission.22

While this financial manoeuvring was going on, the new buildings
for Upper Canada College were slowly — very slowly — taking shape. As
early as April the building superintendent advised that the College
would never be finished by September. Priestman was given a little
extra time to fulfil his contract or lose his job. It was in vain. He seemed
uninterested in the operation, and there were unconfirmed reports that
he was "frequently incapable from intoxication."23 Colborne's aide-de-
camp, Captain Phillpotts, bustled officiously into the situation, declar-
ing that in his opinion the buildings should be torn down and started all
over again. John Ewart, the superintendent, demurred, and the board
supported Ewart. Priestman was fired and the work was pushed on.

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

Debentures and bank stock belonging to the board were sold to raise
money for the College's further demands. By year's end the building
costs had risen to approximately £10,000; eventually the cost was reck-
oned at double that.

It is not certain exactly when the College abandoned its temporary
site, but the school year 1831 began at the north-west corner of King
and Simcoe.24 William Dendy in Lost Toronto writes:

Chewett's design provided a two-storey block, with two simpler two-
storey pavilions ranged symmetrically to the east and west . . . the
grouping was systematic and hierarchical, for it placed the most
important element in the College — the block housing the classrooms,
prayer hall, and offices — at the centre and ranged the buildings of
lesser importance — the masters' and students' lodgings — on either
side.

All the UCC buildings were of red brick. Only the main block had
much architectural pretension, with its large porch supported on stone
piers and the windows ornamented with flat, ledge-like architraves
supported on scrolled consoles. . . . The centre block measured 80 feet
wide and 82 feet deep and contained offices and classrooms opening
off a central hall on both floors; in the northwest corner of the second
floor there was a "prayer room", with a dais for the masters and box
pews for each of the seven forms

The two blocks on either side of the main building were each dou-
ble houses for masters and boarding pupils. They were linked by units
set back from the south front, containing separate entrances and stair-
ways. The entrances — with plain but elegantly moulded frames form-
ing transoms and sidelights — faced north into the College's private
quadrangle, which gave an appropriate air of college seclusion.

Dr. Henry Scadding, an early chronicler of Toronto life, described
the inside:

The internal fittings and finish were of the most solid and unadorned
character. The benches for the classes were placed around the rooms
against the wall; they were movable, narrow and constructed of thick
planks in a very primitive fashion, as also were certain narrow tables.

BEGINNINGS

Each room was provided with a very large wood box set near the
capacious fireplace, to hold the huge masses of hard maple, beech, and
hickory used for fuel; there was also a plain, strong, movable lock-up
closet for the reception of loose books, maps, and papers. The masters'
desks were of heavy black walnut, the legs of each fastened by clamps
to a small platform of its own which might be shifted about with ease
on the floor. The wainscotting throughout the building was composed
of stout boards of irregular width hand-planed, and nailed on longitu-
dinally, all painted of a uniform drab colour. Rough usage was every-
where challenged, and a rough usage speedily came. Benches, tables,
and desks soon began to wear a very battered appearance. The wain-
scotting of the passages and other portions of the building was soon
disfigured by initials, and sometimes names, carved at full length in
accordance with a rude custom prevailing aforetime in English public
schools 25

As previously noted, a few boys boarded in town, a few lived with
masters — some of whom charged more than the going rate. As numbers
increased, so did the need for a separate boarding-house; it was built for
£1,200 in the summer of 1831. The first boy to enter the new establish-
ment was Alexander Powell, age unknown, who registered in October
of that year. A separate boarding-house has remained in existence ever
since, though boys continued to live with masters until 1857.

If 1830 was a year of settling in for Upper Canada College, 1831
was the year of truth, when attacks on the College began in earnest.
These assaults were based on three aspects of the operation: the Angli-
can flavour of the school, its classical curriculum, and its immense land
grant.

There is no doubt that ucc was seen as a Church of England insti-
tution. The masters could be of any denomination, and the curriculum
was free of sectarianism. Nevertheless, it was impossible to ignore the
fact that the Visitor26 (the Lord Bishop of Quebec), the principal, and
four masters were Church of England clergymen, and the members of
the governing board were Anglicans, as were the majority of the parents
and boys. The Methodists, led by the formidable Egerton Ryerson,
were very aware of this. The Conference of the Methodist Episcopal

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

Church, in late August 1830, adopted a resolution to choose a site for a
seminary of its own which would be for everybody, regardless of denom-
ination Ryerson, however, did not seek "endowments of public lands
contrary to the voice of the people."2' Colborne and Ryerson had a
bitter correspondence at the end of 183 1 which showed how deep the
religious differences cut. Colborne denounced the Methodist clergy on
several counts, defended a system of education which had produced the
leaders of the United Kingdom, and said he would not abandon it to
suit those "with neither experience nor judgment."28 Ryerson re-
sponded in kind, expressing a wide-spread view of the College: ". . . [it
was] established and placed under the sole direction of the Clergy of the

one Church "29

The curriculum was, of course, classical, and some people thought it
too limited and exclusive. A petition was presented to Colborne in July
1 83 1 by Robert Baldwin and eleven other citizens of York requesting a
more commercial course at cheaper rates. Colborne responded that the
College could not be all things to all people and that it was impossible
to lower the rates because the College was so expensive to run. Actually,
the principal did modify the curriculum somewhat a little later by
introducing a "partial" course for those not university bound; this
course included bookkeeping and commercial arithmetic. Despite this
departure, ucc's academic standard remained high.

It was the endowment which caused the greatest trouble. Having
received permission for the equivalent of one township, Colborne's idea
was for the King's College Council to pay the College's expenses, to sell
the land and receive the proceeds. Twenty thousand acres of the Col-
lege's endowment were set aside in trust for King's College until all
loans should be repaid. As soon as it became known around the prov-
ince that Upper Canada College was being so royally treated, petitions
began to come in from other centres such as London and Kingston;
they too wanted endowments. UCC was no help to them: very few could
afford "Minor College"; and very few wanted to send their children so
far away. There was another note of complaint— York was simply get-
ting too much. Why should two institutions— King's and UCC —both be

BEGINNINGS

given such special favours just because they were at the seat of
government?

A memorandum attached to a House of Assembly report dated Feb-
ruary 23, 1 83 1, tells the story. The claims of eleven district schools had
been sacrificed to Upper Canada College. The money spent in erecting
the buildings thought necessary for this "enormous school and the resi-
dences of its regiment of teachers . . . with lavish salaries"30 was enough
to have made all the district schools good enough for the whole prov-
ince's needs. There was "universal indignation and discontent." A sec-
ond issue was the change of name. Colborne was accused of saying,
"Look at me, not the King." A third issue was the suppression of eight
King's Scholarships which the old Royal Grammar School had had,
but ucc did not. Upper Canada College was on a scale out of all pro-
portion to the state of the colony; it spent money intended for all; it was
an attempt to destroy King's College and reduce the district schools to
contempt. Other schools should be made just as good. Idle UCC masters
should be posted to other schools to reduce expense. The memorandum
ended ominously: unless something was done, difficulties could be
expected during the next parliamentary session.

William Lyon Mackenzie's Colonial Advocate had something to say as
well. Mackenzie had attacked the expenses attached to the Home Dis-
trict School in 1827. About its successor, he was equally pungent: "The
college here at York in Upper Canada is most extravagantly endowed
. . . thousands of pounds are realized at will by its self-constituted man-
agers from the sale of school lots and school lands [in fact, not true] . . .
splendid incomes are given to masters . . . and dwellings furnished to the

professors ... by the sweat of the brow of the Canadian labourer The

College, already a monopoly, becomes almost an exclusive school. . . .
The College never was intended for the people "3I

Archdeacon Strachan could not make up his mind what to think
about the new school that had been thrust upon him. His ambition had
been to see a university founded. It had been aborted and a minor col-
lege had been substituted. As president of both the Board of Education
and the King's College Council, he was closely involved with Upper
Canada College's success or failure. In public, he was diplomatic, not-

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

ing the liberal salaries to attract Englishmen, the large endowment nec-
essary for such an expensive school, the helpfulness of the sale of the
original site towards the expenses. In private, he was less reserved. His
younger son, Alexander, was miserable at the unfair treatment in his
class. If a solution could not be found, Strachan threatened to withdraw
him. In June the boy was kept home from school because he had been
beaten over the head, shoulders, and hands, and was badly bruised.
Strachan's view of UCC's salary scale was straight to the point: they
were out of all proportion and "to give salaries to a Drawing and a
French Master is altogether preposterous."32 He regretted that Col-
borne had not asked for a separate endowment for the College, because
Strachan rightly foresaw the difficulties in taking it from the general
school land grant. He resented the interest shown in UCC, whose name
led people to think it was a university, a rival to his beloved King's.
Lastly, he supported the Baldwin view in regard to the classics: UCC
should offer two departments, leaving it to parents to choose classics or
not.

In the face of all these criticisms, Colborne came around more and
more to the view that a union of some kind between the school and the
university would be desirable, undoubtedly for financial reasons. He
wanted both to draw funds from the same endowment. He was deter-
mined that UCC would remain the best and most attractive school in
both provinces. As long as the masters were good, the best families
would send their sons to it. By October 1831 he was predicting that sev-
eral pupils would be ready for university the next year. Despite all the
propaganda, however, the same response kept coming back from
Whitehall: economy in all things.

Colborne's attitude was unrealistic considering the financial and
social limitations of a pioneer community. In attempting to develop a
school in York superior to those in the districts, he drew upon UCC a
good deal of hatred. The school survived, but it was never popular.

Heavy criticism of UCC continued through 1832, especially from
William Lyon Mackenzie, who drew up Articles of Impeachment
against Colborne for his conduct of the College. Strachan also com-
plained that UCC was encouraged while King's College continued to be

BEGINNINGS

restrained, although the former owed the latter £i 3,000. 33 The extrava-
gance surrounding the financial affairs of the College is demonstrated
by the fact that the teacher-training grant for provincial grammar and
common schools together was only £4,000.

In July the Board for the General Superintendence of Education
was dissolved by Lord Goderich. It met three times more between then
and March 1833, but the College really had little organized super-
vision during that period. Late in the year the Select Committee of the
House of Assembly met again, and conducted an inquiry as to the Col-
lege's usefulness to the community. It was evident that so much revenue
pouring into UCC and King's, both in York, was agitating the Assembly.
The committee suggested incorporating UCC with King's College and
starting another grammar school in the home district that was not so
classical; that way parents would have a choice.

In the late winter of 1833 it became clear that King's College was
going to take over UCC, whose encroachment on the original royal grant
was causing increasing bitterness. The College, labelled an institution
"not at all necessary and never contemplated by the King,"34 was
greatly in debt to King's. Although the loans were secured on UCC's
enowment, there was serious doubt that the money would ever be
repaid. The College endowment yielded nothing. There was no choice
but that the creditor annex the debtor. Colborne asked Strachan if the
King's College Council would agree to take over the direction of Upper
Canada College. Strachan agreed but made the point that UCC was
subsidiary to King's, and King's must be established as soon as possible.

Though the College's connection with King's College was a fore-
gone conclusion considering its finances, the connection caused consid-
erable confusion. Was the College a university, part of a university, or a
grammar school? The original royal grant had specified grammar
schools first, university later. If UCC was a grammar school it had a
right to part of that grant, but then it should not be spending university
funds. If it was part of the university, its expenditures were resented
because the grammar schools were supposed to come first. There was
some feeling that the College should actually become the university; its

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

buildings were big enough, and there would be a great saving of money
on university buildings.

Meanwhile, underneath the financial and political turmoil, the
masters were getting on with their jobs; the comedy and tragedy of
everyday life continued. According to Boulton's letters, the days were
long. He was up and dressed by six or seven and read or wrote until
7:45 prayers. Breakfast was at eight o'clock; then the teaching day ran
until four. After that, he conducted funerals, baptisms, and marriages
until dark, or he visited the hospital on half-days. In addition, he was
chaplain to the armed forces and secretary to a couple of committees. A
kindly man, Boulton was also concerned about the two bachelors, Dade
and Mathews. Like most married men, he wanted them married too;
but failing that he was anxious for them to move in with his family to
assuage their loneliness. Mrs. Boulton, the realist, wanted them to pay
handsomely for the privilege. She wrote from England, "remember,
that £80 a year each (at least) is not too much."35

In the spring of 1834 Phillips, the vice-principal, then almost sixty,
resigned to become rector of Weston. He had been one of the older mas-
ters, and "wished to spend the rest of his days in comfort."36 Colborne
recommended an allowance of £100, which took a long time coming
because the Colonial Office did not know where to take the money
from. A year later Phillips still had not received his allowance. He sent
a pitiful message to Colborne about his loss of income on being induced
to come to Canada, his nine children, his burst blood vessel, his
exhausted savings, and his short life expectancy. Phillips may have been
exaggerating his plight, but he deserved better treatment. He was the
first of a long line of ucc masters — government servants all — who had
to beg for retiring allowances, despite excellent, long-term service. At
almost the same time, Boulton died of pleurisy. As first classical master,
Mathews applied for the vice-principalship, but the office was discon-
tinued, not to be filled again for over seventy years. The post had been
another of Colborne's extravagances.

There were almost thirty applications for the two vacancies from all
over Ontario and Quebec, and one even came from Antigua. One
vacancy was filled by F. W. Barron, who later became principal; the

BEGINNINGS

second appointment never arrived. A special addition to the staff was
Thomas Young, Toronto's first city engineer, who later was the archi-
tect for King's College.

The year 1835 was Colborne's last full year as lieutenant-governor.
The battle to justify the College's existence continued to be fought over
the same trampled ground. In response to Mackenzie's diatribe that
UCC was "upheld at great public expense with high salaries to its princi-
pal Masters but the Province . . . derives very little advantage from it. It
might be dispensed with,"37 Colborne defended his actions. The district
schools still had their portion of the original grant; the university had
its share; UCC was certainly "a larger seminary"; there was, he insisted,
no cause for complaint. In his letters to the Colonial Office he pushed
hard for a new university charter, upon which he knew the two colonial
legislative houses would never agree. His comments that the College
had worked itself into favour and overcome most of its opposition were
remarkable considering the hostility in the Assembly and the fact that
Ryerson's Methodist seminary at Cobourg was almost completed. But
just to be on the safe side, Colborne wanted the College acknowledged
and thus protected in the university charter. Once this happened, he
felt its prosperity would be assured.

Unfortunately Lord Glenelg, the colonial secretary in December
1835, had been impressed with Mackenzie's account of UCC and took
issue with Colborne on several points. Glenelg did not go so far as
Mackenzie in opposing the very existence of the College; he simply
thought there was some "error of management"38 which could be reme-
died to make the College more useful. As a result of this exchange Gle-
nelg decided to recall Colborne. Almost simultaneously, the latter was
engaged in resigning; on January 21, 1836, he left Upper Canada.39

Given his background, character, and personality, Colborne's man-
ner of founding Upper Canada College is understandable. It meant,
however, that he left a two-sided legacy behind him. On the one hand,
the boys were well taught, and the loyalty of many of its graduates was
life-long. As well, many graduates did what Colborne had expected:
they became leaders in the provincial and national community. On the
other hand, because the College was so much his own personal vision

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

and because he did not take advice easily, it contained elements which
almost destroyed it. By not asking for a separate endowment, which he
might well have got, he embroiled the College in over fifty years of con-
troversy with the university and the grammar schools, both of which
firmly believed UCC had taken what rightly belonged to them. By mak-
ing the College so outrageously large and expensive, and by placing it
in York, he put it into debt for years and made it the object of envy and
hatred on the part of other schools all over the province. By importing
masters from England, he exhibited a disdain for local teachers which
was a characteristic of the College for many decades. Finally, by allow-
ing such an overwhelming proportion of the masters to be Anglican
clergymen, he tarred the College with a sectarian brush, negating his
farsightedness in making the College non-denominational.

Egerton Ryerson's Upper Canada Academy was to open on June I ,
1836, and Ryerson petitioned Lord Glenelg for financial assistance, cit-
ing the generous way UCC had been treated. He assessed UCC as princi-
pally for the children of persons connected with the government and of
the highest class of gentry; it conferred no particular benefit on the
common class, although he conceded it was of great advantage to the
province through the medium of the professions. The Academy was
designed to educate quite a different class of students. Ryerson's argu-
ments were in vain; the Academy received nothing. Ryerson sent his
own son, Charles, to UCC from 1863 to 1866 because of the good teach-
ing.

On March 4, 1837, a year after he had left Upper Canada, Col-
borne's wish came to pass: the King's College charter was amended.
The act stated that it was important "that the Minor or U.C. College
. . . should be incorporated with and form an appendage of the Univer-
sity of King's College."40 The principal was to be appointed by the
King, the vice-principal (if any) and masters were to be nominated by
the chancellor of King's College (the lieutenant-governor) and be sub-
ject to the approval of the King's College Council. Suspension or
removal followed the same procedure. For the next fifty years the uni-
versity and UCC had a common bursar and a common management

BEGINNINGS

and government; succeeding bursars occupied a house on the College
grounds for many years.

In 1838, following these changes, Harris resigned his post of princi-
pal. He had headed ucc for eight memorable years, and urged, by his
wife,4' he sought the living of a parish near Torquay in the rural quiet
of Devonshire. He had not had an easy time in York. Not only had he
started a new school in a new country, but he had seen it moved after a
year, had been constantly concerned about its financial status, and had
endured heavy criticism about its legitimacy. He had survived two chol-
era epidemics and Mackenzie's rebellion of 1837. He had never been
sure from one week to the next how many boys were going to turn up,
despite the strict rules about absenteeism, and students would leave the
school during holidays without a word, never to return. Colborne had
been his great support through his trials, and once Sir John had left,
Harris's enthusiasm waned.

Assessing his character in the absence of much evidence is difficult.
He does not seem to have been close to his associates at the College,
judging by his treatment of the classics department or of De la Haye
and Drewry in the early days. In 1833 Drewry and Padfield were said
to have given up their jobs because of Harris's tyrannical behaviour
towards them. He may have been a cold, aloof man. On the death of
Harris's first wife and elder child, Boulton had very much wanted to go
to him with sympathy, had Harris been "a different sort of person."42
On the other hand, John Strachan sent him a very long, warm letter of
appreciation on the eve of his departure. Harris had certainly worked
very hard to defend the College against the barrage of criticism to
which it was constantly subjected.

A year or two before his retirement, Harris wrote "Observations on
Upper Canada College" to answer as best he could three specific accu-
sations which had been hurled at UCC. The first was that an almost
exclusive attention was paid to the study of classics; the second, that
UCC was upheld at great public expense with high salaries to its princi-
pal masters but bestowed no great advantage to the province and that,
therefore, it could be dispensed with; the third, that it was educating
only the sons of the wealthiest inhabitants.

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

Harris's response to the first point was simple: he realized that there
were students who would not go to the university, and as a result, the
College courses had been changed throughout the years. The time for
classics had been cut back to less than half of the time spent by pupils at
any level. Many parents carried the wrong image of the school; they
thought all the time was spent on Latin and Greek; people simply did
not take the trouble to find out the facts. He then went on to describe in
some detail the actual curriculum.

Down through the years UCC has continued to suffer from the same
disease — people have a perception of it from the outside not shared by
those on the inside. Today, even with the marvels of instant communi-
cation, it is difficult enough to tell prospective parents what the school is
all about. In Harris's time it must have been that much harder, but one
wonders whether Harris used the media of the day to advantage. Were
curriculum changes fed to the press? Was the course of studies given to
the parents? And even if it were, would anyone have read it?

To the second accusation, a one-two punch concerning expense and
usefulness, Harris had several parries. As to expense, he said that sala-
ries were not as high as in similar institutions in England; in fact, he
thought they should be even higher to compensate the masters for com-
ing such a great distance. To people in Toronto this argument must
have seemed weak, unless they were all mesmerized by the idea that
teachers of stature could be found only from across the Atlantic. In any
event, Harris's comparison was inaccurate. Comparable teachers in
England made between £150 and £250. He may have been thinking of
himself in contrast to the headmaster of a great English public school.
Next, Harris asked if the quality of education at UCC could be procured
elsewhere for less. He argued that in an undeveloped country, a com-
prehensive education had to be provided somehow. Since the general
populace could not afford to support it, endowments were essential. A
taste and a demand for the higher pursuit of learning must be created
in a new community. His conclusion: a superior education is necessarily
an expensive commodity. Shades of 1979!

The usefulness question he handled by admitting that the greater
number of the College's pupils had always been from the city and

BEGINNINGS

neighbourhood, with perhaps thirty-five to forty per cent coming from
outside the city. The beneficial effects of the College education were
not, however, confined to Toronto but flowed out to the country at
large. Harris concluded this point, quite sensibly, by pointing out that
six years was far too short a time to judge of UCC's value to the commu-
nity.

Lastly, Harris dealt with the wealthy-student syndrome. He claimed
that the list of enrolment contradicted the charge and that the College
was accessible to almost every condition. The fact that the children of
the rich attended was no cause for complaint.

Harris's summation: UCC or some other similar institution was
indispensable, and since the colony could not afford to have one in all
eleven districts (nor was there a demand for so many), one institution
should be provided for all. It had to be built someplace and Toronto
was that place. UCC was founded to be a provincial institution and to
bridge the gap between the district schools and the university, a gap too
wide for pupils to jump without its existence.

Having answered his critics, Harris added that he favoured a uni-
form system between UCC and the district schools in order to get stu-
dents into university. He complained that no two district schools used
the same books or systems, and that the tremendous diversity set the
children back, especially if they wanted to enter the College. With a
unified district system, pupils could proceed smoothly from the district
schools to UCC, itself arranged "through successive degrees of advance-
ment,"43 and on to university.

In this context, Harris withdrew from ucc and turned its destiny
over to his unknown successor. The masters who had served under him
presented him with a silver inkstand, accompanied by a flattering
address. Harris replied that he was tired out at thirty-eight and that
"the labours of [the] present situation were too onerous to be relin-
quished with regret."44 His message to the boys, who gave him an ele-
gant silver vase, was to pursue their classical studies. Their response:
"Reverend and beloved Sir, farewell!"45

CHAPTER THREE

School Life Under Harris

1829-1838

Verylittleevidence now exists about the school life of the
average College boy in the 1830s. The most vivid picture we have
is one recreated by John Ross Robertson some sixty years later in
conversation with an unknown Old Boy who had boarded in those
early days.

[The typical UCC boy] was a sort of medium boy, an average all-round
youth, such as you could pick up within or without the boarding-
house, one who could knock off Latin verses with one eye open, trans-
late at sight the satirical lines of Lucian into decent English, render
the stanzas of Horace in every-day speech (and, perhaps, use Anglo-
Saxon too freely in so doing), see clear through a mathematical prob-
lem, and, after thus performing his duties to himself and parents,
swing a cricket bat, run a foot race, jump a hurdle, swim across the
bay, enjoy a pillow fight, and then declare that if he were a member of
parliament he would pass an Act to hang old Morgan, who provi-
sioned the boarding-house with steak that was an infringement upon
an india-rubber patent, and selected sour bread. . . .

West of the College was the general hospital, and back of it ran a
long row of wooden buildings known as the cholera sheds, dreaded by
all, but especially the boarders. The first cholera epidemic came in
1832, and "then every boy in the College had his tiny bag of camphor
hung around his neck, an amulet, so the youngsters claimed, that was
proof against that dreamless sleep into which so many sank to rest in
that dread year."

SCHOOL LIFE UNDER HARRIS

The second cholera attack two years later was worse than the first,
but luckily no College boy was infected.

From 1833 to 1838 the boarding-house was run by the Reverend
John Kent. He lived in the east end of the boarding-house and got the
boys up at six in the summer, seven in the winter. He was an English-
man, well-read and as fluent in Latin and Greek prose and poetry as in
English. Kent was young, bright, and courteous — not a hard man. The
boys looked on him as a friend, rather than a teacher.1

Unsophisticated boys from the country were mildly teased when
they entered boarding, and the small boys of eight and nine did not like
it very much. They had to go across Simcoe Street to the taffy (tuck)
shop to buy ginger beer and bulls'-eyes for the others, and this kept
them low on pocket money. One poor youngster had a disastrous time
when he was carrying home six bottles of ginger beer: three of the corks
flew off while he was still on the street, in full view of the older boys who
were watching hungrily from the windows.

In those times the boys slept in large dormitories, seven or eight in
one apartment. There were four rooms, and a pillow fight was an occa-
sional feature before retiring. The pranks of the boys as they pranced
up and down the halls in long nightshirts of different colours made a
break in the ordinary quiet of the sleeping quarters, and sometimes led
to unpleasant consequences, especially if the linen suffered.

There was a good deal of enthusiasm for fishing in the early days of
the College:

The Easter holidays saw a score of the boarders make up a fishing
party to the Humber. Mr. Kent gave the boys permission, and fully
equipped with tent, bag, and pole, they started for their camping
ground. One acted as commissary and expended the slender resources
with care. In order that their advance might be duly heralded en
route, the Vice-Principal's brother loaned them a splendid huntsman's
horn. There were in the party the Wallbridges from Belleville, the
Meyers boys from Trenton, cousins of the Wallbridges, and the four
FitzGibbon boys, the Givens boys, who lived up in the woods at Pine-
hurst on Dundas street, the Wilmots, of Newcastle, Sam and his

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

brother John, the Robinsons, sons of the Chief Justice, the Wells boys,
from the hill back of the old town, the Smiths of Port Hope, and the
Hewards of Toronto. It was a procession that had in it not only resi-
dent pupils but many from the town. A leading spirit led the way with
the huntsman's horn, while the other boys carried the kettles, pans
and supplies. . . . An hour's walk brought them to the Grenadier Pond,
at the present High Park, and within sight of a fish trap, in which had
been caught sunfish, perch, and bass. They appropriated the fish and
made off up the river. A few miles further they found a camping
ground, close to piles of cordwood cut ready for the wood scows from
the city. They fashioned tents out of boughs of trees, lit fires, cooked
fish and turned in at midnight, to turn out long before daylight, as the
piles of cordwood, a mass of fire, caught from the camp, lit up the sur-
rounding country The boys were up quickly. Half-awake and half-
dressed, they attempted to extinguish the flames, but without success.
To add to their terror, the cry came that canoes were coming down
the river with men bearing lighted torches. The men, whose faces were
blackened, threatened to seize the boys' belongings. . . . The boys par-
leyed, palavered, struck camp and, much to the surprise of Mr. Kent,
landed, bag and baggage, the day after the outing. They loafed about
the school for holidays, fearing an investigation might take place, and
were terror-stricken when one of the older boys declared that a letter
had been received; that the town police were on search for the "fire
bugs" — and their surprise was great and relief still greater when we
found that the tormentors were none other than senior boys of the
school. The Rapeljes from Simcoe, who, with Askin and Fisher, had
been spending their holidays with relatives on the Humber, and knew
of the camp, and come down in canoes to give them a scare

During the winter, life in the boarding-house could be dull. Days
were short, there was a lot of work, and opportunities for games were
limited. The result was that the boarders had a job to entertain them-
selves. They could skate on the bay by special permission, but on one
occasion, this privilege was cancelled because some boys set fire to a
marsh; the culprits were never found. Another favourite pastime was
amateur theatricals. One such was "Lucinda; or the Mysteries of the
College Pudding," which made fun of the College cook. The perform-

SCHOOL LIFE UNDER HARRIS

ance was in the upper loft of Dr. Phillips's carriage-house, which was
cleaned up and made into a makeshift theatre with benches and chairs
from the boarding-house and curtains from the masters' houses. Chief
Justice Robinson and his family, masters and their wives attended to
share the fun.

During the good weather, there were other diversions. An orchard
belonging to the Honourable Alexander Macdonell fronted on Ade-
laide Street for a length of about five hundred feet. It was a superb
orchard, unlike any other in Toronto, full of apples, pears, berries, and
currants, and guarded by a couple of ferocious-looking bulldogs.

Apples have charms for boys, and pears possess a relish which always
makes the owners of keen and youthful appetites brave danger. The
day-boys were no better than the boarders. Their desires were mutual.
To climb the fence in daylight meant certain capture. Darkness,
therefore, as the friend of evil-doers, was accepted as an ally. The
boarding-house gates were locked at seven; evening prayer at nine saw
the household between blankets. The small boy then as now was an
aggressive agent of mischief, and after the clock had struck ten, sheets
and towels were fastened into ropes, and youths of ten and twelve were
let down, with pillow-slips in hand, and orders to load up with all the
varieties of fruit that could be obtained. . . . [One boy], being detailed
on a great occasion to secure fruit, was caught in the clutches of the
gardener just as he was preparing to vanish. The angry old gardener
told the boy he would have to bring him before Mr. Macdonell, but
the little fellow pleaded for liberty ... he returned in triumph to the
boarding-house, not only free but with a pillow-slip full of apples,
which had been carried away by another boy, while the principal sin-
ner was pleading for liberty.

Religious observance was part of daily life at the College. There
were morning and afternoon prayers, as well as Sunday-morning serv-
ice at St. James' Cathedral. Some of the Anglicans objected to the regu-
lar Sunday journey, especially since the Presbyterians were free to go to
church or not, as they pleased. The result was that there were many

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

"conversions" to the Presbyterian fold in order to avoid the long tramp
through town.

Towards the end of Harris's principalship, the Mackenzie Rebellion
occurred. William Lyon Mackenzie was of humble Scottish Presbyter-
ian birth, but had, by dint of hard work and determination, become a
newspaper publisher, fanatical social reformer, and first mayor of
Toronto. He was adamantly opposed to the so-called Family Compact,
"a few shrewd, crafty, covetous men under whose management one of
the most lovely and desirable sections of America, remained a compara-
tive desert."2 In his newspaper, the Colonial Advocate, he increasingly
attacked the powerful and privileged — the Robinsons, Strachan, even
the Lieutenant-Governor himself. In the course of time he gathered
around him many admirers among the farmers and village mechanics
of the province.

Mackenzie's battle for social justice and against privilege reached a
climax when, in December 1837, he led a pathetic revolt which failed
miserably and which finished his political career at the age of forty-two.
At Upper Canada College, one of the fifteen-year-old boys, W. Hamil-
ton Merritt, kept a journal which, supplemented by the comments of
his young brother, Thomas R., tells how the rebellion affected the boys.

Heard much of the disaffection beginning to manifest itself among the
people of Yonge St., to which we gave little attention, as it was none of
our business. Why should we? When the last Company of the military
left, we were at the College gates seeing them pass, and gave Mr.
Mackenzie, who followed to see them clear, a very hearty huzzah; he
very politely bowed to us and passed on. I felt at the time a sort of
dread of the man, but could not explain to myself the reason. In
December the Rebellion broke upon us most unexpectedly; the night
before we had heard of preparations being made, but considered the
actual event a thing far off, as the ringing of the alarm bells, which
awoke some of the boys, was considered merely a lark of the porter; in
the morning, however, the full force of the reality came upon us most
startingly; we got freed from College by it, and perhaps were not very
much grieved at the event. ... It was a curious sight to behold guards
of civilians about Government House, the shops all closed, people hur-

SCHOOL LIFE UNDER HARRIS

rying silently in all directions, some with arms, and some without;
then, at the Town Hall where was the chief assemblage, were cannon
with torches ready to be lighted, arms were being distributed, and
melancholy was exhibited in every countenance; nothing was done
that day except various movements to defend the town, barricading
the streets and filling houses with men; all was exciting, it was indeed
a change agreeable from our dull work at College. This was something
like life; we had often read in history of rebellion and war, but had
never experienced the feeling of the immediate presence of conflict, of
a real state of things, when human life is held at so cheap a rate.

T. R. Merritt continued the story:

We boys almost in a body visited Government House to offer our serv-
ices to Sir Francis Bond Head to fight for our Queen and country. He
received us kindly, thanked us, gave us each a piece of cake, and
advised us to go home as soon as we could. My brother and I and
James Ingersoll, also of St. Catharines, not quite satisfied with playing
so tame a part, were determined that we would catch a sight of the
rebels if possible. We ran north up what is now Queen street avenue
and the park, then struck towards Yonge street, seeing nothing out of
the way till we neared the toll gate, when we caught glimpses of rough
men riding about, apparently much excited, one of whom galloped
over to us and promptly took us prisoners, shutting us in the back
room of the little toll gate house. We could see a few men riding about
with guns, and that seemed to be the extent of the invading force. We
thought of the preparations being made down town — closed stores,
cannon in front of the market buildings, armed men in the windows,
cavalry galloping up and down King street to keep the people out of
the cannon's range, and the enemy, of presumed great strength,
momentarily expected by the way of Yonge street. We were aching to
get back and tell what we had seen. One rebel aimed his rifle to shoot
a man who was making away, so we knew what to expect if we tried to
escape. In a couple of hours, however, we became bold, worked at the
window until at last it yielded, when we quickly dropped out of it and
crept on all fours to the nearest brushwood. But the vigilant eye of one
of the rebels had sighted us, and several gave chase.

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

The woods at that time were so thick in that vicinity that it was
not difficult to evade the horsemen and reach what is now Avenue
road, down which we sped at a much quicker pace than we had come
up.

When it was safe to breathe again we told our tale, and soon there
gathered a curious crowd around us, who conducted us to headquar-
ters where they were much surprised and relieved at our discovery of
the handful of men whose dreaded presence had caused so great an
alarm, and as the present boys can imagine, we did not regret the
rashness that had suddenly made us the little heroes of the hour.

Next day we, with Keefer, Ingersoll, and the other College boys
took a small steamer, which was being sent to Hamilton for men and
supplies, arriving there the following morning, from there drove to St.
Catharines which, on account of the bad state of the roads, we did not
reach till about three o'clock of the second morning. We found the
then village all excitement waiting for news, and as we were the first to
give the state of affairs in Toronto, and had actually been in the ene-
my's camp, were again lionized. After a long absence, we returned to
College.

One of Mackenzie's chief supporters was Samuel Lount, a simple,
good-hearted blacksmith who had been a member of the House of
Assembly. Lount was captured, tried, and sentenced for high treason.
When he was hanged on April 12, 1838, the College students were
given a half-holiday to witness the execution.

During the winters of 1837 and 1838, when there were more troops
than usual in Toronto, the city was merry and the youngsters got a full
share of the fun. There were more children's parties than usual, and a
great deal was made by the College boys of learning the countersign
each night so that they could respond properly to the sentries' chal-
lenges.

The rebellion naturally encouraged sham battles, and after a snow-
fall the boys would erect great snow forts and divide up into loyalists
and rebels, tossing up for which side should hold the fort and which side
attack. Regardless, the result was always the same as might be expect-
ed: victory for the supporters of the Queen.

SCHOOL LIFE UNDER HARRIS

Outside the school grounds, there were other sources of amusement.
The College students had an entree to public places and ceremonies not
free to boys of other schools. For example, at the opening and closing of
Parliament there was space in the Legislative Council Chamber set
apart for them. In addition, they were welcome in the galleries of the
Legislative Assembly, where some had fathers who were members of the
assembly; half-holidays were good opportunities for listening to the
assembled wisdom. Like religious feeling, party feeling ran high in the
thirties and the few students who had fathers who were politically left of
centre had rather a hard time of it.

We do not know much about the relationship between the earliest
masters and their pupils. We know that Charles Dade, the mathematics
master, was something of a meteorologist and took the boys out tramp-
ing on the ice of Toronto Bay and elsewhere for exercises in practical
mathematics. We know, too, that Mr. De la Haye's usefulness was lim-
ited by two things: first, a boy who worked hard and became good at
French was called a "French fag" — an insult not many were willing to
endure; second, De la Haye was an ardent admirer of Napoleon and
could easily be distracted from teaching to discuss his hero's merits. De
la Haye was a short, thick-set, dark man, unmistakably French in
appearance. He could be pretty severe if annoyed. Most of the boys,
especially in the upper forms, paid little attention to French. De la
Haye had a low opinion of Mr. Dodd's commercial form, once telling a
boy that the commercial form was the worst form in the school and that
he was the worst boy in the commercial form.

During Harris's eight years in office, several changes took place
among the group of teachers. The careers of three men appointed dur-
ing his principalship are worth mention: Howard, Maynard, and Bar-
ron.

John G. Howard, who replaced Drewry as drawing master in 1833,
stayed on to teach drawing for twenty-four years. Howard was born in
the county of Cumberland in northern England in 1803, and practised
surveying, engineering, and architecture in London. In 1832 he took
ship for Canada, owing to hard times in England. After an extraordi-
nary series of misadventures — bad seamanship, drunkenness among the

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

crew, mutiny, and hairbreadth escapes from drowning — he arrived in
York. A letter of introduction to the Honourable Peter Robinson led
him to Sir John Colborne, who saw some of his drawings and liked
them. He suggested that Howard enter a competition for the post of
drawing master. As the successful candidate, Howard was appointed at
a salary of £100 per year for teaching three hours a day, four days a
week. John Ross Robertson in Landmarks of Toronto says that this
appointment was the foundation of Howard's fortune. He received
immediate orders for buildings, was appointed first city surveyor by
Mayor Mackenzie, and put down the first eleven-foot plank sidewalks
on King Street. One of his best-known buildings was the asylum at 999
Queen Street West, recently condemned and destroyed. In 1836 How-
ard bought High Park and the next year moved into his home, Col-
borne Lodge, there. He left High Park to the city when he died. Eric
Arthur ranks him with the greatest nineteenth-century Toronto archi-
tects and a foremost benefactor to the city.

How Howard managed to carry on a career as a surveyor and archi-
tect while teaching at the College is a mystery, but an anonymous Old
Boy, writing in 1901, states, "Mr. Howard's classes in geometrical
drawing were well attended and he was deservedly popular." He had a
very amiable disposition and was well liked by the other masters and
the boys. He had a rather Cockney accent and a habit of leaving off or
adding h's, and this occasionally caused merriment among the boys,
especially when he would instruct the class to draw a line from H to l!

The Reverend George Maynard, MA, yet another Cantabrian with
a fine university record, joined the College in 1836 as second classical
master. Two years later he switched to the mathematics department. It
was a move which had serious repercussions at the College, culminating
in the scandal of 1854-55, Maynard's dismissal, and the principal's res-
ignation.

Maynard was a vivid character, who, from time to time, played first
violin in the UCC orchestra. Several Old Boys recalled something of his
manner and teaching habits. Elmes Henderson, a former head boy,
wrote in 1929:

SCHOOL LIFE UNDER HARRIS

Mr. Maynard was quite eccentric in his teaching ways generally, and
only the boys mathematically inclined got any real instruction from
him. When a boy after absence brought his excuse, he was told, "Put it
in the Post Office," which meant a particular spot on his table from
which Mr. Maynard would rake it over to him with his cane. A new
boy not knowing this peculiarity would get rattled and could not
understand what he had to do, to the amusement of the others. He
wore a curious short cape and queer hat and was a well-known and
somewhat picturesque figure on the street, and he gabbled the prayers
very, very fast. Maynard Avenue or Place in Parkdale was so called
from the property he owned there.

F. E. Dixon in 1900 remembered that:

Mr. Maynard, the mathematical master, had been a Cambridge
wrangler (first-class honours) and was a very good mathematician,
though his methods of imparting instruction were at times, to say the
least of it, peculiar. One favourite illustration of his in explaining
mathematical signs was — bread, plus cheese, plus celery, makes bread
and cheese and celery; and I once heard him startle a boy with the
astonishing problem: If a pound of butter cost 4d., what will a cow
cost?

And an anonymous Old Boy, also around the turn of the century:

Mr. Maynard wore a large shirt front, velvet waistcoat, and a long
gold chain, joined with a slide. It was the envy of all the boys. He also
had a small clock on his table. His first move was to open his desk and
place the clock on the ledge. He always spoke of the boys as strangers,
never recognizing them or his sons. He was a proficient mathemati-
cian, excelling in mental arithmetic — sharpening a boy's wits, fond of
making "the sum of the digits" conclude a mental problem. He was
particularly hard on the consumption of hardwood. His grate was
always piled up to the top, and he insisted upon the head boy sitting as
near it as possible, and sometimes he would purposely make a mistake
in answering questions in order to be clear of the roasting of the fire.

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

Mr. Maynard encouraged the boys to make progress. He could lead
his scholars into the mysteries of mathematics with considerable ease.

Frederick W. Barron replaced the deceased Boulton in the classical
department in 1834. He had been educated at Queen's College, Cam-
bridge but had not completed his degree. For a short while he had lived
with his brother, the principal of a Pestalozzi School in England, and
taught there apparently to his brother's satisfaction. Coming to Canada
in the early thirties, he had spotted an advertisement for a teaching post
at UCC and been unexpectedly taken on at the time of Phillips's resig-
nation and Boulton's death. Another unexpected event occurred nine
years later when Barron was appointed principal, the first of four inside
appointments in the College's history. His accession (bypassing May-
nard) was the result partially of circumstances and partially of his
admirable personal qualities, but it enraged an already unstable May-
nard and led eventually to a feud which shook the College to its founda-
tions.

CHAPTER FOUR

Growing Pains

i 838- i 86 i

JUST BEFORE Harris LEFT Canada in April 1 838, Lieutenant-Gov-
ernor George Arthur wrote to acquaintances in England seeking rec-
ommendations for Harris's replacement. When nothing transpired
after a couple of months, the Council pressed Arthur to ask the British
government to call on the Archbishop of Canterbury for help. The new
principal was finally selected by the Archbishop the following January.
Meanwhile the College got along as well as it could. The first classi-
cal master, Charles Mathews, had applied for Harris's position and
been turned down, but he was appointed acting-principal. He felt
somewhat aggrieved since at his original appointment he had been told
by both Jones in Oxford and by Harris that he might well become vice-
principal upon Phillips's retirement. When Phillips had retired in 1834,
Matthews had taken over the vice-principal's duties but had received
neither his title nor his salary. Mathews accepted the acting-principal-
ship, and at the end of the nine-month interregnum his only reward was
a note of thanks from the King's College Council for discharging his
onerous duties.

During this period changes took place on the teaching staff which
had long-term implications of good and evil for the College. Charles
Dade, the original mathematics master who had joined UCC from Eliza-
beth College, decided to retire to Oakville. His health seems to have
suffered during his nine years at the College and so, at the age of thir-
ty-seven, he took up farming. He was a versatile man, who wrote arti-
cles on a wide variety of subjects — storms, cholera, Indian remains,

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

lunar influences — and his departure left a large gap in the College fac-
ulty.

The usual procedure would have been to advertise for Dade's
replacement, but this was forestalled by the action of George Maynard,
the second classical master. Maynard saw himself as potential princi-
pal, or at the very least a department head. The route to principalships
and success at that time in public schools was almost invariably through
the classics department. Mathews, who was thirty-eight and a potential
principal himself, seemed to have that route blocked. Maynard, there-
fore, promptly applied for Dade's mathematics position and was accept-
ed. It was a move he ever after regretted. Barron was promoted from
third classical master to second, replacing Maynard. When the masters
were listed from time to time, Maynard's name generally appeared
before Barron's, but regardless of precedence, the move was fatal to
Maynard's chances of future promotion. There was begun between
these two men a latent feud which burst into full bloom in 1843.

Maynard's move created an opening in the classics department.
The resulting benefit to the College balanced the negative effects of
Maynard's appointment, for it brought Henry Scadding to the College
staff. Scadding, the first pupil to enter the College, had gone to St.
John's College, Cambridge, graduating in 1837. There followed a year
as tutor to Sir John Colborne's sons in Quebec before Scadding
returned to Toronto and applied for a teaching post at his old school. In
September 1838 he received a letter from Archdeacon Strachan for-
mally announcing his election to the College staff. "Gloria Deo in excel-
sio," he wrote in his diary and proudly recorded taking his seat in the
Long Room as one of the classical masters of UCC.1 The same year at
Prize Day he noted the large attendance of Old Boys: "[Here] lies the
strength of U.C. College,"2 he wrote — a statement which has held true
for fourteen decades.

Another change of staff of less academic significance was the dis-
missal of George Anthony Barber as English and writing master. As col-
lector of the College dues, Barber could not account for a large sum of
money that he had collected. In his deposition to the 1839 investigating
committee, Barber began, "Not having kept a set of books during any

GROWING PAINS

part of the time I held the office of College collector. . . ."3 After being
fired, he had the gall to request an additional allowance for half a
year's lost salary. This request was refused. In order to discharge the
£1,500 debt, Barber went into bankruptcy and gave all his property,
worth about £1,000, to the College. He was forgiven the rest. Ever a
fighter, he complained bitterly about the newspaper accounts of his
dishonourable dismissal from UCC. He was succeeded by De la Haye.

In January 1839 the Reverend John McCaul, LLD, was appointed
by the British government to pick up the reins laid down by Dr. Harris.
McCaul, a Dubliner, was thirty-two years old and a graduate of Trinity
College, Dublin, to which he had matriculated at fourteen! He won
mathematical prizes and then switched to classics and won several
important prizes, a scholarship, and several medals. He wrote and pub-
lished a series of works on Horace and the Greek tragedians, and one of
his books was adopted as a standard textbook by the grammar schools
of Ireland. He had a reputation as a fine public speaker. In short, ucc's
new principal was a brilliant scholar with enviable testimonials. He
had, in addition, some experience with boys, having prepared pupils for
university examinations, with splendid results.

McCaul was a man with high expectations, and the Upper Canada
post was at first a deep disappointment to him. The College was little
more than an unpopular public school, with a small constituency and
an uncertain future, and he undoubtedly looked back at Dublin with
longing. He helped his career here, however, by marrying the daughter
of Judge Jonas Jones, a leading member of the Family Compact and
Speaker of the Legislative Council. During his four years as principal of
UCC, McCaul worked unceasingly to bring King's College into being,
doubtless intending to join that institution in some influential capacity
at its inception.

In the main, McCaul undertook to make no startling changes in the
work begun by Harris, but during his brief term of office he did make
several improvements. First, he paid special attention to the top
form — the seventh. Since the College had been founded as a substitute
for the dormant King's College, it was expected in some degree to do
university work. McCaul took great pains to give the seventh form,

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

which contained the only group of students of this quality in the prov-
ince, as much as possible a university character.4 Second, his teaching
methods and curriculum were up to date; for example, when reading a
Greek play, he ensured that the pupils knew all about the Greek thea-
tre. He was very careful and conscientious in his teaching, having a spe-
cial love for logic. He also brought in Hebrew and German as options.
Third, in addition to donating a prize of his own, he made some
changes in the arrangements for prizes with the evident intention of
bringing out varieties of talent. Finally, McCaul persuaded the King's
College Council to found twelve exhibitions.

As the College moved through the early years of its second decade,
it continued to attract considerable attention. As might be expected,
opinion varied widely. Archdeacon Strachan, continuing the fight for
his university while overseeing the College as president of the King's
College Council, grumbled that the aborted university would have had
just the same organization as the College: an Anglican clergyman at its
head, masters and resident men mostly in Anglican holy orders, and all
sects represented in the enrolment. Why one institution and not the
other? The Montreal Baptist Register, on the other hand, blamed the
College for using money intended for general education to benefit only
the sons of the rich, for being High Church, and for being dominated
by the Family Compact. The quality of teaching was not being
questioned — the school's very existence was.

But all was not black. Charles Dickens visited Toronto in the spring
of 1842 and commented favourably on UCC: "a sound education in
every department of polite learning can be had, at a very moderate
expense. ... It has pretty good endowments in the way of land, and is a
valuable and useful institution."5 A young Irish visitor, John Robert
Godley, had a high opinion of the College. He noted an enrolment6 of
about 160, including 60 boarders, and an excellent staff of well-paid
masters. He thought the mandatory French course was very useful
because it helped social intercourse with the French Canadians! Godley
must have chosen his interviewees carefully, because he heard nothing
but praise for the College. He noted that "it seems to be thought right
to select men from the English and Irish universities" and "the more

GROWING PAINS

important [positions] will continue to be filled by churchmen." Curi-
ously he made no judgment about these debatable policies and
expressed pleasure at the existence of such a school "in the prevailing
hostility to anything like exclusiveness or establishment."7 He closed his
remarks by suggesting that the fees be raised8 so that part of the endow-
ment could be used to establish other schools like the College in other
places.

If the College's academic standard continued at a high level, the
same cannot be said for the state of its finances. About a year after
becoming lieutenant-governor, George Arthur discovered to his dismay
how prodigal the College was. He asked for a select committee of the
House of Assembly to investigate both King's College and Upper Can-
ada College. Among the mountain of figures, two important points
came to light. The first was the monumental incompetence of Colonel
Joseph Wells, the King's College Bursar since 1827.9 The second was
the total amount of money spent by Upper Canada College during its
first decade: well in excess of £60,000. Since its receipts were only
£28,000, the rest — £34,400 — had come from King's College.

Arthur wrote to the Colonial Secretary in the summer of 1839
explaining the situation: the 66,000-acre endowment income had not
been realized; there was difficulty disposing profitably of the bulk of the
lands; and the revenue had fallen far short of the expenditure. As a
result, the College had become indebted to the university, without
which it would not have survived. Writing to Colborne, now governor
in Lower Canada, Arthur said he did not think that both the university
and the College could be afforded, and that the former should be post-
poned indefinitely.

The concept of making UCC a provisional substitute for King's was
thoroughly debated during 1839 and 1840. An act was drawn up in
1839, but never passed, which attempted to follow Arthur's prescrip-
tion. It called for a portion of King's College revenues, not exceeding
one-half, to be devoted to UCC. The latter, with some changes, could be
a temporary university until it was deemed necessary to build one. This
strange institution was to have both university and school courses.

In early 1840 a motion was tabled and passed in the House of

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

Assembly that professorships in medicine be established at ucc. The
Governor General responded that measures were in progress to meet
the House's wishes. A week later a meeting was called to consider John
McCaul's detailed and ambitious plan for establishing a school and a
university in the grounds of the College. The original buildings were to
be used for the university, with the masters' residences appropriated for
the professors. John Strachan, then sixty-two years of age, was to be
president; McCaul himself was to be vice-president and provost;
Mathews, Maynard, and Scadding would become professors. A new
school, headed by Barron, was to be built for the boys. The annual cost
would be almost £7,000.

This scheme never got off the ground, but it did engender some
lively debate. Charles Mathews sent an endless letter to the Lieuten-
ant-Governor violently resisting the whole concept. Mathews had a
high opinion of what Harris had done to develop the College. Under
this new extravagant arrangement, the school's reputation and
efficiency were bound to suffer. He objected to the choice of Barron as
headmaster; the headmaster should be, like Harris and McCaul, in
holy orders. Despite the fatuity of some of his clerical arguments,
Mathews uttered a profound truth. "Of all the voluntary evils which
afflict mankind, cheap education is certainly not the least."10 He closed
his letter by pleading that ucc should not be destroyed, that a separate
university should be started, and that Archdeacon Strachan agree with
him. Archdeacon Strachan did indeed agree with him, and stated that
UCC was operating in a very superior manner, was most valuable and
necessary, and would get his support. The new scheme appalled him
and he intended to defend UCC's integrity with great vigour. Nobody
had any authority to diminish the faculty, and the best idea was to start
the new university forthwith.

Lieutenant-Governor Arthur himself seems to have had doubts
about the plan, but thought that Strachan approved of it. When Stra-
chan made his views known, a distinct coolness developed between the
men. Arthur had the last word, however; only about £250 was available
to build a university reckoned to cost an enormous amount.

The dilemma seemed insoluble, academic common sense at odds

Sir John Colborne in 1852 — long after he had left Canada, been pro-
moted to general, and been elevated to the peerage as Lord Seaton
(from a drawing by George Richmond, RA).

The Old Blue School
(also the District
Grammar School, also
the Royal Grammar
School). John
Strachan had painted
it blue with white
trim. It greeted the
first College students
in 1830 at Lombard
and Jarvis streets (Up-
per Canada College).

The Anglican and the Methodist: John Strachan (left) and Egerton
Ryerson (right) in later life. Opposition to Upper Canada College was
one of the few things they had in common (Metropolitan Toronto
Library Board).

(Opposite) Colborne's "cargo of masters." Phillips and Barber were part
of the grammar-school takeover. (Photo of Barber from the Public
Archives of Canada; all others, J. Ross Robertson Collection, Metropol-
itan Toronto Library.)

Jean du P. De la Haye, French
master.

The Rev. Dr. Thomas Phillips,
vice-principal.

The Rev. William Boulton, sec-
ond classics master.

The Rev. Joseph H. Harris, MA,
DD, principal 1829-38.

George Anthony Barber, English,

writing, and arithmetic master.

Collector of College fees and

father of Canadian cricket.

(

The Rev. Charles Mathews, first
classics master.

Mr. J. W. Padfield, English, writ-
ing, and arithmetic master. Mas-
ter of the Preparatory School.

The Rev. Charles Dade, mathe-
matics master.

Boarding House

Mr. Padflold
Mr. J no. Kent
Mr. Cosonx
Mr. Htoruu-tt
Dr. Barrett
Mr. Martland

Picture not
shown.

One House

Occupied bt

Dr.

Phillipa

Mathews

Mr.

Barron

Stonnott

Cock burn

Mr.

Buohan

Mr.

Dickson

Two Houses Occupied by

Mr.

Boultou

Mr.

Dado

Mr.

Barron

Dr.

Scudding

Mr.

Itlploy

Dr.

Barrett

Mr.

Stuunolt

Sparling

Mr.

Kvunrt

Mr.

Checkley

Mr.

Patterson

Mr.

McLennan

Mr.

Brown

Mr.

Wedd

THE

COLLEGE
BUILDING

6 e

Two Houses Occupied bt

Mr. Mathews Mr. DelaHa70
Mr. Maynard Mr. Wedd
Mr. Brown Dr. Connon
Mr. Swcatman Mr. Furror
Mr. Soarllng Mr. Wedd
Mr. Thompson
Mr. Brock

Residences of the Masters, 1834-1891.

{Top) Colborne's enormous new school
on Russell Square, as it looked in 1835
to Thomas Young, UCC drawing master
and later a leading Toronto architect
(Public Archives of Canada). {Above)
John Ross Robertson's list of the occu-
pants of the masters' houses, 1830-91
{Landmarks of Toronto). {Right) A dormi-
tory layout after the 1 856 expansion
(Public Archives of Ontario).

NK House

CUl'JED BY

Dr.

Harris

Dr.

McCaul

Do la Hayo

Divided and en-

larged and occu-

pied by

St. Rcniy

Mr.

Thompson

Mr.

Furrer

Mr.

Wedd

Mr.

Sparling

Mr.

!..■'.'. .i-M.

King Street.

Residences of tho'Masters, 1834-1891.

--:

'•

The Denison family. Thirty-four members of the family attended UCC
between 1830 and 1905, the most prominent of whom were George
Taylor, II (bearded man seated right rear), the catalyst in the Barron-
Maynard feud, and George Taylor, III, the governor who insulted
Goldwin Smith (on steps holding child) (Metropolitan Toronto
Library).

(Above) The Rev.
George Maynard, sec-
ond classics master
1836-38, first mathe-
matics master 1835-56,
and protagonist in the
Barron-Maynard feud
(Upper Canada Col-
lege). (Above left) Fred-
erick W. Barron,
classics department
1834-43. Principal
1843-56 (Christopher
Barron).

(Left) The Rev. Henry Scadding, ucc's
first student and head boy. He was later a
classics master (1838-62) and a prolific
writer (University of Toronto Archives).
(Below) J. G. Howard, drawing master
1 833-57. He donated High Park to the city
(Metropolitan Toronto Library).

(Left) William Wedd, head boy in 1843
and classics master 1850-91. He was the
top classical scholar of his day (Upper
Canada College).

The Rev. John Kent, a great cricket-
er, who was boarding-house master
1833-38 (J. Ross Robertson Collec-
tion, Metropolitan Toronto Library).

'■' v^

C.J. Thompson, English and writing
master 1842-83. The entries in the
College's second register are in his
handwriting (J. Ross Robertson Col-
lection, Metropolitan Toronto
Library).

Dr. Michael Barrett, long-time mas-
ter (1844-84) and the College's first
doctor (J. Ross Robertson Collec-
tion, Metropolitan Toronto Library).

(Right) The masthead of the earliest school
paper still in existence, John Ross Robert-
son's Monthly Times (Public Archives of
Ontario). (Below) Not really a UCC rowing
team, but close to it. The photo was taken
at the main door of the Model Grammar
School. All are UCC boys except those on
the ends. John Ross Robertson is third
from right (J. Ross Robertson Collection,
Metropolitan Toronto Library).

'\/

s'r SUA GR \T1 \ PARVIS

TORONTO, APRIL I

A GOLD HUNTER'S ADVENTURES.

t™d involnntarilj ^ou^ht In* rerol.
v.t, but i restrained hjm :

*■ No firean n d, if we shed a

drop of thi : imed men.

I ool and (ni't to e)
In all * ', and men

I Ho* the will .,i
courage or impudenee sufficient to begin an
-■":n k 1 Iw miners, by whom w«

knew thai wc were armed with re-
volver*, but the) did i ■ > know we were detcr-
thfrn until the- last resort,

and altli ...Is us and

I a r 1.1 ii u was raised
to -ii ike, km h i

n the all u !.. [fad in bul fallen, a
do* n pair of bi I ■

nd iin.il-. .1 our flesh, and the er< m

■ on>idi red worthy a jubilee.

The mil ■ ■ to and fro tike a

were encompassed, and turn whichever way

I bul stern brutal

faci fierce wi I tnxions for cur

blood. 0 I uc in. n wbo

■! (hi , . .

v% i . ■, ■ . . ■ Inumber of n a

uti . . i d to liv« .
" Miners of ISrll.ua. will j

1 itci termini
r I- lh< hi. and then try lite viri
■ ^ vi r, for 1 did nol wi-!i to ,|H
-* F ■ No no, wc*1

to
■ of .

C^A-thc bushrangers, cried Tom yelling with qx-

K^x^v-

ultation, and the crowd took up the cry and
reechoed it.

a proposition to make, ' tried Fred,
■i voice "i1* beard abort- the tu-
mult, and curiosity out-wrighed the thir>t for
vengeance. The noise was hushed for a few
minutes, and all listened attentively. Delay
was world < fur we anlicipa-

■•hoijld be recog-
nized, and matters explained. Vet it was not
strange thai wc had seen no one who could
is. for Batlarat bad a population of
nearly forty thousand persons, and m

matiy, more than fifty, and half of
• men.
• \\ hat*s the proportion ? «pit it out !
- i-orac down libe-

ra! with stolen propcrt) T '

1 oar of laughter at
this sally, and whea it had died away, Fred
said—

■ This man. (pointing to Tern.) says that
we are bu and can

prove ilia' we are honest miners, like vour-
selvcs. (Sem tion.) We do not propose
- a c n-
!■ ■ dare not ii

one but a little boy. That is not cbaracter-
■ miners of Batlarat, foi long-l

ntry, we

refoi tyranny-, (faint in-

i a p pi a us. .} We tell ihc man

who nalh d u , f. ■ I « a bar,

and thai wc ■ ation, «t an abject /^

i for the insult." cj»v

were cries and yells of —

-wC^j

'»

GROWING PAINS

with financial necessity. To make an institution into both a school and
a university looked absurd. Yet "King's College" seemed to have no
other object than to provide funds for maintaining UCG (the total now
being £60,000). Could a university be afforded as well? The question
came up again and again.

By 1842 the answer was yes. On April 23 the cornerstone of the
University of King's College was laid. The UCC faculty entertained the
Chancellor of the University and others on the momentous occasion.
There was strong oppositon to McCaul being considered for the vice-
presidency of the new university, since the office was held to be illegal.
When his appointment was announced, Chief Justice John Beverley
Robinson criticized McCaul for leaving UCC before a successor had
taken charge, and predicted an early demise for the College. King's
College opened on June 8, 1843, thirteen years and five months after
the first students had entered Upper Canada College. The horse had
caught up with its gilt-edged cart.

In March 1843 Dr. McCaul retired from the principalship, having
been appointed vice-president of King's College and professor of classi-
cal literature, logic, rhetoric, and belles-lettres. He went on to become
the president of the University of Toronto, while continuing to publish
scholarly works in archaeology and theology. He had achieved his
ambition.

During McCaul's time as principal, the only long-term appoint-
ment to the staff of UCC was Christopher J. Thompson, who joined the
College as an English master in 1842. He remained, teaching writing
and English, for a period of forty-one years. As a specimen of penman-
ship and also as a notice to parents, he required each pupil to write,
once a quarter, a letter addressed to his parent or guardian, as follows:
"I am directed to inform you that the collector will be at the College to

receive the fees for the ensuing quarter on ."" Specially prepared

copy-books for the annual exhibit of pupils' writing were carefully filled
up and formed quite an interesting exhibit, on the merit of which the
writing prizes were adjudged. Thompson had an accurate knowledge of
bookkeeping, and thoroughly impressed on all his pupils the difference
between debit and credit. He abounded in good nature, and without

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

being lax in discipline, was indulgent to all his pupils to an extent that
made him deservedly popular.

With McCaul gone, for the second time in a little over four years
Charles Mathews was called upon to be acting-principal. Whether he
applied for the principalship a second time is unknown; in any event,
he was not offered the post, nor was he allowed to sit on the King's Col-
lege Council.

There followed one of those periods of confused administration rela-
tively common in the College's nineteenth-century history. John
Strachan was desperately anxious that great care be taken in the choice
of McCaul's successor. He was a little bitter that College appointments
were so exclusively in the hands of the Governor General and that he
was never consulted. Not wishing to interfere, he did so anyway. He
urged upon Sir Charles Bagot the same route the College had travelled
twice previously: a scholarly Anglican clergyman from Great Britain.
There was a rumour around Toronto that Bagot was considering E. A.
Meredith,12 a young lawyer, for the post, and Strachan was scandal-
ized.

The dying Bagot tried to follow Strachan's advice and offered the
principalship to a saintly young Oxonian, William Ripley, the son of a
family friend. (Ripley had been a student at Rugby, where he had
come under the influence of the great Thomas Arnold.) He was not a
clergyman, though he did enter the ministry six months later. A modest
and thoughtful man, he refused the Upper Canada post, not wanting to
be jumped over long-service masters. He did, however, accept the posi-
tion of second classical master.'3

Bagot died in May 1843 to be replaced by Sir Charles Metcalfe.
Metcalfe had a very difficult constitutional problem to deal with and
during the summer and early autumn gave little or no thought to sup-
plying ucc with an operating head. At some time during this period,
however, Mathews got fed up with being in limbo, sailed for Guernsey,
and never came back. He had probably learned of the new principal,
under whom he would not care to work. In any event he left without
permission from anyone, and when he boldly wrote for his salary, he
received only part of it.

GROWING PAINS

Finally after eight months of unrest, the Governor General let the
King's College Council know that he had appointed Frederick W. Bar-
ron to the office of principal "subject to any permanent arrangement
that the interests of (ucc) may . . . require."'4 This message was accom-
panied by the news that the principal's salary was being reduced to
£500 per annum. Metcalfe may be excused for not showing much inter-
est in the appointment; several days later he had a crisis among his
ministers which resulted in a mass resignation. Ten months passed
before Barron's appointment became permanent. There may have been
several reasons behind this: he was a relatively junior member of the
staff (certainly junior to Mathews), he was a layman, and at that time
he had no university degree.

Barron's appointment drove George Maynard into a fury. He wrote
a fourteen-page letter to the King's College Council setting out his ver-
sion of the development of precedence on the College teaching staff, a
development which had robbed him of his rightful promotion. He
claimed Harris had persuaded him to shift departments. He involved
the long-retired Dade in his tirade, claiming that the mathematics
department had originally taken precedence over classics. He felt the
indignity and disgrace of being superceded by a junior master who was
not even a university graduate. His own application for first classical
master, sent in at the same time as Barron's on the assumption that
Mathews was to be the new principal, had evidently been lost or con-
veniently forgotten. Maynard never forgave this slight, and Barron's
term of office was made wretched by Maynard's persistent hostility.

Barron did not have the academic qualifications of his two predeces-
sors, but he could be described as a pretty good all-rounder. He was an
enthusiastic athlete'5 as well as an accomplished musician. It was prob-
ably this all-round quality, as well as his availability, that appealed to
the distracted Metcalfe.

The first five years of Barron's regime were relatively quiet, that
period of stillness before a storm breaks. Two teaching appointments of
importance were made during these years — Michael Barrett and Wal-
ter Stennett. Barrett became an English master in 1844 and stayed on
for forty years, eventually becoming first English master and teaching

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

science — a lowly subject. Barrett took his BA from the University of
Toronto, his MA and MD from the same institution, all the while a full-
time member of the College staff. He was founder and dean of the
Ontario Medical College for Women and president of the Ontario
School of Medicine. The Reverend Walter Stennett, an Old Boy,
became third classical master in 1846 and remained to become the
fourth principal of the College.

Barron had only two real worries during his early years as principal.
Robert Baldwin's first University Bill was brought down in 1843, an(^
though it was not passed, it did not augur well for the future. It embod-
ied the principle of university freedom from denominational control
and called for the suppression of Upper Canada College. King's College
was to disappear in favour of the University of Toronto, a collection of
four separate universities fed by what Baldwin called Royal Collegiate
High Schools, ucc was to become one of these, connected with and
dependent upon the university. It was to be run by a council who made
their own rules subject to the university Caput. The College's debt
would be cancelled and it would be given £500 a year. Several more
university bills were introduced during the next few years, but it was
not until 1850 that the College's governance was altered.

The second and more immediate concern with which Barron had to
deal was boarding. A boarding-school in the middle of a city was some-
thing requiring much thought, detailed planning, and careful supervi-
sion. At some English schools, Clifton for example, it worked well. At
UCC it worked indifferently. The boarding-house was a continual
expense: the income appears to have gone straight to the housemaster;
many boys preferred to live with families in town; and altogether it was
a continual worry to the principal. Barron produced a long, detailed
memorandum designed to tighten up the boarding finances, but it did
not prove very effective. The string of housemasters had all been junior
men, and Barron was concerned about his own responsibility for the
boarders. A succession of unsatisfactory arrangements had followed
Kent's departure in 1838, and none of the housemasters was very
enthusiastic about the obligations entailed. The boarder numbers were
dropping and Barron feared the boarding-house would die altogether.

GROWING PAINS

His solution was to divide the house in two, Barron himself to take one
half and Stennett the other.

The boarding responsibility must have been a drain on Barron, and
he had been elected a trustee of the common schools the year before.
With his principalship and meetings of the King's College Council, he
had little or no spare time. Nevertheless, UCC continued to keep up a
high academic standard.

Classics were still at the core of the curriculum, though not as over-
whelmingly as in 1830. In the prep form, they occupied about one-
quarter of the time, with English subjects (which included arithmetic)
taking up the remainder. In the top form, classics took almost half the
time, with English, French, and natural philosophy (science) complet-
ing the curriculum. Just the same, when Lord Elgin visited UCC in
1847, the students addressed him in Latin. He replied courteously — in
Latin.

A sad loss to the College in October 1849 was that of William Rip-
ley, who died of cholera at the age of thirty-four. While teaching full
time at UCC he had taken on the ministry of Little Trinity Church
without pay and had become as well the first schoolmaster of the Enoch
Turner School, the first free school in Toronto. Ripley was beloved by
all who knew him, and according to the Church, his funeral was the
"largest and most respectable we have seen in Toronto."'6

Toward the end of the 1840s the provincial system of education
began to show some improvement. Egerton Ryerson became Superin-
tendent of Education in 1844, and the School Act of 1846, based on his
plans, established a foundation for the future structure of Ontario edu-
cation. The Normal School for the training of young men in the profes-
sion of school teaching was begun in 1847.17 Although the grammar
schools had improved, in the year 1849 more than thirty district gram-
mar schools produced only eight students for the University of King's
College; Upper Canada College produced eight that same year.'8
Many common schools were still poor.

Bishop Strachan took note of all this and congratulated the College
on producing boys who had received a sound education. He urged that
UCC be kept in a state of efficiency and that anything which lessened its

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

usefulness would be a public calamity. He thought it the best grammar
school on the North American continent and comparable to the great
(public) schools of England. The Church thought it deserved powerful
claims on the public confidence.

The College's academic standing certainly merited public confi-
dence; its financial standing merited public scrutiny. The Toronto
Examiner of August 16, 1848, commented on the imposing number of
prizes presented that year, so large it would take a boy acting as a
dunce not to win something. The Examiner was curious to see a state-
ment of the value of the prizes at both UCC and King's College. Attor-
ney General Robert Baldwin, concerned by a continued agitation over
the university's financial affairs, suggested a commission to look into the
financial affairs of both King's College and Upper Canada College.
Lord Elgin complied, and in July 1848 a commission of inquiry into
such affairs was authorized. Barron's quiet years had come to an end.

The Commission of Inquiry into the Affairs of King's College Uni-
versity and Upper Canada College started work in early August. Given
three months in which to complete their task, the commissioners were
still hard at it through the spring of 1851, and the final report — 366
pages in length — was not published until 1852.

The commissioners were authorized to examine and report upon the
financial affairs of the university and the condition of the endowment,
as well as the financial affairs of UCC as an appendage of the university
and its endowment. They had quite a task, as the Report immediately
made plain.

The account books kept in the [King's] College office were, from the
very foundation, defective, confused and totally unsuited . . . the com-
pilers of them being no longer in the service of the University, personal
explanations . . . were not available. No regular Balance had ever been
struck. . . . Balancing was quite foreign to the character and structure
of such books. . . . The Council installed in the office of the Bursar, a
gentleman, devoid alike of business experience and the knowledge of
practical book-keeping ... a Cash Book was not found in the institu-

GROWING PAINS

tion; and the want of it seems to have been unfelt by either the Bursar
or the Council.'9

The entire report is a tale of ignorance, indifference, and incompe-
tence, leading to chaos. The Upper Canada College accounts were so
mixed in with the King's College books it was impossible to separate
them clearly, but some things were clear enough. Fees which should
have been collected had been allowed to run in arrears and were a total
loss.20 Parents, pleading the statute of limitations, owed over £1,700.
Some of the "best" people in Toronto were sued and finally paid some-
thing to the College. Two former masters owed large amounts, and
there had been overpayment or advance payment to other masters. Out
of rents amounting to £3,170, only £574 had been collected because of
the Council's negligence. The commissioners concluded that any
attempt to discover the College's total loss would be fruitless. The only
bright spot was that there had been some improvement since January I ,
1 844, at which time fees began to be collected in advance and the enrol-
ment had increased.

For Barron, 1849 was a nightmare. He wrote continually in the
most abject terms to Robert Baldwin, the attorney general, lamenting
the unjust abuse to which he was being subjected, his indebtedness, and
his inability to save money. When he began taking in boarders, he
asked Baldwin to say a good word for him "among your wealthier
friends."21 The imminent passage of the 1849 Baldwin University Act
caused him great pain. He was incapable, he wrote, of making any
preparations for "navigation of the new and unknown sea,"22 and if
Upper Canada College sank, Baldwin and he would share the
blame — Baldwin for planning its ruin and Barron for being unable to
save it. This prospect terrified Barron, who urged Baldwin to preserve
the College. Ripley's illness and death had made things worse. Barron
complained that the sick man's form had had no attention, and a boy
had been removed because of the lack of supervision. Lord Elgin was
doing nothing about appointing a replacement, but Barron did not
want someone foisted on him of whom he did not approve. Baldwin was
keeping him "in exquisite torture" 23 by not filling the vacancy.

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

Of the chief matters which were making him uneasy, Barron's fears
were unjustified. The Baldwin University Act, passed on May 30, 1849,
came into effect January 1, 1850. Its passage had been made easier by
the revelations of the Commission of Inquiry, which indicated to
Baldwin that UCC has suffered a great deal from being too closely con-
nected with the university and not having enough power to govern
itself. Baldwin wanted to retain UCC as an appendage, but give it some
competent method of self-government. The Baldwin University Act
killed King's College University at the age of seven, and replaced it
with the secular University of Toronto. As far as UCC was concerned, an
endowment board for both the university and the College was set up
which had charge of the property and effects. The principal and mas-
ters of Upper Canada were to be appointed by the Crown, upon resolu-
tion of the university senate, and the principal had to make an annual
report to a College Council consisting of the principal himself, four
masters, and four others appointed by the Crown. Everything had to be
approved by the University Caput. There was no religious qualification
for masters. The College's original endowment was left in its own
hands. Finally, the debt owed by the College to the university was can-
celled.

In the matter of Ripley's replacement, Barron felt invigorated when
after six weeks' wait he got the news. Well he might! The new master
joining him in January 1850 was William Wedd, head boy of 1843, MA
King's College, Toronto, returning as third classical master to his old
school. He was, in later life, considered the best classical scholar of his
day. When he left university, Wedd joined the law office of W. H.
Blake, later chancellor of Upper Canada. He had tutored Blake's two
sons while at university, and evidently teaching suited him better than
law.

Wedd's appointment, an enormously beneficial one for the College,
was also important in another way. For twenty years all the College
positions of power and prestige — principal, vice-principal, classical
masters, and mathematical master — had, with the exception of Bar-
ron's "emergency" appointment, been filled by Church of England cler-
gymen. One of the "lower" positions had even been held by the

GROWING PAINS

Reverend John Kent for six years. Wedd's arrival was a breakthrough.
Anglican clerics continued to be appointed from time to time, but after
Wedd, laymen were the rule. (Coincidentally the secularization of the
university and the College began the same day.) The fact that Wedd
was educated in Canada was another benefit, though the consideration
of Canadians per se in preference to Englishmen, other things being
equal, took a longer time to come to fruition.

Barron and the College were now launched on new seas, and poor
Barron steered his ship morosely into them. Finances were going to be
tight and strictly watched. He deplored the position of the College,
which he reckoned had a maximum income of £2,500, with expendi-
tures of £3,500, and no King's College endowment to make up the
difference. Furthermore, masters' salaries were listed as the fifth charge
on the income. He had no private time and worked on College affairs
until after nine o'clock every night. To top it off, he was not invited to
be a member of the new university senate, and had yet another body
called the Board of Visitation, under W. H. Blake, keeping an eye on
the College. There were now three committees with interlocking mem-
berships overseeing UCC's destiny.

In spite of all these troubles, at the end of his first year under the
new regime, Barron was feeling better. He had added natural philoso-
phy and physical geography to the academic courses and had intro-
duced ornamental drawing, vocal and instrumental music, and a
commercial course intended to prepare students solely for a life in com-
merce. There was little turnover in the competent faculty, who now
numbered twelve. The biggest change was in the boarding-house,
which was now called the Resident School House. Barron reported with
some optimism that things were going well, but the facts do not bear
him out.

Boarding had continued to be a problem, and Barron had been
ordered to draw up a plan for its satisfactory conduct. This plan had
gone into effect in September 1850. Boarding fees no longer went to a
housemaster, and the rules called for all out-of-town boys to live in — a
new departure, and one which evoked considerable opposition. Any
pupils living with masters had to follow the same rules as those in the

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

boarding-house.24 Each boy had a separate sleeping apartment, and
there were hot baths for all. Three more servants (men) were added,
and a yard was fenced in. The main problem was to get a master to live
in, and school had had to open without one. The College Council, in a
makeshift arrangement, had asked each master to act as housemaster
for a week at a time. It then asked the first English master — Barrett — if
he would become the housemaster. Barrett wanted to know how much
he would be paid, and threatened to resign if forced. Although Barron
could offer only a house, heat, and light, Barrett did move in and
reported a few weeks later that "he was as miserable as could be."25

The Committee of Visitation had mixed feelings about the Resident
School House. The kitchen was clean, the stove was bad, the food
good (except for sour bread). Some dormitories were a "pattern of
neatness,"26 others were slovenly. More washtubs were needed, because
two or three boys bathed together. The committee's report dealt with
Barrett's ceaseless moaning by saying that he did not know his job.
When he asked for a reception room for visiting parents and friends, he
was turned down.

The expenses of boarding were high, and Barron was forced to apol-
ogize for them to the College Council. He was adamantly opposed,
however, to returning to either earlier arrangement: boys in town or the
boarding-house run for individual gain. He reported that since the new
arrangement the "tongue of calumny [was] silenced,"27 a state of grace
never before attained. His meaning was not clear, and the attendance
figures raised the question of the boarding demand: the average enrol-
ment for the past four terms had been twelve. Exhausted by his report,
Barron asked for his first two days off in seventeen years. His request
was granted.

While the energies of Barron and others were so largely taken up by
the boarding arrangements, the new University of Toronto was under
way. It had a staff of seven, a budget of £5,000, and a tutorial system
under which a class size of thirty was held to be large. The first year
Arts class numbered 68, of whom 33 had matriculated. It is not known
exactly how many were from UCC, but probably about 25 per cent. In
January 1852 Trinity College began, and 1 1 out of the first 40 students

GROWING PAINS

entering were College boys. For the next fifteen years, the College's per-
centage of students entering Trinity averaged about 25 per cent.

New legislation, revising to some extent the Baldwin University Act,
went into effect in April 1853. Besides bringing into existence Univer-
sity College as an entity separate from the University of Toronto, it was
intended to improve UCC's management. The Committees of 1849 to
1852 were dissolved, and the University of Toronto Senate undertook to
make the statutes for the College's governance. The senate had to make
an annual report; all property was vested in the Crown, and managed
under the direction of the Governor-in-Council. Francis Hincks, the
inspector-general, drew the senate's attention to the general state of the
College and wondered whether it might not be possible to effect a real
reduction in its expenditure.

A reduction in expenditure meant a reduction in salaries. A statute
was drawn up for a new salary schedule which saved about £130 on a
salary budget of £2,400, a considerable reduction from the heady 1843
total of £3,100. In spite of this tight financial situation, Barron sug-
gested adding an elocution master to the faculty.

Barron was in an unenviable position. The days of spending King's
College money were gone forever; the budget scarcely balanced, and
the faculty felt the cold hand of economy everywhere. The boarding-
house had not been a success, to say the least, and the school could not
afford to add new courses to attract more pupils. Everything was closely
watched. Barron even had to write to the Governor General for permis-
sion to deal with an unmanageable servant. For over five years Barron
had felt harrassed to the point of lunacy. The Commission of Inquiry,
the university question, Ripley's replacement, the boarding difficulties,
the delicate finances, the faculty pressure regarding salaries, the second
change in the governing body, all had taken their toll.

These difficulties were but the prelude to his most trying test. A situ-
ation arose in 1854, the seeds of which had been planted sixteen years
before and against which, if Barron had been a different kind of man,
he might have taken preventive action long before.28

As mentioned before, the Reverend George Maynard, now aged
forty-eight, classicist, mathematician, and violinist, had served as a

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

master at the College for seventeen years. In 1838 he had moved from
second classical master to take over the mathematics department from
Charles Dade. The following year he had had disciplinary trouble with
several boys, one of whom had been expelled for striking Maynard. In
1843 he and Barron had both applied to be first classical master while
Mathews was acting-principal. Barron had won, and almost immedi-
ately afterwards had been appointed principal. Maynard had flown
into a rage and had twisted the facts in an angry letter to the King's
College Council. Then in 1847, a boy named Elmer had been expelled
for striking Maynard "in the performance of his duty,"29 his duty evi-
dently being to strike Elmer. Elmer had apologized, while claiming
much provocation, and had applied for readmission because of May-
nard's attitude towards him and his blacksmith father. Readmission
had been denied. Maynard had then asked for an extra month's leave
but had not returned for nearly six, offering a medical explanation for
his prolonged absence. In 1850 Maynard and Wedd (who later became
his son-in-law) had had a disagreement about who should move into
one of the masters' houses. In 1854 Maynard's controversies reached a
climax.

The events of the 1854 Maynard-Barron scandal began with a
Denison family accident. Two brothers, both UCC students — Charles
and John Denison — were playing with a hunting rifle, and Charles shot
John dead. Charles became so upset the doctors thought he might lose
his reason. The boy's father warned the principal that no allusion must
be made to the accident. Before Christmas, Mr. Denison died, and
Charles stayed home. Maynard, who must have known of the father's
death, asked Charles for an explanation of his absence. When one was
not immediately forthcoming, Maynard threatened the boy, saying, "I
suppose you have been shooting again," or something of the sort. The
boy burst into tears and rushed home. His mother refused to let him
return to UCC without a guarantee that he could skip Maynard's
classes. George Denison, now the household head, demanded an investi-
gation by writing to the Governor General, claiming Maynard was
unfit to teach. Barron supported Denison, saying much of his time was
taken up in settling problems caused by Maynard and suggesting that

GROWING PAINS

Maynard be fired. The prescribed course was taken: a commission to
inquire into the state of UCC was appointed.

The case became complicated by the entry into the fray of two other
College families named Robarts and Stayner. Robarts, a College audi-
tor, had four sons at UCC. When the news of Denison's situation reached
him, he also asked Barron to allow his sons not to attend Maynard's
classes because of that master's sneering, insulting manner. When Bar-
ron refused, Robarts withdrew his sons. The third parent, Stayner,
whose son Larry had just been expelled by Barron for various offences,
wrote to Robarts supporting his views on Maynard and adding that
other departments of the College were just as bad. He, too, rallied
parental support.

Maynard's response to his accusers was in the classic Maynard
manner: nine pages of arrogant self-justification. He claimed that
Robarts was totally at fault, and that Principal Barron's relationships
with parents were much worse than his own. The real trouble, he said,
was Barron's apathy towards his mathematics department, a subject on
which he intended to write separately.

At this critical juncture W. H. Blake, who had been asked to chair a
three-man investigative committee, refused to do so. The senate of the
university, therefore, conducted the investigation. Blake was frequently
present and signed the final report.

The affair began as a two-ring circus. In the first ring, Barron
defended himself against Stayner with some dignity, despite a heated
exchange of letters. The masters, alarmed by rumours and newspaper
articles flying around the town, sent Barron a strongly supportive letter
urging on the investigation in order to clear the school's name. Bishop
Strachan, who had a more intimate connection with UCC than anyone
in Canada, stood squarely behind Barron; he intended to send his
grandsons to the College and inveighed against ignorant and foolish
parents. John Beverley Robinson, along with scores of parents and Old
Boys, wrote in warmly supporting Barron. "It is rather late in the day
to discover your incompetence," wrote a parent. "Where has young
Canada been educated? Who . . . are . . . taking the lead in every walk of
life? The Alumni of Upper Canada College." Because it took so long for

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

the complex investigation to run its course, the decision on Larry Stay-
ner was delayed. Stayner wrote a year later to the Governor General
declaring his disgust with the entire proceedings.

The second ring of the circus had two acts — Robarts against May-
nard and Denison against Maynard. Robarts had complaints going
back three years, at which time Barron had taken on one of his sons as a
private pupil to get him away from Maynard. Many witnesses were
called, most of them, including Scadding and Wedd, supporting the
boys, though Maynard was not without allies. But it was in the Deni-
son-Maynard battle that the fireworks were the loudest and brightest;
out of it came an incident which pitted Barron against Maynard and
brought the College almost to its knees. The investigation had moved
into 1855 when Barron, Denison, and Maynard met in Barron's office.
Barron had called the meeting apparently to act as peacemaker, but
with both the other men at flash-point, he found himself in the middle
of a fracas. According to Barron, Maynard blamed the Denison boy's
conduct on pernicious influences at home. Denison flew into a rage and
attacked Maynard, calling him a disgrace to the cloth and a god-dam-
ned scoundrel, and threatening to knock his head off his shoulders. Bar-
ron intervened and took a terrific blow on the side of the head — a blow
which he later described as either "straight or in a curve." Maynard
brought Denison into court on a charge of assault, for which Denison
was fined five shillings and costs. Barron was a reluctant witness and
stated that he would not believe Maynard under oath in any matter in
which he was personally concerned.30

This accusation sent Maynard into a further frenzy, causing him to
charge Barron officially with mismanagement, culpable neglect, and
absenting himself from his classes. Maynard issued a clarion call for a
searching inquiry into Barron. Barron, who might well have been
exhausted by then, courageously counter-attacked by charging May-
nard with sending boys to his room to spy upon him and keep a record
of his doings. He, too, wanted an investigation and was staking his rep-
utation on it.

A host of witnesses was called. Many said Maynard was unfit to
teach; some said it was characteristic of him to hit pupils over the head

GROWING PAINS

and face with his cane.3' Former principal John McCaul was quoted as
telling Maynard he was more trouble than all the other masters and
pupils together. Maynard was not without supporters all the same, and
it came out that the Robarts boys had previously been expelled from
grammar school. Many boys said Maynard was no different from the
other masters.

The evidence about Barron's neglect of duty was two-sided. Many
witnesses— students and Old Boys — said he was a fine teacher, but they
admitted that he was away from class a great deal on other College
business, with the result that their studies suffered. Some of his col-
leagues relectantly agreed with this sentiment, adding that he was not
always judicious. Barron came out of the ordeal, however, more sinned
against than sinning.

In June 1855 the sordid story came to an end. It had occupied the
university senate during forty-two sittings, and 108 witnesses had been
called. The charges laid by Denison, Robarts, and Stayner did not jus-
tify the removal of either Barron or Maynard. But the charges laid by
the masters against one another were of a different kind. Maynard was
dismissed, with one year's salary.32 Barron was severely censured for
allowing so much of his teaching time to be so taken up by other duties.

As a result of this bizarre incident, the senate drew up a statute for
the better governance of UCC, the first of many over the next thirty
years. It established a committee of three senate members chosen annu-
ally to supervise the College: the principal and masters were subject to
its control.

During the eighteen months of the investigation, not much energy
had been left over for attention to administration, but the College con-
tinued on a precarious economic ledge. Twice the masters had asked for
salary raises but were refused in view of the fact that the Governor Gen-
eral had specifically requested an investigation into methods of cutting
expenses. The same statute which ended the Maynard affair called for
no salary increases. The university senate was in a quandary, still pay-
ing the price of Colborne's extravagance twenty-five years previously.
At that time the salaries had been princely, but in the interim, prices
had more than doubled while the salaries had remained essentially

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

unchanged. The masters now considered themselves underpaid, and
Barron himself asked for a 25-per-cent raise. The Governor General
said only the senate had the power to raise salaries, and the senate said
it had no source of supply.

The College's human problems in the early 1850s were accompa-
nied by others related to the physical plant, now twenty-three years old.
Architects Cumberland and Storm produced a devastating report in
1853, listing leaky roofs and uninhabitable rooms; dilapidated fences,
steps, and internal staircases; insufficient drainage, caused by deterio-
rated cesspools with unservicable outlets, resulting in stagnant, offensive
water; and houses wholly unfit for the masters. The work, estimated at
£1,250, could just be afforded, and so was approved. To the senate's
consternation, the final bill was over £3,800. The architects were par-
tially paid and severely rebuked.

Despite the protracted public scrutiny and scandal, the enrolment
at UCC climbed slowly in the early fifties, and after the Maynard affair
ended, it jumped to about 250. Numbers ranged from three in the top
form to sixty in the preparatory form. There were thirteen religious
groups represented, but 68 per cent were Church of England.33 The
next largest group, the Church of Scotland, had twenty-six adherents. It
is clear that the Anglican image with which the College began was still
strongly in evidence.

Meanwhile, the early fifties saw the provincial system, under Ryer-
son's tireless goading, continue to come out of its long slumber. The
Common School Act of 1850, a sort of charter act of the Ontario system,
laid down the principle that free schools were basic to a healthy society
and pointed the way to the 1871 Act which established the high schools.
There was bound to be a lag between legislation and action, with the
result that improvement in elementary and secondary education during
this period was slow and uncertain. The grammar-school inspector's
report of 1855 showed 36 grammar schools: 9 out of operation with no
teachers, 4 bad, 10 fair, 7 tolerable, and 6 good. The highest headmas-
ter's salary was $1,200 (£300), the average was $680 (£170). Thirteen
out of twenty-seven headmasters now had university degrees. Com-
mon-school salaries ranged from $350 to $60 per annum for males.

GROWING PAINS

There were also 174 private schools, accommodating over 3,800 pupils.
Towards the end of 1856 Ryerson was recommending a model gram-
mar school. The winds of competition were blowing colder around UCC.

Barron's immediate task was to secure a replacement for Maynard.
Seventeen applications were received; the chosen man, recommended
by Chancellor Blake, was James Brown. Brown was an Old Boy, gold
medallist in mathematics at the University of Toronto, with more than
a year's teaching experience at the Toronto Grammar School. He
joined the College in January 1856,34 just as two stalwarts, Howard and
De la Haye, were about to leave. Neither man was old, but between
them they had served the College for fifty years. They probably sensed
that Barron's regime was coming to an end and neither wanted to
adapt to new ways.

In May 1856 Chancellor Blake gave notice of introducing another
in a series of statutes for the better government of the College. The same
month a worn-out Barron offered to resign for a retiring allowance of
£250 a year and salary paid through September. A statute was immedi-
ately introduced approving these arrangements. In a fit of exuberance
celebrating their release from the horrors of 1854 and 1855, the senate
approved a retirement allowance of £150 per annum for De la Haye, an
enlarged boarding-house, an enlarged playground, racket courts for the
boys' exercise and amusement, a new £45 fee for boarders, and a rule
that the new principal was to be in charge of the Resident School
House.

July saw Barron's last appearance with the university senate. At
almost the same time, W. H. Blake resigned as university chancellor.
During the senate investigation Blake had been very critical of Barron
for leaving his teaching duties so often. Later Egerton Ryerson said Bar-
ron resigned because of harsh words spoken to him by Blake. Whatever
the truth, Barron's usefulness had come to an end. Strachan wrote to
him congratulating him on escaping from "the House of Bondage."35

Barron's career at UCC was an example of the modern Peter Princi-
ple. His appointment to the staff in 1834 would probably never have
taken place except for an emergency. Maynard's transfer to mathemat-
ics in 1838 opened the classical department to him. Mathews' sudden

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

departure in 1843 left him as senior classics man. His appointment to
the principalship was made almost absentmindedly by the Governor
General. Barron was a bluff, hearty, decent man, a great athlete, but no
great scholar, and an indecisive, disorganized administrator. Events
overtook him, but he never lost his honour, and he left behind the
nucleus of a stable, distinguished staff — Scadding, Wedd, Brown, and
Barrett.

With Barron gone, for the third time the College was without a
head while the government and the university senate vacillated about
an appointment. For the third time the first classical master — in this
instance, Henry Scadding — became acting-principal. The senate began
by looking across the ocean, where an Oxford man caught its eye. After
due thought, however, he took a headmaster's post elsewhere, not want-
ing the boarding responsibility that went with the principalship. The
senate was deeply offended. They did not want to pay another man to
oversee the boarding and thought that their salary offer — £500, plus a
house and a share of the fees — put the position on a par with the highest
professional incomes in the province. Then the senate re-thought its
position: an eminent scholar from Europe was not necessary; if an
Ontarian had the qualifications, he should have preference. They
finally decided that the UCC principal should have £600 per year (Har-
ris's 1830 salary), a house, a proportion of the tuition fees, and £2 per
annum for each boarder; he should be responsible for boarder discipline
but not boarder economics.

During this interregnum period several developments took place at
the College. Along with a new study, a new dining hall, and other
improvements, the boarding-house was expanded. Architects Cumber-
land and Storm again were awarded the contract and again ran far
over tender, their excuse being the advanced stage of decay in the joists
and other important timber work — a frequent refrain in UCC history.

Some time during the winter of 1856-57, Scadding applied for the
principalship, but then, disillusioned by administrative duties, he with-
drew. The next senior classical master was the Reverend Walter Sten-
nett, a severe, unbending man, not modest about his own abilities.
Despite evident dissatisfaction with things as they were, or perhaps

GROWING PAINS

because of it, Stennett applied for the vacant headship, and on April 8,
1857, became ucc's fourth principal. Stennett was thirty-six, the third
Anglican clergyman to be principal (the last one for ninety-two years),
and the first Canadian in the position. He was born in Kingston, the
son of a renowned Canadian silversmith. Like Harris and McCaul he
had done very well in classics at university, in his case King's College,
Toronto.

His appointment came none too soon. The Globe had just issued a
strident call for common sense in the College's management. Both the
university senate and the government came in for stinging rebuke: what
was the use of the senate saying that the principal should maintain dis-
cipline, if there was no principal? Stennett's engagement was somewhat
disappointing to the Globe, which felt that the post should have been
open to competition. Stennett was a good teacher and a good discipli-
narian, but the paper feared he might be too strict and old-fashioned:
UCC needed to adopt modern ideas. The Daily Leader was more enthusi-
astic; it had supported Scadding, about whom none could say an
unkind word, but he was no disciplinarian and everyone knew it. The
Leader applauded Stennett's appointment.

No doubt haunted by accusations of past mismanagement, the sen-
ate scrutinized every detail of the College for the next few years. Sten-
nett's principalship, the shortest in UCC's history, was marked by a
string of senate statutes on fees, salaries,56 exhibitions, boarding, and
faculty.

Two interesting appointments were made during Stennett's time,
one of which did not need senate approval, one of which did. When he
was promoted to principal, Stennett recommended William Wedd to
replace him as second classical master, leaving an opening which was
filled by George Mountain Evans. Evans, a Trinity College MA, had
been headmaster of the Simcoe Grammar School for four years and was
an able teacher. He stayed at UCC for only three years, but while he was
there the five top teaching jobs, for the first and last time, were all filled
by Old Boys — Stennett, Scadding, Brown, WTedd, and Evans. The sec-
ond appointment was that of an English classical master, to modern
ears a contradiction in terms. The "higher" branches of English were

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

taught at that time by the classical masters, but the senate wanted a
specialist to work with Wedd and Evans in order to create greater
efficiency in that department. The roadblock was money. The appoint-
ment could not be made until the accounts were inspected.

After focusing intently on the land endowment, the senate commit-
tee concluded that the new master could be appointed only if part of
the College playground along King Street was sold. For this purpose a
surveyor was procured and thirteen or fourteen lots were measured off
from John Street, 120 feet deep. The posts showing the size of each lot
were put in and the proposal was made ready for publication. Two
acres remained in which the boys could "gallop."37

Pleased with their idea, the senate established the English classical
mastership and advertised for candidates. Their commitment was
unfortunate because they had reckoned without the boys, who took
double-edged action. Coincident with consideration of the new master
and the sale of the playground, a group of students led by the fifteen-
year-old John Ross Robertson, developed an interest in printing. When
school started in September, there appeared the first issue of what was
to become one of the most enduring of ucc institutions — The College
Times. No copy of this first issue still exists, but it contained an article
criticizing the authorities for selling the playground. Stennett sternly
forbade further publication, thereby whetting public appetite. Robert-
son changed the name to the Monthly Times, a feeble disguise, and sold
twice as many copies outside the school gates.

The second part of the protest was a public meeting held in the
Prayer Room, where a group of boys, with Robertson among the lead-
ers, assembled to discuss the planned desecration of the playground.

After the matter had been debated for over an hour and all sorts of
proposals made, Robertson suggested that they should appeal to the
fountain head, the governor-general, who lived across the street. Tom
Reid, from Halifax, backed up the proposition, and subsequently a
delegation of the boys presented a petition to Sir Edmund Head. He
sympathized with the boys, and much to the vexation of some of the

GROWING PAINS

authorities, an end was put to the sale, whereupon the boys made a
huge bonfire of the posts, and that ended the incident.38

There were several applicants for the position of English classical
master, and C. W. Connon,39 LL D Aberdeen University, was selected to
join the staff in January 1858. On Connon's arrival another statute was
passed forbidding him and future appointees from moonlighting with-
out the senate's permission.

Enrolment during Stennett's brief regime displayed remarkable
bounce. There were hardly any boarders before the residence was refur-
bished, almost fifty afterwards. The day boys leaped from 237 to 293,
then collapsed to 201 in i860, Stennett's year of troubles. Despite these
extraordinary changes, the finances remained relatively stable, receipts
and expenditures just about in balance.

Meanwhile the chief development in the provincial educational sys-
tem was the opening in August 1858 of the Model Grammar School
with George R. R. Cockburn at the helm. Two years previously Ryer-
son had strongly urged the government to turn the College itself into a
model school, but Attorney General John A. Macdonald had disagreed,
preferring two quite distinct schools which would give the public a
choice. The Model Grammar School was intended to illustrate the best
way of teaching the subjects required by law to be taught in the classi-
cal grammar schools, particularly classics and mathematics. Ryerson
had worked hard to bring a model school into being. His failure to con-
vert ucc into the Model Grammar School caused him to hold the Col-
lege up to some reprobation. He argued that it had performed a
necessary service at first but that for twenty years Upper Canada had
been simply a grammar school — peculiarly privileged to include com-
mon school work, but badly managed for a long time, and enormously
expensive. Moreover, said Ryerson, successful Old Boys owed more to
home influence than to the College's, and other grammar schools won
more than their share of scholarships40 and first-class matriculation
honours vis-a-vis UCC.

Perhaps spurred by Ryerson's remarks, the senate committee
responsible for College affairs produced a report with which Stennett

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

disagreed. The report said that out of two hundred boys at UCC no more
than five or six intended going to university; a disproportionate amount
of time was monopolized by the small number of boys in the seventh
form and it should be abolished. University preparation would be kept
alive in the fifth and sixth forms. If the number of forms were reduced,
the mass of boys could be better looked after. The report noted a fall-off
in enrolment and a deficit of over four thousand dollars for 1859. Last-
ly, corporal punishment was to be abolished and replaced by demerit
marks and detentions.

Stennett digested this report before coming out flatly in February
i860 with a threat of resignation. There followed for the next three
months an unfriendly exchange. Stennett said it was unfair to expect
him to carry on when circumstances had changed so much since his
appointment; not only that, but discipline and curriculum changes had
been made in opposition to his wishes. The senate responded that it had
waited for him to reform the College and he had not done so. Corporal
punishment had become so excessive that boys were indifferent, and all
idea of disgrace was removed. Stennett, the senate alleged, had done
nothing about this, while other schools had; UCC should have set an
example. The second problem which Stennett had not dealt with was
the distribution of boys by forms. The first classical master spent fifty-
five hours per week with ten or eleven boys. The most valuable men
were teaching very few boys, while the mass of pupils were making
inadequate progress. Most boys did not go beyond the fourth form. The
more reasonable the committee was, the more unreasonable Stennett
became. He eventually agreed, however, to the new plans and withheld
his resignation.

While Stennett was wrangling with the senate about the administra-
tion of the College, chilly financial breezes were blowing. Stennett's
share of the boarding-house fees were suspended depending upon any
surplus after all other expenses were paid; the same applied to the resi-
dent housemaster. These constraints had to be applied because, as usu-
al, the College was spending more than it took in. In May the long-time
four-thousand-dollar grant from the government was suddenly cut off,
with no hope held out of further financial aid. UCC was advised to cut

GROWING PAINS

its expenses and depend on its endowment and its tuition fees. This
move, a cause of great embarrassment and consternation to UCG, was
unexplained. (Perhaps it was about time, after thirty years, that the
College stood on its own financial feet.) Stennett immediately asked for
four months' leave on grounds of health, bequeathing the school to
Scadding.

The loss of four thousand dollars had a massive impact on College
life. A statute was brought in raising the day-boy fee to forty dollars; the
fee payable by boarders to the principal was entirely abolished; the
classical and English departments were reduced to two men each; pen-
sions and salaries were reduced. When he returned, Stennett resigned a
second time, then changed his mind and pleaded with the senate to
allow him to take in boarders. The plea was denied.

Through the winter Stennett dragged his feet on the matter of class
division. It had become evident that he could no longer work under the
supervision of a senate committee he despised, and his departure was
simply a question of time. He finally resigned as of June I, 1861. It was
obvious to him that the senate was to blame for the College's ills: their
decisions were made in the interests of the university, and he had only
the shadow of authority. He had had a severe nervous attack brought
on by anxiety, his health was broken, and he wanted a retiring allow-
ance. He was awarded two years' salary.

Stennett had taken over the College at a critical juncture, which
called for a man of special talents. Stennett was not the man: he was too
stiff and inflexible, and educationally he looked backwards rather than
forwards. It is true that the proliferation of statutes and the constant
supervision of the senate committee were difficult for a principal of any
independence to accept. Still, a man of different temperament might
have been able to cope.4' Stennett, like Barron, had not been first
choice for principal, but he had been well known and available, and
ambition had carried him into a position he was incapable of handling.
His departure42 brought the end of an era in the College's history, an
era of great expansion, plagued by inept administration, endless finan-
cial problems, and political hostility.

The College was put into the hands of a triumvirate — Scadding,

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

Wedd, and Brown — who had really been running things for the last six
months anyway. As always the College was saved in the end by men
like these and Barrett and Thompson, men who liked teaching, liked
the boys, taught well, and got on with the job.

CHAPTER FIVE

School Life
in the Forties and Fifties

ADESCRiPTlONOFCOLLEGELlFEin the eighteen-forties and
fifties is available in two or three letters, some diary entries, and a
handful of board minutes. Life was tougher for the boys than it is
now, but they were interested in much the same things as today's stu-
dents are. There was the usual mixture of the serious and the ludicrous,
but the passage of time has softened the difference between the two.

Each day would begin the same way — in the prayer room. The
masters sat at the north end, the odd-numbered forms and the commer-
cial form on the west side, the even-numbered and the preparatory on
the east. School started at nine. Years later an Old Boy of the time
described the atmosphere:

There were six or seven boys who acted as monitors. Of these two
walked up and down the entire length of the room until the Principal
entered. One monitor then called the roll and another wrote on a slate
the names of all absentees. While this was being done, if a master
entered, he would touch his mortar board to the Principal. All the
masters were supposed to be in by the end of roll call. After prayers
the two monitors would go down to the centre of the room, one would
remain there and the other stood at the door to preserve order as the
boys retired, form by form.

Except for roll call, the next century saw little change.
The masters seated at the north end of the room were a varied lot,
as teachers have always been, ucc has made a specialty of variety, and

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

the quirks of the men of the forties and fifties were seen pretty clearly by
the boys. No first-hand evidence remains of what the boys thought of
their instructors, but the reminiscences of several Old Boys, F. E. Dixon,
Elmes Henderson, and John Ross Robertson among them, remain. The
sketches which follow are impressions of two or more old students recol-
lected forty to eighty years later.

Mr. Barron, the principal, was a remarkable man, strict in his disci-
pline and a little quick-tempered. He had a horror of anything
approaching deceit on the part of the boys. He was a fine classical
scholar and his weekly reviews of the students were excellent. He was
most painstaking and conscientious in his teaching, and the boys were
very well grounded. Though not tall, he was very powerful, and an
excellent all-round athlete. He was a splendid boxer and had no objec-
tion to boys fighting out their differences, provided they fought fair and
did not hold a grudge afterwards. As a fencer, he had no equal among
all old Colonel Goodwin's pupils. He could sing a good song, and under
his instruction some of the boys sang in St. George's Church choir. He
was a famous amateur yachtsman, and in company with his friend Dr.
Hodder used to spend many an afternoon cruising around the lake. In
winter when he appeared on the bay with his skates, there were few
who could equal him in cutting figures on the ice.

Then there was "dear old Dr. Scadding," who was universally
respected during his long term of office. From one or two stories that
have been handed down, it might appear that Dr. Scadding was not a
strict disciplinarian. This judgment would be accurate. On one occa-
sion when he was out of his classroom there was a general melee and his
rubbers, which had been called into requisition as missiles, were shot
into the open fireplace, which was then the only means of heating the
room. His business with the principal delaying his return, the boys had
time to dispatch a deputation to a shop to buy him another pair.
Another time when he came into his room he found it apparently emp-
ty, the large woodbox and cupboards containing the boys who ought to
have been in their places on the benches. On the other hand, no master
has been more deeply beloved and probably none wielded a wider,
deeper influence.

SCHOOL LIFE IN THE FORTIES AND FIFTIES

Mr. Wedd, lovingly called "Billy," was also an excellent master and
a great favourite with all the boys. During the Crimean War he pleased
the boys greatly by reading out and discussing news of the battles and
commenting on them. In the classroom he especially tried to interest
the younger pupils in the subject-matter under study, and seldom failed
to impress even an idler that the matter was well worth studying. Wedd
would invariably question the boys next day as to how the principal
had treated this or that point. If they happened to be in harmony he
would remark: "Well, boys, it only shows that two sensible men, think-
ing of the same thing, will come to a similar conclusion."

Dr. Barrett was an easy-going master, and his lessons in geography
and arithmetic were sometimes farcical. A feature in his day was map-
drawing and inspection of slates. Some of the boys put down on their
slates sums learned by heart — the same sum every day — and were not
detected. Barrett had a room with an open fireplace, and in the winter
he always left his door open for five minutes before morning prayers so
that the boys could go in and warm themselves. He often used to enter-
tain the boys with anecdotes about a trip he had taken to St. Petersburg
when he was a boy. He also had a curious habit of constantly and
loudly cracking the knuckles of each hand, and the boys wondered how
he did it. Despite these eccentricities, he seems to have been a compe-
tent teacher.

At one time Mr. Maynard was away for two or three months on a
trip to England, and his place was taken by an ex-pupil. In every era,
students have been able to spot weaknesses in untried teachers. It is in
their nature to take advantage of such weaknesses until the teacher
either learns the ropes or deserts the profession. Though an able mathe-
matician, the young man was sadly deficient in administrative capacity
and had no control whatever over the boys, who pelted him unmerci-
fully with peas. Another favourite instrument of torture was a spool
with a quill stuck in one end of it, while in the other end a piece of stick
was inserted, with a bit of India rubber tied round it like a catapult.
When filled with small shot and discharged on a person's face, it was a
most diabolical invention. One afternoon, when the boys had been
more daring in their attacks than usual, the poor man could stand it no

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

longer, and actually burst into tears and got up from his chair to leave.
Before he had time to get away, however, an older boy followed him
and, putting his arm around him, led him back to his chair again.

Health was a problem that confronted masters and boys alike.
Almost from the beginning, the College authorities were haunted by the
threat of some kind of epidemic, a threat made worse by the lack of an
isolation hospital. The College survived the cholera of the thirties. In
1842 McCaul had to inform the King's College Council that scarlet
fever had smitten the boarding-house and that on the advice of "three
medical gentlemen"1 he was closing early for the Christmas holidays.
The same thing happened in 1844; one of the boys died, and Barron
closed the school in late November. From the students' point of view
this sounded wonderful, but an enormous amount of work must have
been missed. Barron recommended a small isolation hospital, but it was
a long time in coming. It was cheaper to close the school.

The boys themselves treated illness much as boys have always done:
calmly and matter-of-factly. In 1849 fifteen-year-old Edmund Morris
wrote to "Dear Mama" in Brockville about his older brother James:

I saw him on Friday, he is much better, that is, of the inflammation
but he has about half a dozen (biles) or boils, which are very painful
and what makes them more troublesome he cannot sit up but has to
lay in bed he has them in rather an awkward place, he looks much
better. . . . There are no simptons of Scarlet fever whatever in the Col-
lege when there is I will let you know. You need not be in the least
alarmed about James. . . . Mrs. Stennitt takes much more interest in
the boys' comfort than Mrs. Cousins did, when the boys are sick they
get gruel now instead of bone broth . . . and when they have a head-
ache she lends them her bottle of salts.

Aside from health, the concerns of boarding life centred around the
eternals: the passage of time, food, clothing, work, and girls. Young
Morris continued, "the way the weeks and days go past here is a cau-
tion . . . they never did when I was at home. I . . . am much obliged to
you for the drawers and to Janet for the cake. I have not yet tried the

SCHOOL LIFE IN THE FORTIES AND FIFTIES

drawers on, they look small. ..." Morris's bed was warm enough, as he
had six blankets and a quilt. His food "was as good as one could wish."2

Frederick Hutt, a thirteen-year-old from Stamford, evidently
boarded in the town. He wrote in 1847 to his brother John, "Tell
Mama that my reason for finding fault about the meals and boarding is
a good one and if you do not believe it ask the Rykerts, they complain
as much as I do. ... I hope you will send plenty of nuts and cakes as I
can hardly subsist on what we get." Despite the shortcomings of the
food, Hutt liked his College life very well. A long line of principals
would have beamed over the boy's prediction "that I will have a very
good character to bring home with me at Christmas I have learnt more
since I have been over here than I did all the time at Hubbards
school. "3

Richard Birdsall entered UCC in 1853 at the age of sixteen. He was
a great athlete and reported to be the best chess player in Canada,
inventor of Birdsall's gambit. He was evidently a serious student; at any
rate his letters to his guardian concentrate on his academic progress (as
well as business-like references to his finances):

I am not head in any of my classes yet, but I have got up pretty near
the head in most of them. There are fifteen boys in my "form" six or
seven of them very seldom miss a question so it is no very easy matter
to get "head". I have been second for two weeks on one class & have
not missed a question, the head boy has not missed any questions
either so I can't get above him 'till he does.

It gives me as much as I can do to learn all my lessons I sit up 'till
half past ten, & get up at five, it will be easier for me after a month or
two, for I am a little behind in some things & have to get extra lessons.

Birdsall also lived in town, at 36 Victoria Street, but mentioned
"seven or eight vacancies at the boarding house." He expressed surprise
that Barron had not invited him to fill one of them. Two years later he
had still not entered the residence but had moved to Maxwell's on
Temperance Street. He was still a good student, having been promoted
to the seventh form; he had learned fencing from Goodwin, and had

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

become one of the best cricketers at the College. All this he confided to
his diary. He also mentioned a trip to Peterborough, "with Maggie and
David Rogers. (Maggie a deuced nice girl.) Got David on a spree at
Harris' Tavern and made love to Maggie all the road home."4

An interesting group of boys in the residence during the forties were
eight or nine Canadian Indians. It was the policy of S. P. Jarvis, the
Chief Superintendent for Indian Affairs, "to have them trained like
white boys of good family"5 (presumably to help impose white values
when they returned home). One such boy was Francis Assiginack (or
Assiknack), whose letter to Jarvis left much to be desired in terms of
English grammar, but which made a common complaint: "I was very
much wish to asked you for what I would like have it. [I am] very much
hungry for money."6 Another Indian, Charles Keejack, was a fine ath-
lete. One morning he raced against a British officer on a trotting horse
down a half-mile stretch of University Avenue and got to Queen Street
first.

The boarder's life of the fifties was not so different in principle from
a boarders' life of today. John Ross Robertson remembered the year
1857, the same year he started The College Times:

The additional space [provided by Howard's additions of 1838] gave
much more sleeping accommodation, and the large rooms of the early-
days were divided into dormitories, framed of lattice work about seven
feet by eight in extent, each dormitory being provided with a single
bed, a washstand, and a few pegs for clothing, and a door, which was
so hung that when closed it could not be opened without jingling a
bell in the main hall that would wake the Seven Sleepers. This bell
business was a disagreeable innovation. At ten o'clock the boys were
supposed to have retired, with each door closed, the bell set, and usu-
ally quiet prevailed, but not always. One of the boys, a genius in his
way, secured a piece of wire and twisted it so that he could slip the
snap without disturbing the bell. Once out, of course, he could eman-
cipate the entire army. Occasionally, on Friday nights, the boys had
an old-fashioned pillow fight, that brought Mr. Thompson and Mr.
Dodd on the scene. The boy on watch, hearing the masters approach,
gave the warning, and the rest were in a few seconds in bed apparently

SCHOOL LIFE IN THE FORTIES AND FIFTIES

very sound asleep, but with their ears still open, listening to the foot-
falls of the half-dressed masters, who were astonished at the change
from chaos to order. On one occasion, a night or two before the sum-
mer holidays, Dr. Barrett held an inquest upon the remains of some
pillow-slips, the verdict being that every boy whose pillow was torn
was kept in the College grounds until he had memorized perfectly a
few verses of Scripture selected with great care by Mr. Dodd. The
masters' gardens — a row of seven on the east side of the hill that sloped
into the playground — were sometimes despoiled of favourite plants; a
riot might occur at the teatable, if the food was not up to the standard;
a fight might take place between boarders — but all these things were
natural. On one occasion, a luckless boy was careless enough to let
lighted matches fall between the wainscotting in the long study, and
then there was a clatter. Water was plentiful and the fire was soon out,
but the penalty paid was one that makes the writer shudder as he still
thinks of it. For four weeks the boy viewed the scenery of the outside
world from the top of the College fence — he was within the law if he
did not cross — and, as a further punishment, three hundred verses of
the Bible at the rate of five per day, were not only to be memorized,
but also presented in College ink, on College foolscap, with instruc-
tions to dot the i's, cross the t's, and give the commas, semicolons, and
full points the positions they were entitled to. The boys sympathized
and poured forth their condolences, but the edict had gone forth and
there was no help for it.7

Though the evidence is meagre, there were certainly stirrings of cul-
ture at UCC in Barron's time. The first exhibition of the Toronto Society
of Arts took place in 1847. J. G. Howard and Thomas Young were both
prominent members of the society, and no fewer than five works of
art — water-colours, a crayon figure, and pencil drawings — by anony-
mous UCC students were on display.

A musician himself, Barron made sincere attempts to get music
started at the College; he employed a series of vocal and instrumental
teachers in the late forties. By 185 1 the boys were good enough to put
on a concert in the St. Lawrence Hall, the fashionable place for such
functions. It was a great success, played before a packed house. Barron

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

paid for it himself, expecting to be recompensed by donations at the
door. Unfortunately, the returns were meagre, and the principal was
much out of pocket. Mr. Maynard played the violin and Barron took
the double bass. A reporter of the time attended with grave doubts but
wrote afterwards that he was "agreeably disappointed at the excellence
of the boys' performance."

Afterwards there was dancing and much refreshment, probably too
much. F. E. Dixon, an Old Boy, recalled much later that

among the guests were Sir Hew Dalrymple, lieutenant-colonel of the
71st Highland Light Infantry, then stationed in the city, and two
other young officers aides-de-camp to His Excellency Lord Elgin, the
Governor-General. These three gentlemen (?), who had evidently
been indulging rather freely at the supper table, went down to the
gentlemen's dressing room while the dancing was in full blast, and
there commenced an orgy which was probably without a parallel in
the military history of Toronto. They turned the overcoats inside out
and knotted them together by the sleeves, so as to cause an almost
inextricable confusion when the owners came afterwards to claim
them. Boys' caps were stuffed down into the sinks, and on the whole I
think that scarcely one in ten of those who stayed for the dancing was
able to secure his own proper garments. There was, as may be imag-
ined, an immense amount of excitement over the matter, but owing to
the high position of the parties implicated, it was soon hushed up.

A tradition that has persisted for well over a century began during
this period with the first meeting of the Upper Canada College Debat-
ing Society on May 15, 1858. One of the earliest College Times carried
the report:

The debate was carried on with a good deal of spirit. ... I particularly
remarked that there was but one of the College masters present, and
was very much surprised at that. ... if this Society be discouraged, it
will sink into obscurity . . . and there will perish one of the most advan-
tageous undertakings that ever has arisen in Upper Canada College.

SCHOOL LIFE IN THE FORTIES AND FIFTIES

Music, debates, art exhibitions — these were one facet of the ucc
program. An equally important part of the school's life came under the
general heading of fights. These could be categorized into three general
types: First, serious collective warfare against other schools on Queen
and Richmond streets, or against the Model School. The chief weapons
were stones. Once a half-brick knocked a boy's cap off, and on another
occasion a policeman walked into Barron's class and arrested two boys.
Second, there were serious fisticuffs, widely recognized by the well-
known call of the wild, "Fight, fight!" A ring would be formed around
the two boys, and there were rules of the game, seconds, and so on. If it
lasted too long, some insensitive master would appear and break up the
eager throng. Third, there were mock battles between members of the
school, such as those modelled on the Crimean War. In November 1854
the British won a victory at the Alma, and an Old Boy recalled the re-
enactment at the College:

The College play-ground had in those days a stream running through
it from north to south, some four or five feet wide, a creek which was
generally boarded over, but owing to some neglect just at the time of
which I am writing, a portion of the boards about twenty feet in
length at the southern end close to King Street West had been taken
up and not relaid. Here was an opportunity too good to be lost, the
creek was the Alma and the small hills on its eastern bank were the
historic heights of the same name. There was no reason whatever why
we boys should not fight the battle of the Alma over again. Russians,
British, French and Turkish battalions were speedily organized and
ranged themselves, the Russians captained by a big boy who was in
the Commercial Form, occupying the "heights."

The "British" were led by a now well-known resident of Grimsby,
Ont., the French by Alcide De la Haye, the only son of Mr. J. P. De la
Haye, the French master of U.C.C., and the Turks by a boy who
styled himself Omar Pasha.

There had been a pretty heavy fall of snow, wet and clinging, and
in consequence "ammunition" abounded. The defending force took
up position and the attack commenced, but alas for the pluck and the
prestige of the "allied force"; they were, in a battle which lasted half

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

an hour, completely routed. Over the Alma they could not get; the
position held by the Russians was impregnable. The leader of the Brit-
ish displayed tremendous bravery but could not get his troops to face
the tremendous [snowball] fire to which they were exposed. The
French lingered timidly in the rear, whilst poor Omar Pasha was ren-
dered "hors de combat" very early in the conflict by a snowball hitting
him in the forehead inflicting a nasty wound, the marks of which he
still carries, the blow compelling him to beat a hasty retreat.

Mr. Barron, with the strong common sense which always charac-
terized his dealings with the boys, contented himself with giving us all,
in the prayer hall a day or two later, a lecture on the folly of such
"sports," and hinting that putting stones in snowballs was the reverse
of bravery.

It should not be thought that UCC boys did nothing except fight in
their spare time. An Old Boy recalls that in the summer the favourite
place was Toronto Bay. College boys in the afternoon would take long
and heavy planks and paddle out towards the island. Their clothing
was always light so they did not mind the risk of falling in. The other
chief amusement was swimming from Simcoe Street to York Street and
back again.

In April 1846 a flagstaff was re-erected on the College cricket
ground and a new flag hoisted. A thirteen-year-old student named S. A.
Marling, who later became headmaster of the Whitby Grammar School
and a high school inspector, wrote a nine-verse poem for the event
extolling the virtues of Britain, "our Fatherland, the Home of the brave
and the free . . . our Home, our Altars, and our Queen, the Queen of the
good and true." Marling ended on a stirring note:

And still, oh, still remember,
Whatever ill betide,
The land where all our Fathers lived,
Where all our Fathers died.

Marling's sentiments were typical of the College boys of that time. Fifty

SCHOOL LIFE IN THE FORTIES AND FIFTIES

years later the umbilical cord to Great Britain was stronger than ever.
It took a century for it to loosen.

Holidays have always been beloved by school boys and Barron was
an expert in knowing when to grant them. An Old Boy recalled that

when the regular troops of the British Army were in Canada, and
were reviewed by the Governor General, we always asked for a holi-
day. The day and boarding-house boys joined in the memorial. The
Sixth fellows generally prepared the address, which was not to the
Principal and masters but to the Governor General. His private secre-
tary used to live in a brick cottage on the corner of King and Simcoe
Streets in the Government House grounds. The small delegation of
boys would go over in the morning and hand the secretary the docu-
ment. The secretary would then go upstairs and tap at the bedroom
door of the Governor.

"What's that?"

"The college boys, your Excellency, want a holiday to see the
review."

"Oh, I suppose so. Yes — ask Barron."

And in about an hour the Sergeant Orderly would come over
bringing a large letter with a big seal, and Mr. Barron would smile
and grant the request.

Direct petitions were also made to the ucc Board of Management.
In 1852 a group of twenty-eight students, supported by sixty-seven par-
ents and Old Boys, respectfully begged

leave to state that relying on the interest that is taken by the Council
in the studies of the boys, but also in their personal happiness and
means of enjoyment, [we] most humbly approach your Honourable
body to beg the renewal of a favour which was for many years granted.
Your petitioners refer to the half holiday on Wednesday which,
from the foundation of this institution until the beginning of last year,
had been always enjoyed by them and which your petitioners humbly
hope was not withdrawn in consequence of any abuse of this privilege,
or upon any bad effect that had been found to follow from it. If it
should please your Honourable body to restore this favour, it would of

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

course rest with a much respected Principal and yourselves to deter-
mine whether a half holiday shall be granted on Wednesday as for-
merly or a whole holiday on Saturday as in most of the public schools
in the province.8

The board graciously granted a whole holiday on Saturday, winter
term excepted, in return for which two or three extra hours of study
were added each week.

When difficulties or special circumstances arose, protocol appeared
to demand a barrage of letters rather than face-to-face confrontation.
In 1842 Charles Baker wrote to Strachan, begging for the readmission
of his son, whose age, the register claimed, was twelve. Strachan regret-
ted that the King's College Council was unable to recommend young
Baker, "as the boy had been publicly convicted and after imprisonment
pardoned by the public act of the Governor General. . . ." Something
might have been done for the boy, said Strachan, "had he not been
brought to trial and convicted."9

Many of the letters to the administration related to the difficulties
which seemed to surround the Reverend George Maynard, the mathe-
matical master. How he stayed at the College for twenty years remains
one of the great mysteries of ucc. In 1839 Edward Sherwood, aged six-
teen, was expelled for striking Maynard. (At least six other boys were in
some kind of trouble with Maynard at the same time.) His father, Mr.
Justice Sherwood, went neither to Maynard nor to the principal but
wrote to John Macaulay, the Inspector-General. He euphemistically
spoke of, "an unfortunate dispute . . . between one of the Masters . . . and
my youngest son Edward"10 and appealed the sentence. Macaulay went
further afield by approaching Justice Jonas Jones, who happened to be
the principal's future father-in-law. Principal McCaul wrote Jones a
wordy epistle describing the system of discipline at UCC and Sherwood
remained expelled:

The discipline of Upper Canada College is maintained by rewards
and punishments — the principal rewards are prizes of books annually
given for progress and good conduct — the principal punishments are

SCHOOL LIFE IN THE FORTIES AND FIFTIES

corporal chastisement — dismissal — and expulsion. The punishments
may be divided into two classes — ordinary and special. The masters
have a discretionary power in the . . . former, which, however, is very
much restricted by their responsibility to the Principal. The offences
. . . are lateness of attendance, want of preparation, and disorderly con-
duct. These punishments are inflicted in their own rooms in the pres-
ence of the class, to which the offenders belong. Offences of a more
serious character are referred by them to the Principal. . . . Such is the
system . . . laid down by my predecessor. [He] followed . . . the usage of
the English Grammar Schools.

The only alterations, which I have made . . . have been — adding
rewards to encourage exertion and good conduct — instituting minor
punishments — and discontinuing corporal punishment as much as I
could. . . . The punishments, which I have introduced, are . . .
impositions — and, with the boys resident at the Board House, depriv-
ing them of play, and confining them to the College grounds. ..."

Beverley Jones of Brockville kept a diary through 1855 and 1856.
His laconic remarks on the staff upsets of his time show how little adult
antics affected wiser, younger heads. "Mon. Oct. 1st — Fine day. Mr.
Maynard got his walking ticket on Saturday night and the principal
had to take mathematical classes after coll. went to the playground and
had a short game of cricket."

Jones had his priorities right: cricket took clear priority over the
crises among the faculty. The recent scandal had been very hard on
Barron but Jones once again knew what was important. "Teus. Dec.
4th — Fine day went to the principal to repitition and he was as cross as
a bear with a sore head I came out second."12

Jones's pride in his academic success reflected the mood of this peri-
od. It was an augury of happier times ahead.

CHAPTER SIX

Maturity

1861-1881

ONE OF THE most DIFFICULT areas of College administration in
the nineteenth century had to do with the choice of principal.
The government, moving between Toronto and Quebec, and be-
set by other concerns, seemed unable to make quick, sensible decisions.
The year 1861 saw the fourth interregnum direction of Upper Canada
College, this time by three tried-and-true teachers — Scadding, Wedd,
and Brown. Administration was not their strength, and it was a relief
when the appointment was finally made.

In late May 1861 John A. Macdonald recommended George R. R.
Cockburn, age twenty-seven and rector of the recently established
Model Grammar School, for the principalship of ucc. Governor Gen-
eral Head offered "the Reverend" Cockburn the post. (Head's aide
gently reminded him that Mr. Cockburn was not a clergyman; he was a
Master of Arts.) Cockburn, an Edinburgh University man, had applied
for the English classical job at UCC in 1858 but had abruptly withdrawn
his application when Egerton Ryerson had persuaded him to take over
the Model Grammar School. Cockburn and Ryerson had not hit it off
almost from the beginning. At the time of Cockburn's appointment to
the Model School there had been some objection from the Oxford,
Cambridge, and Dublin people in Toronto that a Scot should have so
exalted a position. Ryerson had hinted at some regret about his choice,
and had wanted Cockburn to get an MA. Cockburn had felt called upon
to defend at great length his own claims to scholarship, and because of
his past record had obtained his MA without writing exams.

When offered the ucc principalship Cockburn delayed a response

MATURITY

in order to confer with Ryerson; he then accepted, using Ryerson's
name in his letter. Ryerson was furious; he denied concurring in Cock-
burn's move, stating that he would have done so only if UCC and the
Model Grammar School were to be blended. He reiterated his strong
desire to merge the two schools, thereby saving four thousand dollars.
Cockburn thought the two schools were virtually merged already, but
did not want to make his acceptance conditional on the amalgamation.
He said he would be happy to run both when (and if) they became
combined. Ryerson wrote to Macdonald for his support but got none:
Macdonald had thought he was meeting Ryerson's wishes in Cock-
burn's appointment — to him the first step in the amalgamation which
Macdonald himself wanted. He urged Ryerson not to oppose the
change, and Ryerson withdrew his objections. Two years later, Charles
Ryerson, Egerton's son, entered UCC, and a string of Ryersons followed.

The weekly Globe was pleased with Cockburn's appointment to an
institution which it thought was richly endowed but ill-managed. The
paper felt UCC had become fossilized, standing still in the midst of edu-
cational reform in Britain (from which it drew its inspiration). It lav-
ished praise on the new furnishings and renovations which had recently
been approved: a lavatory, a laboratory, a library, refurnished class-
rooms each with a thermometer to regulate the temperature. The paper
noted that an entrance examination had been introduced which con-
sisted of English, the first four rules of arithmetic, and the geography of
Europe; new boarding facilities were warmly approved. The Globe
warned that, hopeful as it was, it would not hesitate to condemn any
deviation from the virtuous new path. It need not have worried.

Cockburn had a theory that much of the College's trouble lay in the
constitution and management of the boarding-house, and he moved
quickly to correct it. For a number of years Dr. Michael Barrett had
been not only resident housemaster and first English master at UCC, but
also president of and lecturer at the Toronto School of Medicine. He
saw no incompatibility in these several occupations, but Cockburn did.
The UCC Committee thought highly of Barrett and did not wish to lose
him; after some scuffling he stayed on as a teacher but resigned as
boarding-house housemaster. He continued his School of Medicine

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

work. In December 1863 Barrett became the first official College
doctor,1 retaining that responsibility until 1886.

A second problem Cockburn inherited was the perennial financial
one. Stennett had been promised a retiring allowance of $4,800. The
Governor General approved such payment out of the College income
fund, whenever it could afford it. The forthright bursar of both the uni-
versity and the College advised that the fund was overdrawn by more
than ten thousand dollars and things would be worse by Christmas.
When it was suggested that the university lend UCC the money to pay
Stennett, the bursar came crisply back: the university income fund was
overdrawn by over $39,000! In the face of this sort of difficulty the UCC
Committee asked several times for the resurrection of the annual grant;
needless to say, they did not get it. The Governor General, at his wit's
end, told the bursar that it was imperative for both institutions to prac-
tise all economy.

Cockburn, highly organized and with a good business sense, dealt
with both the human and the financial situations with great finesse. His
first move in dealing with faculty appointments was to introduce a
period of six months' probation, a useful innovation in case of unhappi-
ness on either side. He then moved into the boarding problem by rec-
ommending the appointment of John Martland as superintendent of
the boarding-house. Cockburn had lured Martland from the Montreal
High School, where he had a very high reputation. Martland was also
Scadding's replacement in the classics department, Wedd moving up to
first place, and Martland moving in behind him.

If anything put the seal of approval on Cockburn as a first-class
principal, it was the addition of Martland to the steady and experi-
enced group of masters he already had. Barrett had served 1 7 years,
Thompson 15, Wedd 11, and Brown 5 when Cockburn took over. By
the time Cockburn left in 1881 these five men had taught at UCC a total
of 147 years. Cockburn had few disciplinary worries, and this solid base
allowed him to welcome some extraordinarily talented men as col-
leagues.

The mathematics department had never had two masters, but
Cockburn thought it was high time it did. In 1864 Cockburn appointed

MATURITY

the first of a series of first-class men to help Brown in mathematics.
Francis Checkley, Science Scholar at Trinity College, Dublin, and a
Model Grammar School teacher, came from 1863 to 1865; he went on
to head schools in Sarnia and London. He was replaced by John A.
Paterson, 1861 head boy, who later became solicitor for the University
of Toronto and president of the Royal Astronomical Society. James
McLellan followed; he later became principal of the Ontario School of
Pedagogy and president of the Ontario Educational Association. In
1 87 1 Cockburn made the second mathematical post a permanent one,
and the Reverend Arthur Sweatman resigned as headmaster of Hell-
muth College in London to join UCC; years later he became Archbishop
and Primate of all Canada. He was succeeded by Alfred Baker, who
had been University of Toronto gold medallist in mathematics and
principal of several high schools before joining UCC. Later he was very
prominent at the university, president of the Ontario Educational Asso-
ciation, and a member of the American and the French mathematical
societies. The post of second maths master was a decided success. When
George Sparling, who had been principal of the seminary in Yarmouth,
Nova Scotia, came in 1872, he stayed on and eventually took over from
Brown.

But Cockburn's attraction was not simply for mathematicians. In
the English department the College had a taste of Thomas Carscadden,
who became principal of Richmond Hill High School and Gait Collegi-
ate Institute, and John C. Dunlop, later lecturer in modern languages
and philology at Trinity. In French and German, Edward Fiirrer, a
Swiss, earned his MD while teaching at the College and later was a sur-
geon and superintendent at the Royal Inland Hospital, Kamloops. Wil-
liam H. Fraser also joined the staff under Cockburn; he was gold
medallist in modern languages at the u of T; where he later became a
professor of Italian and Spanish. He was the co-author of the Ontario
High School French Grammar and the German Grammar. William
Mulock was study master for two years; he later became vice-chancellor
of the University of Toronto, postmaster general, and the first minister
of labour. Last, but not least, the beloved William S. "Stony" Jackson
joined Cockburn in 1877 to teach classics and stayed for forty years.

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

By 1865 the boarding situation was under control and financially
showing a surplus. In fact the UCC committee of the senate went so far
as to say that the "state of the College is very satisfactory."2 Forty-seven
out of fifty-one beds were full, and a joyful statute was passed allowing
the principal up to three dollars per term for every full-time boarder.
Martland found the boarding-house arduous, resigned a couple of times
and was given assistants, but stayed on overseeing boarding until the
school moved north in 1891. He was the first master to make boarding
at UCC a complete success. Competition had started to sharpen, Trinity
College School in Port Hope having been founded in 1865, and the Col-
lege residence had to be good to survive. It was and it did. In 1869 it
became overcrowded, and an addition was completed in 187 1.3

In addition to solving the boarding riddle and strengthening mathe-
matics, Cockburn persuaded the university senate to pass a statute
appointing a lecturer in chemistry and physiology for three hundred
dollars a year. This innovative role was undertaken by Dr. Michael
Barrett. The English public schools had been a long time coming to
grips with science: it was first taught compulsorily at Winchester in
1857. Scientifically-minded members of the gentry were few and far
between; though awe-struck at the strides made in science and industry,
the schools saw no need to change. In scholastics, law, the church, and
the army, the needs were a well-trained mind and a "character that
nurtured the power of decision."4 Future employment was less impor-
tant than character, which was developed by the classics and the Bible.
Headmasters and educated people generally were very conservative,
and obtaining science teachers through the usual Oxbridge channel was
difficult. (Some good eccentric men were available but they were not
thought to be gentlemen.) At UCC the College doctor broke the barrier.

Cockburn's dynamism and fine judgment in men was aided by
something else on the financial side: the UCC land endowment was
finally paying off. In April 1866 the senate committee approved $12,500
annually from the UCC income fund for expenditures. No other princi-
pal or governing council had had such a sum; before the decade was
out, it would prove to be very much a mixed blessing.

In August 1868 Cockburn, seven years in the saddle and riding tri-

MATURITY

umphantly, met his first real opposition. The Ontario Grammar School
Association had empowered three of its members to produce a pam-
phlet entitled "The U.C. College Question." It was a fifty-five-page
document, savagely attacking the College under a variety of headings:
the so-called Grammar School Reserves, the College's origin, its sources
of income past and present, its history up to and since 1850, its relation-
ship to the university, its cost compared to the grammar schools, its aca-
demic standing, its salaries — no detail of the College's history or
administration was too minute for the Association's probing eye. Not
surprisingly the pamphlet's conclusions were that UCC's continued
existence was indefensible, the grammar schools should have their
rightful inheritance returned to them, and justice should be demanded
from the legislature against an institution "begotten of Fraud and nur-
tured by Plunder."^

The Association's pamphlet was carefully constructed of whole
truths, half-truths, and damned lies. Colborne's headlong speed in
founding UCC without much consideration of other schools, and the
enormous endowment with which he blessed it, were certainly grounds
for disapproval. The administration of the school had, for much of its
forty years, been less than exemplary. UCC had certainly spent a moun-
tain of money. On the other hand, all that was in the past. The present
teaching was unquestionably sound, the faculty gave the institution
rock-like stability, the boarding-school was the only non-denomina-
tional one of any standing, and Cockburn's financial acumen was
unquestioned.

Common sense did not quite prevail. Newspapers from cities and
hamlets all over southern Ontario shrieked and growled right through
the autumn. Dozens of editorials from almost thirty communities satu-
rated the press, forcing the House of Assembly to appoint a select edu-
cation committee to look into the charges enunciated by the pam-
phlet. (Some Toronto newspapers — the Globe, the Leader, and the
Telegraph — defended the College, not on its history, but on its present
performance.) Meanwhile Cockburn prepared a rebuttal of thirty- two
pages, which was published in book form towards the end of the year. It
was well he did, because boards of trustees from many Ontario centres

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

sent petitions to the House asking for the withdrawal of the College
endowment.

In January 1869 the select committee met "to consider the disen-
dowment of Upper Canada College."6 The two chief witnesses were
John McCaul, president of University College, and Egerton Ryerson,
Chief Superintendent of Education. McCaul made three good points:
to have all the grammar schools as efficient as ucc would be outra-
geously expensive, but there was a need for more than one (he pointed
to Hellmuth College in London and to tcs); it was not necessary to
make all grammar schools feeders for the university because most stu-
dents needed to be qualified for only the ordinary positions of life; final-
ly, dividing the ucc exhibition money among 104 grammar schools
would not be of much advantage to any of them. Dr. Ryerson was more
long-winded: he thought the grammar schools did wonderfully well
considering that their grants averaged about $500 each compared to the
College's $12,500. He said that he had sent his son to ucc because the
teaching was superior. If he had his way, he would not withdraw the
endowment but would make the school as efficient as possible and then
make all the grammar schools as good as it was. It was evident that in
his heart he still wanted the College to be the Model Grammar School.

The committee adjourned without recommending the disendow-
ment of UCC, and Cockburn was vindicated; but the first organized step
to strip the College had been taken. The educational establishment, the
press, and the legislature had all been part of a general attack, which
continued on and off for nineteen years in a battle the College could not
hope to win. It had become too rich and too academically successful not
to kindle the fires of jealousy in less fortunate centres across the
province — jealousy sharpened by the fact that it was in Toronto, the
city which got everything. However, the College had survived another
battle in its long war and headed into Cockburn's second decade with
justifiable confidence.

As it moved into the 1870s the College was, in fact, a successful
operation. Enrolment had continued to increase, averaging three hun-
dred, and classes were over-full. Day boys rose to 195 and boarders
reached a high of 137 on three occasions. About fifty-five per cent of the

MATURITY

boys came from Toronto, forty per cent from Ontario, and a few from
the United States and the rest of Canada. (These proportions were true
for the first fifty years of ucc's existence.) The College and the board-
ing-house funds were kept separately; both showed a surplus, and all
salaries were paid in full. A steady stream of boys, about eleven a year,
was going on to university, mainly to the University of Toronto, but a
very few further afield. More money was voted for several academic dis-
ciplines, and a 1874 surplus of over a thousand dollars was divided
among the masters in proportion to their reduction in i860.7

It was fortunate for the College that it was well managed in the
1870s because the provincial system continued to strengthen. In 1871
all common schools became free by law and were paid for by taxes. The
great mass of young Ontario men never went to high school or univer-
sity but received the whole of their education in the common primary
schools. Many of these were still wretched, the teachers being poorly
paid and constantly changing, but there was a widespread movement
towards improvement. The same year the old grammar schools disap-
peared to be replaced by high schools and collegiate institutes.

In 1876 Ryerson retired after thirty-two years as chief superintend-
ent of education. Ryerson had laboured tirelessly to erect the Ontario
educational system on the foundation laid by his rival, John Strachan.
He had had some hard things to say about the College, mostly in regard
to its outrageous endowment and expensive ways, but he had publicly
praised its teaching. He probably would have loved to run UCC himself
and certainly wished it had been part of his system. He was replaced by
Adam Crooks, who became the first provincial minister of education.
He had been the UCC head boy of 1846, and was a lawyer, the Liberal
member for West Toronto, and a fanatical worker in the College's
cause through good times and bad.

By 1877 the College had outgrown its accommodation. With an
enrolment of about three hundred boys divided into ten forms, the class-
rooms were too small; the principal had no office, and there was not
enough room for the boarders despite the 187 1 addition. More space
was absolutely essential. The UCC Committee outlined this situation to
the provincial secretary, hinting at the idea of a new site, but knowing

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

that that was an impossibility. A plan had been sketched to enlarge the
buildings by replacing the existing front. Twelve classrooms, a public
hall, a room for the principal, and space for sixty more boarders could
be provided for fifty thousand dollars. The fees had recently been
increased; the endowment was about $235,000; the financial position
was sound.8

Crooks carried this message forward to a committee of the Educa-
tional Council, and a forty-thousand-dollar expenditure was approved.
By April 1877 the transformation was complete. William Dendy in Lost
Toronto describes it:

The most obvious change was in the centre building, which was
expanded by the addition of a mansarded block 85 feet wide by 44 feet
deep directly in front of the old main building. The lower floor con-
tained a principal's classroom east of the hall and a study room to the
west, each 33 by 42 feet. The entire upper floor was occupied by a
chapel-assembly hall that rose 28 feet to a beamed roof with a ribbed
and diagonally boarded ceiling, described as Gothic. The whole room
had a natural wood cornice and wainscot finished in matching fash-
ion. The character of the exterior is more difficult to describe. C. P.
Mulvaney in 1884 saw it as an example of "the Queen Anne style of
architecture, now so much in vogue"; John Ross Robertson in 1888
referred to it as "modified Elizabethan." Both descriptions suggest the
consciously English atmosphere.

The addition to the main block was built in red brick to match the
original buildings. Horizontal bands in white stone formed a grid pat-
tern with the two-storey piers that grouped the tall windows. The front
entrance stepped forward, and was framed by banded columns — an
eccentric touch of Jacobean classicizing detail — as a tall frontispiece.
Above this, in the centre of the roof, rose a high octagonal cupola,
matched by thin pinnacles topping piers at the corners of the block,
which actually concealed chimneys and ventilators. The inspiration of
the cupola and the ventilators was probably Kivas Tully's own design
for similar cupolas in Trinity College. But the design as a whole, like
much Victorian work of the period in Canada, makes a virtue of indi-
vidualized and inventive detail: a basic medieval picturesqueness

MATURITY

achieved with French and Italianate classical detail. Elsewhere in the
renovations, the French Second Empire style — present in a purer form
in Government House across the street — dominated: in the mansard
roofs added to the old buildings, in the elaborately moulded and
crested window heads of pressed metal and cast iron added to the front
windows, and in the new front entrances to the residences, with their
high stoops and porches.

Upper Canada College was approaching its fiftieth birthday and
had reached a high point in its career, but once again success brought
Nemesis.

For some inexplicable reason the College statements of income and
expenditure had not been brought before the legislature for many years.
In January 1878 an Opposition member of the legislature named Lau-
der moved for an order of the House to inquire into ucc's endowment
fund. He requested a statement of money borrowed and of money spent
on new structures; he noted the new buildings and wanted to know the
source of the money. His aim was government control of the College's
expenditures just as it controlled those of the provincial schools. Crooks
defended the expense, but the debate was long. The Opposition clearly
wanted regular reports on the progress of the College, legislative super-
vision over its management, and the final solution — the use of UCC's
endowment fund for the benefit of the whole province. In the end there
was agreement on both sides of the House that the required information
would be forthcoming. The endowment was not yet in jeopardy, but the
next step towards its confiscation had been taken. An Act was passed
stating that all appropriations from the College's permanent fund were
to be subject to the approval of the legislative assembly.

Less than two years later the entire process was repeated. The
boarding-house accommodation was again insufficient, with many
boarders living outside the College; a new building was needed and a
gymnasium besides. The cost was estimated at thirty thousand dollars.
Crooks went to the House in early 1 880 for the money, which was, after
all, coming out of UCC's own funds. This time, however, the government
lost control of its own party. The same arguments were bandied about,

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

but a new refrain was heard as well — namely, that the University of
Toronto was low in funds and should get the endowment. The College
was hotly attacked by almost everyone, with poor Crooks trying his best
to stave off the arguments with sentimentality and emotion. It was
finally decided that nobody really understood the matter and more
information was needed. Crooks was ordered to obtain it.

While Crooks was preparing his report, Goldwin Smith9 gave it as
his opinion that the College was a survival from the age before the high
schools had developed. It was, he said, hard to compare them because
the College, at public expense, took so many good pupils away from the
high schools. Nevertheless, Smith made two salient points: if UCC did
not exist, wealthy people would send their sons away, perhaps to Eng-
land or to the United States. Moreover, to divide the endowment
among all the high schools would be to waste it away without effect.

At last Crooks was ready, and on January 31, 1 881, he produced for
Lieutenant-Governor John Beverley Robinson a long summation of the
College's situation. The College's enrolment was over three hundred,
and everything was fine except for two items: first, the boarding-house
was still inadequate; and second, a gymnasium was needed for wet
weather. Crooks went into some detail with statistics on the boarding-
house from which boys were being turned away. Crooks presented
equally detailed figures on scholarships and much information compar-
ing the College with the high schools in terms of cost per pupil and sub-
jects taught. He listed all the distinguished graduates (and there were
many), and without any proof stated that the greater number of College
parents were in moderate circumstances and many were struggling.
Crooks concluded this important document by stating two aims: econo-
my, and an enlarged boarding-house. He suggested that UCC had
proved its usefulness as a university feeder, and its permanency should
be assured by undertaking certain measures: the elimination of the
sixth form, the introduction of the high school entrance examination,
inspection by the Department of Education, a reduction in boarding
and tuition fees, a limitation in the numbers of Toronto students, more
exhibitions, an improvement in boarding and masters' accommodation,

MATURITY

and a revision in the duties and salaries of the principal and the mas-
ters.

Crooks was a warm-hearted friend of education, but in some
respects he did the College harm. In one debate he had argued for
UCC's retention on the grounds of culture and tone — it was a school for
the education of gentlemen's sons — an argument certain to draw the
fury of the Opposition. The Telegram, a College supporter, told the truth
by saying that gentlemen could pay for their sons' education out of their
own pockets. Furthermore, Crooks threatened to resign from the House
of Assembly if UCC were abolished. The Telegram and members of his
own side parted company with Crooks on that. The UCC issue was not a
party issue, and those calling for disendowment were not simply trying
to embarrass the government. The case had to be tried on its merits,
and the College had to be open to criticism. The Telegram concluded
that the resignation of the emotional Minister of Education would be
no loss to the portfolio.

As the winter of 1881 wore on, it was evident that public feelings
were high and press comment widespread. The Toronto World gave a
Toronto view but expressed it well: the enemies of the College were the
high schools, the municipalities, the university, and all those opposed to
aristocratic tendencies. But the World saw something else: better teach-
ing, a higher standard of finish, a different system of discipline and
study, a spirit of "community,"10 a wealth of social and moral
influences outside the classroom work. The World wanted a competition
of systems, not a uniform monopoly, and urged UCC's friends to find a
compromise solution for their dilemma and to find it quickly. The St.
Catharines Standard took all of Crooks's statistics and proved that UCC
was not doing nearly so well as the St. Catharines Institute and doing it
far more expensively; the College was for the "blue-bloods"" of Toron-
to; the Toronto press wanted to perpetuate and nourish every Toronto
institution; it was for the provincial press to tell the truth.

Both sides had a case. The world had changed immeasurably since
those far-off days of 1829. Regardless of which schools were doing better
work, the key point was that UCC was doing good work, and the prov-

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

ince's means of education were not so good that they could afford to lose
a good school.

During this contretemps, the university passed a resolution saying
that the selection of anyone other than a Canadian for the principal-
ship of UCC was a reflection on Canadian talent. This expression of
national pride may or may not have affected Cockburn, but a memo-
randum over Crooks's signature certainly did and led to the principal's
resignation. The memorandum was an addendum to Crooks's January
report and obviously a sop to all those who thundered away at the Col-
lege's expense. The principal and the masters had been receiving, in
addition to basic salary, $2.50 per pupil each term; this was to be
reduced to $1.25. In addition, Cockburn 's salary was to be cut by almost
one thousand dollars, and Mainland's by about eight hundred. Com-
pared to the university salaries, Crooks concluded, the UCC masters
would still be doing relatively well.

It depended a good deal which side of the fence one was on. Cock-
burn, on the wrong side, finished off the year and then announced he
wanted to retire because of "ill-health." He received the sum of $6,524
on his departure, part retiring allowance, part for improvements he had
put into his house. When the money was tardy in arriving, he sent a
sharp note to the bursar and left for his new careers.12

Cockburn was a formidable man, easily the most potent principal
the College had in its first fifty years, and one of the best it ever had. He
had cleared off the debt, vastly increased the value of the endowment,
developed a remarkable faculty, and solved the human side of the
boarding puzzle. In doing all this he had wounded the vanity of the
grammar schools and excited the envy of the university. His triumphs
were in a lost cause, and he retired at age forty-seven in disgust. In the
ominous days ahead, the College would miss him.

CHAPTER SEVEN

School Life Under Cockburn

1861-1881

SCHOOLS ARE LIKE OTHER INSTITUTIONS in that they tend to be
most strongly influenced by those who have powerful personalities
and who stay for some time. Upper Canada College in the eight-
een-sixties and -seventies was no exception.

The principal, George Cockburn, known to the boys as "Cockeye,"
in addition to looking after the finances, the investments, the engage-
ment of masters, and the timetables, also found time to review the boys'
work each week. Hugh Langton, head boy of 1879, remembered how
Cockburn

made us realize the tragedy of remorse in Macbeth's mind, the sense of
something having been done that could never be undone and must be
expiated. It was a revelation . . . that Shakespeare was anything except
an assemblage of unusual words. . . . He also endeavoured to make us
see the poetic beauty, the imaginative vision of certain passages, as for
instance Macbeth's characterization of the gift of sleep which he had
murdered in his murder of Duncan.1

Langton thought Cockburn was a great headmaster whose "real metier
was teaching." Though Cockburn was really a classical scholar, he
instructed in French, German, and history as well. Joseph Bowes
remembered that "he had a picturesque way of bringing [history] up to
date. Henry the eighth . . . Charles the second ... all the leading charac-
ters that were touched by him seemed to come to life." On the other

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

hand, Sigmund Samuel, who hated his brief time at UCC, remembered
Gockburn as "unreservedly severe."2

Cockburn's relative severity and coolness were balanced by the
warmth and humanity of two fine teachers, William Wedd and John
Martland. Wedd was affectionately known as "Billygoat" because of
the shape of his whiskers. He had a wonderful reputation as a classical
master. His discipline was relaxed; the boys were very much at ease; he
never spoke a harsh word. Though the element of fear was entirely
lacking, he was highly respected for his erudition. Because of this atmo-
sphere the boys who had a liking for the classics learned an enormous
amount; the boys who did not learned little.

Martland took over the boarding-house, a perennial headache, and
under his inspired guidance it became a successful operation. Martland
was known to everyone as "Gentle," the most acceptable explanation
being that he constantly stressed to the boys that the first part of the
word "gentleman" was gentle. (An ignorant new boy who once actually
addressed him as "Mr. Gentle" received "a look of pitiful patience.")
His own nature was the usual mixture of a great schoolmaster: magnifi-
cent wrath, playful good humour, or astonishing gentleness, depending
on the needs of the moment. A. H. Young remembered Martland well
after many years:

Mr. Martland's concern, over and above the exercises of due economy,
was the well-being of the boys, physical, social, moral, and spiritual.
Only those who experienced, or who witnessed, his care and his sym-
pathy in times of sickness, bereavement, or discouragement knew his
gentleness. To the great world outside he was just a club man, a wel-
come addition to a dinner party, a tea, or an evening reception, or, as
a Principal's wife called him once, without any malicious intent, "an
old worldling." To every boy who would allow him to be, he was a
friend and a father. Taking seriously his responsibility for his boys, he
seldom made social engagements for the evenings, even after the
House was so greatly enlarged as to require the residence of two assis-
tant masters. After dinner, in his own dining-room, at which he was
joined occasionally by a boy or two or by some other friend, he settled
down to reading or writing, for he carried on a fairly wide correspond-

SCHOOL LIFE UNDER COCKBURN

ence. At the same time he remembered that he had undertaken the
oversight of those senior boys on his flat who were allowed to study in
their own rooms. Between nine and ten o'clock he made the round of
the whole House in order to see that everything was in proper order
and to say goodnight — with something more at times — to the boys.

Martland was part of every boarder's life. Many men felt that he
had been the strongest influence for good in their lives. As the years
passed and the boarding-house increased in size, other masters shared
his duties, but he took the largest share, often finding it easier to do the
work himself than to oversee the others. Early in Martland's regime the
masters had to be in by ten in the evening, the same as the boys, but
later on they were trusted with keys of their own. They eventually had
servants to bring meals, prepare baths, light fires, and polish boots, but
Martland's fundamental belief was that there should be as little differ-
ence as possible between arrangements for masters and those for boys.
Martland had very exacting standards about his housemastering. When
he made the rounds at night, he always wore boots, generally heavy
ones, and opened and shut doors with a bang, so malefactors got plenty
of warning. He was a strict but very fair disciplinarian who was espe-
cially hard on boys who lied or were mean — these were ungentlemanly
actions and Martland condemned them utterly.

Martland took special care in that most important of all boarding
areas — food. Sometimes he had boys dine with him in his own dining-
room or sent special treats — turkeys for example — out to boys who were
not getting much from home. On Sundays the meal was always oyster
soup, turkey, and plum pudding, it being Marland's belief that boys
who were not invited out should eat just as well as those who were.
Every Hallowe'en there was an annual oyster supper for the boarders.
At one of these affairs the boy saying grace was so anxious to get started,
he bowed his head and said, "Lord, give us all a fair start." A minstrel
show, put on by the boys themselves, usually accompanied the oyster
supper, and much talent was displayed.

In addition to being father and mother to all the boarders, Mart-
land gave formal religious instruction to the Anglicans between break-

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

fast and Sunday morning service. Being an expert "at rubrics, collects
and other things," as one boy said, he used to find a word or phrase out
of the Collect of the Epistle to inspire a minor sermon on various kinds
of foolishness. He may not have done the boys much good morally, said
Langton, but he certainly stimulated thought.

In addition to his boarding responsibilities, Martland taught, too.
Joseph Bowes remembers him as

one of the two finest teachers in all my long school and University
days, the other being . . . George Paxton Young. . . . They both had the
power not only of making a subject interesting, and that is much, but
also of getting the pupils to think, which is even more important and
more difficult.

Frank H. Wallace, head boy of 1869, wrote: "One thing which he tried
to do was to lead us to read the papers and to take an interest in the
affairs of our own time. . . . He pointed out the folly of knowing ancient
history and geography and not our own." Langton recalled that in
English the boys had to learn two books of Paradise Lost by heart. Then
Martland "would question us as to what Milton meant by some of his
gorgeous similes and metaphors, and make us put into our own words
some of the more unusual sentences."

Martland was as interested in games as he was in everything else.
Between afternoon school and the end of the day he invariably went for
a long walk, which took him usually to the suburbs, away from dust and
noise. In the course of his walks he was sure to visit any football or
cricket field on which a College team might be playing. "What's
score?" was his first question. If the answer was favourable, he would
watch the game for a while and then continue his walk. If it was unfav-
ourable, he always stayed to give encouragement with both hands and
voice. When teams visited the College, he himself set the example in the
way of showing hospitality. He made it clear to the boys, however, that
the guests were theirs and that upon them rested the responsibility for
courteous treatment and fitting entertainment. Martland entertained
everyone. At a cricket game in 1873 attended by a large crowd "among

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SCHOOL LIFE UNDER COCKBURN

whom the fair sex was predominant," Martland threw his rooms open
to both cricketers and lady friends to the number of about a hundred.
The reporter described Martland's party as the event of the day, more
important even than the cricket, which deteriorated because the players
were "unable to withstand the winsome glances of the sparkling eyes."

For many years Martland was president of the games committee
and paid out of his own pocket to support cricket, football, tennis, hock-
ey, and lacrosse. One Old Boy thought he watched every College game
for twenty-nine years.

Wallace said that Martland "did more than anyone else in the
school to imbue us with the sense of honour, the spirit of true sportman-
ship, the desire to play the game. ..." Maude Parkin declared that it
was a liberal education to have been associated with him. He was
described as a man who "had no politics but ucc. If he had had a vote
in every constituency in which an Old Boy was a candidate, he would
have voted for the Old Boy no matter what his politics were."

Thus Cockburn was backed up by a strong team of masters. The
sound teaching at the College was accompanied by a very rigid system
of marking, which is best described by Wallace:

My first day in school I had a success, which tremendously encour-
aged me. As I came in late in the term, the school having opened sev-
eral weeks earlier, I had to start at the foot of all my classes. We "took
places" in the old way. He who answered a question which had been
missed by those above him immediately rose from his seat, and occu-
pied a place on the bench above those who had missed. At the close of
each recitation a careful record was kept of the place each boy occu-
pied, first, fourth, twelfth, as it might be. In some cases it took me a
long time to get up very high. But, on that first day in Cockburn's
Cicero class, a very knotty point in syntax was up. The question
started with the head boy; boy after boy muffed it. . . . it came all the
way down to me and I understood it . . . and answered it with unhesi-
tating accuracy, and marched proudly up to the top of the class. At
the beginning of the hour, Cockburn had said to me, "Wallace, as you
are starting late you need not be marked for a day or two." When I
went up he reproached the rest of the boys for their failure, but he

101

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

good naturedly left me in my pride untouched by any further ques-
tion, and, at the close of the hour, he smiled and said, "Well, Wallace,
will you be marked to-day or not?" "Yes, sir, please," was, of course,
the answer. The next time we recited in that subject he proceeded to
grill me with questions, and succeeded so far as to get me down to, I
think, fourth place. Is it any wonder that that system succeeded with
me, fired my ambition, and induced me to work to the utmost of my
ability and strength.

This system may have fired up Wallace, but what must it have done
to the poor unfortunate who could not cope with the work? There were
other disadvantages, too, which a correspondent pointed out to The Col-
lege Times in February 1872:

I think as this is the age of progression and reform, there should also
be reform in our College. In the first place, I think marking is a farce,
and a loss of time, energy and principle, to the Principal, masters and
boys. As to loss of time; when a form enters a classroom there is about
ten minutes taken up in getting started; after which the master is wor-
ried by, "Please sir, I did not hear my number," or, "Please sir, there
are two eighteens or tens," as the case may be, at the end of the lesson,
there are from five to ten minutes taken up in marking the numbers,
and more especially at the end of the quarter, when the reports are
made out, what adding and dividing! It is a wonder it is kept up, yet
the perseverance to a supposed duty is worthy of praise. In taking
places one loses what another gains, and is decidedly against the prin-
ciple of "fair exchange is no robbery." This produces ill-feeling among
a certain class of boys, of course not every boy, nor even many boys,
yet even a system which causes a feeling of envy or anger in a few
boys, which may arise from ill-humour, disappointment, or a feeling of
injustice, is worthy of censure. Again the principle of honour of not a
few boys is at stake, and what are all the advantages that may be
derived from this system, compared with the ruin of the boys' morality
or honour? There are cases of this, I have no doubt, of which we are
not aware, but there is one case known to not a few, of a boy who left
this College, and entered a bank in this city, and was found guilty of
defrauding his employer, owing no doubt to the fact that while at Col-

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SCHOOL LIFE UNDER COCKBURN

lege he began by cheating for places and honours that he never fairly
won. I think it is hardly necessary here to enter into a detailed account
of all the different styles or rather dodges of cheating, it would neither
be edifying nor perhaps pleasant. I think it would be well if the mas-
ters instead of talking and lecturing about cheating, would go to the
root of the matter and put a stop to the marking system. But if they
are too conservative for reform, I think, as descendants of the British,
whose honour was their glory, we should shun all cheating: as Canadi-
ans we should strike for our own honour, and as College boys we
should uphold the honour of the College, that we may enter the world
with a true principle of honour when we have no Principal to guide us.

The thought that cheating was an un-British thing to do was proba-
bly typical of the boys of the time, but cheating was certainly not
uncommon. A boy who was caught passing a paper to another boy in a
French exam lost his prize and was promoted "below the line,"3 mean-
ing he had to write the exam again. Hugh Langton recalled the boys
stamping rhythmically on the floor and endlessly chanting the chorus,
"Eyre! Eyre! Eyre! Cheat! Cheat! Cheat!" Whether the system pro-
duced the sinister antics of the unfortunate Eyre cannot be told for
certain — he may have been a natural — but it must have put heavy
pressure on boys to do well academically. Langton was sure of one
thing: UCC was completely unsuitable "as a training ground for any boy
with the temperament of an artist."

R. D. Richardson, the treasurer of The College Times in 1872, was
very anxious that all the boys take advantage of the spare-time
amusements — gymnastics, skating, snowballing, running — which the
College offered. He deplored those who stayed indoors, avoiding fresh
air, pale of complexion, haggard, weary, and sluggish of mind. He com-
pared these "fags" with those who ran around outside: ruddy, ready for
work, bright, active, fire and spirit kindled. Richardson felt it was the
duty of every boy to get the benefit of fresh air. The broken-down
equipment in the gym4 was blamed with devastating logic on those who
never used it. They allowed the "harum-scarum fellows" to smash it up.
Richardson was especially scornful of those who stayed inside at lunch-

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UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

time, throwing bread crusts at each other and tossing paper anywhere
at all. Richardson feared that "College will turn out a weak and clumsy
lot instead of a strong, healthy and active set of fellows who would be . . .
an honour to College and a benefit to our Young Dominion." Richard-
son was probably happy to know that boys went for walks as far as the
university to the north and the waterfront to the south. He was proba-
bly irked that they also haunted two theatres: the Royal, down an alley
from King Street, and the Grand on Adelaide just west of Yonge. On
the way they would drop in at the College "Taffy Shop" run by a Mrs.
Harrison, just across the road from the Adelaide Street gate. There they
indulged in pie, crumpets plastered with butter and brown sugar, gin-
gerbread horses, rock candy, sarsaparilla, and home-made ginger beer.

Physical exertion was not the only type of exercise. A time-honoured
institution called the Literary and Debating Society was revitalized in
1870, meeting every Friday night in Dr. Connon's room. Between Janu-
ary 1 87 1 and June 1873 tne boys met forty-three times. The meetings
consisted of readings — Byron, Tennyson, and Longfellow were popular
— and debates on an extensive variety of subjects: Does Wealth exert
more influence than Knowledge? (no); Is Man more Revengeful than
Woman? (no); Is the Warrior a more useful member of society than the
Merchant? (yes); Is the Independence of Canada desirable? (no). As
usual, finances played a prominent part in the society's affairs, feast or
famine being the rule. In one good year, wisdom decreed that twenty
dollars would go to the cricket club, another twenty towards a group
photograph, the remainder to a grand banquet at which "there will
probably be such a display of speechifying and wit as would . . . astonish
the mind of any weak-minded individual. . . ."

The score of years encompassing the sixties and seventies were
sandwiched between the anxieties of the fifties and the anguish of the
eighties. No matter what was happening politically at the administra-
tive level, the same hilarious and sad things as have always happened
were taking place among the boys. A cow was chased upstairs by some
boys, who tied its tail to the bell rope. New boys were roasted over the
open top of the stove in the long study. Sigmund Samuel, a future busi-
nessman, unprepared for the classical education in a school which

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SCHOOL LIFE UNDER COCKBURN

trained for the profession, learned "nothing but misery" and left for the
Model School, "which was like moving from hell to heaven."5 A boy
fined twenty-six and a half cents for carving his name in the outhouses
gave Cockburn exactly that: one of the coppers was cut in two. A love-
letter found in the College was printed in The College Times: "My dearest
Willie, I saw you the other day on King Street. I wanted to speak to you
so badly. I hope you will be at church on Sunday both morning and
evening. Dear Willie — I will be down King Street to day, I hope I will
see you very much. Answer soon and now I must close my short note
and believe to remain your loving, loving friend. E."

For the most part the boys felt that they had had good times, had
liked their masters, had made good friends. They had played hard,
some of them, for the honour of the College and worked hard, some of
them, to maintain its prestige. They were good days, made all the more
so because the school was well-run and prosperous. The sun shone less
brightly in the eighties.

105

CHAPTER EIGHT

Metamorphosis

1881-1900

COCKBURN remained at THE COLLEGE long enough to greet his
successor; for the first time in UCC's history there was no discontin-
' uity in administration. The government's chief criterion for the
new principal was someone who could muffle the gnashing of legisla-
tive, university, and high school teeth whenever the College endowment
was mentioned. There is evidence that some would have liked Mart-
land to have the post, even though he was fifty-three at the time; he had
served Cockburn well for nineteen years and was an obvious choice. Po-
litical considerations being all-important, however, the government ap-
pointed John Milne Buchan, MA.

Buchan had come to Canada from the United States as an infant
but was in fact a Canadian. He had been educated at the grammar
school in Hamilton and had earned his degree from University College
with a silver medal in modern languages. While at the university he
had been a study master for two terms at UCC, then a master for a year.
At the age of twenty he had become headmaster of the Hamilton
Grammar School, which became the Hamilton Collegiate Institute,
considered one of the four best in the province. In 1873 he had been
promoted to high school inspector in modern languages and then had
supervised the secondary education of the province with two friends of
UCC — Dr. J. A. McLellan, one of Cockburn's staff appointments, and S.
A. Marling, the boy-poet who had extolled the British heritage back in
the forties. Buchan was described as a teacher with no peer in Canada,
comparable to Arnold of Rugby. Such hyperbole can usually be dis-
counted, but he was obviously highly thought of in the Ontario system

106

METAMORPHOSIS

and a prime choice to conciliate the high school masters. Buchan had
two other distinctions: he was the first principal who was not a classicist
and he had co-authored the passionate Grammar School Masters'
anti-UCC pamphlet of 1868.

To Buchan, some masters at ucc looked a little doddery. Ryerson
had once said that the sound education of a whole generation of chil-
dren must not be sacrificed for the sake of incompetent, elderly teach-
ers. Buchan, a new broom hoping to sweep clean, told the Minister of
Education that Thompson was getting old (at 65), Wedd (at 51) was
less efficient about discipline than he would like, and Brown (5 1 ) actu-
ally had poor discipline. The likelihood is that these immensely experi-
enced men had fallen into conducting classes in their own ways and
that their casual discipline did not fit Buchan's ideas. An order-in-coun-
cil was passed relieving them of their duties, but it must have been res-
cinded because they all stayed on.

The bulk of the faculty remained stable under Buchan, but three
interesting men joined ucc and outstayed him. A. Y. Scott and D. G.
Gordon both earned their MDs while teaching at UCC. Scott taught sci-
ence for thirteen years, and then became a lecturer at the Ontario Col-
lege of Pharmacy and Trinity Medical College. Andrew Stevenson
replaced the aging Thompson and taught English for seven years. He
was later principal of Arthur High School and on the faculty of educa-
tion at Queen's.

The year after Buchan arrived the old refrain against the College
was taken up once more in the legislature. The disendowment of UCC
would allow three possibilities: the buildings could be used by the legis-
lature, whose own buildings were a disgrace; the high schools could
divide up the money; the university could take over the funds. Nobody
suggested that all three could happen, and the drums seemed to beat
most loudly for the university.

The College had friends, however, both inside and outside the uni-
versity convocation. The first signs of support appeared in early 1882
when a group of Old Boys gathered to discuss the situation.1 Because
there was no immediate threat to the College, the organization dis-
persed. Fifty-two years had produced some prominent and determined

107

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

men, however, and anyone who wanted to take away what they con-
ceived to belong to the College would have to fight for it.

In mid- 1 882 there was more belt-tightening and a general reorgani-
zation of the College staff. A statute was passed laying down the
number of masters allowed in each department and the salaries for
each.2 One master was to be in charge of boarding-house, and his salary
was fixed. Boarders who could not be fitted into the boarding-house
would be shared out among the masters, but no fees would go to any-
body. Lastly, any of the three department heads — classics, mathema-
tics, English — could become principal. The classical monopoly was
finally broken up.

Suddenly and sadly in July 1885 Buchan died of Bright's disease.
His last act had been to write a clear and courageous memorandum
about UCC, outlining what he conceived to be its distinguishing features
and its justification. It is certain that Buchan — the product of, and late
leader in, the provincial system — had seen something special in the
strange college he had once assailed but now captained. He wanted his
conclusions on record.

Buchan described the College as a statute-governed boarding-
school, religiously conducted, non-sectarian, and inexpensive. As such,
it was a necessary complement to both the non-denominational high
schools and the private, denominational boarding-schools. In terms of
character-formation, the high schools could not do very much; UCC
could. It was different — not in degree, but in kind. Coming from the
highly respected Buchan, this was a powerfully supportive statement
and a welcome one.

Whether the College's history would have been different had he
lived, it is hard to say. He was a distinguished man, a frequent contrib-
utor to educational and other periodicals, and for two years president of
the Canadian Institute. He was not principal at Upper Canada long
enough to have a lasting impact.

The suddenness of Buchan's death and the lateness in the year
meant that a new principal needed to be selected with all speed. Once
again Martland came to the fore, and the Cabinet instructed George
W. Ross, the Minister of Education, to offer the post to him. Ross was

108

METAMORPHOSIS

not sympathetic to the decision and made the offer in such a way as to
ensure a refusal. We cannot be sure of Martland's reaction to this treat-
ment, but a measure of resentment, held in check for a time, burst out
in the early nineties and helped to undermine the man whom Ross
chose.

The appointment went to George Dickson. Educated in Markham,
Richmond Hill, and Whitby, with a BA from the University of Michi-
gan and another from Victoria College, Dickson had taught widely in
both elementary and high schools. From 1873 to 1885 he had been
principal of the Hamilton Collegiate Institute, succeeding Buchan in
that post. The important thing about Dickson's appointment was that,
like Buchan, he was a Canadian with much experience in the Ontario
system. This was a point of great political significance: it meant that the
hostile high school teachers could not condemn the College as strongly
as if the principal had come from England. Less important, perhaps,
was the fact that he was a Presbyterian.

Dickson took over a school which was in very good shape. Despite
Buchan's doubts about some of the masters, the teaching was outstand-
ing. The classical department was extraordinary: Wedd, Martland, and
Jackson were three of the greatest teachers in the entire history of the
College. Brown, the first mathematical master, would retire soon, but
he was ably supported by Sparling. Dickson himself took over the
English department, with Andrew Stevenson supporting him. W. H.
Fraser taught French and German. Henry Brock, with seven years
under his belt, looked after the juniors. The school had almost three
hundred students, half of whom were boarders. A year later the figures
had skyrocketed: 167 day boys, 177 boarders.

The College had had bad times, during which its imminent demise
had been predicted. The irony of the mid-eighties was that its very
robust health almost killed it. The endowment had become too much
for other constituencies to stomach. In June 1886 Chancellor Edward
Blake of the University of Toronto, who had been College head boy of
1850, made a speech at convocation which began UCC's metamorphosis.
The university, said Blake, drew from a wide range of communities:
only 23 out of 216 matriculation candidates had come from UCC and

109

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

the Toronto Collegiate Institute, the remainder from over sixty other
schools. He had watched with pride the growth of the secondary educa-
tional system in the province and its steady climb to higher standards.
A point had now been reached where ucc — an anomaly dear to his
and many hearts — needed "rearranging."3 Toronto had only one colle-
giate institute whose expenditure and enrolment were smaller than
Hamilton's! Toronto needed two collegiate institutes — one in the east,
one in the west — one to specialize in languages, the other to specialize
in science. Upper Canada College should be one of these, "dependent
for her support and maintenance upon the same conditions ... as other
institutions of a like class in the province."4 The audience cheered.
Blake went on to say that the whole system could be made more
efficient, as could the university from which the endowment was taken
"and to which it should be returned."5 More cheers. Blake's ideas never
came to fruition, but the speech was the opening gun in a crucial battle.

The College's year of crisis came in 1887. In February it was evident
that the Liberal government, just returned to power, was supporting
university federation, bound to be an expensive proposition. The Col-
lege endowment and valuable downtown site were obvious sources of
funds. On March 1 2 a Notice of Motion was introduced by a Liberal
named Waters: "in the opinion of this House the time has come when
Upper Canada College should be abolished ... as the instruction given
in the College can be obtained in any well-conducted high school in the
province."6 Waters added that the College's real estate should go to the
province.

This motion was a clear signal to the school's supporters that if they
did not take positive action there would be no more Upper Canada
College. Eleven days later a large, enthusiastic meeting of Old Boys was
held at the College to protest the government's obvious intent and to try
to do something about it. The meeting was chaired by John Macdon-
ald, father of A. A. Macdonald, a prominent master of the nineties.
There was a host of eminent speakers all supporting the College in their
own ways. Supportive letters from many Old Boys were read, including
one from Lieutenant-Governor John Beverley Robinson. A resolution
was framed protesting any interference with the endowment, and the

George R. R. Cockburn, the principal
( 1 86 1 -8 1 ) who turned the College's for-
tunes around (Upper Canada College).

John Martland, classics master 1862-91.
Known to the boys as "Gentle," he put
boarding on its feet and became enor-
mously powerful in all College affairs
(Upper Canada College).

James Brown, Old Boy and first mathe-
matics master 1856-87 (J. Ross Robert-
son Collection, Metropolitan Toronto

Library).

The Fourth Form of 1868. This is the earliest photograph of a group of UCC stu-
dents (Upper Canada College). Probably a typical group. The ages varied from
twelve to eighteen. The boys pursued a variety of careers: the ministry, medicine,
pharmacy, banking, farming, architecture, law, teaching.

The 1872 College Times staff (Upper Canada College). Standing: J. A.

Paterson, E. B. Brown, F. E. Hodgins, W. N. Ponton, R. Atkinson

Seated: H. E. Morphy, W. M. Biggar, W. A. Langton, J. G. McKeown,

R. D. Richardson.

WAM<s.d»~~6.,gc&ft "..

JL&*A*U-M

{Left) George Dickson, principal 1885-
95, a victim of circumstances, rumour,
and politics (J. Ross Robertson Collec-
tion, Metropolitan Toronto Library).
{Below) George Parkin, principal 1895-
1902, who brought the College back
from its lowest ebb to a peak of pride, to
independence, and into the twentieth
century. The picture was taken many
years after he left the College (photo by
J. Russell & Sons).

{Opposite top) The King Street
school as it looked after the big
1877 renovation (Metropolitan
Toronto Library). {Bottom) The
Deer Park school in its earliest
days (Public Archives of
Canada).

Stephen Leacock, head boy 1887
and modern-languages master
1889-99 (J- R°ss Robertson Col-
lection, Metropolitan Toronto
Library).

W. S. Jackson, classics master and

outstanding College figure 1877-

191 7 (Upper Canada College).

A. A. Macdonald, head boy 1886,
great scholar and athlete, the first
master to be in charge of College
games 1891-1902 (University of
Toronto Archives).

E. R. (later Sir Edward) Peacock,
who was influential in all aspects
of College life 1895- 1902 (Univer-
sity of Toronto Archives).

Robert Holmes, art master 1891-
1920; later President of the
Ontario College of Art (The College
Times, 1930-32).

f'.

p '

m . »
■l~te

5j **:.

(/16ow) Typical classroom interior of the i8gi building, taken in 1914 (Upper Canada
College). (Below) Principal Parkin in his study (Public Archives of Canada).

J •'&

Boys of the nineties being boys (Upper
Canada College).

METAMORPHOSIS

meeting ended with a unanimous motion that Macdonald and the com-
mittee of management7 lay the meeting's views before the government.

The newspapers were full of the event. The Telegram was most sup-
portive. The government, it thought, would be unlikely to make any
radical changes. "The college must be preserved."8 The News took the
other tack, stressing the glaring injustice of the enormous endowment
for a school whose tuition costs excluded the sons of the working class
and was mainly a superior day-school for the sons of Toronto profes-
sional men and merchants. It held up to ridicule George Denison's
unfortunate references to the occupations and professions of UCC par-
ents, which contradicted what he was trying to prove. Denison's cry,
"Have the rich people no rights?"9 did not go down very well with the
News. The Globe took a middle course. The paper was critical of the
arrogant stance, mainly Denison's, that the endowment was being sto-
len. The Globe liked the fact that UCC was different, and that the differ-
ence was healthy for the provincial educational scene. One letter to the
editor made a point considered heresy by Old Boys of the time: the Col-
lege deserved no special favours because famous men like Blake and
Thomas Moss (head boy of 1854, later Chief Justice of Ontario) had
attended; they would have risen to distinction anywhere.

March 24 must have been the date that the UCC committee made its
case, because the next day a compromise decision was made: instead of
being abolished, the College was to be moved and made purely residen-
tial. The Old Boys had pressed the government hard: if they wanted
the King and Simcoe site, they would have to give the College an alter-
native somewhere else — they were not going to be allowed to destroy an
old and valuable school. The politicians were in a quandary, with eco-
nomic considerations paramount. They had to have the money and
UCC was a ready source, but there was a real split between the support-
ers of the College and those of university federation. The man who
turned the tide was T. B. Pardee, a Sarnia MPP with a son boarding at
the College. Many years later, S. H. Blake, the chancellor's brother,
said that "UCC owes its life to Pardee's efforts, broad and far-seeing
statesmanship, powerful influence and good will."10

The decision was in the great tradition of government compromises

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

but the clause about the school being purely residential meant that the
new site would be some distance from Toronto. Was there a large
enough market to support such a school in the country? Nobody knew,
but the inference was that the government would not be sorry to see the
College expire in some wilderness. Nobody could accuse them of not
having tried to save it, and if worst came to worst, the buildings could
be used for a lunatic asylum.

The News muttered that the government had conceded to the "cla-
morous outcries of those in favour of caste privilege"" and denigrated
the arrogant, bullying tone of some of the College's defenders, which
convinced the News they had a weak case. The Toronto World did not
want UCC abolished; it filled a need, and the World was sorry to see the
attempt to array one class against another. R. E. Kingsford, a Toronto
lawyer and an Old Boy who was a member of the university senate,
declared what he believed to be the real reason behind the govern-
ment's move. In addition to various inter-college troubles, the universi-
ty's own endowment had been scandalously mismanaged, more funds
were needed, and the vice-chancellor, Mulock, had proposed the feder-
ation scheme in order to get them. The obvious source of such funds was
the College endowment, which was only going back whence it came,
since the King's College endowment had been largely plundered by
UCC.

G. W. Ross outlined the history of the endowment, stating that the
University of Toronto now needed the money and that therefore he was
asking the House to transfer to the university the whole of the College's
endowment: $283,163, representing an annual income of $15,572. The
King Street site was appraised at $325,000, of which UCC would receive
$100,000 as a permanent endowment. The government would allow the
College $30,000 for a new site and equipment, plus $120,000 to erect a
new building for 250 students. The remaining $75,000 would be the
university's. By these and various other measures, the university's
increased expenditures would be more than offset.

Ross defended the compromise by describing UCC as the only high-
standard, non-denominational boys' residential school in the province
and, therefore, a useful model for others. The teaching was completely

112

METAMORPHOSIS

broken down into departments, more so than at any other high school.
The pupils were carefully classified, placed, and graded. Thorough dis-
cipline was a characteristic of the College. The mental growth was
steady, not forced. Games, gymnastics, and military drill were better at
UCC than anywhere else. But there was another reason: the develop-
ment of character, which can only come from the personal contact and
influence of the true teacher upon the scholar. Here the high schools
were weak. Furthermore, Ross downgraded uniformity in an educa-
tional system. He wanted the College to be somewhat independent and
flexible.

Ross then dealt with four objections which might arise to the Col-
lege's continued existence. Its endowment income of fifteen thousand
dollars would now be five thousand per year, very little more than the
largest high school's. Its existence as a school for the sons of the rich he
dealt with by announcing that the fees would be raised to make it self-
sustaining and that since the rich paid taxes for public and high schools
they had a right to a facility in which to educate their children at their
own expense. The privileged locality — Toronto — was brushed aside;
UCC would now be almost exclusively residential, with day pupils
admitted only after all boarder applications had been satisfied. (This
was a change probably forced by Toronto parents who did not want
their sons to board.) Lastly, UCC would no longer be an anomaly in the
system. It would be brought very firmly inside the provincial system,
with entrance examinations, and a staff with the same qualifications as
those in high schools and subject to the same inspection.

Ross then appealed to the historical and common sense of the House
not to destroy an institution which was different from any other in the
province and always had been, an institution which had done good
work for so long, supplying the void before there was a university, then
filling the university when it first started. Ever since, it had sent students
on to university and thence out into every honourable and influential
walk of life.12 This was not the time to abolish a school with such an
individual record and one of which even Eton or Rugby would be
proud.

Ross had done his homework thoroughly and made a great appeal,

113

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

even to the Opposition. Ironically, Waters, who had introduced the
original motion, declared his surprise at the government's action, not
having expected it to do anything at all. Waters was a man who saw the
English public schools as bulwarks of class distinction and was afraid
UCC would have the same effect in Canada. His real hope was that it
would be established and maintained by private enterprise, a thought
which many others shared during the next ten years.

On April 23, 1887, university federation came into being, and
Upper Canada College started yet another life, free from university
control for the first time in fifty years. The College was to have five
trustees'3 appointed by the government, who would be in charge of
financial and business matters. Ross himself would make all appoint-
ments by order-in-council. The principal had the internal management
of the school. Masters were to have the same (or better) qualifications as
high school masters. The government wanted the school to be entirely
residential but did not want to make that provision a part of the statute.
The original appendage, "and Royal Grammar School," was dropped
from the College's official title.

So much of its history had now gone: much of its endowment, its
connection with the earlier grammar school, its affinity with King's
College and then the University of Toronto — all gone. It remained, in
the years left in the nineteenth century, to try to survive under the Min-
ister of Education.

In January the new Board of Trustees, under the chairmanship of
John Beverley Robinson, met for the first time and drew up a fresh set
of College regulations. The academic organization was changed; the
disciplines were divided into five. English was under Dickson himself,
who was listed as principal and first English master. Wedd was first
classical master, Sparling first mathematical master, and Scott in
charge of science. A modern languages department was an innovation.
Drawing, music, gymnastics, and drill were listed on the curriculum.
For the first time, the College year was divided into three terms rather
than four. The holidays were the same as in the high schools, the text-
books had to be authorized by the Department of Education, there
were written examinations for admission and promotion, and the stan-

114

METAMORPHOSIS

dard for the third form (probably grade nine) had to equal that of the
high schools. The courses were meticulously laid out in two streams: a
four-year option leading to university and the learned professions, a
two-year option leading to civil or military service or commercial pur-
suits.

As plans got under way to move the College, half a dozen or so
interesting changes took place on the staff. While Martland was on a
visit to the Near East, his place was taken by Charles W. Gordon, who,
among many other distinctions, became Canada's best-selling author of
that era under the pseudonym Ralph Connor. In 1887 John Fothering-
ham came to UCC for a four-year stint and then became a doctor. The
same year Archibald Hope Young, head boy of 1882, joined the mod-
ern languages department and stayed for five years before moving to
Trinity College. Young remained intensely interested in UCC all his life,
eventually becoming a governor. In 1916 he edited the mammoth Roll
of Pupils Jaunary 1830 to June 1916. Three first-class mathematicians
taught for short periods at UCC as its downtown days were drawing to
an end. Alfred De Lury moved on to a professorship in mathematics at
the University of Toronto, became dean of residence at University Col-
lege, and was a well-known Canadian astronomer and an author
of Ontario high school textbooks. A. C. McKay eventually went to
McMaster, became professor of mathematics and physics there, and
finally became chancellor. W. F. Seymour filled in for Sparling in 1890-
91, then was a Fellow in Mathematics at the University of Toronto and
subsequently principal of Niagara High School. In 1889 Stephen Lea-
cock, head boy of 1887, returned for ten years in residence, teaching
modern languages. With the exception of Leacock, none of these men
stayed long, but they were outstanding teachers and no doubt had a
powerful impact on the students.

From mid- 1 887 through 1891 most energies were directed towards
relocating the College. Dickson and the architect, G. F. Durand of Lon-
don, visited the best schools in the eastern United States. In February
1888 Durand presented his plan for the new buildings. The government
suggested a site at Avenue Road and St. Clair, but this was objected to
by the Site Committee because it was too small (fourteen acres), had no

115

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

water, and needed expensive grading. The trustees then looked further
north and asked Lawrence Baldwin, who owned a large area in the dis-
trict, if he would exchange the site for thirty acres north of Clinton Ave-
nue (Lonsdale Road). Baldwin was indeed willing, and also contracted
to widen Avenue Road to 125 feet from St. Clair to Clinton if the Col-
lege agreed to plant a double row of trees up the avenue. The exact site
was finally chosen, the plans were approved, and a survey was ordered.

When tenders for the new building came in, the lowest was about
eighty thousand dollars above the estimate. Costs were cut by a reduc-
tion in the height of the tower and the elimination of some extras.
Finally, on April 2, 1889, ground was broken for the new Upper Can-
ada College.'4 Unfortunately during the next several months the archi-
tect was very ill and he died within the year.

The trustees were shocked to find that construction had not been
adequately supervised: flooring and plastering had preceded the light-
ing arrangements, resulting in much tearing up and pulling down of
already completed work. There were also complaints that some of the
plumbing was virtually useless.

While the building was going up, the trustees had prepared a spe-
cial memorandum on the use of the grounds. South-west of the building
was a field 150 yards square, level, and with water pipes everywhere; it
was to be used solely for cricket. North-west, another level, watered
field, no yards by 65 yards, would be for football, with several play-
grounds in between for recess recreation and baseball, "if it is thought
proper to introduce the game." South-east of the building was space for
about ten tennis courts. North-east was a rough playground for junior
boys. The area to the north of the building was intended for an outdoor
rink, 150 feet by 100 feet, with a concrete base which would be used for
drill and calisthenics in the autumn and the spring. In addition, the
memorandum called for a running track, ornamental shrubs and trees,
shade trees on the west and north boundaries, and asphalt walks every-
where.

In June 1891 the trustees produced a progress report which outlined
the two hardest challenges facing ucc: a reduction often thousand dol-
lars per annum in College income and the maintenance of high stan-

116

METAMORPHOSIS

dards in the new surroundings. The report was optimistic that the Col-
lege could meet both of these. Somehow, however, communications had
broken down. When Durand and Dickson had visited the States, they
had discovered that $120,000 was not nearly enough to build a school
like Groton or Lawrenceville, where the buildings cost $3,000 per pupil.
As a consequence, the trustees had gone ahead and authorized expendi-
tures well beyond the prescribed limit. The building alone had cost
$270,000 ($1,350 per pupil), with the grounds adding another $50,000.
Over $326,000 had already been spent, with more to come on a vegeta-
ble garden, a horse and cart, cold storage, a gymnasium, a covered-
rink-cum-drill-hall-cum-recreation-room, a hospital, masters' houses,
and so on. The report claimed that other residential schools all had
these amenities, and the College should be launched on its new career
second to none. The trustees had evidently decided that since the Col-
lege had been deprived of its endowment and would find a new start
very difficult, the government would need to be more generous. They
knew that the value of the old College site had increased, and felt that
the College was entitled to its share of that asset. The trustees reckoned
shrewdly. In the end the entire transfer of endowment moneys and site
was worth at least $650,000; the College got a fair share of that large
pie.

The university board was outraged by the extravagant expendi-
tures. The ghost of Sir John Colborne seemed to be tramping around
Deer Park. They sent a message of protest to the Lieutenant-Governor,
asking for a hearing before another cent was spent. They claimed they
had not been consulted and had no idea of the scale of expenditures.
The College, having used up all its money, was now claiming an addi-
tional $100,000 as a charge on the sale of the old site. The university
was extremely annoyed. The Lieutenant-Governor politely acknowl-
edged the protest.

On July 3 the bell of the old College building rang for the last time,
and the next day, when it closed for the holidays, John Ross Robertson
returned and spoke with nostalgia of the seven years he had spent at
UCC. On August 29 a farewell cricket match was played. Then Upper
Canada College trudged four miles north into the forest of Deer Park,

117

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

to survive or to perish. To ensure its survival, the Upper Canada Col-
lege Old Boys' Association officially began the same day.

With the College gone, the university was now in firm possession of
the old site. There was much public interest and speculation about its
future use. Some wondered whether, in fact, the university's ownership
was legal: when Colborne had snatched it, had the property belonged
to the city or the province? O. A. Howland, a Toronto lawyer, MPP, and
future mayor of Toronto, thought the city owned it. The city solicitor
was equally positive that the city had no claim. A deputation from the
Humane Society petitioned twice to have the area turned into a public
park with an art gallery and a museum; the petition, stating that the
British government had originally intended Russell Square to be a
park, was signed by an immense number of people. The Globe came out
strongly in favour often acres in the very heart of Toronto [to] be kept
as an open space for all time."'5 Another proposal had a palatial hotel
being built on the eastern portion of the grounds. As time went on, the
property continued to appreciate in value, but the buildings deteriorat-
ed, especially the boarding-house, which was seriously damaged by
vandals. The presence of Wedd, Sparling, Brock, and the janitor, still
living in their houses, could not prevent the depredations. Ultimately
the property became a commercial block, but a remnant of the original
College boarding-house still remains at the south-west corner of Ade-
laide and Duncan.

On October 14, 1891, the new College in Deer Park was formally
opened, with the Belt Line railway16 running special trains for the
event. The building which people saw that day stood for sixty-seven
years and became a well-known Toronto landmark. In Lost Toronto Wil-
liam Dendy describes it as it stood isolated at the top of Avenue Road:

Inevitably, given the date, the style of the new building was Roman-
esque Revival. It was built on a foundation of roughly finished Credit
Valley sandstone, with the upper walls of red brick ornamented with
terra cotta panels and string courses. The basic arrangement of the
design — a projecting triple-arched entrance, a central tower, and
flanking wings forming a quadrangle behind — was very common at

118

METAMORPHOSIS

the time, and had become firmly established in Toronto with Lennox's
City Hall (1889-99) and Waite's Parliament Buildings in Queen's
Park (1886-92). The location of the prayer hall, filling the centre por-
tion of the second floor in the main block, and the tower overhead,
with its stylized pediment and the college arms in carved terra cotta,17
also recalled similar features in the King Street buildings. In fact, the
new tower, rising 165 feet above the ground, like a church steeple
above the surrounding trees, became the symbol of the college — an
ever present reminder to students, and to the city below the hill, of the
importance of the college and the influence of the alumni that had
been shaped by it.

The design of the new building was complicated. It united such
widely differing elements as a basement armoury and a principal's res-
idence, in the pavilion on the right, which was carefully designed with
its own corner bay window and a side entrance. Illustrating the preoc-
cupation of the time with sanitation and healthy living, Durand plan-
ned 300 cubic feet of air and at least 30 square feet of floor space for
each student in the classrooms. Window area was to be at least one
quarter of the floor area and windows were located not more than 18
feet from any pupil, positioned so that light in most rooms fell only
from the left, to reduce shadow and glare. The unusual heating system
included forced-air registers under the windows and exhaust vents on
the inside walls of the rooms through which the stale air was drawn to
main exhaust shafts. The dormitories were carefully organized to pro-
vide 1,000 cubic feet of space for each pupil, with no more than two to
a room — standards that were on the whole appreciably higher than
those of any middle-class house of the period.

The News rhapsodized that the spray of Niagara Falls could be seen
on a clear day from the higher windows, while lovely farming land
stretched to the west and north. The Canadian Architect and Builder was
testier: "The college is rather residential than scholastic in design, and
seems to lack that nobility of effect which we would desire in our Alma
Mater."

A feature of special interest was the room set aside for the commer-
cial course. This contained a counter and a series of wickets set up to
simulate a real bank by means of which boys could learn every branch

119

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

of routine banking. There were also five typewriters, others to be added
as required. A part of the curriculum consisted of business composition:
telegrams, advertisements, committee minutes, and so forth.

At the end of the first year in the new location the trustees reported
that for the first time in the College's history, the income from tuition
and residence fees was greater than expenses. The surplus of over four
thousand dollars so enraptured them that they spent all but $4.29 on a
skating rink, a shed for the horses, a swimming pool, and sundry other
improvements. The enrolment was reported as 353 with 202 boarders,
with an average attendance of eighty per cent as opposed to the high
schools' fifty-nine per cent. Thirty-three boys had gone to university or
the Royal Military College.'8 Cricket, football, and all the other games
were thriving. Two new challenge cups had made their appearance
— the A. A. Macdonald Trophy for cross-country in the autumn and
the Hendrie Trophy for the steeplechase in May. The report said that
UCC was the only government boarding-school directly responsible to
the public, and made a plea for financial aid. There must have been
some premonition of lean years ahead.

The years 1892 to 1894 present a confusing and contradictory peri-
od. On the surface, at least, the College put on a brave face. The run-
ning track was built by the boys under Jackson's guidance, the
swimming tank and rink were both completed, and the Board of Stew-
ards began its long life.19 Yet under the facade the College administra-
tion was in trouble, and Dickson, as early as the College's second term
in Deer Park, was beginning to feel the pressure.

The College had spent an enormous amount in the move, and in a
general mood of euphoria the faculty was expanded. With the journey
north there had been a massive turnover, the first such in sixty years.
Old stalwarts Wedd and Martland had retired after a combined service
record of seventy years. Faced with replacing half of the staff, the Min-
ister of Education did nobly, despite the isolation of the new site and the
flat salary scale. Four good new men arrived at Deer Park at the same
time as the new building. W. A. Neilson joined Dickson in the English
department for four years; a renowned Shakespeare scholar, he moved
on to Bryn Mawr, Harvard, and Columbia, eventually becoming presi-

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METAMORPHOSIS

dent of Smith College. A. A. Macdonald, head boy of 1886, had gone to
Breslau and Heidelberg before returning to Toronto and earning his
MA in modern languages. He joined Jackson in the classical depart-
ment. He was also appointed to oversee the entire sports program, the
first time UCC had such an appointment. Macdonald, a champion miler
and half-miler himself, gave an enormous impetus to College sports,
and today's enthusiasm for games can be traced back largely to the
foundation he and Jackson laid. George Johnson took over the commer-
cial department and ran it with real drive for fifteen years. He had been
a public school principal and achieved fame for composing "When You
and I Were Young, Maggie." As drawing master, Robert Holmes
joined the College and stayed for twenty-nine years, eventually becom-
ing president of the Ontario Society of Artists. During 1892 and 1893,
Ross added Pelham Edgar, who later joined the university as a lecturer
in French and professor of English, and John H. Collinson, who went
on to Trinity College School and then became first headmaster of High-
field School in Hamilton. These latter two did not give enormously long
service, but like all the others were excellent in their departments.

Apart from this faculty turnover, Dickson experienced a long suc-
cession of other difficulties. He poured out his heart in a perpetual series
of messages to the Minister of Education. The problems had to do with
money, buildings, and human beings. The financial problems were end-
less. Old Boys' promises were falling flat: they were unwilling to make
contributions in case of another endowment confiscation as in 1887.
Overdrafts at the bank were commonplace. Salaries were still somewhat
better than high school teachers', but the potential for raises was
bleak.20 It was impossible to get first-class men with second-class sala-
ries, said Dickson, accusing Ross of being prepared to appoint men at
six hundred dollars. Tradesmen were pestering the College for pay-
ment; trustees were dunned in the streets. The water bill was not paid;
Baldwin had hooked into the water main, and there was no water.
Baths were discontinued and pails were carried to flush the water clos-
ets. "The end is not far off," wailed Dickson. "We must have a water
supply or dismiss the College."21 The equipment, especially for physical
and manual training, was inferior to that of other schools and this led to

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UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

two problems: boys were leaving UCC for better-equipped and less
expensive schools; in poor weather, boys at the College were idle and
spent their time running about the halls, lounging in the bedrooms, and
walking the streets, giving the College a bad name. Theft in the school
was rampant.

Dickson was no happier about the new facilities: the heating caused
illness; the laundry ruined the flannels; even when the water ran, the
baths were useless because the water came through the ceilings to the
floor beneath; and the lighting was not good enough for the boys to
study. By 1893 the northern part of the top storey in the centre of the
building had settled and a man had to come in to tighten the girders.
The lack of a hospital was a crucial fault in the new set-up. One winter
sixty boys were sick at one time, the victims of food sent from home.
There were continued requests for an isolation hospital, particularly
after a pneumonia death in the winter of 1894. A reporter circulated
false rumours that there was diphtheria at the College. During a scarla-
tina outbreak the College had to be closed while the school was fumi-
gated.

The discipline problems were, though probably exaggerated, real
enough. A boy was withdrawn because he was punished for lying, smok-
ing on the street going to church, and puffing smoke in ladies' faces.
Boys were accused of frequenting saloons, and of interrupting the
church services at Deer Park and smoking around the church doors.
Two or three boys were expelled, with Dickson taking the brunt of the
parents' ire — "incompetent and a liar."22 Roughs with clubs and dogs
attacked College boys, and Dickson needed help to go out and rescue
them. College fences were torn down, garden implements were stolen,
cattle were turned into the grounds at night. In March 1892 a College
boy died from a wound suffered in an unsupervised fencing bout. There
was constant trouble with Christ Church, Deer Park, which had added
seventy or so seats, at some inconvenience, for the College boys. When
reports, false or otherwise, of College boys' misbehaviour at church
came in, Dickson withdrew the older boys and sent them to the Church
of the Messiah; he then withdrew the juniors as well, claiming the pew
rent was too high. Unfortunately he had not consulted the Board of

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METAMORPHOSIS

Trustees, a member of which was Larratt Smith, a member of Christ
Church. Dickson was accused of a lack of tact and judgment, and the
reverberations of this contretemps were infinite.

Dickson had constant trouble with Ross. In addition to having to be
consulted on all matters great and small (everything from buying a
twenty-cent door hinge to building a rink), Ross was in the habit of tak-
ing steps of his own without letting Dickson know. One of these was
changing day-boy fees three times between 1888 and 1895, ending
where they began, at sixty dollars; another was giving people permis-
sion to enter the College's water main without consulting the trustees.
He claimed the College used too much coal, disagreed with Dickson on
salaries and the need for advertising, and generally interfered in mat-
ters Dickson thought best left to the principal.

The worst blow to Dickson was what he perceived as disloyalty
among a group of Old Boys, including some members of the board. He
was certain that rumours were being spread about the low tone and bad
morality of the student body. Dickson included in his accusation cur-
rent members of the board who were up for reappointment — Larratt
Smith, S. C. Wood, and W. B. McMurrich. He asserted that they had
joined the College's enemies and should not be reappointed. At the bot-
tom of the trouble was the retired John Martland, who Dickson feared
wanted to return in some capacity.

Dickson spoke frequently of his anxiety and his hopelessness, of
being overworked and blamed for everything. It is certain he was
overworked — looking after accounts, ordering supplies, directing the
servants, breaking in the new masters, teaching English (and at one
point science) — small wonder he complained of insomnia! Despite his
fatigue, however, Dickson was not without imagination. Early on he
presented to the board an ingenious plan to accommodate the boarders
being turned away. This plan called for the building and equipping, by
private venture, of supplementary boarding-houses connected with the
College. Masters would live in the houses, and rent would go to the
builders. Dickson thought five hundred boys could be accommodated in
this way. The plan, of course, was stillborn.

The years 1893 and 1894 saw things getting worse and worse. A

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UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

drop in boarders and a financial deficit were bad enough, but outside
the school there was a financial depression and high school competition
was becoming keener. The accumulation of grievances on all sides was
wearing nerves thin. A milkman whose cattle were impounded for tres-
passing threatened to burn the College down. There was an episode
with College boys drunk on a train. Most important, the split between
the Board of Trustees and Dickson was widening, and steps were being
taken by certain Old Boys to effect a change in the governing of the
College which would affect Dickson powerfully.

In November 1893 R. E. Kingsford wrote to Ross recommending a
change in the College. To be specific, he thought friends of UCC should
have a much stronger voice in its management. They would thus be
more willing to help financially. Kingsford pointed to the constant trou-
ble and uncertainty at the school and said Old Boys would not help
because they were afraid the remainder of the endowment would be
confiscated. In February 1894 the Upper Canada College Old Boys'
Association was incorporated, and by May its by-laws were drawn up.
At the same time McMurrich, a board member, wrote to Ross about his
eagerness to make UCC the Rugby of Canada, but he doubted whether
Dickson was the man to do it. McMurrich was willing to make a fresh
start with a new board, but unless Dickson was equally prepared, the
task was hopeless.

On May 5, 1894, a new Act gave UCC its sixth management. The
board was expanded to nine trustees, five appointed by the Lieutenant-
Governor, four by the Old Boys' Association. The first election was
slated for July 1 . The Act made many other provisions, one of which
confirmed the $100,000 endowment; another permitted the issuing of
debentures to the amount of $25,000.

Meanwhile, the important change of trustees was taking place.
Robinson, Wood, McMurrich, and McLaren, who remained from the
1887 board, were joined by the four OB A men: W. T. Boyd, W. M.
Beatty, W. J. McMaster, and W. G. Gooderham. These two groups did
not get along well together, with the result that the first four resigned.
The Lieutenant-Governor then appointed J. J. Kingsmill (chairman),
G. T. Denison, Henry Cawthra, and A. R. Creelman.

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METAMORPHOSIS

From the first the new board was determined on a change of princi-
pals. Dickson, sensing this, naively suggested Goldwin Smith for the
ninth trustee, much alarming Denison. The board began to nibble
away at Dickson as the year ended, asking for reports on masters' late-
ness (quite often) and the incomplete state of preparation for the pupils'
reports. The College Times came in for criticism for disparaging articles
on the College's educational policies.

At the same time, changes were taking place in the University of
Toronto curriculum which necessitated changes at the College: more
prominence to natural science, physics, and chemistry (at a time when
Scott, the science master, had just been fired); better science equipment
and a bigger laboratory; compulsory modern languages. In addition, a
move was on foot to raise the matriculation standards. The College was
entering the modern, changing world with no money and a desperate
principal.

In March 1895 Dickson, his back against the wall, produced his last
report, aimed at saving the College and himself. Day-boy fees should be
raised. Local agents should be established in the United States to
attract American boys. Masters should receive bonuses for getting boys.
The bursar should be released; Dickson himself would do the work. His
closing words were an understatement — "the present time is a serious
crisis in the history of the school."23 As a backdrop to Dickson's dance of
death, a university committee was meeting to see whether or not more
financial claims could be made against the College.

On March 29, 1895, a remarkable document was delivered to Dick-
son and all the College masters, over the signature of Morphy, the new
bursar. It was a letter, sanctioned by the board and the Minister of
Education, telling them that the engagement of all members of the
teaching staff and officers of UCC was ended as of July I. The blow was
softened by the information that some members would probably be re-
engaged. (Kingsmill had told the Lieutenant-Governor he wanted to
avoid the hurt feelings which would result from retiring individual mas-
ters.) Two days later recommendations for the new administration were
drawn up which provided for eight masters, two hundred pupils (half of
whom were to be boarders), no exhibitions, and a saving on salaries of

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UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

over two thousand dollars. The total salary bill was cut to $5,390, about
half of Colborne's 1830 salary total.

The press had a field day with the blanket dismissals. Saturday Night
thought they were necessary and pontificated that the College could be
the most successful and profitable boys' school on the continent if prop-
erly managed. Dickson was characterized as "an excellent man in his
way, but [not exactly] a model in breeding."24 The Globe thought every-
thing would be all right. The Telegram was outraged at the trustees' per-
formance and called for them to throw off their mantle of silence and
let the public know the reasons for their extraordinary behaviour. The
World, which wanted a public investigation, reported that a large and
influential delegation had visited the Premier of Ontario to protest
against the notice of termination. Sir Oliver Mowat's response was eva-
sive and anything but encouraging: there was no fault in Mr. Dickson;
the trustees simply felt that another man could increase the enrolment.
The Canadian Baptist feared that the College, described as originally a
Church of England school, was falling under the influence of that
denomination and warned against it.

An enormous batch of letters displaying powerful anti-Anglican sen-
timents came to the Minister of Education in defence of Dickson. The
Old Boys group on the board was described as a farce, elected by only
two hundred out of seven thousand, and engineered by Martland, who
had travelled from coast to coast undermining Dickson. Some of the let-
ters were wild. "If the government choose to turn ucc into a Lunatic
Asylum I will say nothing but By God!! if they turn it over to ... a
school for Anglican tories governed by such, the Mowat Government
will hear of it."25 The working committee of the Old Boys' Association
was described as having 23 Anglicans, 2 Presbyterians, 2 Methodists,
and 1 Roman Catholic. There were fourteen Anglican clergymen
among the corresponding members of the Association. Day boys were
being told (by whom?) that Dickson was not a gentleman, could not
play cricket, was not fit to head a school for gentlemen's sons.

Goldwin Smith wrote to Ross that he strongly suspected a cabal and
saw little hope for the school. He advised Ross to get a new principal
from one of the great English public schools, where the men were

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METAMORPHOSIS

experts in the management of a particular class of boys. Smith had a
low opinion of the College board, who "represented nothing except an
unfulfilled promise of pecuniary aid"26 and were unfit to run a school;
to keep a new principal, the board would need improving. Smith went
on to defend Dickson, who he felt had probably been wronged and cer-
tainly insulted.

Dickson made a spirited defence, requesting a commission to inves-
tigate his principalship and sending to everyone a statistical summary
of his ten years at UCC compared to the eight previous years. He, too,
referred to the Anglican domination of the new board, wishing it had
been more representative. But he felt the personal insult deeply
— thirty-three years of work swept away, his reputation destroyed, his
character called into question. All he received in reply was a letter stat-
ing that the rumours that he was intemperate were untrue. He could
not get over the manner of his dismissal: "Pardon for an offence of
which I am not guilty is superfluous after the full measure of punish-
ment has been inflicted. ... I cannot divest myself of a very deep sense of
wrong."27 It took three years to settle his financial claims.28

Dickson's end at the College was a tragedy. He had had an out-
standing reputation in Hamilton, had been active in the Toronto
community (he was the first president of the Rosedale Golf Club), had
founded the Canadian Educational Monthly, and had paid for and helped
to produce the only nineteenth-century history of the College. What
had happened to him? He was overwhelmed by circumstances: he had
endured the cutting of the endowment, the enormous burden of moving
to Deer Park, the loss of many experienced colleagues in that move,
crushing financial worries, Ross's interference, the change of board,
Martland's alleged disloyalty, and the hostility of the Deer Park neigh-
bours. Much of Dickson's support came from outside Toronto, and he
could not stand up to the weight of his opposition. In the final analysis
his governors had lost faith in him; things would probably have become
worse, and their decision was undoubtedly best for the College. Their
methods were nothing to be proud of.

The ink was scarcely dry on the board's dismissal of Dickson and his
colleagues when the College community set to work to find a new prin-

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UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

cipal. The trustees were seriously considering, as Dickson's friends had
feared, an Anglican clergyman named Willetts, but the Premier wisely
held up the appointment. Only a few days had passed before John T.
Small, an Old Boy and a prominent member of the British Empire
League, suggested George Parkin to the chairman of the board. After a
month the trustees wrote to Parkin offering a salary of $2,500, to be
increased if Parkin made UCC financially sound. They suggested Parkin
see Premier Mowat, who was in England at the time. Parkin made his
conditions clear from the outset: freedom to carry out his policy without
interference; recognition that a religious tone was important in a
school; a larger salary as soon as it was feasible. After much correspond-
ence and many meetings, Parkin accepted the principalship. He
arrived at UCC on August 30, 1895, just in time to open the school.

Parkin was forty-nine, the oldest man ever to become principal. The
youngest of thirteen children of a New Brunswick farmer, he had
become "the only Canadian of his time prominent enough to be univer-
sally referred to by surname only."29 He had been to normal school in
Saint John and had developed into a powerful teacher with a mission-
ary zeal. At the University of New Brunswick he had happily experi-
enced a classical residential education. He had gradually turned from
his early Baptist influence to the Church of England. At twenty-five,
when he had become headmaster of the Fredericton Collegiate School,
he was a prominent local figure, magnetic, enthusiastic, ambitious, and
at the same time selfless and a convinced anti-materialist. He was cer-
tain that Anglo-Saxonism carried with it a clear superiority and that
elite leadership must be based, not on wealth, but on merit and educa-
tion.

In 1873-74 Parkin had spent the most influential year of his life at
Oxford. There he became the intimate of some of the most powerful
Englishmen of the following decades. The concept of Christian idealism
permeated his whole being. The English public schools, especially
Uppingham, where he became entranced by the great headmaster
Thring, fascinated him. They trained character, not intellect: the clas-
sics taught moral lessons; team games taught sportsmanship; weekly
chapel sermons carried a powerful personal influence. A common ethic

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METAMORPHOSIS

of service and patriotism was learned. Thring convinced Parkin of the
power of boarding-schools in forming national character through the
media of responsibility, independence, the lack of rank, wealth, or luxu-
ry. Uppingham was to serve as something of a model in Parkin's mind
when he arrived at UCC, though the two schools were very different.

Parkin had returned from Oxford to New Brunswick and taught for
fifteen years, starting his own boarding-school. He had joined the Impe-
rial Federation League in 1885, and in 1889 he had begun six years of
wandering thousands of miles as the evangelist of Empire, travelling
across Canada, Britain, and Australia preaching imperialism as though
it were a religion and writing three books on the importance of imperial
unity. His study of Canada had convinced him that it was in the best
interests of the Canadian people to maintain a close connection with
the British Empire. He met and captivated scores of vigorous men
including G. M. Grant, principal of Queen's University, and G. T.
Denison.30 He was incredibly busy during this time, living for much of
it in relative poverty and refusing lucrative offers in order to follow his
own selfless star. He delivered a series of lectures to English public
schools, where he was enormously influential. When the College offer
came to him, he had done more for the British Empire than any other
man of his time.

Parkin's motives for accepting the post at Upper Canada were
mostly economic. He had a large family, and UCC offered a house and a
steady income, a milieu he knew and understood, and a fine platform
from which to spread his imperialist principles. He could continue his
British ties, because the London Times wanted him to send them a
monthly article on Canada, and he could work on his biography of
Thring. This, then, was the Canadian chosen to bring UCC back from
oblivion: George Robert Parkin — teacher, headmaster, author, lectur-
er, imperialist, idealist, dreamer.

Meanwhile, Martland was a key figure in all aspects of the College's
reorganization that summer. There was the Dickson problem itself, the
question of increasing the attendance, and the general reorganization of
the school. Above all, who was going to be rehired? Martland, Jackson,
and Sparling were asked to choose a new staff, and when the smoke had

129

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

cleared only Jackson, Sparling, Leacock, Hull (an 1889 mathematics
appointment), and Macdonald were in. After some hesitation, Johnson
and Holmes were added. Included almost as an afterthought was
Arthur L. Cochrane. Cochrane had been taken on in 1894 as swimming
instructor and porter and allowed to occupy a small cottage at the rear
of the College free. He stayed until 192 1, directly influencing as many
Canadian boys as anyone in the country's history. Two distinguished
additions were then made: E. R. Peacock of Queen's became first
English master, and G. F. Macdonnell, head boy of 1889, joined the
staff to teach English and classics.

From the very beginning Parkin made his beliefs clear to the boys
and the College community at large. He was not so much interested in
prizes or athletic victories or manners as he was in character, which
depended upon truth. He intended to make the College a place from
which a boy could go out with the principles of a Christian and a gen-
tleman; a place of sound learning, where the slow and weak received
the same attention as the strong and clever. Had he the means, he said,
he would get the best music teacher, develop manual training, furnish a
library and a reading room. Above all he would pay the masters on the
same scale as the best English public schools. Three or four thousand
dollars a year furnished by Old Boys would make UCC first-rate. In his
1895 Prize Day Speech3' Parkin made one vital reference that pointed
to his ultimate goal — that UCC should forgo government support and be
released from all political controls.

During his first year Parkin worked without respite. A sixteen-thou-
sand-dollar deficit was lowered to six thousand dollars. Back salaries
were paid off. A supplemental endowment fund was begun through an
appeal to Old Boys, an appeal which was broadened by newspaper
advertising and supported by friendly editorials. The parish church
contretemps was settled once and for all in favour of Christ Church.
Discipline became stricter, and delinquent boys were suspended or
expelled. The first of a series of Arbour Days took place: a half-holiday
was declared, and three hundred trees and shrubs (for which the boys
raised sixty dollars) were planted and the College avenue was lined
with elms down to the front gate.32 By the end of his first year, Parkin

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METAMORPHOSIS

had started the College on the road to recovery. There were still finan-
cial problems, of course; these could not be solved overnight. The school
badly needed a hospital. There was the nagging problem of how to run
a proper boarding-school in one large building, something unknown in
the English public schools, where separate houses were the distinctive
feature. There was the other puzzle of how to run a combined boarding
and day school successfully.33 There was also the isolation from town, a
great disadvantage. (A letter to the Globe said Toronto was the only city
that had two such important institutions as the College and Mount
Pleasant Cemetery so far away.) Parkin ended his first year physically
drained but cautiously optimistic about the future.

During the next two years the College picture gradually brightened.
Parkin appealed to all interested in higher Christian education to
donate seven to ten thousand dollars a year for three years to help carry
out his aim of making UCC a great public school in the English tradi-
tion. (The first response was from Timothy Eaton, "the great coopera-
tive store man."34) The number of boarders increased gradually but
day-boy numbers lagged because of transportation problems. (The Belt
Line railway north of the College had become defunct, there was no
tram line closer than Dupont to the south before the end of 1906.) The
university paid the first instalment of the endowment, nineteen thou-
sand dollars. The first positive move toward getting an isolation hospital
was made by the board chairman, J. J. Kingsmill, after Cochrane had
had to be moved out of his tiny cottage so that it could be turned into
an infirmary. Ross and the provincial government balked at the cost
but were finally shamed into making a contribution when Old Boys
Henry Cawthra and W. H. Beatty made large private subscriptions. A
year later Doctor Thorburn could report to the principal "that in the
past year no deaths have occurred."35

Parkin's visions were starting to take shape, though they were not
necessarily totally shared by all his colleagues, one or two of whom
questioned the validity of "Christian teaching" in a non-church school.
Lack of support such as this, along with the heavy and continual pres-
sure which he put on himself, stretched Parkin's courage and physical
endurance to the breaking point. Nevertheless, enrolment was continu-

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UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

ing to rise, financially the school was at the break-even point, and the
university sent two more endowment instalments totalling thirty-nine
thousand dollars. Half a dozen worthy men were added to the staff.
(Parkin felt he needed "the wisdom of a serpent"36 to make good
appointments.) Albert Ham, a renowned organist and choirmaster,
took over the music; Charles F. Mills of Cambridge joined Jackson's
classics department, and the formidable J. L. Somerville, also from
Cambridge, taught science and mathematics. William Lawson Grant,
son of the Queen's principal, became the first head of history and geog-
raphy. Later he had a brilliant academic career before returning to the
College in 19 17 to become principal. Also joining the staff was A. W.
Playfair, who left in 1902 and ended his career teaching in Japan. Wil-
liam Kerr, an Old Boy, taught modern languages for three years before
becoming the dean of arts and sciences at the University of Alberta, and
then its president.

On the personal side, Parkin's triumphs carried the name of UCC far
and wide. They began in December 1897, when Edward Blake made a
speech at the National Club which was bleakly pessimistic about impe-
rial unity, an important political concept of the time. During his politi-
cal career Blake had been premier of Ontario, and federal minister of
justice. From 1877 to 1887 he was leader of the Liberal Party. In 1892
he left Canada and was elected to the British House of Commons. He
believed that Canada should be independent, though existing in har-
mony with Great Britain. G. T. Denison got up to disagree with Blake,
and cries of "Parkin!" brought the principal to his feet to deliver an
impassioned extempore address which destroyed Blake as a political
force in Canada.37 In May 1898 Parkin received a CMG in the Queen's
birthday honours list, the only Canadian to do so. Congratulations
poured in from all over the world, and the UCC boys got a holiday. A
township was named after him, and last but not least, he received a pay
raise to three thousand dollars. He was so content he even found time to
play a little golf.

The great success of Parkin's schemes brought with it a serious prob-
lem: the school was outgrowing its facilities, a new challenge which he
met head on. In his Prize Day Speech in 1899, Parkin put severe pres-

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METAMORPHOSIS

sure on the government38 by speaking of the indifference which had
greeted his appeals for funds. He threatened to resign unless more pub-
lic support was forthcoming. The threat had the desired effect: Parkin
was invited to submit a memorandum of his future plans for the Col-
lege.

Parkin believed that UCC's current prosperity was superficial and
would not last because it was based on a contradiction: that you could
have a great public school in one large building. The great strength of
the English public schools was their fragmentation into several small
houses, each with a first-class, well-paid man at its head. Not only did
this ensure a large supply of good masters, it meant that a weak princi-
pal need not bring disaster. Parkin was emphatic about the importance
of boarding — the only milieu for the building of character, an impossi-
bility in a luxurious home. He was equally confident that good masters
would not stay39 at UGC because of the boarding arrangements. Parkin
proposed a new Upper Canada College with a maximum of 350 boys,
all in residence, with day boys phased out. Several houses would be
erected for both masters and boys, resulting in a strong school commu-
nity. As each house was filled, another would be built. Within five years
the College would be completely established as a great public school.
The main building would evidently become the classroom block. Two
further elements in his scheme included a principal's salary of six thou-
sand dollars, and a new board of governors made up of Old Boys and
some ex officio members, removed entirely from political control. He
was certain that the government would accept the whole scheme and
that strong financial support would follow independence.

The early months of 1900 were spent laying the groundwork for the
realization of Parkin's dream. A committee headed by A. R. Creelman
drew up a draft of suggestions, which Parkin forwarded to the Minister
of Education. The memorandum contemplated a permanent endow-
ment of Sioo,ooo, half of which could be collected very quickly by UCC
supporters if the government agreed to the principles in the document.

In April 1900 Harcourt introduced a bill to sever the tie between
the Province of Ontario and Upper Canada College, contingent upon
$50,000 being raised by October 1 . Parkin raised half the money and

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UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

then went to England for the summer. When he returned, the deadline
was in sight and he had to spend every hour on the fund. He had
$35,000, with only a week to go. Advertisements were put into the three
morning papers asking for help, and finally $50,496 was subscribed by
185 names. The largest donation was $2,500, and the average about
$275. Considering the size of the College community it could not be
called a generous effort. However, Parkin was in great spirits.

On November 15, 1900, the College, at its own request, was cut off
from its historic role as the expensive anomaly of the Ontario secondary
school system and the bete noire of the Ontario government. It now was
on its own with a new board of governors,40 a world-famous principal,
seventeen masters, three hundred students, a nine-year-old building on
the outskirts of Toronto, and fifty thousand dollars.

134

CHAPTER NINE

School Life in the Eighties
and Nineties

T-'HROUGH ALL THE DIFFICULTIES with the legislature and then the
move to Deer Park, the most powerful sheet-anchor the school had
during the eighties and nineties was its faculty. Of these none was
more prominent than William S. Jackson. Jackson had joined UCC in
1877 at the age of twenty-three, after being educated at Rugby and the
University of London. He continued the College's long line of outstand-
ing classical scholars. As well, he added a great strength on the athletic
side: he had played football for Rugby and was a fine boxer and crick-
eter. While at UCC Jackson became first classical master and head of
residence, stepping into the shoes of Martland, whose spiritual successor
he was. Many Old Boys supported him for the post of principal in 1895,
but he lost out to Parkin. Later he became vice-principal. He was re-
membered vividly by the boys whom he taught. H. H. Langton was
taught sixth-form Latin prose composition in Jackson's first year at
UCC. Years later Langton remembered his own

astonishment and discomfiture (for I considered myself rather good at
Latin prose) when he mercilessly demolished the first piece of prose
which I brought him, and then, after scoring out as it seemed to me
every word as wrongly used and applied, handed it back to me saying,
"There is no grammatical mistake in it, but it isn't Latin at all, its just
English with Latin instead of English words." This was a new idea to
me.1

William S. Jackson. What did that "S." stand for? Certainly not

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UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

Stonewall. But with unerring instinct the school adopted for him the
nickname of Thomas Jonathan Jackson, the celebrated Southern cav-
alry general whose exploits were still, in 1877, a byword the world over.
So "Stonewall" (later "Stony") Jackson he became. "I could have done
far worse," he once said.

When Stony first arrived at UCC he found that Edward Fiirrer, the
modern language master, had just succeeded in supplanting soccer by a
rough-and-tumble hybrid containing elements of Rugby football. The
two masters went to work together on this mixture, and under Jackson's
instruction the College team took up the game of rugger. Fortunately
both the University of Toronto and Trinity College were also experi-
menting with this new game. With Jackson on the forward line the UCC
team challenged the university and won; the next year they defeated
Trinity.

After the College moved from King Street to Deer Park the oppor-
tunities for outdoor recreation were enormous: thirty acres of magnifi-
cent grounds, the playing fields, the tennis courts, the creek along the
Old Belt Line that furnished nature's hazards for the steeplechase. But
these amenities did not include the Oval, built later at Stony 's instiga-
tion in response to popular demand for a quarter-mile cinder track.
Jackson supervised the work. It was a case of dig and level, dig and fill;
the fill was brought in wheelbarrows from an old orchard west of where
Wedd's House now stands; the boys supplied most of the labour. Begun
in 1892, the track was ready by the end of '93.

Jackson, of course, continued to be a power in the school throughout
the nineties. One Old Boy remembered how interested Jackson was in
the Corbett-Fitzsimmons fight. He kept phoning somebody downtown
and relaying the news round-by-round to the boys, who were eagerly
awaiting the outcome.

Jackson remained at UCC for forty years, then retired to England.
He kept up correspondence with Old Boys for a long time and gave a
speech to the Old Boys' Dinner in England in 1929 at the age of sev-
enty-five, recalling the "good old days":

Does anyone else among us remember those wonderful days under

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SCHOOL LIFE IN THE EIGHTIES AND NINETIES

Mr. Cockburn? Among other things he will have noticed how the cli-
mate of Toronto is changing. Did the rain ever fall in dismal torrents
then? Did the grey cloud floes ever dim the autumn sky? The tints of
our skies were always rosy; our sun was always shining gaily; and the
winter ice in the Adelaide Street rink was always hard. We had no
hockey to play then, but there were always a lot of remarkably nice
girls to tow round and round. And that is manly exercise if you like. . . .
The present generation are really doing all that can be expected of
them to keep up the grand old traditions of King Street, when you
consider that not one of them ever heard of a bath ticket. It was one of
the first things a new boy was taught, to ask Stony for his bath ticket.
And Stony always gently explained to him that he had been misled;
he should apply to Dr. Scott

The other steady old-timer who helped keep the school on the rails
was George Belton "Guts" Sparling, who joined UCC in 1872 to teach
mathematics and took over the department from Brown in 1887. Con-
sidered briefly for the principalship in 1895, he became acting- principal
during the search for Parkin's successor and died while still at the Col-
lege in 1904. While on the old site, Sparling lived on the grounds and
sometimes had boys boarding with him. After the trek to Deer Park he
moved out of residence and ceased to be the integral part of College life
he had been, a crucial change which affected the boys' lives as well.
There was nothing showy about Sparling; he did not seek popularity.
He was thorough and honest and hard-working. Together with Mart-
land he prepared the school for the coming of Parkin.

Stephen Leacock attended UCC as a boarder from 1882 to 1887. He
remembered many years later the spacious gardens, the big chestnut
trees, and the comfortable masters' houses. The school was at the height
of its popularity, Leacock said, with about a hundred boarders, who
thought of themselves as the centre of the school, and over a hundred
day boys; "it was a fine, decent place, with no great moral parade
about it, nor moral hypocrisy, but a fundamental background of decent
tradition."2 The avowed aim of creating Christian gentlemen was
bound to fail, he thought, but there was little bullying, flogging, or fag-
ging; some formal, impersonal church and religion; little lying and lit-

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UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

tie stealing. (There was little to steal.) Pocket money was twenty-five
cents weekly for juniors, fifty cents for seniors.

Leacock did not believe that schools like ucc created the sort of
class division that worried (and continues to worry) England so much.
He thought that many of the boys who attended ucc did so because
there was nothing else to do with them, not because their parents were
specially rich or gentlemanly.3 Leacock on balance believed that a good
boarding-school (as opposed to a rotten or snobbish one) offered the
kind of disciplined life unattainable elsewhere. Breaking away from
home and standing on your own feet, realizing how much home actu-
ally meant, learning a new set of values from a friend in need, or from a
kindly master: these were immeasurably valuable. As time went by a
boy settled in, played a part in the school, and began to take a pride in
it. And the friendships lasted forever.

After a start made miserable by homesickness, scarlatina, and igno-
rance of algebra, Leacock began to feel a real pride in walking on King
Street in his dark blue-and-white cap, hearing people call him an
Upper Canada College boy. He loved Saturday afternoon cricket
matches with their heroes and mountains of ice cream and cake, and
the ecstasy of term-end with the excitement and packing of trunks and
waiting at the station at the foot of Berkeley Street for the train.

Leacock described the nightly study:

[We had] to sit for two mortal hours with nothing but school books in
front of us. Conceive it. We were not allowed even to converse from
desk to desk. My recollection is quite clear on the point, not to con-
verse, and, though my readers may doubt it, not even to smoke. I hope
that no one will doubt the accuracy of my recollections when I say
that we were not allowed either to smoke or to chew tobacco, not
allowed to play cards, and, beyond a miserable glass of water handed
to us on a tray at nine, forbidden to drink. In other words the only
rational way of spending the evening — to sit and talk, take a drink
now and then, or join in a game of bridge — was utterly forbidden to
us. . . . But these are only examples among many. Looking back on it
all, it seems an incredible life. We were shut in at night and let out in
the morning. Confined to a five acre field all day; not allowed even to

I38

SCHOOL LIFE IN THE EIGHTIES AND NINETIES

order our own breakfast, and compelled to state on Friday evening
whether or not we were going out to tea on Sunday! Our answer
should have been, "Most likely I'll dine at the club, but if not Shorty
can get me a chop and a pint of claret here!"

Leacock, the fairest of men, admitted that there were compensations
for these bleaker sides of life.

I remember that in night study we got the chance once or twice in the
evening to put a bent pin on the master's chair, ready for him to sit on
when he resumed his seat after a good stroll round the room. That was
good! That was distinctly good. I could enjoy it now. It was as good as
trout fishing. I remember too that in the school room we used to chew
up paper into solid, wet projectiles and fire them to stick on the yoke
of the master's gown when he turned his face to the blackboard. That
was excellent.

And I begin to remember too something in the culinary line — the
frying of sausages in a "spider," over the bedroom fire long after lights
out, to be eaten with stolen bread, stolen sugar and various other
things lifted from the table — the feast at the imminent risk of detec-
tion. That was the real stuff: there is no doubt that the criminal life
has wonderful attractions.

Yet take it all in all, these little compensations mitigated, but did
not remove the rigours of our existence. They represented only the
indomitable power of the human spirit that will not accept its chains.
And then when we look back on it all and see the chains lying broken
on the floor, it is but human also that we drop a tear upon them.

Leacock had mixed feelings about the formal education he received
at ucc, but on the whole he found it good. It was basically classical
with a strong flavour of mathematics and, said Leacock, "was a great
training for leadership,"4 especially in a parliamentary nation where
oratory, and eventually the written word, counted a great deal. It was
good because it was hard and lent itself to competition, "to examina-
tions, to marks, to prizes, to going up and down in class . . . [it] made the
class do the work and not the teacher."5 Its weakness for Leacock lay in

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UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

its conceit, in its belief that geography and modern languages and sci-
ence and English literature and drama were all inferior to Latin and
Greek. Though Leacock does not specify, it is obvious that ucc was
slow to change; its very thoroughness worked against its ability to
adapt.

The curriculum was discussed with remarkable ease in the columns
of The College Times, a tribute to the progressive views of both Buchan
and Dickson. In 1882 the editor, T. C. S. Macklem, took the adminis-
tration to task for the absence of Canadian history, not only from the
syllabus but from the reading room. Boys knew all about Cyrus and
Hannibal, nothing about Canada except that its history existed. All the
high schools were just as bad, said Macklem, and called for the Minis-
ter of Education to put things right. (The Varsity agreed with Macklem,
adding the university to its indictment.) Macklem also decried the
dropping of chemistry from the curriculum. Leacock was editor in 1887
and strongly supported the study of Latin verse, "the very soul of the
classics," as the best mental training available. English was regarded as
a "sleeper" on examinations because of its relative ease — "everyone
thinks he knows all about English," which was not as easy as it looked.
Ben Hur was a book highly recommended by Leacock despite the "Am-
ericanisms which jar upon the ears of purists." G. R. Geary in 1888
complained bitterly that modern languages were unfairly treated both
on the timetable and in the marking scheme. The same year a corre-
spondent signing himself "Z" sent in a diatribe about French and bilin-
gualism which could have been written decades later. "Is there a boy in
this College . . . who is able to express himself or converse in French? . . .
Surely it is a disgrace ... to be unable to speak French, when one-half of
[Canadians] are French."

In 1929 Leacock recalled the weekly bath:

Whether we liked it or not, whether we needed it or not, we had to
take a bath. We had no choice even as to time. Those who recall the
old school will remember that in the middle of the afternoon Shorty,
the head waiter — or was he only the shortest waiter? — came out on
the steps and clanged a bell that reached every corner of the play-

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SCHOOL LIFE IN THE EIGHTIES AND NINETIES

ground. At this, the cry of "Bath!" was taken up from voice to voice,
and those whose day and turn it was filed meekly in to be washed.

Imagine it now. If someone came into the University Club at
Montreal in the middle of the afternoon and said to me "go and take a
bath." How would I like it. Or my contemporaries — would they like it
any better? In my own form at the Old School were, among others
since risen to eminence, the Hon. Hal. McGiverin and Major General
Thacker. Do they have to take a bath now? No, indeed.

And yet oddly enough I imagine that if someone appeared — let us
say if Shorty could, appear with his bell in the gallery of the House of
Commons, or at a meeting of Canadian Militia Council, or at Synod
of the Church of England and ring the bell and call "Bath!", quite a
number of old uc:c boys would rise and respond to the call.

Another insight into the weekly bath night has been supplied by
T. H. Wilson:

Two at a time we climbed into the wooden laundry tubs, after settling
how much cold (tap) water was to go into the hot already ladled out of
a big cauldron in the corner, fired with cordwood from a pile nearby.
Followed the icy douche from a bucket, as one stood in mid-floor, yells
and racket as the dozen or more dressed and returned to study. Then
there was the knotted towel initiation for new boys!!! This all gave
way to the luxury of individual tubs set in cubicles.

The tubs Wilson knew were in the basement. The old boys bathed
first, so there was seldom even lukewarm water for the new boys. The
other amenities were on the same sort of level. The buildings were
heated solely by small open stoves in each room, there being no steam
heating, and the fires went out every night. Only on extremely cold
mornings were the fires kindled, so that getting up was no pleasant busi-
ness. Lighting was by gas and there was only one weak, flickering jet in
each of the bedrooms; studying was very hard on the eyes.

The Literary and Debating Society continued throughout the eight-
ies. Selections from Shakespeare, Dickens, and Longfellow were read.
Debates included: Resolved that it is preferable for a College to be

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UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

located in the country rather than in the city" (won); "Resolved that
the life of a boarder is preferable to that of a day boy" (won); "Are
early marriages conducive to the welfare of society?" (yes). An innova-
tion in 1882 was a piano solo, the first one ever played before the society
and a harbinger of things to come. As the decade ended, the Literary
and Debating Society gradually declined. The minutes of January 1889
recorded that "the chief drawback to the complete success of the . . .
society is the little interest taken in it by the boys. . . ."

Attempts were made to interest boys in a chess club and a lawn-ten-
nis club, but they had no great success. The usual sports carried on,
though baseball made so many inroads into cricket that it (along with
lacrosse) was stopped when the College moved north. On Sports Day a
track was roped off around the field fronting on King Street. It was
pretty rough, with sharp corners, and plenty of spills featured the day,
especially in the bicycle races.

The political furor surrounding the College made small impact on
the student body of the eighties. A College Times article made a passing
reference to one of the early battles by saying that those "who are mak-
ing the most violent attacks upon the College are the very ones who
know least about it."

Loyalty to the school, right or wrong, was typical of a schoolboy.
Thirteen-year-old Morton Jones wrote a school song in 1885 which
expressed the College's collective view in that tense decade. It began
with "Rally, sons of ucc," expressed faith to "our College," vowed
"death to every foe and traitor," identified blue with lofty purposes and
white with "a fair and spotless name," and ended by urging her sons to
"fight her battles undismayed."

Some details of life at UCC — school spirit, dancing, outdoor sport,
and the evil effects of hard work — were brought out in letters by J. H.
Flintoft6 of Sarnia, who wrote home at age seventeen:

Nov. 1 st/88 [to mother]

. . . the College boys formed two and two and marched down to College

singing songs crying the UCC yell and generally having a good time

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SCHOOL LIFE IN THE EIGHTIES AND NINETIES

25th Jan. /8g [to mother]

I can dance the military schottische and heel and toe polka now

Jan. 30UV89

I . . . am learning the Ripple and Waltz . . . there is some doubt but not
much of their having the At Home they have to be promised one hun-
dred and fifty dollars before they can have it. . . . There is good tobag-
ganing on the school slide . . . the top ... is just alongside the gym. . . .
When the tobagganing is very good you can go right over to the fence.

Feb. gth/8g

There is good skating on the ice . . . and the boys play a great deal of
shinny ... I am going to get a shinny this week. ... A boy . . . died last
week . . . his death was caused by brain fever brought on by studying
too hard. . . . There is some row again about the At Home . . . they are
not quite sure that they will have [it].

As preparations were made to move to Deer Park, student interest
in the new site picked up. In September 1889 G. H. Ronald Harris of
London, Ontario, aged sixteen, entered ucc for one year to prepare for
entry to RMC. Harris wrote several times a month to members of his
family, and excerpts from his letters give insight into many aspects of
College life that year:7

September 13, 1889

I like it very much here and am getting on very well. I was put in the
fourth form, a form one higher than I expected. The work in it is very
hard and I will have to take German French and Latin. Will you send
me at once Fasquelle French grammar and Kirland Scotts Arithmetic
we have them both at home. In the room with me are two very nice
boys one from Port Arthur and the other from St. Johns. Tomorrow I
am going to the fair and I think I will have a good time. I know both
the Kirkpatrick boys but I think I like Willie the best, Guy is in the
same form with me Willie is below me. I am going to play Cricket
tomorrow. The food is very good so far for tea we had preserved pears
and jam tarts with bread and butter for breakfast, porridge and cold
meat for dinner, Fish mutton or beef and Blanc Mange. You did not

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UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

give me any ink, and the boy whose ink I am writing with has a bottle

about five inches deep The reading room is very nice but there are

no chairs. . . . We have no regular lessons, tomorrow but have to study
for two hours. ... I will have to get a padlock for my locker. Mother
have you a spare table cloth (not Linen) which you could send me

about 4 feet square. I would bring it back

P.S. With the two other books please send my Latin Grammar (Prin-
cipia Latina) by Smith.

September 18

Aunt Sophie . . . came to the College and gave me my watch and Ted's
letter and the Die. I got the books and the table cloth. The table cloth
improves the room very much, did you have to buy It? I got my little
finger hurt to-day playing cricket. It has swollen up a good bit and is
very sore. The work of the fourth is very hard. I have to study three
hours and a half a day besides my regular lessons. Joyce Macklem is in
the room with me. I will have to run my towel gauntlet tomorrow
night. The food on the whole is not bad but the butter is perfumed and
the bread rather black. . . . We go to the Cathederal but now the

church is being fixed up and we go to the Sunday school I went to

the fair on Saturday and Monday. It was very good there was a very
good exhibition of Natural History. This is the 19th and I have just
run my gauntlet the knots in the wet towels felt like iron. The knots
when they are once tied are never undone they are made this way.
The towels are soaked for two or three days and then soaped the knot
is then tied and pulled tight between the bars of the chairs the boys
then pull them and wet them for another day the towel is then wraped
with string and is then fit for use

October 6

We had snow this morning here and as we have no fires in our rooms
it is very cold. . . . Just before ten I saw the Queens Own march past
from the top of the fence. We have leave on Saturday from ten min-
utes past one till half past seven and on Sunday from a quarter to two
till six, and as I am a Senior boy I have leave from three fifteen to six
on Thursdays. The room we are in is opposite Nu Young's and the
waiter brings us what is left over. For breakfast we always have a glass
of milk and a dish of porridge and sometimes sausages; beef; ham and

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SCHOOL LIFE IN THE EIGHTIES AND NINETIES

egg's; kidneys for Dinner we have two helps of meat "generally Beef;
Mutton or Pork" and one help of pudding. Plum; Blanch mange,
Apple-pie Queen's pudding and for tea we have jam and some kind of
cakes or buns. I generally study at night from half past seven to ten
and in the morning from half past six to eight the work is very hard
but I think I will be able to keep up now one of the boys has been put
back into the third. . . . Father would not know the room now the walls
are just covered with pictures and we have an arrangement for putting
out the gas suddenly. We had a pillow gauntlet yesterday morning all
the new boys had to run I was only knocked down once. We "the boys
in the room with me" take the Mail we get it between six and seven
every morning we each stuck in a quarter and get it for three months.
My letter was interrupted suddenly by old Gentle (W. Martland)
coming in and condemning three of our pictures he tore two of them
up, so our room is not as beautiful as it was when I began to write. I
bought a good Padlock from a boy this afternoon to put on my Locker.
... I got an invitation for tea from one of the boys but I was not able to
get leave, that night. We are not allowed South of Wellington St and
are therefore not allowed on the Lake. Joyce Macklem is an American
and he put four Yankee flags up on his wall we tore them down and
burnt them to day we have two large pictures of the Queen hung
beside his bed

October 18

I am going in for Gymnastics a good bit. . . . We played a football
matched to day with Hamilton and won. We have a whole Holiday on
Monday and therefore have an easy time to night. . . . To-day was
Prize day at the school and we had a half in consequence. I watched it
till half past five I then went down town. 1 am beginning to know
Toronto pretty well. I was down by the Lake once but we are not
allowed. . . .

October 18

. . . The cake was beautiful and the Patriges were lovely thank you
every so much for them I have been order by the room to send you a
vote of thanks the chestnuts were also very nice. We had a grand prize
day to day I will send you the account in the mail if I can get it. The
Lieut-Governor gave them away. They were I think about three hun-

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UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

dred books all very nice one we stamped and yelled till they had to
give us two holidays one of them being on Monday next we get the
whole day breakfast being at eight fifteen and we do not have to be in
till eleven at night so we will have a good time. I do not know yet what
I will do. The other day is added to the Thanksgiving holiday so we
will have from three oclock on Wednesday afternoon till nine Satur-
day so I will come home if you will let me. All the other boys are going
home who live anywhere near Toronto. Aunt Sophie complimented
on the shine on my boots so I suppose I must have looked nice. You
will I hope excuse the mistake in the letter as one of the boys is reading
poetry

October 19

The other day we had a fire in our room (we are not allowed one yet)
and for some unaccountable reason the stove stovepipe and everything
else came down very suddenly. Old Gentle happened to be in Mr.
Young's room and he came in and told Mr. Young to cane and
confine us. He was just wild. Mr. Young told us to come in in the
morning (this happened about eleven) we came in and told him all
about it he said it was an accident and told us he would let us off if we
would promise to have no more trouble with the fire we promised and
that is the end of it. Last night he gave three boys in the room next to
us forty-eight cracks with a cane for raising a row.

1 9 October

The new school is going to be awfully nice and the grounds are large.
You have a lovely view from the ridges about half a mile this side of
the college. Last Sunday I was up there and you could see right across
the Lake it was just lovely. The college team beat the Hamilton yes-
terday 1 to none it was a very good game one of the college boys had a
fight with a Hamilton man for swearing at him. He licked him too.
We have an easy time this week having three holidays in succesion the
Lieut.Governor giving one Mr. John Robinson another and Mr
Mason a third the last one is added to the Thanksgiving Holiday and
we have three then most of the ones who live around here go home

some of them as far as Detroit. Mr. F ham has ordered us out so I

will have to say Goodbye.

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SCHOOL LIFE IN THE EIGHTIES AND NINETIES

i November

We have had a pretty lively day all though it rained very hard. This
afternoon one of the Master (Fotherringham 6 feet 4 inches) had a
row with a boy. The boy was late for breakfast and the master would
not hear his excuse. The boy was telling him it and the master told
him not to talk back the boy said he wasn't and the master lost his
temper and hit him. The boy who is about eighteen and very strong
struck him twice in the chest and knocked him up against the wall the
boys then seperated them and they went into Dickie — and as he did
nothing to the boy it looks as if the Master was wrong. Again about
half past four the boys found that three of the boarders in Jackson had
skipped home, two of them being the Struther from London. The mas-
ter did not know till seven and so I suppose the boys are home. Don't
say anything about it yet as we don't know what the end will be

3rd November

The college slide is being put up it is only about twenty feet high but
the boys seem to get lots of fun out of it. Have they had much trouble
with the poachers at Long point this year. My Composition on "The
Irish Question" was read by "Steve" to-day he said it was very well
put together but he called me up to the desk and it took him half an
hour to go over it. We have boiled potatoes now every night, I have
got over my dislike to them all together. Did mother tell you about Mr
Martland sending in the turkey to me. It surprised every one, as he
has not done it for a long while. There is only one vacancie in the New
Wing so I don't think I will be able to get in next term as I am not the
Senior boys

1 o November

I gave the ducks to Mr Martland and Mr Young. Mr Martland ask
me where they came from and told me to thank Father very much for
them, he seemed very particular about having them hung properly
and ask me when they were hung. Mr Young thanked me very much
for them also. Mr. Dickson let Macklem go home on Wednesday
night. . . . We are going to eat the Duck to-night as soon as the other
boys come in. But we will not be able to make any cocoa to-night as
we have no sugar or milk. I went up to Queens Park with Gibbs this

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UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

afternoon and went all over the Parliament buildings. They are going
to be very fine when they are finished

15th December

I will want some more money to take me home. The fare is $4.70 and I
will have to get my trunk to the station. . . . Last night there was a big
At Home at the college. The supper room was decorated with the rifles
and bayonets of the college they looked very well and the Cricket bats
etc, were also put up. The boys paid for the Electric light, programmes
etc and the school gave the supper. ... I saw my report on Friday and
it is not as good as the last one. At first I was able to keep up better
than now. As before we had both gone over the work, and now the
work is new to me and not to the other boys, but I won't be put back a
form. The work in the fourth form here is the same as the fourth form
in the high school at London and I was only in the first there and I am
in the fourth ere, so there is a big difference, but my conduct report
will be good

30th December 1889

. . . Last night the Senior and Junior football teams had their supper.
Mr Martland told me he was going to send me some Turkey. After
study last night the waiter appeared earring a big tray with a huge
turkey, a lot of rolls and a jug of coffee (eighteen cupsfull) some bread
and butter and a nice dish of some kind of Blanch Mange and Mr
Martland told me I could ask any one I liked to have supper with us. I
asked Guy Kirkpatrick and Martin from Cayuga we had a rattling
good time after we had finished the turkey etc we made our guests get
up on the table and make a speech and sing a song each one of us did
this and then we had a debate on the Irish Question. We clapped
hissed and threw sponges at the speakers just as it suited us, we stoped
at eleven and went to bed. Was it not very nice of him to give it to me.
I went to Dr. Wood again this afternoon but I an now through. He
fixed one of my teeth by putting a cap on it so I expect he will charge
for it. Mother I would like to have some fine netting needles and
meshes if you could send them to me, as I want to net something in silk

before Christmas. Will you please send them if you can I will have

to do some extra work to-night as I am writing a composition. The
master who it is for is an American and very much in favour of the

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Nationel league. The subject I choose was "The other side of the Irish
Question" so I don't quite know what the result will be, as I have
blown the Yankees up in every way I could. Macklem wrote one on
the same subject but he took the opposite side to me and he got good
marks I wonder if I will. I like the school very much now better than I
did at first. Mr. Young came in to the room a few minutes ago and
told me that he had written to father thanking him for the ducks, the
got the letter back yesterday from the Dead- Letter office. He also gave
me some cake. This afternoon I (Sunday) went out to the new
school — it is going to be very nice they have nearly all the roof on, but

there is a good deal of work to be done yet My report will be going

home in a few days. I don't think it will be quite as good as my last
though I have worked harder. The boys have been over the work last
year and I was not. At first I could keep up better as it was then only a
matter of work, now it is different but I will not be foot. . . . We are
going to have an At Home here the Saturday after next. Each boy
pays a dollar and invites three friends, there is going to be dancing
and a supper.

13 January 1890

There are two boys in the fourth from one in A and the other B "I am
in B" working up for the Military school examination next June. I
think I am as well up in my work as the boy who is trying from my
form. I thought you might like me to try for it; if you would, would
you please write to Mr Martland and ask him if he thought there was
any chance of my getting through and if there was to let me take up
the subjects I would want and drop those that I do not. I would work
very hard indeed. If you want me to go will you write directly as the
class is going to be formed this week. Tell Mr Martland that you want
me to try. Will you write and tell me if this is my last chance. Some
boys say that you can try when you are seventeen. . . . We have had
some snow but a great deal went away to-day. Mr Labatt's son is here
and he gets on very well with the boys. He was in Jackson's first but
was moved over. He seems to like it very well. We have one boy in our
gauntlet and I am going to fix my towel to-night.

19th January

Mr Martland is going to let me try the exam next June. I had to take

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a paper round to the master asking them if I could try. Mr Hull the
math master gave me a very good report indeed and so did Steve, the
English master, but I did not get as good a one from Mr Young as I
expected and I have worked harder for him than any other master
except "Gentle". I hardly expect to pass but I will work very hard,
Gibbs may try to. This afternoon I went out to the new school with
him we had a very nice walk but it was very muddy. They have done
a good deal to the school since I was out there but there is a good deal
to do yet. The roof is on and they are flooring it now. Yesterday we
went to the Academy of Music the play was "Our Flat" and it was
very good indeed quite worth going to see, no bloody and Thunder. . . .
We have had a lot of fun the room late Gentle has started calling me
Commander in Chief. . . . Yesterday I ran the pillow gauntlet and also
had the pleasure of returning the compliment to some new boys.

26th January

. . . Will you ask Mother to write to Mr Dickson and ask him to let me
take Drawing and also how much is it per term. I don't quite expect to
get through but I may. . . . We are still allowed out two extra days in
the week for the benifit of our health. I have been lucky so far and
have not had the Grip. Nearly all the boys have though. I have my
Latin now with Gentle in a class of five instead of twenty eight and
will have Geography with Dickie. I will now say good by

2 February

I have been here four weeks all but four days. The time seems to have
gone very quickly. I have to study very hard now as I have four extra
subjects now, one of them (Virgils Bucolics) took me six hours to do
yesterday. I like the extra subject very much as we take them with
Gentle and he is very nice. In the class there are five boys two fifth
form boys and three of us. They are going to drop German and take
extra Latin lessons and try History. . . . Last week there was a boy
expelled for stealing. Mr. Dickson got father's letter and spoke to me
about it. I think if the weather keeps on as it is I will send for my
cricket things. We played baseball on the thirty first of January

February 1890

When Mr. Martland announced that the Varsity was burning it was

too much for the four of us we concluded that it would be for our

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benefit to see it. We got the staple off" with the help of a hammer, and
the iron grating with which we are caged in majesticly rolled open, we
then got dressed up (The snow was melting and it had just stoped
raining). I got Gibbs blue Flannel shirt and an old cap, Gibbs had a
black cap and a coat which looked about two hundred years old, it
had I think been used as a waste rag on his yacht and a blue shirt,
Macklem blacked his boots. The light goes out a half past ten and we
were all ready for it. We had a trunk strap tied to the bed to climb up
with we waited till ten minutes to Eleven and then quietly drooped
into the snow, and shut the window and grating. We then made for
King Street and went up to the Varsity, it was burning well and
looked beautiful the flames coming out of the windows and the slats
falling. We went all over it and the Students in Residence had all
there tables and chairs, pictures, bottles, and everything lying all over,
we then started to go back by way of Young Street and saw the Hook
& Ladder go to another fire but we did not go to it we got in all right
at half past twelve, and rather surprised some of the boys were talking
about there going up at six in the morning, we are going to have our
Photos taken as we went out. It was a lot of fun and we were the only
boys in UCC who saw the Varsity burn

9th February

. . . Tomorrow (Sunday) I am going to Judge Osier's for tea and din-
ner. They have a nice place on College Avenue. The boy is trying for
the rmc and is in the same form as me. I went there on Thursday and
for the first time since I left home I had all the appels I wanted.
Another day boy Thacker (His father is Major General Thacker and
knows the Gritchleys) gives me an allowance of two apples a day so I
am getting on pretty well. We had a little snow to-day but I suppose it
will go directly. I am working pretty hard for the Exam now. And will
study till half past ten to-night. Mr Martland gave me three books to
read and take notes upon. It was nice of him to lend me his instead of
me having to buy them. I now get books from the Libray as Gibbs got
his Uncle to sign my application card. It was a very large libray and
we do not get Blood & Thunder books. I had an awful headache to-
day and I thought I was getting the Grip but a boy gave me something
and it has taken it away. ... I realy have not time to write more than
once a week now as we have eight extra lessons a week besides our

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others. The masters are trying as hard as they can to get us in and if
we fail it will not be their fault

1 7th February

I went out to the New College with Gibbs this afternoon. They are
getting it finished very quickly and have all but a few of the windows
in and some of the flooring done. The rooms will be very much nicer
than they are here. When we got back you can imagion our appetite.
Mr Brock is the master at our table and he has a whole pot of Jam and
meat and three times as much Cake as we have. As we wanted to get
the meat we had to wait till he had left the table and we thought we
could get his cake too, but when he left he put the whole nine peices in

his pocket and we had to content ourselves with his meat and milk

It is awfully dull now. There is nothing to do and nowhere to go no
skating or anything, nothing to do but walk around and there is not
much excitement in that. I do wish the summer term would come and
we could play cricket. . . . We had a little sleighing here but it is all
gone now, did you have any. Everybody seems to think that it would
have been better if this place had burnt it would have cost less and we
would have had six months holidays and a big time at the hotel

22 nd February

I and five other boys were caught snowballing in the Quad and we
were each fined ten cents. I am going out again to-morrow for dinner
& tea to the Osier. I liked it very much the last time, I think I am
learning a great deal here and I am getting better in French. I was
very lucky to get in this form

gth March

We made taffy last week and it was very good we got the butter sugar
and vinegar from the table. Will you please ask Mary how she keeps
her pans clean. We all wash ours in turn but when ever anyone try he
can get an awful lot of dirty out of it. I don't see how it gets there. We
have been washing it since Xmas and have only used it four or five
times. We used it once to get some coal in but that should not make it

so dirty We are going to have a new master in the boarding house

and expect to have some fun with him.

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28th March

Thank you very much for all your letters and papers. I would have
written sooner if the Dr. would have let me. This is the first day I have
been up. I don't think I was very bad and I managed it well I think
having it now instead of at home and it would have been such a nuis-
ance there. I expect your parcel to-morrow. Mr. Martland has been
awafully kind to me and offered to write the first day, there are two
other boys sick with them, one from Victoria B.C., I have learned all
about canned Salmon from him his father has two cannierys; I am not
with Mrs Sewell the regular nurse but with Mrs Chappel the Garden-
er's wife she is very nice indeed. The old Dr says I will not be able to
go home before Thursday of next week but there is no need of your
coming down for me at all I will be all right before then I think. I am
very well taken care of here and do not want to go to the Hospital. My
eyes were the only thing that troubled me at all there were rather
weak but I bathed them well and they are getting better now, I am
going to have a bath on Sunday and will fell much better after it. I
think I will be home before Thursday. We get stewed oysters at night
and chicken broth. To-night we are going to have a chop which will
be a change. In the morning we have bread and milk and a boiled egg
and a glass of milk. We had till yesterday as much Lemonade as we
wanted. We had in twelve hours fourteen Lemons. I am not sure if I
will be able to get an envelope to send this letter to-night as all my
things are over at the School. I have not even a White shirt and am
wearing my night gown instead. I am very glad I was not sick in the
holidays instead of now, as it is I only have one day. We have a very
nice room here much better than the sick room at the Main and have
a nice open fire burning.

9th May

Thank you very much for making my belt [Harris had asked his sister
to make a belt in UCC colours] and would you mind sending my
Elstree one down to me I had to borrow one on Friday. We had our
games to-day, a boarder got the Championship he got seven cups
worth about 70 dollars they were beautiful one was a silver cup with
Gold work in it, it cost alone 25 dollars. I think that we are going to
get off on the 23rd at 12 o'clock and will not have to be back till the
twenty seventh at 1 2 o'clock. Do you think it would be worth while me

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going home. Our Military exam begins on the tenth of June and lasts
till the 16th but if I get on the team I will have to wait till the twenty
eight of June here as that is the Port Hope match. Could I have a little
money now as I have spent all I took from home. I had six dollars, the
blazer cost 2.50 the Games S1.00 The Cricket $1.00, a cap .25 and
bringing my Bag up 25 cents. And all the cricket boys go into the taffy
when they are coming down from the grounds which are a mile and a
half away, and get some pop or Ginger beer and a biscuit —

June 1 6th

I hope you have had a nice birthday and enjoyed it very much. I
could not write to you as we played an all day match with the Hamil-
ton Colts we were beaten by thireteen runs I made six in each innings
and got one catch, I got off early morning study, and Dick Main and I

fixed and marked out the crease On Saturday Gentle gave the two

teams a beautiful dinner. We had roast beef and Lamb, and Rhubarbs
& Custurds and finished with bananas, and lots of Ginger beer and
Lemonade, the Ginger beer was very much up and every cork would
go up to the ceiling and the contents over everybody Archie Young
included and then after the match was over Gentle gave us a treat of
ice cream and cake at Coleman. We went upstairs and had a fine time
singing and do everything. At the table where I was there were five of
us and when we left there were 1 2 empty plates of ice cream 5 of
strawberries and cream 3 dishes of cake. I then went down to Young
street and am getting my belt fixed. Thank you very much for it I
think I will come home on the 30th June. We may go down to Port
Hope by boat and stay there all night. The exams were pretty hard, I
will not know for a month whether I have got in or not —

Despite Harris's opinion in February that the new school was being
finished quickly, it did not open for another eighteen months. The psy-
chological impact of the move to Deer Park is impossible to measure
now, but on some members of the College group it must have been very
great. Hills, fields, and dales surrounded the school on every side; there
was a creek crossing Avenue Road just south of the Belt Line. In the
autumn it was not unusual to see threshing operations in the fields
across Forest Hill Road; there were dairy farms along St. Clair Avenue

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SCHOOL LIFE IN THE EIGHTIES AND NINETIES

to the west. Avenue Road ended at the College gate, and was only sand
with one plank sidewalk. In the winter and spring the boys had to
trudge through slush and mud to get to school, with the Avenue Road
hill being very bad. There the earth fell from an embankment onto the
walk so that the mud was at least a foot deep. As if to signify its arrival
on a new planet, at Deer Park the school had its first experience of
Standard Time, the novelty of which the boys found quite exciting.

If the College were to survive in this geographical isolation it had to
find the resources within itself. One resource lay in games, which
became part of the school ethos; victory then became part of the games
ethos. Another resource proved to be the very superior group of men
who joined the staff during the nineties, among whom were A. A.
"Prant" Macdonald, George W. Johnson, A. L. Cochrane, E. R. Pea-
cock, C. F. Mills, J. L. Somerville, and W. L. Grant. Under Macdonald
(and Jackson) football, hockey, and running — especially cross-country
and steeplechase — became a very much larger and more important
part of the boys' lives than they had ever been. Johnson was a tall,
broad-shouldered, vigorous man, an excellent talker, full of stories of his
early days as a newspaperman. The Commercial Form, full of boys with
no desire to study, was a tough nut to crack, but Johnson combined iron
discipline with a real knowledge of boys and had no great trouble.
Every movement in his classroom was regulated by a hand-bell. A. L.
Cochrane, besides starting the first Royal Life Saving Society in the
country, began water polo at the College. He taught A. E. Williamson,
the first exponent of the crawl in Canada, and trained Frank Wood and
Arthur Allan, later Canadian champions in swimming and diving.

E. R. Peacock was remembered by one Old Boy, W. H. Ingram, as
the master for whom he and his friends had the most real affection. Pea-
cock taught English literature, and Ingram did not think he ever had a
master

who tried to give more of his best than he. Entirely aside from the fact
that he seemed to be more of our own age, he possessed an uncanny
instinct of what was going on behind his back. It is largely owing to
this inherent gift that a number of us can quote even now innumera-

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UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

ble sonnets from Shakespeare, or hundreds of lines from Goldsmith,
Byron and Scott.

Peacock's private papers revealed that he never thought of himself
as a good teacher; the exacting senior housemaster's post he found
suited him well and he considered himself a good housemaster.

J. L. Somerville was called "the Duke" because of his waxed mous-
taches. He had a curious way, in later life, of walking down the hall
towards his classroom reciting one of his favourite poems — "The Tiger"
or "Cargoes" or "The Lake Isle of Innisfree." By the time he reached
the door the whole class would be swinging right along with him. Som-
erville taught the binomial theorem to grade nine for some reason. It
was totally unconnected with anything else and nobody understood
what it meant, but all his students knew how to do it. He was a poor
administrator, but an instinctively brilliant teacher.

Leacock had returned to the College to teach modern languages in
1 888, and stayed for over ten years. He became great friends with Pea-
cock, teaching the latter French while he himself studied economics.
Although he was a fairly good teacher, he always claimed afterwards
that he had hated it: "an experience which has left me with a profound
sympathy for the many gifted and brilliant men who spend their lives in
the most dreary . . . thankless and . . . worst paid profession in the
world."8

Money was certainly a problem, but lack of it did not affect Lea-
cock's wit. A colleague once asked Leacock to draft a letter about his
salary to the governors. Leacock wrote: "unless you can see your way to
increasing my stipend immediately, I shall reluctantly be forced to"
and then the next page began "continue working for the same figure."9
When Parkin said to him, "Leacock, I wish I could break this perni-
cious habit of smoking and swearing in the school," Leacock replied, "I
know it's a difficult habit to break oneself of, Dr. Parkin, but if you will
put all your energies into breaking yourself of it, I am sure that grace
will be given you." Leacock's own version of his relationships with par-
ents contains much that must be apocryphal, but he had a gentle way
of dealing with parents who did their sons' homework which must be

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SCHOOL LIFE IN THE EIGHTIES AND NINETIES

envied by all masters: "Robert tell your father that he must use the
ablative after pro."

One of the practical problems faced by the College in the nineties
was that of leave. The usual questions — where, when, why, how
long? — had to be asked in a totally new geographical context. From the
beginning the boys had some difficulties with the new neighbourhood;
for example, within six months three boarders got into an altercation on
Yonge Street by calling a man "Whiskers," and they got raked over the
coals by the Recorder. The College Times, under the editorship of B. K.
Sandwell, denounced the school for its plan of compelling every boy to
bring a written certificate explaining how and where he had spent his
time on leave. UCC was "neither a young ladies' school nor an advanced
kindergarten," thundered Sandwell, who felt the "inconvenient,
impracticable, and fruitless" plan would "bring the College into deri-
sion" in Toronto.

In February 1893 a sensation was caused when three young adven-
turers ran away, intending to go to Hawaii, where one of them had an
uncle. After the boys had been away four days, the Chicago police
called. The three had started out to paint Chicago red. When they
returned to their hotel, two of them were in an amiable mood; the
third, pretending to be drunk, did not undress. When the others awoke,
the "drunk" had disappeared with their best clothes, jewellery, patent
leather shoes, and $165. He was tracked to the Palmer House. Dickson
told the press that all three had found UCC discipline "irksome"10 and it
would be only a matter of time before they were asked to leave.

Amusements outside the grounds were one thing — it was obvious
the boys were going to miss the fleshpots of King Street! Inside, plans
were made for the same sort of organizations which had existed on the
old site, with some fresh additions. The Musical and Dramatic Society
was a spin-off of the old Literary and Debating Society and was
designed to provide Saturday night amusement. A camera club was
begun in 1893 under W. A. Neilson, and proved to be as long-lived as
almost anything in the College's history. A fraternity named Gamma
Sigma sprang up; it met outside the grounds, ate, drank, made
speeches, sang songs, and went home. Tennis, the Rifles, life-saving,

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even some tentative snowshoeing, helped pass the time. (There was
even an Anti-Moustache Club organized in 1892!) In June 1896 The
College Times made the proud claim that every boarder could swim — no
mean accomplishment. At Christmas 1900 two sound barriers were
broken — an orchestra (of twelve) was started and a glee club was added
to the choir, "to take up a more frivolous line of work."

Perhaps the most salient feature of the program at the new campus
was the introduction by George Parkin in 1897 of visiting speakers.
George Munro Grant of Queen's; the Reverend Dyson Hague, well-
known clergyman and author; the Reverend Louis Jordan; Professor J.
F. McCurdy of the Oriental language department at the University of
Toronto — all came in on Sunday evenings to talk to the boys. Parkin
brought in a military historian from RMC, a professor of architecture
from McGill, and R. F. Stupart, who had lived with the Eskimos; he
himself spoke about his trip around the world, and W. L. Grant talked
on Oxford. The results of such an imaginative schedule are unknown,
but there can be no doubt that any boys who were predisposed to listen
to such men could not help being impressed by some of them.

Meanwhile, on the athletic front procedures were crystallizing and
habits were forming which would carry on for eighty years. In 1897 the
thorny question of team colours was settled: an entire team would get
colours and they would carry on from one year to the next. The stew-
ards' jackets and the three first-teams' sweaters, blazers, and caps were
designed. College caps were ordered for the hoi polloi, and by 1898
wearing them was mandatory. They bore the College crest, which, said
The College Times, had "gathered around it so many traditions and so
many historical associations. . . . Such uniformity in dress goes far to
teach the true school feeling, and, moreover, tends very greatly to
improve the appearance of the boys, both in the playing field and in the
streets."

Thus are traditions begun. In 1898 the College crest had been in
official use less than a decade. It had not really had time to gather his-
torical associations, but the need was there and the crest filled the vacu-
um. It symbolized something in College history — the Royal family? the
pursuit of excellence? victory over one's enemies? Perhaps all three. No

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SCHOOL LIFE IN THE EIGHTIES AND NINETIES

matter. It was something which unified the school, gave it standing, and
was taken to its heart.

159

SECTION B

The Phoenix

CHAPTER TEN

Independence

1900-1917

T^HE GOVERNMENT HEAVED A SIGH OF RELIEF at getting the College
off its hands; the College community was equally relieved to be free.
Only Goldwin Smith demurred: ucc, naturally, had been sold for the
imperialist, Tory, Anglican vote. As usual, Smith carried his views to
extremes. There is little doubt that from a purely educational point of
view the school was better off unhampered by political considerations.

Bolstered by this sense of emancipation, Parkin and UCC moved into
the new century with some confidence. The immediate undertaking was
a preparatory school; the funds were available,1 and the cornerstone
was laid in June 1 90 1 . Ten acres west and ten acres north of the school
were purchased for ten thousand dollars to accommodate Parkin's
vision of increased enrolment and additional buildings. (The land was
unfenced at first, and cattle caused some consternation among the pota-
toes!) Parkin spoke of another ten thousand dollars for a natural corol-
lary to the Prep — a gymnasium2 and recreation rooms for wet, stormy
weather. He was not satisfied with staff salaries, the highest of which
was thirteen hundred dollars, compared to two thousand dollars in a
Toronto collegiate where there was no housemastering to be done. For
himself a salary increase to six thousand dollars helped to ease his
financial burden. With the completion of the isolation hospital, Dr.
A. J. Mackenzie was appointed resident doctor.

The first scholarship celebrating the College's independence and the
new century was established under the aegis of the Martland Scholar-
ship Fund in March 1901 and showed an initial entry of about fifteen
hundred dollars. It was in memory of John Martland, and the award

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was restricted to boys "who shall declare their intention to follow busi-
ness or agricultural pursuits without first attending any University after
leaving the College." Several awards were actually made under these
remarkable conditions, but in 191 o the qualifications were changed to
"boys who shall excell primarily in English Studies. . . ."3 This is the
only entrance scholarship on record until late 191 7.

Even when things were going very well Parkin never became com-
placent: there was always room for improvement. UCC had attained
very high rank in Canada and was a powerful influence on the charac-
ter of the whole nation. Parkin was determined that this should contin-
ue. As usual he toiled with enormous energy; he seemed unhappy unless
overworked. To ease the load he was urged by the board to appoint a
vice-principal, an office unfilled since 1834. Despite the severe strain
under which he seems to have spent all his time, Parkin resisted the
move. Difficulties braced him up: he wrote almost with exhilaration of
Grant returning late when his father was very ill, of Somerville threat-
ened with typhoid, of Cochrane out of his head with a bad fall, and of
the new housekeeper as a complete failure. In addition to running the
school, Parkin maintained his outside contacts, lunching with
Churchill,4 dining with Laurier, visiting Government House, the Gzow-
skis, the Wrongs, the Pellatts, and so on. He found it trying but felt it
important to keep in touch with the right people. Nor did he lose the
common touch. He reported cutting his eye playing a little after-lunch-
eon hockey, and once, finding two masters shovelling snow, he took off
his overcoat and had "a good hour and a half. . . just the thing to keep
one's liver right."5 In 1902 UCC won the Ontario hockey championship,
an event which excited Parkin tremendously6 and for which he gave the
school a holiday.

As the school prospered, Parkin's personal horizons broadened. He
anticipated the defeat of Ross's Liberal government, and rumours indi-
cated that he would be pressed to become the minister of education in
the new Cabinet. He considered the acceptance of such a post to be his
duty, even though it meant a permanent public life and "possibly sign-
ing his own death warrant."7 However, the test never came. In late
March, Cecil Rhodes died. His astonishing will, revealing to the world

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INDEPENDENCE

his plans for scholarships to Oxford, was published on April 8, and
shortly thereafter Parkin was summoned to England.

Parkin had intended to spend July in England looking for masters,
and to spend August travelling across Canada on behalf of the College.
His house was down for extensive renovations while he was away. When
he received the invitation to discuss the scholarship idea under Rhodes's
will, Parkin left Canada in a mixed frame of mind: he did not yet know
what the Rhodes trustees wanted, though he may have guessed and
been cautiously exultant; on the other hand, he had not yet made up
his mind about the Prep headmastership, a continual source of worry.
Under some board pressure he had changed his mind about appointing
Peacock, who had then resigned. Unfortunately, five more resignations
had followed: Grant, Macdonald, Mathews, Playfair, and Watkins.

It did not take long for Parkin to discover what the Rhodes trustees
wanted. On June 25 he was asked to take over the Rhodes Scholarship
Trust, and by August 1 he had accepted. As when offered the ucc post,
Parkin was torn. The thought of leaving his friends and his hopes, of
leaving others to solve his problems, made him homesick. But as the
summer wore on, the "call to a larger and higher work"8 gradually pos-
sessed him, and though the College's future concerned him, the future
of Rhodes's immense bequest concerned him even more. The Rhodes
trust combined his educational and imperial interests on a higher plane
than Upper Canada College could do.

In late August, Parkin resigned from ucc effective October 1. He
spent some time at the College in September, when the Prep opened its
doors to forty-five boys; then he left for England. George Sparling was
appointed acting-principal. With great prudence, the executive com-
mittee had decided not to proceed with the improvements to Parkin's
house.

Parkin's impact on Upper Canada College was profound.9 He
arrived when the College was on the brink of disaster and left it with
enlarged and beautiful grounds, several new buildings, sound finances,
a dynamic games program, increased enrolment, and an enhanced
reputation. (Every distinguished visitor to Toronto came to see
Parkin — and Goldwin Smith!) In accomplishing all this, he had devel-

165

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

oped healthy relationships with the government, the Board of Gover-
nors, the public, and above all, the Old Boys' Association. This body
had been conceived during the riotous meeting of 1887, born in August
1 89 1, and incorporated in 1894. Parkin was really the first principal to
have had the support of such an organized group of school friends. The
OBA's two chief aims — to obtain control of the management of the
school and to see that the College owned its own endowment — had
been accomplished. Its failure to magnify the endowment into a sum
with a permanent meaning for UCC was no fault of Parkin's.10

It is always difficult to assess a master's lasting influence with stu-
dents; so it is with Parkin. He spoke to the assembled boarders every
Sunday evening on a variety of topics, mostly to do with the imperial
idea and Christianity. (Grant thought that Parkin never "got God and
Oxford and the British Empire wholly separated."") But direct evi-
dence of his effect on the boys is thin unless we assume that the enor-
mous College contribution, in terms of men and of blood, to the First
World War was a result of his teaching.

Grant supplied a humorous sidelight on Parkin's evening talks. On
one occasion Parkin kept the boys in prayers a long time, keeping duty-
master Grant waiting. When the boys finally emerged the following
dialogue ensued:

Grant: "Why didn't you come straight from prayers?"

Boy: "Please, sir, we did."

"What kept you so long then?"

"Please, sir, the Principal was speaking to us."

"Oh, indeed, what about?"

"Please, sir, I don't know."

"You don't know?"

"No, sir; please, sir, he didn't tell us."12

Despite his obvious and rather sensational successes, Parkin would
have been the first to admit of failures, too. He was disappointed at the
general lack of ambition among the boys regarding university distinc-
tion: too many left the College too soon in order to get into business. His

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INDEPENDENCE

biggest disappointment, however, was the condition of the teaching pro-
fession at large. Teaching had had clerical roots that were without ref-
erence to material reward, but with the passing of time those roots had
withered. By 1900 education was mainly secular, but people still
expected to get good teaching at a cheap rate. Furthermore, Parkin
believed that universal education meant that quality was sacrificed to
quantity. It was only in the best English public schools, Parkin thought,
that quality education could still be found, and this was because the sal-
aries of headmasters and housemasters'3 were on a par with those of
lawyers, politicians, businessmen, and the Church. Canadians, said
Parkin, paid lip service to education; teachers' work was held in low
esteem and there were no pensions. He knew nobody in Ontario who
could give their children the best while working in the educational field.
He concluded sadly that he could not recommend anyone either going
into or staying in teaching.

A further area of partial failure was Parkin's relationship with his
colleagues. Though he remained warm friends with many of them long
afterwards, his daily contacts left something to be desired. He was
impatient with the details of daily school life and found administrative
routine frustrating. He tended to look down on his subordinates, espe-
cially the Canadians, and found that by and large they did not share
his earnest Christian outlook. Even their smoking exasperated him.
Grant, teaching under Parkin, was highly critical of his future father-
in-law, conceding his generosity and kindliness but thinking him an
egotist with a vein of suspicion.'4

The timing of Parkin's resignation made it impossible to fill his
place for the opening of the school in September and difficult to fill the
vacant places on the staff. Denison, Boyd, and Henderson from the
Board of Governors worked away in Toronto, while Parkin, helped by
Somerville, did the same in England. Two good appointments were
made. From Oxford came J. H. Crake, a first-rate English teacher, who
stayed at the College for twenty-one years. In Toronto, William Mow-
bray was appointed first English master, replacing Peacock. Mowbray
was one of the few masters up to that time who had had teachers' train-
ing. Mowbray and Crake between them built on Peacock's foundation

167

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

and gave to the English department the stature that classics and mathe-
matics had long enjoyed at the College — the tradition of fine teaching.
Mowbray stayed at UCC until 1934. He was vice-principal for two years
and then returned for a few months as acting-principal after Grant's
death. A day-boy house was named Mowbray's in 1947.

The governors looked on both sides of the ocean for Parkin's succes-
sor. J. W. Flavelle was especially anxious that a Canadian be chosen,
but evidence suggests that most eyes were fixed on Great Britain.
Buchan and Dickson, the two Canadians appointed in the 1880s, had
been appointed partially for political reasons because of their success in
the Ontario system. Independence made it unnecessary to consider
politics. Names of well-known English university professors were ban-
died about, as well as those of a man from Cairo and of one from
McGill. Several of the Englishmen were approached, but they refused
to come to Canada, despite Parkin's belief that UCC was the most desir-
able educational position in the country. After four months' work and
the consideration of over twenty names, the post was offered to H. W.
Auden, sixth-form master of Fettes College, an English public school.
Both Parkin and E. B. (later Sir Edmund) Osier favoured Auden, and
just before Christmas his appointment was announced. He was to start
in February 1903 at a salary of five thousand dollars.

Auden was thirty-six. He had had a brilliant record as a classical
scholar at Cambridge and had taught at Fettes for eleven years. He had
edited various classical editions for English publishing houses. He had a
profound love of nature and was a keen fisherman and hunter. Auden
was a believer in at least three educational ideals. The first was the
importance of a beautiful environment as a factor in education; he held
up the ancient Greeks and the glories of their Athenian surroundings as
an example. Second was the education of character, a familiar theme
by that time in the College's history and one which Auden believed was
best carried on in a large residential school subdivided into smaller
communities. Last, Auden emphasized that true education came from
concentrating on a limited number of studies. He deplored the diminu-
tion of "effort" at the expense of "interest," calling for a balance. He
criticized the modern idea that boys should not be asked to learn what

168

INDEPENDENCE

they did not want to: allowing them to pick and choose meant "intellec-
tual dissipation" and the production of minds which were a "chaotic
tumult of heterogeneous inconsistencies."'5 In other words he favoured
a core curriculum.

Auden took over a school that was in excellent shape, with an enrol-
ment of almost three hundred. Fees had been raised to $90 for day boys
and $375 for boarders, and had been accepted. There had certainly
been a turnover among the masters, but Jackson, Sparling, Somerville,
Mills, Johnson, Holmes, and Cochrane maintained continuity. Joined
by Mowbray and Crake, the ucc staff presented a strong front. As a
welcoming present the board instructed architect W. L. Symons to com-
plete the handsome wrought-iron College gate which had been
intended to complement the new gate house.'6 The board also approved
four scholarships ranging from twenty-five to seventy dollars.

Four months after he arrived at the College, Auden produced his
first report for the board. It was an honest enough document, but
scarcely diplomatic, and may well have created an atmosphere with the
governors which never quite cleared up. Auden pulled no punches. The
College should have a reserve fund in case of catastrophe. The Prep was
too lavish, unwieldy, and pretentious; he doubted if it could ever be
filled. The grounds were too large to look after and some should be
leased to farmers. The main building was only in tolerable condition;
much bad work had been put into it. The gymnasium was fair, but
badly equipped. The swimming pool was too small and unworthy of the
College. The buildings at the back were decrepit. In the course of time
and as "millionaires increase,"'7 said Auden, a covered skating rink, a
proper swimming pool and gym, and a fives court could be added.
Meanwhile the education of the boys and the securing of a good staff
came first. He found the teaching excellent but the teachers underpaid
compared to the high schools. He felt the need of a certain percentage
of Englishmen who understood public school life — collegiate or high
school men did not really comprehend boarding — but the salaries were
not good enough to attract them. Furthermore, there was a lack of cen-
tralization on the staff, with each man a law unto himself. Auden con-

169

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

eluded by stating that his aim was efficiency and the creation of the best
school on the continent.

That there was much truth in the report cannot be denied, but to a
group of men who thought they already had the best school on the con-
tinent, it was a bit of a shock to find that so much was wrong. The
board, however, set out to put things right. Successful attempts were
made to increase attendance, which reached a peak of 361 in 1909.
Each year showed a surplus. Money was donated by Samuel Nord-
heimer, a well-known Toronto musical-instrument manufacturer, to
pay for a musical director. Over two hundred elms and oaks were
planted around the school boundaries. There was a feeling at the board
level between 1903 and 1905 that things were going along very well.

The years between 1906 and 1910 present a confusing picture of
board and administration trying hard to make UCC the sort of great
public school envisioned by Parkin and Auden, but not quite knowing
how to go about it and never collecting the money to make their dreams
a reality. Auden, a fine scholar, had neither the administrative talent
nor the personality to pull things together. He had, however, correctly
identified the faculty as the key to a first-class school, but he could not
seem either to choose the right men or to keep them. Of his first twenty
appointments, fifteen stayed four years or less. Only two long-service
masters joined the staff during these years — C. G. Potter from Cam-
bridge and the outstanding Marshall W. "Billy" McHugh of Caledon,
who joined the mathematics department in 1904, became head of it in
191 1, vice-principal in 1924, and stayed until his sudden death in 1929.
McHugh was one of the legendary masters in UCC history, not simply as
a mathematician but as a human being. Respected and loved by all,
McHugh had a day-boy house named after him in 1933.

Auden had spotted the inadequate salaries in his first report, and in
1907 the first salary scale or grid in the College's history was developed.
Junior masters started at $900, increasing by $100 every two years to a
maximum of Si, 200. Department heads started at $1,200, increasing to
a maximum of $1,500. The dean of residence (senior housemaster)
received $1,500. This was a brave try and probably all the College
could afford, but it was not competitive with collegiate institutes, which

170

INDEPENDENCE

gave juniors between $1,200 and $2,000 and department heads up to
$2,200. Auden's salary, in contrast, was about twice that of a Toronto
principal. McHugh and Cochrane both resigned but were lured back
by higher salaries. Cochrane, who had proved himself to be an enor-
mous asset in gymnastics and swimming, had been offered a lucrative
post in Chicago, but the board chairman paid the difference in salary
out of his own pocket and Cochrane stayed at ucc.

Building improvements were undertaken. A new gym and two class-
rooms were added to the Upper School, and the swimming pool was
lengthened at great expense. The ten western acres were improved for
additional games fields. Because the rink was identified as being in a
dangerous condition, plans were made to build a $25,000 covered rink
north and west of the main building. This could serve as an assembly
hall for all types of College meetings and a drillhall in spring and
autumn. Architects Sproatt and Rolph drew up extensive plans for this
as well as for a full-size pool but nothing came of either of them. The
College could not afford to spend any more money; the Old Boys'
appeal for funds had failed. One addition which gave pleasure to gener-
ations of College boys, however, was an attractive white wooden "taffy"
or tuck shop built largely by the Gooderham family.'8 Other building
considerations were further complicated by an architect's report that
the tower seemed to be settling and that the ceiling beams over the
assembly hall were sinking. Repairs were evidently made, because no
more is heard of it for many years, but this report strengthens the sug-
gestion that the main building may not have been well built.

The school year 1909-10 saw a complete and inexplicable turn-
around in the College's fortunes. Like a dam which holds back a
mounting pressure of water and then bursts, the Upper School enrol-
ment suddenly collapsed, and with it the financial picture. In October
of 1909 the Upper School enrolment was 257. Two years later it had
dropped to 183, and by 1916 to 113. The surplus to which the school
had become accustomed since 1898 suddenly became a deficit, a dismal
picture which lasted until after the war. The causes of the downturn in
the College's fortunes are difficult to isolate, but in simple terms, many
parents seem to have "lost faith" in the school. Auden's administration

171

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

must have been lacking something, and of course the competition had
become much stronger. Malvern, Riverdale, and Oakwood were all
mature schools; St. Andrew's in Rosedale was ten years old and High-
field in Hamilton nine. As well, Guest's imminent departure to start
Appleby may have lost the College some students. Although 19 10 was
not a good year economically, 191 2 and 191 3 were. Enrolment, how-
ever, did not follow the business cycle. While the slide was accelerating,
G. T. Denison resigned as chairman of the Board of Governors. He had
been closely involved with the life of the College for a quarter of a cen-
tury and at seventy-two could not be blamed for turning the school over
to younger hands. W. G. Gooderham, who was president of the Old
Boys' Association, became chairman of the board as well.

As the College tumbled steadily downhill, masters came and went
with regularity, the vast majority staying only one year even before the
outbreak of war. An interesting and valuable year as modern language
teacher was put in by F. C. A. Jeanneret, who later became chancellor
of the University of Toronto. Jeanneret was remembered by students for
his enthusiastic basketball coaching as well as for his classroom work.
F.J. Mallett of Cambridge joined the College as science teacher in
1914, left for the war, and then returned to teach chemistry, to take a
leading part in College dramatic productions, and to supervise the
cadet battalion until his retirement in i960.

The obvious but rather desperate solution to the College's financial
woes lay in selling the Toronto site and using the proceeds for two pur-
poses. The first was to build a boarding-school in the country, a concept
favoured by Auden. The second was to form a large endowment to help
with masters' salaries, pensions, and other necessities. In late 191 3 the
Toronto site was conditionally sold for $1,125,000 to the H. H. Suydam
Realty Company, and a large property was purchased on the Credit
River at Norval. Although it continued to be discussed for some years,
this scheme to move the College to Norval was dealt a mortal blow by
the First World War. In the end the College exchanged about twelve
acres bounded by Lonsdale, Forest Hill, Kilbarry, and Dunvegan roads
for over five hundred acres in the country.

At the outbreak of war, Old Boys and masters flocked to the colours.

172

INDEPENDENCE

The first Old Boy killed was Lieutenant G. Gordon Mackenzie of the
Royal Scots Fusiliers, who lost his life on October 24, 1914, leading a
brave but hopeless charge against a large number of the enemy occupy-
ing a strategic wood. In a message to the school that first wartime
Christmas, Auden stressed the importance of noblesse oblige and the
heavy responsibilities which war laid on high position. If UCC did not
do "her part ... we would be false to our upbringing, false to those
ideals which have made our name great and for which Old Boys have
lived and at the call of their country have died."19

In October 19 15 the Upper Canada College ambulance was pre-
sented to the forces, driven by an Old Boy, Lome Crowther. It went to
France in early 1916 and by May 191 7 had travelled almost three thou-
sand miles and had carried almost five thousand wounded men. The
College was very proud of it. By war's end, 176 Old Boys had died on
active service and a very large number had been decorated. The boys of
Auden's early years had joined up by the score: sixty-six of each of the
entering classes of 1906 and 1907 were in uniform. The College had
done its share — and more.

In March 191 7 a board committee was authorized by the governors
to employ somebody to investigate the internal economy of UCC. Clark-
son, Gordon, the firm chosen, reported to Gooderham in June. Though
the letter was delicately worded, it was a devastating indictment of the
College administration and implicitly demanded immediate action.
The report tabled the financial picture over the past nine years and
pointed the finger directly at the Upper School enrolment. Even with a
day-boy fee rise to $120 and a boarder rise to $450, the fee revenue had
dropped over forty per cent with no corresponding reduction in expen-
ses. The cumulative deficit was over sixty-five thousand dollars. The
report went into great detail about the inefficiencies in all aspects of the
school's operations from a business standpoint and the lack of co-opera-
tion between those in responsible positions. It recommended the
appointment of someone who could scrutinize all expenditures, control
the staff, maintain proper records, and eliminate friction.

Immediately the report was assimilated, a decision was made that
Auden must retire. Simultaneously, the governors began considering

173

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

names of men who might replace him. That of William Lawson Grant
came immediately to the forefront and stayed there. It is not known
who first suggested Grant — perhaps Vincent Massey, his wife's broth-
er-in-law. M assey, in the army on leave from his post as dean of resi-
dence at Victoria College, had always admired Grant, who had taught
him at St. Andrew's College. In any event, on the same day Gooderham
sent for Auden and Massey cabled Grant (on active service in England)
that the position was his if he wanted it.

In considering the appointment Grant had two things on his mind:
the first was his obligation to Queen's University, where he had been
teaching since 19 10; the second was his duty to the armed forces. UCC
was so anxious to get him the board was willing to fall in with his views,
no matter what they were. E. P. Brown, an Old Boy who eventually
became the College solicitor, was blunt: he was delighted at the pro-
spect of Grant's appointment and warned him to keep a close eye on
the board, "who have shown few signs of judgment or imagination in
recent years. ... I hope they will not interfere with you."20 Grant was
offered eight thousand dollars salary with the possibility often thousand
in two years. His top priority, however, which he made clear to the
board, was the assurance of higher pay for masters, especially the senior
ones. He wanted sums like five thousand dollars to be paid to them;
that was the essential condition for his return. Other conditions, such as
a lifetime pension of one thousand dollars for Jackson, who had recently
resigned after forty years, and the postponement of a move to Norval,
were included, but on the key issue of salaries, Grant was intractable.
He wanted senior masterships to be prizes to which young men could
aspire; he wanted to start a movement raising the status of teachers
throughout Canada. If he could hope to make UCC a model school for
Canada, he would leave Queen's; otherwise not. No board could make
promises for the future in 191 7, but Grant must have considered the
possibilities bright. Some time in the late autumn of 191 7 he accepted
the post as tenth principal of Upper Canada College, and on December
18 he was officially installed.

Auden was less than happy about being dismissed at short notice,
without being taken into the board's confidence and without a chance

174

Henry Auden, principal 1902-17, whose
great hope was to move the school into

the country. Norval is his legacy (J.
Ross Robertson Collection, Metropoli-
tan Toronto Library).

M. W. "Billy" McHugh, brilliant

mathematics teacher 1904-29 (Upper

Canada College).

William Mowbray, English master

1902-35 and acting principal after

Grant's death. The painting is by Wyly

Grier. {The College Times)

Arthur L. Cochrane, physical-educa-
tion instructor 1894-1921. "A. L." was
the father of Canadian children's camps
and of the Canadian Life Saving Socie-
ty. This picture was taken in the 1940s
(Carol Bangay).

A distant shot of the College, probably from the Prep, circa 1910
(Upper Canada College).

Dunvegan Road from the Dunvegan-Kilbarry area, circa 1910
(Upper Canada College).

The Gate House, completed in 1898 (Public Archives of Canada).

The tuck shop built by the Gooderham family in 19 10. The windows were added later

(The College Times).

One of the suppressed fraternities in 1908. W. T. Willison (centre back), son of Sir
John, was killed in the First World War (Upper Canada College). {Below) H. A. Rob-
erts, a life-long UCC enthusiast, standing in front of the 1914-18 Honour Roll (Upper
Canada College).

The UCC ambulance (19 15) that the boys bought to send to France. After the ambu-
lance was destroyed, Lome Crowther, the driver, joined the RFC and was later killed

(from Roll of Service 1914-1919).

The war over, life at school was revitalized. The Dramatic Club, 19 18
(Upper Canada College).

Upper Canada College Centenary
Celebrations, September 1929.

Inspecting the Guard of Honour. Lieuten-
ant-Governor W. D. Ross and Captain
Frank Shipp, officer commanding the
cadet corps.

A dance card from the
Centenary Ball.

Tisvv-.^

1829 )929

The colour party.

{Right) Principal W. L. Grant at one of the centen-
ary events. {Below) At Prize Day, 1929, (from left to
right) Mrs. Colborne- Vivian; the Hon. Ulick Col-
borne- Vivian, grandson of the founder; Mrs. W. L.
Grant; the Hon. W. D. Ross, Lieutenant-Governor
of Ontario; Principal W. L. Grant; Mrs. Ross; Miss
Joan Arnoldi. {Bottom) A stylish crowd watching the
cricket game, the camera, and each other.

(Top) Owen Classey, former secretary to H. G. Wells, reputed to be the best French

teacher in the province 1920-45 (Mr. Joseph Classey). (Above) J. M. B. P. "Jock" de

Marbois, language teacher, skier, archer, linguist, raconteur, 1925-49 (Natalie de

Marbois).

INDEPENDENCE

to say goodbye to the boys. He had loved his years at the College; now
fifty years of age, he loathed the thought of leaving and doubted his
ability to get another job. Overcome by a sense of failure, he asked Sir
John Willison — the only governor whose opinion he valued — for a testi-
monial, which Willison provided. The day after Grant's installation,
Auden wrote him a warm and welcoming letter, tinged with bitterness,
wishing him success and calling him the right man for the job. His last
piece of advice was to press for a move to the country; Auden was sure
that would be the College's salvation. His legacy to ucc was the superb
educational facility now in constant use.

Auden spent his later years teaching at the University of Western
Ontario. His appointment to ucc, rather like that of Barron and Dick-
son long before, had been a sad mistake, not just for the College but
especially for the man himself. Not an easy or enthusiastic mixer,
Auden was essentially an academic, who would have been much hap-
pier and more productive at university work or with his sixth form at
Fettes than trying to fill Parkin's shoes in an "Old Boy" environment
and with a governing board he did not understand. The College's first
real taste of independence had started with flags flying, but something
had gone wrong along the way.

The most important task facing any board is the appointment of a
principal; a precondition is obviously agreement on criteria. Auden 's
appointment was the first made by an independent board basking in
the twilight left by George Parkin. There is no evidence of what their
criteria were. It may be that Auden and the board simply did not see
eye to eye and that with another group of men or at another school he
would have been a stunning success. Grant's appointment, on the other
hand, seems to have been a foregone conclusion as soon as his name was
mentioned. Competition was nil. As the College moved into its tenth
decade choosing principals was not as yet a science but an art still in its
primitive form.

175

CHAPTER ELEVEN

School Life Under Auden

1900-1917

WThen the twentieth century began, ucc had been in Deer
Park for almost a decade. With the establishment of the Prepar-
atory School it certainly looked as if the College was going to en-
dure, though there were some who had doubts. A former boarder from
Alberta wrote to Grant: "Mr. Somerville never gave me a civil answer,
he just treated me like a dog. I pity the boys at UCC since Mr. Peacock
left."1 Another Old Boy in his late teens felt "that UCC is going down . . .
it is not a place for any boy to be in."2 These comments must be taken
with a grain of salt. Education is so much a personal thing. Relation-
ships with masters, especially in a school like the College, coloured all
one's opinions; and, of course, after a boy left school, things were never
again so good.

By 1903 there were two new men, Henry "Hank" Auden and J. S.
H. "Gimper" Guest, running the school. Guest had taken over the Prep
the previous September and was comfortably ensconced by the time
Auden arrived — one of the reasons for the Prep's developing independ-
ence. Guest is remembered in a variety of ways by Old Boys: "an
attractive personality," "a bit of a bully," "well-liked despite his strict
discipline," "a man of fixed ideas, aloof, not warm, commanding a feel-
ing of awe and respect, who would punish without investigation."
Charles M. Chandler's memories of the Prep are vivid:

It was essentially an English boys' school. Very English. I went there
as a boarder, age 8 years & 10 months. Mr. Guest taught Latin, and I
have to thank him for a good beginning. Mr. Guest's private quarters

176

SCHOOL LIFE UNDER AUDEN

were to the north end of the building, and to reach them it was neces-
sary to pass through the Dining Room. On the west wall of the Dining
Room was a good sized alcove containing a piano. This was used on
Saturday evenings for Square Dances (boys only) under the instruc-
tion of Miss Sternberg, whom oldtimers in Toronto will recall.

On Sunday mornings, after a breakfast of liver and bacon, we
were off to Church. Wearing our Eton suits we walked a good distance
along Lonsdale Road to Christ Church at Yonge Street. Our great
concern was how long the service would last. After Church we were
free to go home for Sunday dinner, and had to return by 8 p.m. sharp.
Then we gathered around Mr. Guest playing his own piano and we
sang hymns. We all hated it. Only Mr. Guest was satisfied. What a
way to spend Sunday!

Mr. Guest was a perfect gentleman and firm. I only once got in his
bad books for some mischief which earned me a caning. But the very
next day there was some disturbance in which I was not involved, but
by chance I was tagged along with the two real miscreants. We were
sent down to Mr. Guest who promptly produced the cane again and
gave us each a good whack. Having been guilty the day before, ergo, I
was guilty this time. No questions asked. Notwithstanding that, I
greatly admired Mr. Guest.

J. M. Baird, who entered the Prep in its first year, remembered that

the masters were very strict, and had a habit of calling boys up in front
of the class and caning them. The drawing-master, however, strolled
around the class and pulled any likely pairs of ears, which added gen-
erally to the mirth of the class, except for boys with large ears. There

were about 3 masters and the three forms

School started at 9.00 and lasted 'till 2.30, with an hour out for lunch.
Most of the day-boys had to walk from the bottom of Avenue Road
hill to the school, and were quite frequently, during the winter,
greeted by a hail of snow-balls thrown by boarders soundly entrenched
behind snow forts. In other seasons of the year snow-ball fights were
replaced by apple fights in the orchard across the street at the corner
of Forest Hill and Lonsdale Road. A lot of day-boys rode ponies to

177

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

school. The day-boys' ears were frequently frozen when they arrived
at school.

Hockey, cricket and "soccer" were the games played. Rugby
started in Prep in fall of 1903. Games were not compulsory, but were
played after school, with anybody who wished to going home.

The Prep's only purpose in those days, was to prepare boys for the
College, and it was called the "Incubator."

Despite the good fun and enjoyment evident in so much of Prep life,
the fates could be cruel and the life harsh. In early 191 7, a Prep boy
who refused to wear his school cap outside the College grounds was
expelled, apparently without warning or any discussion with the par-
ents. The father put up no sort of resistance, simply asking for a partial
refund, and adding a plaintive postscript: "This is rather hard on the
son of an Old Boy."3

Writing in The College Times years later George Glazebrook recalled
his years at the Upper School:

The music, acting, woodwork, and clubs that are now part of school
life were almost wholly absent then. There was little beyond classes
and games. For myself, once in the Upper School, there was one addi-
tional interest in the College Times, which for two years I had the pleas-
ure of editing. I carried from the Prep an elementary knowledge of
football and a budding enthusiasm for the classics. Even the great
Billy McHugh failed to arouse in me any interest in mathematics; but
that fine scholar, H. W. Auden, quickly opened for me the magic
pages of Greek prose and poetry. Stonewall Jackson firmly marched us
through the Gallic Wars, and Jimmy Crake (whose stern manner was
so misleading) guided us through Cicero's great passages.

The masters, as they had from the beginning, dominated the boys'
lives and memories, though Auden himself, curiously enough, is not
recalled in a colourful way — only as a remote, distant figure and a fine
scholar. He probably was confined to the office and did little in the way
of teaching, especially to the younger boys. Stony Jackson joined the
Quarter Century Club in 1902 and continued to march through the

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SCHOOL LIFE UNDER AUDEN

classics. C. G. M. Grier, writing in Old Times years later, recalled him
easily:

Jackson . . . was despite his beard and steel-grey hair, a comparatively
youthful figure. He was a great walker. He never wore a hat — a thing
we marvelled at in days when all men wore hats — but always carried
a hard black Christy, the regulation College "bowler" of a previous
decade. There was a legend that a stout steel chain hung from the ceil-
ing of his sitting room; he climbed it every morning to keep his arms
and grip in trim for mountaineering. He never missed a first team
game, a boxing tournament, or the steeplechase. Occasionally, when le
mot juste was necessary, he deputized for Mr. Auden after prayers and
let the school know exactly what he thought of its behaviour. And you
could hear a pin drop.

The routine of Stony 's Latin classes in the Fourth Form was as sys-
tematic as the man himself. We would arrive on Monday morning to
find him sitting there — grey suit, straight collar, a light cravat that fas-
tened at the back, (when it occasionally came undone without his
noticing there was a feeling of impending doom), a pearl horseshoe tie-
pin, neat hair parted a little to the right of centre, and a pair of half-
moon pince-nez hanging from a hook inside his left lapel. We reached
our desks to find on each a small slip of foolscap, ruled, with just five
lines on either side. He would then dictate five sentences in English
which we (using pencil, no pens were allowed) translated into what we
thought was Latin. This done we took them, as we finished, to his
desk.

Using a broad blue pencil Stony would underline mistakes and
mark, if one was lucky, a cryptic NFC on the corner of the paper. That
stood for No Fair Copy. Lacking that message, we did the exercise
again for homework — and we had better get it right. The conversation
at the desk was a quiet monologue; we stood, he explained. There
were no impatient gestures, no histrionics; it was just good teaching,
man to man.

On most other days we assembled as a group at the front of the
classroom, seated in order around three sides of a rectangle facing Mr.
Jackson. That order was decided by the outcome of the previous con-
sortium; you went "up" or "down" according to your skill, or lack of

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UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

it, in answering questions, translating authors, or memorizing the jin-
gles in an 8-page pamphlet in which Stony had condensed, in rhyme,
the most important rules of grammar and agreement.

The Fifth was the Junior Matriculation form; it generally marked
the great exodus from the College to the university, rmc, Osgoode
Hall, or "business." Classes were more informal, with greater emphasis
on Bradley's Arnold, less on Caesar, more on Virgil, plus a new form
of exercise called "unseens." These were extracts in continuous prose
selected from authors that we had not read. For them we were allowed
to use our own copies of a 900-page Elementary7 Latin Dictionary
thoughtfully supplied to us the year before.

Barstow Miller, head boy of 1915 and a boarder, recalled Jackson as
a housemaster:

His tuneless whistle as he made the rounds of the flat let you know
that he was coming. He always knocked on a bedroom door. He
caught Colour Sergeant R. A. Curry, Sergeants H. H. Essex and B. H.
Miller playing poker with "S.M." Carpenter — for maple buds, and
didn't bat an eye. He made it possible for prefects to have a smoke in a
room around the corner through his hallway. He advised against ciga-
rettes in favour of pipes. How upset he was when he heard boys sing-
ing "The Saints are on the Bum." How he ruled the boxing
tournament — no ohs or ahs — only polite hand clapping between
rounds and when the bout was over. How he conducted the meetings
of the Stewards — to teach us procedure. And the Easter Banquet! To
teach us how to handle after-dinner toasts and speeches, even the odd
gently risque story. He even advised us to cut alternative tufts of bris-
tles from a tooth-brush so that the brush would clean between the
teeth!

Many years later, Chandler remembered an anecdote about Stony:

A few weeks after the exams, I remarked to my Father that we might
invite Stony for a few days visit at our place near Newcastle, Ontario,
a distance of some 47 miles down the Kingston Road. We contacted
Stony who accepted readily. Now we knew Stony to be an ardent

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SCHOOL LIFE UNDER AUDEN

mountain climber and walker, and he insisted that he would walk
down from Toronto! We tried to discourage this but he insisted. The
appointed day arrived and Stony had his walk as far as
Bowmanville — 7 miles away. At this point he called us and we gladly
came and picked him up. He told us he had enjoyed the walk and that
he had stopped for refreshment, a glass of beer and a banana.

Despite his being one of the giants of UCC history, there is no evi-
dence that Jackson ever aspired to be principal. In all likelihood he
realized that he wielded more influence on individual boys as a master
than at the helm. He stayed right through Auden's time, resigning only
in the summer of 191 7, and then holding things together until Grant's
arrival in December of that year.

Jackson's sidekick in the English department after 1902 was the
earnest William Mowbray. Mowbray did not inspire in the students the
same kind of blind worship that Jackson did. At the same time, he was
respected and remembered. When he joined the staff, replacing Pea-
cock, he was regarded as one of the best English teachers in the prov-
ince. He was not long at UCC before he was recognized as something
special. Norman Macdonnell, Rhodes Scholar of 1908, said of Mow-
bray:

He was genuinely stirred by great literature; and he had the faculty of
inspiring his pupils with something of his own emotion. Many of us
feel that he not only explained to us the few plays and poems pre-
scribed for matriculation, making us see at least a little of their beauty
and splendour, but somehow awakened and encouraged in us the
desire to read further and gave us standards by which to judge that
which we read. Perhaps he did it chiefly by taking some of the pas-
sages and reading them to us as they should be read. Across the babel
of thirty years we can still hear his "Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and
tomorrow." It was rather a drab classroom; we sat at cramped desks;
he stood on a dais before a greyish blackboard. But all that vanished;
the centuries rolled back; we heard the Queen cry and Macbeth him-
self unburden his heart.

But Mr. Mowbray was more than a master of English. By his per-

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UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

sonal qualities he won a remarkable place in our affections. It was by
no accident that, at the end of his second year, the Sixth Form cele-
brated their farewell to the College by taking him down town and giv-
ing him a dinner. We dined not so much a master as a friend. For
many reasons, for his length of service, for his excellence as an English
master, for his faithful work as house-master and Vice- Principal, his
name will be among those honoured at UCC. But by many of us he will
be remembered chiefly because he represented in himself so much of
what is best in life, loyalty and affection, generosity and indignation
against wrong, modesty and a sensitive regard for others.

By far the best appointment made by Auden was that of Billy
McHugh, who joined UCC in 1904. He was an informal man, with no
need to be a disciplinarian; he was friend of everyone, beloved by every-
one. At the dedication of McHugh's memorial tablet in 1931, Mowbray
said in part:

To enjoy his friendship was to enjoy a great privilege. To those who
knew him well his life was an open book. Everything about him pro-
claimed the man. Whatever he did or said bore the impression of his
personality. Even a brief word or a passing smile went straight to the
heart. . . . He was happy in his work. He was fond of games. All his
associations were extremely pleasant. There never was a man more
completely in harmony with the life around him. ... As Mathematics
Master he was incomparable. Whole generations of boys could testify
to this. . . . Such great popularity as he enjoyed would have been dan-
gerous to most men. But it did not affect him at all. Sometimes, I fan-
cy, he wondered what it was all about. . . . He received from us the best
we had — our appreciation, our love, our confidences, our loyalty. But
the sum of these is small in comparison with what he gave.

The mild, well-mannered J. H. "Jimmie" Crake was yet another
splendid teacher. At his death in 1924 Grant said:

He was always ready to believe, never ready to doubt; and it was this

characteristic that made it impossible to lie to him He used to have

an almost uncanny way of finding things out. . . . Yet, although he got

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SCHOOL LIFE UNDER AUDEN

to know everything, he never used his knowledge against us. . . . But
however much he knew about us, for better or worse, he was always
the same kind friend

From time to time a master was appointed who excited the scorn of
the boys and colleagues alike. Such a one was the unfortunate B. Wat-
kins, whom Parkin took on in 1901. Grant, who taught in the room next
to his, described in his diary a few typical scenes.4

The boys christened him the Muskrat, which they call him to his face.
My room H2 is separated from his only by a thin partition with knot-
holes through it. Hence, I hear the merry din. Here are examples.

"Sir, he's got my pencil" shrieked at the top of the boys pipe, with
a long rasping burr on the first word Si-i-r-r-r-r-r.

"Sir, he's a liar" intonation from the accused.

"Sir, are you going to let him call me a liar?"

"Hush, Hush" from Watkins.

"Sir, you always favoured him, you wouldn't let anyone else call
me that."

"Hush - Hush."

"Sir-r-r, it is my pencil. I lent it to Parker and Parker gave it to
Marlatt, and Marlatt gave it to that fellow, and it is mine."

"Sir" from the accused "Sir, I know what you are, Sir, you're only
a Musk-rat."

Silence for a moment after this last audacity. Then suddenly Gor-
don Parker with much spirit starts up

"For it's always fair weather,

When good fellows get together

With a stein on the table,

And a good song ringing clear."

Take another scene.

Biggar, another substitute, but doing fairly well, comes in to speak
to Watkins. Yells from the whole class "Get out of this, hick-top" "You
ain't wanted here, little Biggar." Biggar, not knowing their names and
so unable to pick out any special offender, flies hastily.

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UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

Soon after George [the janitor] comes round to collect the slips
with the names of the absentees. "Hello George" "George, do you
know the Muskrat" "George let me introduce the Muskrat."

Watkins tries to write something on the board. A well aimed piece
of chalk catches him on the back of the head. He turns in time to see
another boy throw a book across the room. Roused at last he dashes at
the offender, who flees, and a steeple-chase over the benches occurs,
amid cheers from the class: "Go it muskrat!" The boy finally caught,
he is in so exhausted a state that a feeble shake alone is given, which
the boy treats as a joke.

The fault is wholly his own. With me, or with Guest, they are
lambs. But he is too kind before he has become respected, and he
makes that most fatal fault, of threatening, and threatening in a
pompous voice without performing. This is the sort of dialogue which
goes on.

"Rogers, if you don't behave better, I shall be regretfully com-
pelled to cane you?" Furious babel from the class which gradually
becomes articulate.

"Yes, Sir."

"That's the way to talk to him, Sir."

"When are you going to begin, Sir. Ah Sir, you don't mean it,
Sir."

"Oh, Sir", the last word being prolonged by the whole class with a
tremulous rising intonation till it sounds for all the world like the
sough of the wind in a grove of poplars or around the eaves at mid-
night.

After another raucous incident, Guest spoke to them severely to
the effect that they were unsportsmanlike, and this had its effect on the
quieter ones. I sympathise with them, for any man who lets them
behave so has only himself to thank. However, I spoke in private to
Clarkson and Parker and told them that they owed something, if not
to Watkins, yet to themselves as gentlemen and the sons of gentlemen.
They listened respectfully, but I question if it does much good.

Parkin came into my room and hearing through the partition,
asked me if this turmoil hindered me in teaching. "It frequently makes
it impossible" said I, for though I would not say a word if he did not
ask me, yet when he asks me I feel free to speak, especially as old

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SCHOOL LIFE UNDER AUDEN

Weary-face, though well-meaning, has rubbed me the wrong way once
or twice. "What do you consider to be the correct theory as to the
cause of the uproar?" said G. R. My theory was that the boys had
made it because old W. did not control them, but this seemed so obvi-
ous that I said nothing. Subsequently I advised him if he kept Watkins
at all, to give him another form, say I ic, to which I would speak
severely at the beginning. But it would be better to dismiss him for he
has money of his own, and so one can be ruthless without pity. He
could only get I IB back into control by a fierce brutality which is not
in him. Peacock had trouble at first, so had I; (witness I ic) but this is
far worse than even J. A. G. Lloyd had; "one must go back to the days
of Carpenter to equal it" said Grant. Carpenter would pat a boy on
the head, and say "You're a mischievous little fellow." Carpenter was
the man who announced that he had come to rule by love, and who
ended by caning eleven boys in an hour. On one occasion he had to
cower behind his desk while they threw books at him. But that was in
the old bad days of the "out of sight" form, before whom even Peacock
quailed, and of whom only Johnson was master.

Auden carried on Parkin's policy of inviting well-known men to
speak to the school, though there were not nearly as many. The themes
were often religious in tone, and on several occasions were connected
with medicine: Dr. Jay, a medical missionary in Nigeria; Dr. Hannah
of the Hospital for Sick Children; Dr. Parsons on behalf of the Heather
Club; Dr. F. C. Harrison from the Home for Incurable Children, all
appeared between 191 1 and 19 13. The messages, as one would expect,
were concerned with values: patience, honesty, purity of life, moral
courage, unselfishness, self-respect, teamwork, discipline, loyalty. There
was also some emphasis on the high reputation of the school itself; the
work of the Old Boys was praised time and again.

There were sporadic efforts to make hobbies and clubs a vital part of
College life, but there is little evidence that they thrived except from
time to time. In 1901 "extra" curricular activities were much in evi-
dence. An orchestra, helped by one of the masters taking up the bass
viol, grew from two lonely members — Peck with a cornet and Amyot on
piano — to thirteen: four violins, two violas, one cello, a clarinet, a flute,

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

a trombone, and drums. There was a glee club of twenty voices and a
choir of twenty-five. After this, interest waxed and waned until a musi-
cal craze in 19 17. The ancient debating society was reborn for a short
period in 191 1 and 191 2. Among their subjects were: Public Ownership
is for Public Good (defeated) and Votes for Women, reported as "an
uproarious subject." The supporters of the women's franchise "had to
be forced to adopt their side against their inmost convictions — the
unfortunates being chosen by lot."

Old Boys of that era do not remember the clubs program, and it
may have been because of boredom that secret societies or fraternities
gained such a foothold in the student body. Auden felt quite concerned.
In 1907 he asked the board to suppress these groups and received the
reply that the school was hardly strong enough to take revolutionary
measures and had better proceed cautiously. By 1908 the governors had
changed their minds and instructed Auden to do away with them. It is
not clear whether he had any success. At least one fraternity existed
through the twenties, and there is a passing reference to the subject as
late as 1934.

The boarders, as they have always done through good times and
bad, considered themselves the heart and soul of the school. Day boys
could drift away at 3:15; the boarders remained — they were UCC. R. Y.
Cory recalled his years at the beginning of the century from a perspec-
tive of sixty-five years:

When my family moved from Halifax to Toronto in the autumn of
1899 I was entered as a boarder at ucc aged 12. . . . When I had
reached about the Fourth Form the fees were raised to $375, and I
remember grave family discussions as to whether I should be
withdrawn, sent as a day boy, or sent to a public school. However
a boarder I remained until 1904 ended.

The College grounds were still pretty bare at the turn of the cen-
tury. St. Clair Avenue was a dirt road bordered with pine trees. A
struggling golf course lay to the West with a view clear to the Humber.
Farms, a creek and the old Belt line were to the North and to the East
a few dirt streets, leading to Lawton Avenue (named after citizens who

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SCHOOL LIFE UNDER AUDEN

had followed when the College moved from King St.), but few, if any
houses. The old streetcar line on Avenue Road ended at Dupont St.,
and it was a long lonely walk up a plank sidewalk to the College gates.
One house was over the hill, the Baldwins', as I remember. Streetcar
tickets were 10 for a quarter.

Life was pretty tough for a new boy boarder. There was a nice lit-
tle initiation called "Running the Gauntlet," two long lines of old
boys, armed with switches, and a second edition, when one crawled on
hands and knees through the legs of the big boys, armed with paddles.
And one could be called before a group at any time to sing a song, or
eat soap. I was fag of Constantine, prefect and hockey captain, with a
wicked shot. I had to be at his sixth form flat at first bell, get his jug
filled with hot water from the bathroom, and shine his boots. His
father was Royal Canadian Mounted Police Commandant; so I had
to do a good job, including shining the soles, and rubbing the brass
lace inlets

The meals, as I remember them, were abundant. Breakfast: por-
ridge, milk, bread, butter and jam. Lunch: cold meat and biscuits.
Dinner: choice of beef or pork, beef or lamb, two vegetables, and a
pudding. Of course the young appetite was never satisfied, and there
was the "Taffy." Auntie Harrison had followed the College from King
St. and opened a small shop on Delisle. For 5 cents one could get a
pyramid (a noisome big chocolate cream) a sticky bun and a bottle of
pop. For the more affluent there were pork pies, cakes, etc. But 5 cents
was my limit, and I think a third of my weekly allowance.

The sixth [form] were a great bunch, including Sir Charles
Wright, who went on the South Pole expedition with Scott, and after-
wards led the party to bring out his body.

In 1966 a Prep master, H. J. P. Schaffter, interviewed Vincent
Greene, who had been at ucc from 1906 to 1908.

It was strongly classical, of course — good brain food. But I was a play-
boy, unfortunately, and I never worked very hard. My father pulled
me out after a couple of years and put me into the bank. It was the
best thing he could have done.

I have a great affection of ucc. I loved every minute of it. We had

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UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

some awfully nice masters — awfully nice. And of course we had a long
family connection with the place. My paternal grandfather, Colum-
bus H., was there in 1840 and my father, Henry Vincent, from 1873-

1877- •••

The friends I made [I value most]. It's one's boyhood friends, of
course — one's oldest friends — that one cherishes most. I had a lot of
good friends. All but two of them died in the First War, though my
closest friend of all, Eric Phillips, survived. He became the second
youngest colonel in the British army, you know — a colonel at twenty-
two. He remained a lifelong friend.

. . . when Phillips and I were at Upper Canada together — we must
have been fourteen or fifteen — we formed a business partnership,
"Phillips and Greene," manufacturing and selling furniture polish. It
was wonderful stuff, too mind you! We called it, "Peerless Polish: a
Perfect Polish for Particular People at a Popular Price." The popular
price nearly ruined us. We sold the stuff to our parents' friends and the
relatives at twenty-five cents a bottle and it cost a good deal more than
that to manufacture. We practically went bankrupt.

[The masters] were a great lot — I could write a book about them!
There was Billy McHugh who taught us geometry — I never met a
man with his personality. I loved his subject and was generally first in
the class. Then there was "Duke" Somerville, a very able man.

Another great master was "Spike" Marling. He taught me at the
College in '06 or '07. One day he said to me in class, "Greene you talk
more and say less than any boy I ever knew." Eric Phillips loved to
remind me of that famous remark! . . .

I was often in trouble. I'll never forget one time when Charlie Del-
bos, a French master, gave me a gating after school and I skipped it. I
managed to dodge him for a couple of days but the third day he lay in
wait for me outside the Prayer Hall and nabbed me coming out. I was
hauled away by the scruff of my neck to be caned.

Now Charlie Delbos was a talented artist and, as I walked into his
room, I saw a striking painting he had done of the College at night,
looking up the avenue, with all the lights on.

"That's a wonderful painting, Sir," I said with deep feeling. "I've
heard, of course, about your fame as an artist ..." and we plunged

188

SCHOOL LIFE UNDER AUDEN

into a great old discussion about art until he suddenly reminded me of
the business on hand.

"Well, let's get on with it," he said, rather briskly.

"Just a minute, just a minute, Mr. Delbos! Surely I have time to
admire some of your other paintings . . . ?" Eventually, he forgot all
about the caning and we sat down and had a very pleasant cup of tea
together. Of course, he was a very nice fellow. There are not many
times we escaped from masters like that

During his last two terms in 1908 Greene boarded and kept a diary,
from which the following are extracts:

Tues.5. I brought a book into Delbos's room today and had it under
my arm when Mr. D. grabbed it from me without saying a word and
tore it up. As I borrowed it from Jimmy Crake he will have to apolo-
gize.

Sun.31. For the first time at college I wore long trousers and a very
unpleasant sensation it seems walking into the dining-hall with every-
body staring at you! [V. G. was three months over sixteen.]

An interesting comment on the first two decades is that of Mark F.
Auden, son of the principal:

The teachers drilled the students, didn't draw them out. The students
didn't question them. In general, the teaching was competent, though
not exciting. The most influential was McHugh because of his human
qualities and his mathematics.

The Boarders all lived together, not in separate houses and some
stayed for the Christmas holidays because it was too far to go home.
We had to make our own beds. We had no complaint about the meals.
There wasn't much fagging — just hot water brought around to the
prefects and stewards who tended to be "hero-worshiped." There
wasn't much bullying either — only the boy who didn't fit.

After Junior Matric, a little more than half the class stayed behind
for Senior Matric, the remainder went to McGill or RMC or into busi-
ness.

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UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

For fun, we tobogganed down Avenue Road hill, snowshoed,
swam in the creek north of the College grounds and at Christmas
watched Eaton's Santa Claus parade go down Yonge Street, with real
reindeer. We also had a cow, kept in the field north of the College
building, which gave us our daily milk. In the autumn, I rode in the
cart gathering up the leaves, driven by Wright the gardener, who kept
the grounds with only one helper.

Mark Auden stayed at the College well into Grant's time and
became head boy in 1922. The rural, insular school which his father
had inherited from Parkin was well on its way to becoming urbanized.
The next fifteen years would see a new set of problems to be dealt with.

190

CHAPTER TWELVE

Rejuvenation

1918-1935

^ H Filliam lawson GRANT, known for no good reason as Choppy,
1 /% /was forty-five years old when he came to Upper Canada as prin-
W Wcipal at the end of 191 7. Born in Halifax, he was the son of the
immensely influential George Munro Grant, principal of Queen's Uni-
versity. He had been educated at Queen's and Balliol College, Oxford,
the latter experience impressing him almost as deeply as it had Parkin
twenty years before. For four years he had taught at UCC, followed by
two years at St. Andrew's College. After some disagreement about a
practical joke with the headmaster, and tired of schoolmastering any-
way, he had then resigned and gone to the University of Paris. Nine
years of teaching colonial history at Oxford and Queen's were followed
by two years of military service. Grant had edited volumes on Cham-
plain, New France, and Canadian constitutional development; he had
written the Ontario high-school history of Canada and a biography of
his father. In 191 1 he had married Maude, Parkin's second daughter,
whose outstanding intellectual and human characteristics were to make
her the ideal wife for a College principal.

Grant saw his job from a high perspective: Upper Canada College
was a great historic school whose task was to train boys in the belief that
they had a responsibility to help solve the grave problems facing Cana-
da. Soon after Grant took over the College, Peacock wrote to him:
"You are moulding the men who are ruling the country. ... At no time
in its history has the Empire been more in need of . . . leading and you
are one of the leaders."1 Grant's plan was to make an ideal school, then
turn to the government and tell them to follow the model.

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UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

Grant was full of energy and ideas from the very beginning of his
administration. He made some pithy reflections about curriculum and
teaching: how a boy studied was of prime importance; he would prefer
a Canadian boy to "study Chinese metaphysics under a stimulating
teacher than have him study [history] under an ass." What a boy stud-
ied was also important, and Grant thought the ideal school would have
each boy study whatever he wanted. Realizing this was impractical,
however, he compromised by choosing courses fitted for the greatest
number. This meant giving prominence to science and English, and rel-
egating Latin to two compulsory years only — to assist in English gram-
mar and as a basis for Romance languages. One of the greatest
hindrances to the improvement of Ontario education, said Grant, was
compulsory Latin at matriculation. The average boy spent more time
on it than anything else and left school "unable to utter three grammat-
ical sentences or to write a grammatical business letter." The improve-
ment of English should be stimulated by "books, books, books. Reading
maketh a full-man," and he encouraged debating and drama. Com-
partmentalized subjects must be linked up: "Mathematics and Physics
must meet. . . . History and English must kiss each other." The average
Canadian professional "had a brain far in excess of his ability to think
or to express himself with lucidity." Grant wanted two-thirds of the
educational system scrapped and a few simple experiments launched.
This would be better, Grant postulated, than the current situation in
which nine out of ten headmasters were "devoured by the birds of
Pedantry and Philistinism."2 A part of his interest in experiment and
innovation grew from his impatience with the Ontario education sys-
tem, which he considered ridden by examinations.

Grant wasted no time in putting into practice some of his experi-
mental concepts: public lectures, a concert, and a play took place
during his first six months. Grant was convinced these helped the boys'
education as much as the regular classwork, and in addition they
brought favourable publicity. On the academic side he almost immedi-
ately split the third and fourth forms to ensure better grading, and he
added two more masters. He knew, however, that his ideal school could

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REJUVENATION

not be brought into existence without the support of its constituents,
and to this end he started to make Old Boys and others welcome.

Grant's relationships with the College community were, on the
whole, excellent.3 Aided immeasurably by Maude, who had immense
social confidence and was indifferent to the wealthy, Grant opened his
house to a wide variety of visitors, parents, Old Boys, masters, and stu-
dents: being principal was a whole way of life. There was not much
going on in Toronto and many turned out to the College cricket games;
there was tea every Sunday, and the school dances had great social sig-
nificance. Mixed with Grant's hospitality was an appraisal of the
unrealistic expectations of parents, a tremendous sense of fun, and a
down-to-earth perspective of what a school could and could not do. To
a mother who blamed the masters for her son's failures, he quoted a car-
toon in Punch: "It is a wonderful dispensation of Providence, Madam,"
says the Headmaster to the fond mother, "that all dull boys are
orphans." When Alan Stephen once asked for a reference, Grant wrote
the following: "Mr. Alan Stephen was employed ... in our Preparatory
Department. . . . his unfortunate temperament caused difficulties
between him and its Principal [Somerville], a most admirable and
amenable man. . . . Last year he was foisted on me again by a conspira-
cy... . The chief difference which I find in him is that he has developed
a taste for beer. . . ."4 And on the College's place in the Canadian edu-
cational world, "there is no better education being given in Canada
today than that given at ucc — and that is atrocious." It was not that
Grant felt it was truly bad, simply that it could be so much better. He
never stopped trying to make it so.

In order to pursue his vision of a great school, Grant focused on two
areas for which much money would be needed: scholarships and a
strong faculty. The first related to the type of student entering the Col-
lege. Because there were no entrance examinations, ability to pay was
the only entry criterion; Grant was not very impressed by the academic
standards resulting from such a system. Also, fees had risen in both 191 8
and 19 1 9 and Grant did not want ucc to become a rich man's school.
He was anxious, therefore, to establish scholarships to enable boys to
attend who would otherwise not be able to. He thought a few might be

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founded in memory of Old Boys who had been killed in the war. This
idea found favour with some men; the first such scholarships — three of
them — were endowed in 1918 by William Southam of Hamilton in
memory of his son, Major Gordon Southam. Eleven more followed by
1920.5

The faculty presented other problems. In the summer of 191 7 the
College had only Crake, McHugh, Holmes, and Cochrane of the old
faithfuls. Before school opened H. E. "Willy" Orr was taken on as a
classical master. Judicious, trusted, respected, the soul of integrity, Orr
stayed at the College longer than anyone else, dying while still on the
staff in 1966. The seventh day-boy house was named after him in 1976.
Another appointment was that of Miss Mary Tucker, the first woman
teacher ever to be appointed and the last for many years. She had had
several years teaching experience, had headed her year in natural sci-
ences at the University of Toronto, and in 191 5 had earned an MA for
original research in physiology. In her green eye-shade and black calico
dress, she taught physics for seventeen years, knitting socks for all the
boys who received first-class honours. When the war ended, Grant and
the governors decreed that Mallett, Mills, Mowbray, and Potter were
entitled to be reinstated if they so wished. All of them did return, Mills
and Potter badly scarred psychologically by their wartime experiences.
Grant wrote to Willison: "By God, if I could get with me 'a band of
men whose hearts God had touched' I could do something for Canada
poor thing though I am."6 He determined to build such a band.

Before he had been at the school a full year a staggering increase in
enrolment7 encouraged Grant enormously. It meant that people
believed in him and in the College; it also meant a greater need for
scholarships, more masters, a higher salary budget, more playing fields,
and better facilities. The following years saw the College tackle these
questions with a good deal of vigour and imagination.

First, the two large areas north-east and north-west of the main
building were spotted as prime areas for both cricket and football. With
the help of an Old Boy, Lawton Ridout, these two areas were graded
and turned into four football fields, the north-easterly one being taken
over by the first cricket team in the spring.8 These fields were ready for

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use in the spring of 192 1, at which point games were promptly made
compulsory for all boys physically fit, an innovation of great signifi-
cance.

To prepare for this historic move, Grant introduced in the autumn
of 1920 a system of "houses"; that is, he divided the school into four
groups. Two were day-boy, Martland's and Jackson's; two, Seaton's
and Wedd's, were boarder. Each house in theory had about sixty boys
(from the beginning the day-boy houses were over-large) and had its
own prefects. Prep boys went to Seaton's and Jackson's, new boys to
Wedd's and Martland's (a practice which was abolished in 1933).

The house system originated in English boarding schools for a
purely practical purpose — namely, the supervision of students who
came to live near a school because of its teaching. House systems then
grew and adapted to the needs of each individual boarding-school. But
the advantages of houses could also be applicable to day-schools. First,
such a system harnessed the team spirit very well; most boys who could
not make a school team could represent their house in some sport. Sec-
ond, it provided a testing ground for positions of responsibility among
the boys. Third, it made possible for each boy a close relationship with
one master, who gave the kind of academic and general guidance no
headmaster could give. Fourth, good (and bad) influences among the
student body could be recognized more quickly. Last, it gave housemas-
ters an opportunity, outside the classroom, to exert the kind of leader-
ship which was such a vital part of the satisfaction felt by the true
schoolmaster.

When translated into practice at UCC the theory worked well. The
house system changed the entire athletic complexion of the school.
Instead of first and second teams dominating the program, each house
had its own senior and junior teams and its own fields to play on.
Housemasters were appointed and house loyalties grew up.9 There were
far more opportunities for prefects to take on responsibilities, especially
in the boarding-houses, which four years later were divided
physically — Seaton's moving to the east of the tower, Wedd's to the
west. All boys had one master to whom they could go for advice
throughout their time at the College, and for the boarders a community

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UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

spirit was more easily developed. As the years passed more day-boy
houses were added, but boarder enrolment kept the boarding-houses to
two for sixty years.

At the same time as these developments were taking place, two
attached houses for staff were built overlooking Lord's field. One of
these was paid for largely by donations from students; it was to house
George Simmons, school janitor since 1887. Simmons died in 1931 after
forty-four years' service and was replaced by the equally respected John
Rilley. (Rilley in his turn stayed twenty-three years.) Also, the tuck
shop was enlarged, thanks to the father of a College boy appropriately
named "Fat" Muirhead.

Behind the scenes, Grant was facing the Board of Governors with a
synopsis of the school's current situation, its needs, and his estimate of
the funds required to supply the needs, ucc had forty acres in Deer
Park, the Norval property, no debt, some scholarship and prize money,
and about $15,000 for an endowment fund. It needed $500,000 as a
permanent endowment for salaries and pension funds, $350,000 for
scholarships, and $500,000 for additional land, buildings, and facilities.
These included the purchase of more land to the north and the laying
out of new playing fields there, a new principal's house, a science lab, a
new rink, a new preparatory school and a pre-prep, houses for married
masters living near the school, and multiple changes in the fabric of the
main building.

An Upper Canada College Endowment and Extension Fund was set
up and an executive committee of Old Boys formed under W. G. Good-
erham. The appeal for $1,500,000, the final target, was not limited to
the school community but went beyond to the general public and
received some press support. A sense of urgency was added by a twen-
ty-five per cent increase in the city school salaries10 and by the forma-
tion of the Secondary School Teachers' Federation, both in 1920.
"Signs of the times," said Grant.

The direction of all this activity meant that the move to Norval was
being deferred, if not abandoned. Grant seems to have been quite ambi-
valent about such a move. On the one hand, he could list reasons for
not going to Norval, especially its remoteness. He was concerned about

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accessibility in winter, the difficulties of keeping a sub-staff together, the
masters getting on "each other's jaded nerves." At the same time he
could list as many reasons for escaping the powerful lure of Toronto,
where the boys became "too citified, learned extravagance and dissipa-
tion, mental though not moral, at the movies and the ice cream par-
lors." He told the stewards in 191 8, "God made the country, Man made
the City, and the Devil made the small town." In Toronto the day-boys
corrupted the boarders, who spent study time dreaming about the
delights they "wrongly suppose the day-boys to be . . . enjoying." Grant,
like all his predecessors, could not throw off his ingrained belief in the
power of boarding to offset "the good life." He railed against parents
who abandoned control of their children by allowing or even encourag-
ing them "to go to more and later dances and theatre parties" and "frit-
ter away the best of their time and energy in a round of very
unintellectual giddiness." In spite of these feelings Grant actively plan-
ned the development of the Deer Park property.

While the endowment drive was getting up a full head of steam,
Grant had some of the same reservations about his work that his father-
in-law had had twenty years before. Some of the masters were not
attending evening lectures he had arranged, and their numbers at Sun-
day evening service was very slim. He found this hard to explain to the
boys. For Grant, education was a great adventure to be shared by all.
Real intellectual zest did not come wholly from the classroom. In an
uncharacteristic state of depression, Grant announced that he would
decide some time that year (1921) whether or not he would stay on. He
loved UCC, but if the hope of working out his ideals was lost he would be
happier returning to university work.

Luckily, Grant decided to stay on. By the middle of the decade he
had revolutionized Upper Canada College. The enrolment rocketed:
420 in 1919, 503 in 1922, 608 by 1926. Taking advantage of the
increased demand, day-boy fees were raised to $200 by 1925." Boarders
had to pay $750 (a fee which then remained unchanged for over twenty
years.) By 1925 the College had an accumulated surplus of almost
$50,000. The endowment fund had almost $300,000 promised, of which
$250,000 was in hand. As a result, eight new scholarships were endowed

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UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

and twenty-two boys received bursaries. In five years not only had
Grant added five men to the staff, he had raised the average salary by
almost fifty per cent. This was a hard struggle; the high-school mini-
mum was still well above the College's lowest salary, with the Prep men
being worse off than their Upper School colleagues. A magnificent new
house, named Grant House in 1935, was built for Grant by Gooderham,
and a new nine-classroom building, named after Parkin, was added to
the Prep. By the spring of 1925 Grant thought ucc was the best school
of its kind in Canada, and the best salaried. Men like Willison and Pea-
cock continued to be in close touch with him and warmed him with
their praise. "The change is very great,"12 wrote Willison. "The College
has . . . developed that allegiance of its friends and especially Old Boys
without which the institution cannot work."'3

During this hugely energetic and productive period, the school lost
some old and valued friends. There were two deaths, Wedd's and Par-
kin's. Wedd died in May 19 19 at the age of ninety-four. He had given
magnificent service to the school and been deeply beloved by all. (On
his eighty-ninth birthday, a group of Old Boys had presented Wedd
with a purse of almost five hundred newly minted gold Canadian dol-
lars.) Three years later Parkin died, too soon to see the opening of the
Prep building named after him. The Toronto Daily Star remembered him
as having "planted with his own hand the trees that are now the great
elms which flank the approach to UCC."'4

Two long-service masters retired. Robert Holmes, who had joined
the College in 1891, had taught drawing for twenty-nine years. In 1920,
when president of the Ontario Society of Artists, he resigned to devote
himself to the government art school.15 In 192 1 a more severe loss was
felt when an extraordinary individual left the College staff to spend
more time developing his boys' camp in Temagami. Arthur L.
Cochrane had run away from his home in England at fifteen and joined
the Grenadier Guards, where he overcame weak lungs by long-distance
running, boxing, fencing, gymnastics, and swimming. He had also
become interested in the newly formed Life Saving Society. Arriving in
Canada in 1894 with an introduction to Goldwin Smith, he had
responded to a College ad for a temporary drill instructor. With no for-

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mal training, he bought texts, practised everything himself, and became
appointed honorary representative of the Life Saving Society in Cana-
da. In 1895 he established the Upper Canada Life Saving Corps, the
first in the country. The next year he organized the first boxing tourna-
ment at ucc and trained fencers as well. He stressed physical fitness,
character development, and the recreational rather than the military
aspects of physical education. The College owed to him the birth of
gymnastics, boxing, and life saving. Cochrane was said to have bought
the first pair of skis ever sold in Toronto. Outside the College he became
famous as the pioneer children's camp director in Canada and a mov-
ing spirit in life saving and camping across the country. For twenty-five
years an intimate relationship developed between the College and the
camp, the latter being almost the summer session of UCC.

As the College moved through the second half of the 1920s, the rosy
glow from the first half continued to light the sky. Enrolment increases
continued and surpluses, though modest, were commonplace. The sal-
ary account in 1928 was four times that of 191 9, though still not quite
comparable to the Toronto collegiates. The 1926 matriculation results
were the best in thirty years, although even then only one-third of the
leaving class went on to university. The clubs — music, travel, modern
languages, drama, debating, and science — were booming. Grant, with
religious fervour, saw UCC as a living being which he intended to make
supreme in scholarship, games, music, drama. This living community
sought an end, he thought, greater than that of any of its members. It
was doing the will of God. The ideals about which he had talked with
Peacock thirty years before were being realized. His hopes soared:
"Can the Curfew Club'6 not give us a Prime Minister?"

One of Grant's outspoken enthusiasms was the study of French, and
his commitment to this end, along with his honest admiration for the
French people in Canada, helped to make him something of a public
figure. In 1926 his history of Canada was withdrawn from the British
Columbia high schools because of its presumed pro-French and anti-
British bias. He spoke again and again of the high standard of French
teaching under Owen Classey, who headed the modern languages
department; so much so that some inferred an attack on the Orange

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Order. He said it was the hardest thing to find one man from the
twenty-four hundred members of the Canadian Club who could make a
decent two-minute speech in French. In Grant's view, it was the duty of
every Canadian to do his best to have a working knowledge of both
French and English. The inference that his support for French meant
that he was anti-British was ridiculous: a typical visitor to the school in
1928 was Colonel L. C. M. S. Amery, Secretary of State for Dominion
Affairs in the British Cabinet, whose talk to the boys on Canada and
the Empire was reported at great length in The College Times.

Mid- 1 92 7 brought discussion on a new topic: Grant felt there were
too many day boys vis-a-vis boarders (480 to 150) and that the school
was unduly crowded. The possible solution for immediate consideration
was a new location. A committee was set up and the subject was debat-
ed. There was general agreement that a move, probably to the north,
could be made, as long as the College was not financially crippled by
too grandiose a scheme. If the College were to remain much longer in
Deer Park, it was reckoned that $140,000 would be needed for another
playing field, a science wing, and a new residence. The Endowment
and Extension Fund had fallen far short of its original goal, reaching
only about $325,000. Auden's 19 13 dilemma was being re-lived: sell the
property, buy another, and put the difference into endowment. There
were two basic differences in thinking though. One was the retention of
the Prep at Lonsdale Road to act as a feeder: the governors felt parents
would not send young boys out of town. This meant a smaller area of
Deer Park was for sale. The second was that the College must remain
accessible to older day boys; Norval, therefore, was unsuitable and
should be disposed of.

In September 1928 the committee submitted its report. For a new
main school of 150 boarders and 250 day boys, costs were estimated at
$1,525,000. The total worth of the College's assets was put at between
$950,000 and $1,125,000. An anonymous donation of $100,000 left
between $300,000 and $450,000 to be obtained somehow. The commit-
tee viewed several possible sites (one at Bathurst and Sheppard) before
deciding on a hundred acres on the east side of Yonge Street at the

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northern height of Hogg's Hollow. The property was known as the Van
Nostrand Farm and was available for $225,000.

While the College authorities were ruminating on this information,
September 1929 arrived, and with it the College's centenary celebra-
tions. A plaque was placed at the corner of King and Simcoe to com-
memorate the years UCC had spent at that location. A glittering ball,
attended by fifteen hundred people, was held at the Royal York Hotel,
and a garden party took place at the College itself. A special convoca-
tion of the University of Toronto was held to confer upon Grant the
honorary degree of Doctor of Laws. This well-deserved accolade recog-
nized not only Grant's scholarship and administrative ability, but also
the close historical connection between the university and the College.
H. J. Cody, the chairman of the university's board, paid tribute to
UCC's "public history and public tradition."17

In his Prize Day Speech of 1929 Grant outlined all the reasons why
the College would be the better for a northward trek. In doing so he
made a pointed allusion to the original school, "whose buildings were in
many ways superior to those of today, in which the Senior Masters were
housed and paid on a scale which enabled them to be men of real dig-
nity and importance in the community." While this was true, he neg-
lected to mention that the original school could afford neither its
buildings nor its salaries, and that it was the size of the establishment
which had caused seventy years of political turmoil, reducing the Col-
lege to the state where it could no longer afford to pay its teachers prop-
erly. Speaking to a large and friendly audience, Grant threw down the
gauntlet. The move might never be made; it was up to the Old Boys,
the citizens of Toronto, the people of Canada, to make the decision.
Only they could supply the money (now $600,000) which Grant
described as "not a large sum as gifts to education are reckoned today."

So the centenary ended18 with warm feelings for the past and high
hopes for the future. There were difficulties to be overcome, of course.
There was continued criticism at the board level of the fact that the
architects (Sproatt and Rolph, and Mathers and Haldenby) were not
Old Boys, and the criticism spilled over to the plans and designs. There
was talk of a new street or highway cutting through the east end of the

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new property. There was doubt cast on the title to the property, and the
acreage was alleged to be too small. The adjacent St. Andrew's Golf
Club had some objections. All these road-blocks were eventually
cleared away, however, and the property was purchased.

The committee had worked hard and courageously to reach the
point of buying the Hogg's Hollow site, but it must have been peering
anxiously over its shoulder. Fifteen years previously the Norval move
had been virtually wiped out by the war. This time it was Wall Street's
Black Thursday and its aftermath. When the board had trouble finding
a chairman for its special finance committee, the writing was on the
wall. The Board of Education dickered for a portion of the Deer Park
grounds for a high school, but the offer was much too low. The one nar-
row silver lining to the gloomy thunderheads was that the Carnegie
Corporation seemed interested in making an educational grant in Can-
ada, and Dr. F. P. Keppel, the president, had liked the Georgian char-
acter of the new design.'9 Serious doubts were openly expressed through
1 93 1 about the advisability of moving ahead, and when Mathers
and Haldenby released their estimates of construction costs —
Si, 477,800 — the College's brave new plans were all but dead. The gov-
ernors decided that building operations would not be undertaken.

Fortunately another benefactor was waiting on the sidelines. In the
spring of 1932 Vincent Massey, now a member of the Board of Gover-
nors, entered the lists. Massey reckoned that $600,000 could be avail-
able from a combination of the Massey Foundation ($400,000), the
Carnegie Foundation ($150,000), and R. A. and Walter Laidlaw
($50,000). He suggested that the College stay on the present site. They
could remodel the 1891 buildings, construct two boarding-houses and a
gym, and level new playing fields for $350,000. That left $200,000 to
put into an endowment fund, and they could hang on to the north
Yonge Street property. It did not take long for the governors to accept
the inevitable: the decision to stay in Deer Park was made. Massey's
generous and foresighted action was taken, as he said later, because of a
firm belief in the functions of the independent school. There is no doubt
that the College would have been in a serious situation if he had not
come to the rescue.

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In the next seven months events moved with incredible speed. The
College added two handsome boarding-houses for about fifty-five boys
each; an enlarged library (with a full-time librarian); an art room (with
a full-time art master), and a craft shop (with a man to run it); a Little
Theatre seating about 125; more space for music; a new science labora-
tory; and two new playing fields. (Tennis courts were added a year lat-
er.) Grant was jubilant about what he considered striking
improvements in the buildings and especially about turning "a dreary
and repulsive back yard" into a serene and lovely quadrangle.20 Writ-
ing from London, Peacock expressed sardonic amazement: "the idea of
the old place becoming beautiful is new to me. ... if the front . . . has
become beautiful, something radical must have been done to it."21

Imaginative as the reconstruction had been, it left two legacies with
which Grant and his successors had to deal. In the main building itself,
no steps appear to have been taken to examine the basic structure
before alterations were made: twenty-six years later the entire building
was condemned and razed to the ground. The second legacy was finan-
cial. The huge Massey gift was not enough. The total cost of the build-
ings was almost $475,000, with the result that several elements,
including the gym and artificial ice, were postponed. Theoretically this
should have brought the scheme in just about at budget, but by the end
of 1932 it simply was not so. The cost had exceeded the estimates by a
large margin; this, together with a yearly deficit, overdue accounts,22
and a non-existent endowment fund, created a very real problem. The
world-wide economic catastrophe had something to do with this state of
affairs, but the fact remained that despite the champagne days of the
past decade, Upper Canada College was property-rich and cash-poor.

At the end of 1932 Grant's good cheer at the renovation was bal-
anced by his exasperation at the financial situation and the obvious
prospective salary cut. He complained to R. A. Laidlaw that not
enough effort had been made to collect money since 1920 and very little
before that date. The surplus which he had built up throughout the
1920s was gone, and Grant drove home the point that capital expenses
(and overdrafts) were being paid at the expense of underpaid masters

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UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

who had served the College well and were mainly responsible for the
surpluses. Morale, concluded Grant, was the issue.

Almost as though he had read the principal's thoughts, H. E. Orr
wrote to Grant, drawing his attention to the large capital expenditures,
the $200,000 set aside explicitly for salaries and pensions, the
announced salary reduction, and the consequent feeling of uncertainty
among the masters about the benefits, if any, accruing to them. Orr
wanted to know whether pensions had first claim on the endowment
and asked for a contributory pension scheme. Lastly, he asked that the
cut be applied to the one year 1933-34 only. This letter was a landmark
in the relationship between the board and administration on the one
hand and the masters on the other. It is interesting that Orr referred to
Grant in his letter as "our representative on the Board of Governors."23
For over a century there had been no pension scheme at all; masters,
with few exceptions, had had to beg over and over again for retiring
allowances. Grant's response, however, was not overly warm: pensions
would not necessarily have first call on the fund; but the other two
requests would be carefully considered.

During the next year a lot of thought was given to both salaries and
pensions, but especially the latter. Massey pressed for a pension fund as
soon as possible, and in February 1934 the details of Upper Canada
College's first pension plan were approved by the board's executive
committee. It was a fitting climax to Grant's administration. Orr tried
to push still further by requesting that all staff salaries be made public
to the staff. Although Grant felt that not only should salaries be much
higher, but that they should be widely known in order to tempt the best
men, his views were not supported by the board and Orr's request was
refused.

From the beginning of his administration, staff salaries had had a
high priority on Grant's list and for a good reason. He recognized that
the school's reputation depended on the kind of men he could persuade
to join him in his crusade to make Upper Canada College something
special. Between 1920 and 1934 he appointed a really exceptional
group of men — eccentric, crotchety, quaint, though widely travelled
and highly intelligent — a collection unprecedented in the history of the

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College. He had inherited some of them, true; the rest he searched for,
high and low. Scarcely a year passed without an exciting new appoint-
ment, many of whom stayed for some time. He wanted, not qualified
professionals, but lively amateurs who had personalities and something
to contribute. He had certain standards: "It is essential that a man . . .
be a good disciplinarian; . . . any . . . trying to rule by love would get a
rude awakening."24 Again, about an Englishman: "There is no need for
him to be a Beau Brummell or to have the Balliol manner. I have no
objection to his being crude, provided he is promising."25 Grant was
generally delighted with his strange collection of colleagues who shared
his avid taste for what he called "sane experimentation." It would be
impossible to describe everyone who came and went in Grant's time but
equally impossible to ignore some, for whom a thumb-nail sketch must
do.

Sergeant-Major F. N. Carpenter: Had been a pre-war Auden
appointment but returned under Grant and became a powerful figure
in the College for twenty years. He brought the Rifle Company to a
very high peak of perfection and influence in College life, and he also
coached all games and taught physical education.

Owen Classey: Head of French for twenty-five years and reputed to
be the best French teacher in the province. He had once been private
secretary to H. G. Wells. Classey operated in some isolation from his
colleagues, taking no games and filling in for no one: nobody ever filled
in for him; he never missed a period. He started the Modern Languages
or Babel Club, which in 1928 put on a play entirely in French, exciting
interest throughout Ontario.

J. M. B. P. "Jock" de Marbois, CBE, Legion of Merit (U.S.A.), La
Legion d'Honneur (France): The quintessential Grant appointment.
Born in Mauritius, he married the Countess Tatiana Vladamorovna,
whose father had been head of the Russian Horse Guards when the
Czar was deposed. (He had been hunted through Russia with a price on
his head.) Spoke twenty languages. In 1938 he helped form the Ontario
Secondary School Ski Association. Started archery, took College trips to
western Canada, built a wooden polo horse surrounded by wire to teach
polo. A commodore RN and RCN, he had highly responsible posts in

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UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

naval intelligence during the Second World War. In 1945 he taught
Slavonic studies.

Arthur Killip: Could teach almost anything. In 1929 he became
first headmaster of Hillfield in Hamilton, but returned to teach at UCC
in 1950. He refused to leave the condemned Upper School in 1958 until
Alan Stephen bribed him with a bottle of whisky! A first-rate tennis
player and cricket coach.

H. P. Blunt: Taught English brilliantly, and was quite at home in
Greek. When he lost his leg in a hunting accident in 1931, his life was
saved by Parlee, who carried him miles through the bush.

M. H. C. "Big Mike" Bremner: Taught maths. A perennial first-
team cricket coach and boxing referee, whose brusque "Break! Box on"
is imprinted on the memory of generations of schoolboy boxers.

L. M. McKenzie: Replaced McHugh as head of mathematics. He
had the reputation as the best maths teacher in the province, but this
was probably only true for good students; he may have been the worst
for timid boys, who were frightened rigid by him. His teaching of differ-
ential calculus attracted the attention of the Ontario Educational Asso-
ciation. Mathematics were his whole life, and he took no real part in
the life of the school. Despite this he became principal in 1943.

Alan Stephen: Energetic and full of ideas, another typical Grant
appointment. He taught history very well, and cricket enthusiastically.
In 1934 he became Prep headmaster and turned it head over heels.

J. H. Biggar: Old Boy and Rhodes Scholar. He taught history with
great emphasis on current affairs, and started Visites Interprovinciales
in 1936 to encourage closer relationships with Quebec.

H. G. "Rik" Kettle: Resurrected art at UCC, dead since Holmes left
in 1920. Exhibited boys' works at the Picture Loan Society Gallery.
Started elaborate painting of flats for Gilbert and Sullivan operettas.
Started printing department with H. Kay and sculpting with W. Cox.
Influenced top Canadian creators — Tom Daly, Michael Snow, Paul
Arthur.

Nicholas Ignatieff: Taught Canadian history. He began College
trips to the west and the Arctic in the mid-thirties. He later became
Warden of Hart House.

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There was also Medley K. Parlee, a wartime flyer who could not
stand loud noises; a favourite of Grant's but extremely individualistic,
he was dismissed by MacDermot. Others included Keith Crowther,
who founded Onondaga Camp; G. Winder Smith, who became head-
master of Lakefield; the Reverend John Davidson, who taught religion,
anthropology, and track and field; Geoffrey Andrew, an excellent
English teacher; C. H. "Herbie" Little, an Old Boy, Rhodes Scholar,
superb athlete and French master; and C. G. M. Grier, later headmas-
ter of Bishop's College School. There were several fine musicians: Regi-
nald Goodall, later a great Wagnerian conductor; Ernest MacMillan
(later Sir Ernest); and Ettore Mazzoleni, a co-worker of Vaughan Wil-
liams and Sir Adrian Boult, who later became principal of the Royal
Conservatory of Music in Toronto. An important non-academic
appointment was that of K. D. Scott, who became assistant bursar to
Ormsby in 1933 and gave outstanding service to the school for forty
years.

Not only did Grant employ — and keep — men of obvious quality, he
was constantly pushing into new territory: elocution and drama in
1918, Spanish in 1920, music in 1925, a full-time librarian in 1934. He
made an arrangement with the English public schools under which a
master would come to ucc for a year. As a result, the College benefited
by a succession of men: Roseveare from Winchester in 1927; Tatham
from Eton in 1928; Eric Reynolds from Rugby in 1931 , who later
became headmaster of Stowe; Spreckley of Marlborough; Taylor of
Mill Hill; Rendall of Felsted. All were able; all added to the spice of
College life.

Experiments were a great love of Grant's. One of his most important
was the introduction in 1933 of a form called Four Modern, for the non-
intellectual who had little interest in university. He saw that the Col-
lege had a number of these boys, good citizens and potential leaders,
who needed a different approach. Grant substituted current events for
Latin at the grade ten and eleven levels. Another "experiment," which
turned into a semi-tradition lasting forty years, was the first Gilbert and
Sullivan operetta, put on in 1929 to celebrate the centenary. A literary
supplement to The College Times, called In Between Times, and the begin-

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UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

ning of art and carpentry also gave Grant enormous pleasure. They
meant that a boy was getting a breadth and variety of mind, a hobby or
interest to carry with him through life.

Grant was given a free hand to experiment by the Board of Gover-
nors, who were not much interested in new ideas themselves. Grant
found board members on the one hand honest, kind-hearted, and sober
citizens, but on the other both ultra-conservative and obsessed with
althletics. On one occasion when the College buildings had been lent to
the Students' Christian Movement (which contained a few socialists), a
special meeting of the board was called to discuss the wisdom of the
move. It took the board an hour and a half to decide that no harm had
been done! Grant found the board's athleticism somewhat more trying,
especially after the costly reconstruction of the buildings. Even after sal-
aries had been cut, Old Boys kept complaining about the lack of new
skating facilities.

Another aspect of the College games program troubled Grant. He
had always been opposed to professionalism creeping into school sports.
He feared the generally low ideas of the professional coach, the training
rules that made athletics a fetish, the loss of a proper perspective, and
the fanaticism in which the faculty eventually shared. Grant's response
to this challenge, which has almost always been the College's response,
was to keep the coaches amateur — in point of fact, the masters. Some
members of the board were at odds with Grant on this point.

UCC was hit fairly hard by the Depression, and Grant's last school
year (1934-35) was one of declining enrolment, a very narrow surplus, a
flat salary scale, and talk of decreasing fees. In January old stalwart
Frank Arnoldi resigned as College solicitor, and W. G. Gooderham
resigned as chairman of the board, to be replaced by R. A. Laidlaw. A
kindly man of great generosity, Gooderham had served the College for
over thirty years.

In mid-January Grant gave a sermon to the boys on the subject of
school discipline, which he felt had in it too much of the law of revenge.
It was to be his last. A few days later he caught a cold. His lungs, never
the same after his war injury, were not strong and the cold turned to

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REJUVENATION

pneumonia. On February 3 he died. When they heard the news, the
provincial legislature stood a minute in silence.

Grant's contribution to Upper Canada College from all points of
view was monumental. Under his leadership enrolment at the College
doubled, bursaries grew, the salary budget doubled, and the pension
plan began. In his time the house system was introduced and the rifle
company grew to maturity. Clubs flourished; boys worked hard. UCC
was a happy, buoyant school, a school where people cared. The public
saw Grant as a frequent contributor to literary and political journals, a
speaker at public meetings, an active supporter of the Workers' Educa-
tional Association, and president of the League of Nations Society. The
press described his great personal courage, his irrepressible generosity,
his inexhaustible faculty for remembering names. He was instrumental
in the formation of the Canadian Headmasters' Association, dying the
year before it was born. The son and son-in-law of two great Canadian
educators, he proved himself to be in his own way, and in a smaller
sphere, a third.

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CHAPTER THIRTEEN

School Life Under Grant

1918-1935

7 ■'HE imminent END OF THE WAR and the arrival of Choppy Grant
put new life into UCC. As early as April 19 18 The College Times re-
ported on a regular pre-breakfast run "led by the Principal," several
interesting lecturers, including Dr. Wilfred Grenfell, and Saturday
morning school with Wednesday and Saturday half-holidays. An elocu-
tion class was started, and a revived dramatic society had performed
both Chesterton and J. M. Barrie plays before the end of the year. Fif-
teen lively years had begun.

An enormous number of Old Boys who were at the College between
the wars remember those days, but — as might be expected — each
remembers them somewhat differently. The imprint of Upper Canada
on some boys was deep and remained that way long afterwards; on
others the experience resembled a swim in lukewarm water — bland and
pleasant enough, but with no long-term effects. The men who hated the
school were unwilling to say so. The fragments of memory we have sug-
gest happy and generally fruitful times.

F. H. Howard recalled Somerville's method of assigning forms in the
Prep:

I can remember Dad bringing me to school the first day and I was
lined up with a lot of other new boys. As far as I can remember that's
the first time I'd ever met Somerville. He asked me then what back-
ground I had, where I'd been to school, I guess to identify what I
could do. Suddenly I was in Form 3B.

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SCHOOL LIFE UNDER GRANT
Howard also recollected his life in the Prep sixth form:

All I remember then was Somerville himself teaching us the Gettys-
burg Address and Sam Foote saying that male — or female — the
human buttock is the most beautiful curve on the body, which seemed
kind of risque to me because that was something you never even talked
about; but Sam Foote introduced us to art and the word "sepia." I
remember I made drawings and paintings and water colours under
Foote, and he also taught us Gothic script, which we were all very
proud of. And the only other thing I remember was that the Duke had
a library and he introduced me to P. G. Wodehouse and Psmith, the
character. I read him again the other day and I couldn't find out what
I thought was so good about it!

When I came back I was in a 6th Form for a second year because I
was deemed too young to go to the College [Upper School] and all I
remember about the second year is learning all the same things I did
the first year. Since I already knew the Gettysburg Address I didn't
have to learn that. Then I was scorer on the first team, and Somerville
took an intense interest in statistics of cricket and you had to be most
meticulous in the way you kept the scores.

John Graham remembered:

When I entered the Prep in 1920 at the age of eight, there were five
forms. Masters I remember are Foote, Hollingshead (spelling bees,
Latin), Spooner, Somerville — all impressive in different ways. Latin
was started at 9, French at 10. ... A. L. Cochrane, the PT instructor,
used to take us swimming in the stream running across Avenue Road
just below the Belt Line — great treat.

There were uncomfortable dancing classes for the boarders, into
which day boys were dragooned. Many boys left to go to boarding
school after finishing the Prep. Games were compulsory; there were
not extra-curricular activities that I can remember.

All boys wore boots (no oxfords), suits (no blazers). Caps or toques
were mandatory. Chestnuts and alleys were popular games. Licorice

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UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

whips were the favourite candy at the Tuck Shop. There was no con-
tact whatever with the Upper School.

The caps and toques were not mandatory simply for the Prep. In
1932 the executive committee of the board approved the rule that all
Upper School first-formers must wear them and asked the principal to
consider extending the rule to boys in the upper forms.

W. M. Sanson, who boarded at the Prep in 1927, remembered the
same dancing classes that Graham did, adding to the picture a yearly
dance with BSS girls and a nervous breakdown for Miss Sternberg. He
also remembered hi-jinks after lights out. As a result, "Mr. Elliott
brought a table in, sat down, turned on the lights, and marked papers.
Every two hours throughout the whole long night, he woke up every
single boy."

In a recent interview John Black Aird searched back forty-five years
to his Prep days:

I think that the masters, particularly in Prep school, were extremely
strong characters for whatever reasons. I can see Hollingshead vividly,
and I can see Sam Harris, and Earl Elliott and Gibby Gibson, and I
certainly see Steve. I have trouble physically remembering the Duke,
although I remember being interviewed by him. But I have very vivid
physical memories — I remember Bonnycastle, largely because he had
a picture of Jean Harlow (I think it was her) or Carole Lombard in his
room, which made a tremendous impact on me at age ten or eleven. I
remember a man called Jones. He was a tremendous cricketer.

I remember Steve vividly because I think in any setting he would
have been a very distinctive man. He was an extremely interesting
teacher — he introduced to me certainly the first idea of time and his-
tory and the events in history. He even did charts — the first chart I
ever saw I think was introduced by Steve. He was an innovator, and I
think he was physically an extremely energetic man. I remember
being caned by him, which I think was a rarity, but the reason was a
good one. He came into the sixth form one day, went to open the door,
and we'd taken all the hinges off. He just went right straight through

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SCHOOL LIFE UNDER GRANT

and went flat on his face coming into the room. It was a hysterical
moment, and I think that he indulged himself by the caning.

I remember all the masters being so supportive of every endeavour
of the school. I remember the football games — them standing on the
sidelines — and I remember them at every cold rink, together with a
very strong group of parents who were around at that time.

There was a group of parents who came to everything and came in
the dressing room. It wasn't an isolated sort of professional thing — it
was very much father-son, mother-son ... it was a small community.
And very physically oriented. These were virile people — I think if I
were to make the comparison, certainly my recollection is not that
scholarship came second, but it didn't seem to me that they were
much interested in whether or not you stood first or twentieth in the
class. Scholarship was whether or not you could make the tackle at the
right time.

Scholastically, I don't know if any of the masters inspired me. But
enthusiasm for the cause and interest in the individual students — these
are things I remember. I think I must have learned something about
the discipline of mathematics from Sam Harris — I think I must have.
I think that Gibby was pretty good at Latin. I don't know why, but I
must say I enjoyed Latin. But you have to remember that in those
days, if you weren't good, you got swatted. But as to intellectual stimu-
lation, I would be surprised if there was any.

Although, as Graham said, some boys left the Prep to enter country
boarding-schools, most went on to the Upper School. In 1920 they
would have undergone an ingenious initiation. Not many of the Old
Boys seem to remember this, but it was described in loving detail in The
College Times. It had evidently fallen into disuse during the war years,
but peace brought a new burst of energy and inventiveness.

All the new boys were requested to attend an informal party on the
oval (rsvp old clothes).

The bell for execution rang at 3.15 and the new boys hurried up to
their rooms, from which they issued clad in their best (?) clothes. Most
of them were attired in brilliant creations, outworn socks, soleless run-
ning shoes, discarded pants and glaring sweaters dating from 1897 or

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UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

earlier. When they reached the oval they found the other guests (the
old boys) waiting for them. Most of the prospective victims were
observed to be shivering, probably from cold.

About half the new boys were detached and crammed into a num-
ber of day boys' cars which were parked on the drive. They were taken
down to various street corners down town and there given ample
opportunity to prove their ability as match sellers, bootblacks, fish
peddlers, "shimmy" artists, etc. etc. The police were tolerant. The old
boys in the cars had an instructive and amusing afternoon. The new
boys had the former but not the latter.

Meanwhile the massacre on the oval was proceeding. The stew-
ards introduced the new boys to their friends, who blindfolded them
and put them through a prolonged course in original athletics.
Instruction in classical dancing, blind-folded gymnastics, cadet drill,
"walking the ladder," follow the leader, tumbling and many other
amusing games was given free. Mr. Cochrane kindly lent some pairs of
boxing gloves, and a number of bouts, more notable for the enthusi-
asm with which the fighters hit everybody and everything within
range, than for science, were held. After an hour and a half the new
boys were all feeling a little fatigued. Their friends, however, were still
lively, and organized a special "cheeky new boys' squad," the mem-
bers of which spent an exciting quarter of an hour. The ceremony of
running the gauntlet was omitted owing to the dampness of the
ground. The new boys showed intense grief on learning this. As this
year's party was such a success, it is expected that it will be repeated in
an even more complete manner.

C. H. Little, who boarded at the Upper School from 1922 to 1926,
recalled his arrival at UCC and his introduction to fagging:

We all have major junctures in our lives: my first was working for and
winning an Entrance Scholarship to UCC. . . . Being a new boy, I had
to be initiated and serve as a senior's fag — in my case Tubby Sparling.
Initiation was not only running the gauntlet on the oval and being
whacked with any wooden cudgel available, but a continuing series of
duties and reminders of one's lowly station. The day started . . . when-
ever the fagmaster directed, by closing windows, bringing hot water,

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SCHOOL LIFE UNDER GRANT

tidying the room, shining shoes, etc. . . . My very first purchase that
September was an alarm clock with an outsize bell. Failure to do any-
thing satisfactorily resulted in all manner of humiliations but it was
wonderful training and sharpened my wits no end.

There were other duties for new day boys in the Upper School.
Howard remembered when he moved up from the Prep in 1932:

In those days the new boys were really pushed around, or we thought
they were. It turned out, of course, not to be bad at all. They had no
showers, and you had to go down to the first team and fill their tubs
with water because that was the only shower there was.

They sat in the tub, and then the strong ones lifted the tub up and
poured the water over their heads, which looked to me like a superhu-
man feat, but of course they were all superhuman guys. You were a
recruit in the Rifle Corps. I think that was the first or second year of
the blue uniform. I remember half of the first year I was just mostly
scared, and I'm not sure I know what I was scared of.

John Graham reminisced about other facets of his years at the Col-
lege:

At the Upper School in 1925, the "SM" Carpenter was the strongest
influence. It was wholly good; we learned we had a dual re-
sponsibility— to someone and for someone. McHugh had a fine way
with boys. But virtually all the teaching was competent — Mills, Mow-
bray, Classey.

A sort of Toonerville trolley ran down Avenue Road to Dupont.
The big boys used to jump up and down on the back platform and the
car would often come off the track.

Boarders were really a part of the school and it was hard to get the
flavor of ucc unless you boarded. Leave was Saturday and Sunday
afternoons with one out weekend a month — Saturday noon to Sunday
prayers.

For me, UCC consists of a community of interest and recollection. I
learned a sense of propriety, of dress and behaviour. I acquired a love
of language and Latin. I never had Canadian history in ten years.

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UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

Graham's memories about Canadian history may be accurate, in
spite of Grant's interest in the subject, but some attempts to change the
situation were mentioned in the 1922 summer College Times:

History is taught in rather a peculiar manner in Canadian schools.
From the time one enters in the lowest forms till one trys final exami-
nations, one studies nothing in this subject except what the ancient
Greeks and Romans did, accounts of petty riots and tales of endless
mutinies and conflicts. . . . Even the youngsters in the lower schools,
can wax eloquent concerning the battle of Hastings and how Alfred
burnt the cakes, but there are very few indeed who know the history of
the Great War. Why should the present generation study entirely
about things of long ago when they have lived through the greatest
struggle this universe has ever known. Not one of ten knows the story
of the brilliant stand our Canadians made at Vimy Ridge or realize

what an important decade the last one has been

As usual Upper Canada College has proved a leader and she is
now beginning to teach her pupils of present industrial conditions, the
duty of the citizens in the future and lastly but not least of that univer-
sal conflict, the Great War.

Graham and Little both remember that in the twenties smoking was
considered a very serious offence. Little was caught once and almost
expelled. There were a number of fire scares, and cigarettes were con-
sidered a real hazard. In 1926 the executive committee of the board
spent a long time on the question of smoking and how to enforce the
rules.

The driving force at the College during these years was undoubtedly
the principal. Yet despite his obvious greatness, Grant's powerful
impact is remembered by only some of his students. Little wrote that
Grant "was like a father to me. He urged me to come back for a fourth
year and write for a . . . scholarship." Between the two of them they
chose German. Little and de Marbois worked together in 1925-26, and
Little thinks he may have been the first person in the province to gradu-
ate with German Senior Matric. The direction of his life — teaching for-
eign languages and serving in naval intelligence — was shaped by

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SCHOOL LIFE UNDER GRANT

Grant's special interest in him. T. Graeme Gibson, on the other hand,
had "no vivid personal recollections of the principal, nor can I recall
any impact which he as a person had upon my education and develop-
ment . . . his philosphies and aims . . . have vanished in memory."

Although he was no academic, the second most influential master of
the period was undoubtedly Frederick N. Carpenter, the SM. Old Boy
after Old Boy, no matter whom else he remembers or forgets, mentions
Carpenter. J. G. Crean wrote:

But finally and above all, there is the influence of the Sergeant Major.
He understood the meaning of fair play and discipline but further he
used the Rifle Company, as it then was, to instill not only a love of
your own country, but a realization that you owed something to it,
and if called upon, must be prepared to sacrifice for it. But even more,
he used it to help to instill a sense of discipline and respect for author-
ity and your fellow school mates.

Little called him

one of our greatest personalities. While nominally in charge of mili-
tary drill, he joined heart and soul in every physical activity, played
cricket and soccer with us, showed us how to play hockey and football,
whistled us in and out of the tank and the boxing ring, even descended
to checkers or tennis if necessary. A grand man.

In addition to his other duties, Carpenter was in charge of PD, or
punishment drill. These were handed out by masters for any number of
sins and were supervised by the SM — clearing snow, marking the oval
for a game, rolling the cricket pitch, or simply walking around in a cir-
cle for an hour.

One of the most colourful of Grant's colleagues was Miss Mary
Tucker, who taught physics. She was remembered by F. H. Howard:

She lived over on Duggan Avenue somewhere and was always bum-
ming broken hockey sticks so she could hold herself up crossing the ice
until she walked across the oval. She had a twangy voice and she

217

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

appeared to be rough and crude, but she wasn't, of course. And she'd
walk in and if there was any noise at all she'd say, "Well, sit down and
shut up," and then she'd read off roll call. And she was very careful
about the way you kept your physics notebook. She was very systemat-
ic: she'd say "Purpose," and that meant you were going to do an
experiment. She certainly knew physics, and if you did well in your
physics exam she gave you an orange, and if you did well in matric she
knitted you a scarf or a pair of socks. She had an awful lot of friends
among the boys, but she tried to be tough; she didn't put up with any
nonsense. Now, God only knows what she did for companionship
among the rest of the staff.

Mary Tucker gave socks for athletic prowess as well, for example,
the first boy in her form to finish the cross country or steeplechase
received a pair. Not only was she a legend in her own time at UCC, she
carried on in the same spirit after her retirement.

The music department had its share of interesting, able, and eccen-
tric characters. Although it did not play as large a part in College life as
Grant (or later MacDermot) would have liked, and although it cer-
tainly played second fiddle to athletics, music had its moments and
influenced some boys for life. Godfrey Ridout, who was at UCC from
1932 to 1936, wrote:

When I first came to the College from Lakefield my mother made me
take piano from Dick Tattersall, whereas I wanted to "take" from
Mazz [Mazzoleni]. Mother was charmed with Mazz (few were the
females who were not) but the fact remained that Dick and Kitty Tat-
tersall (she had taught me when I was very little) were family friends
and loyalties were loyalties so to "Tatterballs" I went. It was a disas-
ter. In class I was very much Dick's favourite, I suppose because I gen-
uinely enjoyed him and strove to please him. But I was his bete noir in
private lessons. It was soon obvious that I was ambi-sinistrous and no
teaching however skillful could get me to play the piano. Dick also
had no use for adolescent musical opinion (I think one of the causes of
his general lack of success as a schoolmaster) and he was the master of
the put-down. I do not think he looked forward to my lessons any

2l8

SCHOOL LIFE UNDER GRANT

more than I did, but he had one advantage. Somehow between the
Prep, where evidently he taught on those afternoons, and the Music
Room of the College (brand new in that year of Our Lord 1932) he
amply fortified himself and would come floating into the room within
a noisome alcoholic cloud. Well, I triumphed. Dick told mother I was
a hopeless case and the sooner I stopped the lessons the better. Then I
went to Mazz. That was much better. Mazz never put me down for
expressing my jejune opinions (that came later) and he nursed me into
a piano technique which, though far from being good, was better than
it ever had been or has been since. But they were more than piano
lessons — they were music lessons. Soon he was teaching me rudiments
and harmony (the only lessons I ever did have in these areas because
he unconsciously taught me to teach myself), score reading, conduct-
ing and, best of all, he tolerantly guided me through my early
attempts at composition. Those so-called half hour sessions often
extended from 3.15 until dinner time. Mazz remained a friend to the
end of his life. He often conducted my works and was largely responsi-
ble for my, albeit limited, reputation.

Howard added a footnote on Dick Tattersall: "One day Tattersall
sat down to play the hymn in the morning and the piano bench broke.
I'm not sure somebody hadn't sawed it half through, but there was a
great deal of hilarity over it."

Godfrey Ridout recalled another colourful master, this time in the
English department:

I idolized Mr. Blunt who encouraged our quite immature literary
efforts. He was also my Housemaster (Martland's) and so I could get
out of sports without too much effort. . . . Mr. Blunt, returning essays:
"H — , malapropisms, malapropisms, malapropisms!" "Sir, what's a
malapropism?" "Two charladies at a church social — one said to the
other, 'See that venereal old gentleman urinating on the platform?
He's our new rectum. Have you been seduced?' Those, my boy, are
malapropisms." Or Blunt, again, with the heel of his good leg resting
dangerously on the two-inch ledge between the back of his desk and
the edge of the dais and his wooden leg swinging free in admirable
style, saying, "The Mark Anthony in Julius Caesar, righteous and stuf-

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UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

fy, is a far different Mark Anthony from the one in Anthony and
Cleopatra where he comes bounding on the stage oozing sex-appeal at
every pore."

Ridout went on:

You ask what the College meant to me and I must answer, everything.
Dad was delighted when I said it [was] just like a club. I was a dread-
ful student generally. My marks were just sufficient to get me through.
I only scored two academic triumphs. Dad, one night, said in a care-
less moment that he would give me five dollars if I came first. A busi-
ness acquaintance of his who was present said he would match it and
an elderly maternal aunt chimed in that she, too, would match it. The
prospect of fifteen dollars, untold wealth in the 1930s (it was my
brother-in-law's weekly income), spurred me to dazzling heights and
when the report came home that June there I was tied for first. It was
like the milk horse winning the Derby. The other was when Mr. Igna-
tieff offered a class prize of hard cash for the best constitutional history
of Canada from the Quebec to the B.N.A. Acts. What I did with the
money was to buy gramophone records. You see, the College, or more
specifically, Messrs. Tattersall and Mazzoleni had seduced me into the
world of music — mind you, I was not an unwilling seductee.

There was a certain aura to the College of the twenties and
thirties — or was it just in the minds of the students who went there at
the time? It was certainly a lively place, despite — or perhaps because
of — the early geographical isolation. At least twenty clubs were started
in Grant's time. Helped along by the colourful masters, they were as
much a part of College life as the games, especially for the boarders or
the non-athletes. Besides the Curfew Club, the organizations included
Classey's French (and Spanish) Babel Club, and a Junior French Club;
chess, science, stamps, art, anthropology, navigation, arts and letters,
biology, League of Nations, religious discussion, Chinese, junior current
events, graphic arts, recorder, Little Theatre, New Canadians — the list
went on and on. Some, to be sure, were short-lived, but the essential

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SCHOOL LIFE UNDER GRANT

thing was the spirit that lived underneath it all. Perhaps T. Graeme
Gibson sums up the boys' feelings best:

Those of us who were nurtured in the comfortable world of UCC under
"Choppy" Grant were to eventually find ourselves afloat on the
threatening seas of the nuclear age. The fact that most of us seemed to
have been able to take these momentous changes in our stride, would
indicate perhaps that our education foundation was a sound one.
The academic program taught me a lasting respect for the English
language. . . . The SM sowed the seeds of my 37 year military career. . . .
UCC was a pretty good place to face up to the vicissitudes of life. . . .
The masters . . . were a stimulating parcel of individuals. . . . Life was
less complex. . . . We were more concerned with facing up to the world
than in changing it.

221

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Unsettled Years

1 935 -i 948

GRANT'S death left the College leaderless in the middle of the
school year. None of the talented group of masters was perceived
as having the necessary administrative ability to become either
temporary or permanent principal; consequently William Mowbray,
the retired vice-principal, returned to smooth the way for Grant's suc-
cessor.

A governors' committee1 speedily selected Terence W. L. MacDer-
mot, age thirty-six. The son of a missionary, MacDermot had been born
in Jamaica and educated at McGill. After service in the war, which
made a deep and lasting impression on him, he had gone to Oxford on
a Rhodes Scholarship and taken a degree in history. He had then
taught at Hotchkiss School in Connecticut and at Lower Canada Col-
lege in Montreal. Since 1929 he had been in the history department at
McGill. When appointed principal he was national secretary of the
League of Nations Society in Canada. MacDermot had also published
numerous articles on education and economics.

Terry MacDermot was one of those men whose many accomplish-
ments blinded the governors to a powerful side of his nature that made
him something of a paradox at Upper Canada College. His academic
qualifications were impeccable, and he was known as an excellent
English and history teacher, questioning and provocative. His mind was
sophisticated, keenly intellectual, creative; personally he was sensitive
and charming. He spoke fluent French, and had a great musical talent
and wide interests. In educational philosophy he was a perfect successor
to Grant. On the other hand, his family background, war experiences,

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UNSETTLED YEARS

teaching career, and personal characteristics had helped to shape him
into the kind of man whom many considered somewhat ill-suited to the
principalship of a school like Upper Canada College. The son of an
army padre with very little money, he found the affluence of UCC and
the other independent schools hard to stomach. His terrible war experi-
ences made him grieve at the state of the world and brought him into
contact with kindred souls such as Frank Scott. His sympathies lay with
the left-wing: socialists, conscientious objectors, pacifists, those antagon-
istic to the British imperial influence. He was a Canadian nationalist
before his time. He had left Lower Canada College because it was too
much like a British public school transferred across the Atlantic — an
atmosphere in which he was not at ease, although, paradoxically, he
was at ease in Westmount circles. Added to all this were his personal
characteristics. He was inclined to be absentminded, late, forgetful. At
parties he liked to shake people up, mixing different sorts together.
Nobody felt lukewarm about him; they either worshipped him or
abhorred his ideas.

Congratulations poured in to MacDermot from friends who felt that
the headship of UCC was an important educational post, unique in
Canada.2 After his first meeting with the executive committee, however,
MacDermot expressed views which did not change, though they
remained camouflaged during his seven years at the College. Except for
Laidlaw, MacDermot was unimpressed with the group, one of whom
was "oppressively traditional" and talked of nothing but sport, "which
was all that could be expected of him."5 MacDermot was less than
enthusiastic about his new position as principal, but the challenge
attracted him, as did the salary — $7,500 plus the usual perquisites. He
spent May and June at the College learning the ropes and took over in
September 1935.

MacDermot's first year was symbolic of his career at UCC — many
inspirational developments mixed with flawed and difficult human
relationships. During his first term a model election was conducted by
the Upper School student body. Not surprisingly, the Conservatives
polled 267 out of 372 ballots cast. MacDermot's experiment was
intended to train the boys to appreciate the values and procedures

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UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

inherent in the democratic process, and was in the tradition of his pred-
ecessor. Another innovation was the Palmer Printing Room containing
printing equipment presented by two Old Boys. There, under Harry
Kay, a printing group began producing school calendars, prize lists,
and the programs for school events. It is still doing so forty years later.
Another undertaking of great significance was the introduction of edu-
cational trips during the holidays to Timmins, Noranda, Kirkland
Lake for visits to mines; to Iroquois Falls, "the paper centre of Cana-
da"; to the Peace River country. These excursions were close to Mac-
Dermot's heart; they were the first attempts made by the College in
over a century to emphasize to the boys the resources, the vastness, and
the beauty of their own country. The masters most responsible were
Jock de Marbois, Nicholas Ignatieff, and Geoffrey Andrew; only
Andrew was a native Canadian. In the same connection J. H. Biggar
began Visites Interprovinciales. Biggar had been embarrassed when in
Europe to discover that educated people were expected to know at least
one foreign language. In April 1936 MacDermot gave him an introduc-
tion to the head of university extension at McGill, and through him
Biggar met his first French Canadian. That summer a pupil of Biggar's4
spent two months in French Canada. Visites was born, and the College
helped to nurture the infant into full adulthood. MacDermot himself
helped to launch, after much preliminary work by Grant, the Canadian
Headmasters' Association, a loosely organized group of independent
school headmasters who meet annually.

MacDermot had a deep interest in art, which he tried hard to share
with the boys. In his first term, contemporary Canadian paintings and
sculpture were on monthly loan to the College. A modernistic tin-on-
marble sculpture entitled "Reef and Rainbow" by Elizabeth Wyn
Wood was exhibited in the front hall, and the sixth form was invited to
express their feelings about it; they did at great length, and much of the
material was published in The College Times. MacDermot's interest did
not die as the years passed. The 1939 leaving class was persuaded to
give a leaving present to the College — in this case an A. Y. Jackson
painting. The students did not much care for the idea, mostly because it
was new, but MacDermot persisted.5 Forty-odd years later, an annual

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UNSETTLED YEARS

gift is still presented. The College now has a beautiful collection of mod-
ern Canadian art and other useful and valuable gifts as well.

MacDermot was extremely anxious to work with Stephen at the
Prep in the task of co-ordinating the staffs of the two schools so that
Prep boys could follow an integrated course of study from the youngest
forms to the sixth form at the Upper School. For the first time, the two
parts of the College were being run by forward-looking men, keen on
experiment, and MacDermot was able to say that both parts of the
body were working as a single unit.

At the end of his first year MacDermot expressed two aims: to
gather a good staff and to "instil and nourish in our boys a little ideal-
ism, altruism, unselfishness . . . [and to reduce] the core of complacent
selfishness that [is] obnoxious now and dangerous later on."6 So, in the
arena of ideas, MacDermot very early proved himself a worthy succes-
sor to Grant.

MacDermot inherited the exotic collection of masters gathered
together by Grant. It was in making quick, firm judgments on some of
these staff colleagues that MacDermot's difficulties with the College
community began. Instead of moving slowly and tactfully, he fired one
master outright (followed immediately by a resignation) and alienated
one or two more. His special targets were men who happened to have
been at the school for some time, and who had gathered a loyal follow-
ing. The reverberations of his actions did not die down right away and
coloured MacDermot's future association with those Old Boys and par-
ents who were inclined never to rock the boat or change anything. Any
principal has the right to say who should or who should not be teaching
in a school. In the closely knit 1936 community of the College, however,
that right had to be exercised with caution; groundwork had to be laid.
MacDermot may indeed have done his best to do this, but much bitter-
ness was left behind.

Another early target was the cadet battalion, which had been
brought by Carpenter to a very high state of efficiency and was playing
a huge role in the life of the school. One man who knew Carpenter well
thought he wanted to turn UCC into a military institute. MacDermot
and Carpenter crossed swords very early and worked uncomfortably

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UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

together for three years before Carpenter retired. MacDermot wanted
to separate physical education from military drill, and from the begin-
ning he sought a replacement for the SM.

Under MacDermot the faculty stayed fairly stable. Doggie Mills
and Mary Tucker retired just before he arrived. They were replaced by
the much loved Ralph M. Law, Dr. J. W. McCubbin, and James Wor-
rall. Law was forty-six and had taught classics at Weston. He became a
College landmark both as housemaster of Seaton's and later as the
librarian. McCubbin was a first-class biology teacher; Worrall was a
fine physics master, who ran for Canada in the 1936 Olympic Games.

In 1936 MacDermot added B. C. Taylor, who thirty years later was
organizing student trips to Europe, and E. A. McCourt, a Rhodes
Scholar from Alberta, who became a professor of English at the Univer-
sity of Saskatchewan and a well-known Canadian author. A little later
came the much-admired Norman Sharp to carry on the College tradi-
tion of first-class mathematics teaching. He coached the first hockey
team for thirteen years and became president of the Toronto Hockey
League. In addition, MacDermot followed Grant's lead in going to
great trouble to bring to Canada a variety of men who were not in his
view available in Canada. One was Arnold Walter, a brilliant musician
highly recommended by Massey. Walter, born in Austria, was a Czech
citizen in difficulties with that government because he was a pacifist.
MacDermot worked hard with the authorities to get Walter into the
country and onto the College staff.7 The Canadian Opera Company is
a monument to his efforts; Walter became director of the u of T music
faculty and was awarded the Order of Canada. Other additions were
Robin Strachan from Cambridge and I. K. Shearer; the latter helped
in 1956 to start a school in Switzerland for Canadian grade-thirteen
students. In 1939 Dr. W. G. Bassett joined the staff. He stayed until
1973, serving as acting-principal in 1948 and 1949 and then as vice-
principal under Dr. Sowby.8

In late 1936 a move was begun to build a proper gymnasium and
pool, something the College had wanted for thirty years. The old pool-
gym had disappeared in the 1932 renovation, and money had not been
available to replace it. When the new facility finally opened in January

226

UNSETTLED YEARS

1938, the cost was $90,000, of which less than half had been donated.
College funds had been expected to contribute $20,000 but eventually
had to produce $49,000. Once again the College community had failed
to produce the wherewithal for bricks and mortar. Once again physical
facilities had taken priority over the needs of the masters.9

On a personal level, MacDermot had a dual impact. He was a hard
worker, making appointments as early as seven in the morning. He
played the piano endlessly at staff Christmas parties, and was greatly
revered by some of his colleagues who thought as he did. But there was
a reverse side to the coin. He was a poor administrator who drove the
board mad by lateness and forgetfulness. His communications with par-
ents were poor. He liked to poke fun at things, and the Old Boys could
never make out whether he was laughing at them or with them. Mas-
ters who idolized him were balanced by some who did not. The boys
could never quite understand him. (On one occasion there was an abor-
tive stewards' and officers' revolt because MacDermot had vetoed an
invitation by the Queen's Own Rifles to a dinner.) In a school where a
vocal Old Boy group was obsessed by the importance of games, he pre-
sented a puzzling face: he was not hostile to games, he simply was not at
home with the "rah-rah" stuff and wanted a balance. An intellectual
with a hundred interests, he fitted badly into what was often an atmo-
sphere of non-intellectual conservatism. John Black Aird summed it up
well:

Terry MacDermot was marching to a different drummer than most of
the people there, as I think Steve was at the prep. He was a very gen-
tle, quiet man, who introduced the idea of a little group of five or six
coming to his house on Sundays. . . . Probably he chose them. He
talked about the world, and we didn't know much about the world. So
I guess there was a sparking there of curiosity. ... If he was left wing
the student body didn't know it.

The outbreak of the Second World War saw the College lose some
of its best men — de Marbois, Ignatieff, Little, for example — though the
majority were unable to join the forces and carried on at the school. An

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UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

enormous number of war refugees were welcomed to the College; in
May 1 94 1 there were ninety-seven. A war chest was begun to send par-
cels to Old Boys and to help finance the sons of Old Boys killed or inca-
pacitated in the conflict.

In November 1941 the Ministry of War Services asked if it could
borrow MacDermot for three or four days a week to organize and direct
a proposed speakers' branch of the Division of Public Information. This
impractical proposal was countered by the offer of MacDermot for
three straight months. As a result MacDermot left the College for the
first three months of 1942; Lome M. McKenzie, the head of mathemat-
ics, was appointed acting-principal. As March was running out,
another request for MacDermot's services was made but strongly
resisted by the board, who were concerned by the weakened mathemat-
ics department, by the large influx of non-paying guests from Britain,
and by the prospect of an enfeebled College war effort. In the end the
greater duty overcame the lesser. In June MacDermot resigned.

Before leaving Upper Canada, MacDermot wrote a pamphlet enti-
tled "Upper Canada College at War," which praised the contribution
of the Old Boys, the student body, and the staff, during the first dark
years of the struggle. They had faced the test and met it "promptly,
generously, and with honour."10 He pointed to the war chest, students
working in farms and factories, a salvage committee, special military
classes, the English evacuees, the nine masters on active service — in fact
all the College was doing to share the burden. He did not neglect the
continuation of the educational essentials — hard work, high standards,
games for everybody — which the College had not forgotten during the
months and years of the emergency.

An assessment of Upper Canada College in the MacDermot years is
far more difficult than for any other period up to 1935. The key lies in
the MacDermot personality, which came into abrasive contact with the
College collectivity. By and large he found the College community pet-
ty. He was not a man to suffer fools gladly, and judging by his diary,"
there were many fools among parents, Old Boys, and governors. He
wrote of parents wanting their sons "to be given opportunities which
they have not earned — a common enough commercial objective." After

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UNSETTLED YEARS

an argument with a father about the cadets he said, "the Battalion ... is
clearly one of the social and business aids which gives this school its jus-
tification in the eyes of the privileged class which uses it. . . . The College
is to most of its customers a deluxe shop where they buy more of the
exclusiveness that money gives alone, or where they buy what they
haven't got of that." Of an Old Boy expressing a desire for that holy
grail — victory over Ridley: "[It] should not be a concern of Old Boys at
all." After a controversy about Old Boys being denied the use of the
new pool he summed up his feelings: "What a cheap vulgar uncouth lot
they are. I wish more and more I could get a job in which I was work-
ing with and for a slightly higher level of a community. These commer-
cially bastardized clothes-horses are tiresome." Some of his most
pungent comments were about the governors, whom he found pleasant
enough but without any real understanding of what education is all
about. "The school . . . is . . . measured by the criteria of their lives not of
the school life." They are "seriously concerned about lack of coaching
especially in hockey . . . [and] would sooner have all the masters doing
this or able to do it than anything. A profound respect for the impor-
tance of athletics ... is at the root of all our troubles." He felt that the
governors' real criteria were the appearance of the grounds, the teams,
and the name of the College; teaching was a secondary job. The worst
of this attitude was that the masters had a feeling that "cheeseparing at
their expense is always going on." MacDermot despaired, "How can we
expect any . . . response to high or aristocratic principles of education?
. . . here in the College we have . . . the hard acquisitiveness that marks
the owning class, and in the treatment of employees a disinclination to
charge for services rendered and a willingness to take all that can be
squeezed (without extra pay) out of masters and others. It is a brutaliz-
ing spectacle and one wants to turn one's back on the whole thing. . . ."
MacDermot's views of the boys do not come through often, but judging
by the College's war effort, they were somewhat flawed: "no resistance
to emergencies, selfish and utterly individualistic. It is inherent in this
group of society. Its young members have no experience whatever of
any difficulties to overcome and so their capacity to overcome them is
very low."

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UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

MacDermot was a brilliant man with quixotic attitudes, obviously
torn between his educational ideals and the fact that he was trying to
work them out in an environment dominated by big business, imperial-
ism, and conservatism — against each of which he instinctively rebelled.
The educational ideals would have been applauded by Grant, by
Auden, by Parkin; his views on England — "governed by an ancient
regime dominated by narrow capitalism ... or imperial concepts" —
they would have abhorred. MacDermot wanted to stir up "the boys to
an awareness of their own country and continent. . . . They acquiesce
poor devils in cricket, in Empire, in good form: in all the scaly frag-
ments of an obsolete Victorianism." In the Toronto of the thirties he
was fifty years ahead of his time. Lonely and self-contained, he said
good-bye to the school without knowing whether or not he had done a
good job.12

MacDermot gave the board his views on the masters who might
replace him; he found them all wanting in various degrees. Applica-
tions were sent in from men who had heard of the vacancy, but none
was very impressive. The governors accepted Lome McKenzie as act-
ing-principal while they considered what to do.

McKenzie, forty-four, had been at the school since 1929. In 1933 he
had taken over as head of the mathematics department, becoming well
known throughout the province. He was a shy, unassuming man with a
passion for his discipline and a desire to be left alone to teach it. Neither
he nor the governors were sure that he was the right choice. At the end
of his first year, however, the chairman of the board, Graeme Watson,
sounded people out about the possibility of making McKenzie's
appointment permanent. Vincent Massey thought it was a difficult
question and wrote: "I very much doubt whether he is equipped to
carry on the educational tradition established by W. L. [Grant] and
pretty well maintained by Terry MacDermot. I feel it is vital to UCC
that it should remain a pioneer in education and that its standards
should be uncompromisingly high."'3 Some of the board wanted to wait
until after the war and get a young, highly qualified Canadian educa-
tionist, but the temptation to confirm McKenzie was too great. Nobody
knew how long the war would last and current alternatives were

230

UNSETTLED YEARS

meagre. McKenzie had a huge reputation as a mathematician, he was
well known, and he knew the system; he was thoroughly Canadian. In
July 1943 he was confirmed as principal at a salary of $7,500.

McKenzie's five and a half years as principal superficially resemble
the MacDermot years. Though the two men were tempermentally poles
apart, in both cases the board failed to recognize strong idiosyncrasies
which made the appointees less than suitable for the challenging tasks
facing them. In both cases excellent foresighted moves were made; in
both cases personality clashes made life very difficult for many members
of the College community.

McKenzie had a warm, engaging side which attracted to the Col-
lege some truly outstanding men, many of whom stayed a long time and
had a lasting influence. E. M. (Ted) Davidson, a creative teacher and
fine administrator, spent twenty years teaching classics and coaching a
variety of teams, while at the same time becoming chairman of the
Toronto Board of Education. He resigned in 1962 to become registrar of
the University of Toronto. Miss Yulia Biriukova took over the art pro-
gram from H. G. Kettle and continued Kettle's traditions for another
twenty-one years. There followed Gerald Grant to teach science and
Jay MacDonald to teach English and run the Little Theatre with an
efficiency and elan bordering on genius for thirty years. Kenneth Gallo-
way arrived in 1945 to teach a variety of subjects for twenty years. The
next year three men came who were to stay a total of over ninety years
and leave an indelible imprint on the school. The versatile J. L. Coul-
ton taught physics, took over that department, and became vice-princi-
pal and eventually bursar; Wilfrid Gallimore ran the English
department for thirty years; and Frank Brennan taught mathematics
and coached a huge variety of football and hockey teams before retiring
in 1978. McKenzie did not forget music. David Ouchterlony taught for
three years; he was replaced by John Linn, who stayed until 1972. A
notable teacher of mathematics was E. S. Jarvis, who also coached the
football team; after leaving UCC he eventaully became headmaster of
Bishop Strachan School. A very valuable non-academic appointment in
1948 was that of John Weeks, who worked hard and served loyally first

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UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

as building superintendent and then as treasurer until his retirement in
1978.

As the war drew to a close the question of salaries for these men and
their colleagues became pressing. The gaps between Upper School and
high-school salaries ranged between four hundred dollars and seven
hundred and fifty dollars, with lesser differences at the Prep level. The
masters asked the governors whether, in view of the recent increases in
the Toronto high schools' salaries, it might not be a suitable time to
take similar action. The response was essentially negative; the gover-
nors said that the College had operated at a financial loss for several
years and would not be able to match the Toronto scale. During
McKenzie's time the average Upper School salary, though never catch-
ing up to the city scale, rose by seven hundred dollars. This was made
possible partially by the first concerted action on fees since the mid
twenties. Between 1945 and 1948, day-boy fees rose 54 per cent to $385
annually and boarder fees to $1,050. A new era had begun. The pub-
lic-school teachers were starting to flex their muscles, which had
remained relatively flaccid during the twenties and thirties. Without
that competition from the outside, the College fees had slumbered on,
affording a tremendous bargain for parents. The board was timid and
dubious about the 1945 fee raise. The other boarding-schools, not the
city schools, were seen as the true competitors, and fear was expressed
that too great a surplus would lead to investigation and unwanted
action by the tax authorities. One curious result of the 1945 fee discus-
sions was the decision, not reversed for fifteen years, to differentiate
between Upper School and Prep fees, on the assumption that it was
cheaper to educate the younger boys. In a sense this was true; the Prep
masters were paid less.

McKenzie instituted sensible changes in the organization and disci-
pline of the school. The form organization was rationalized in 1944 to
further allow individual progress; fagging, which was being abused, was
abolished; and the make-up of the Board of Stewards was changed.
Boys were no longer automatically stewards because they held certain
offices: starting in the autumn of 1946, ten boys were chosen by the
principal irrespective of the positions they held. This was motivated by

232

UNSETTLED YEARS

the belief that there was too little intellectual leadership among the
stewards.

In McKenzie's third year there was a feeling among the governors
that the buildings at both the Upper School and Prep were unsatisfac-
tory. The feeling was probably sharpened by the imminent widening of
Avenue Road, Lonsdale, and Oriole Parkway. The well-worn theme of
moving was once again examined, with special reference to the York
Mills property, which the College had held for twenty-five years. Be-
fore any action could be taken, however, it was learned that a
highway — 401 — was to be built through the middle of the property.
The York Mills move was abandoned once and for all, and the property
was sold for a sum which finally netted a little less than $170,000. The
College's marriage to the City of Toronto seems final.

With the war over and some fresh cash in hand, discussions began as
to how the 123 Old Boys killed in the war might best be remembered.
The decision was taken to start a memorial fund for a dual
purpose — creating scholarships and erecting a memorial hall. This was
to jut eastward at the south-east corner of the main building and be
joined to it by an arcade. It was to replace the prayer hall, which was to
be converted into classrooms, and also to serve for non-athletic activi-
ties. Unfortunately the fund, to which almost fourteen hundred Old
Boys and parents had contributed, was not enough to start building,
and plans were shelved for two years. At almost the same time McKen-
zie abruptly resigned.

McKenzie was an impressive man, with plenty of moral courage
and a well-organized mind; a colleague described him as the salt of the
earth. To balance these virtues he had a difficult temper and little abil-
ity to communicate. Above all was his massive inflexibility, resulting
perhaps from some basic insecurity. Everything was black and white;
there were no shades of grey. He tried to run the school the way he ran
his classroom, and it all had to be done his way. In the autumn of 1947,
for example, McKenzie decided not to give the school a holiday to cele-
brate the marriage of Princess Elizabeth to the Duke of Edinburgh.
Since all the other schools in the city had a holiday, about two hundred
students, irked by being singled out in this way for no apparent reason,

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UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

spontaneously left the school at morning recess muttering to themselves.
Some of the more senior students calmed their nerves at the Casino, a
sleazy strip-joint on Queen Street. McKenzie demanded apologies from
all, under threat of expulsion. Many apologies were extended, but some
boys refused and never returned. This somewhat comical walk-out need
never have taken place, but once it had, a cool head was needed to
restore harmony. McKenzie felt he had a role to maintain: right was
right. It is fortunate that most boys gave in. (Not one to hold a grudge,
however, McKenzie went out of his way to help one of the senior "strik-
ers" pass his mathematics exam, never again so much as mentioning the
walk-out.)

McKenzie had resigned several times before, always over unimpor-
tant issues; this time, in October 1948, the governors accepted. He
called a masters' meeting, said that his views and those of the board did
not coincide, and abruptly left.14 Not for the first time the College had
chosen a man to guide its destinies who would have been much better
off left where he was at his best — in the classroom. When he returned to
an Old Boys' Dinner many years later, he received a thunderous stand-
ing ovation.

Dr. W. G. Bassett, vice-principal since early 1947, was made act-
ing-principal while the governors looked for McKenzie's replacement.

234

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

School Life in the
LateThirties and Forties

7 ""he outbreak of war in September 1939 affected the home
lives of many College students whose fathers were in the forces. Some
spent years in a state of fearful suspense, and for some the agony was
very real, but life at the College must have appeared untouched. Nicho-
las Ignatieff, a former College teacher, wrote a letter to The College Times
from a London under siege in September 1940. From his perspective
the war had had little impact on the College, and he expressed his dis-
appointment in strong terms.

At first, on looking through The College Times I felt awfully
pleased — like meeting an old friend from a far-off, peaceful and civi-
lized world — he greeted one with the same old smile and the same old
jokes and one felt one knew exactly what he was going to say
next — which is very comforting when one meets an old friend one has
not seen for a long time — it takes you back to good old times when the
world was almost civilized.

And then I thought of today and all that has been going on here
and the world tomorrow and all of you standing on the threshold of
tomorrow and I felt terribly depressed and sorry for you. Oh, no — not
because life is going to be hard for you, or even that many of you may
be dragged in to see the grimness of war — I felt sorry for you because
every line and every page reminded me of what I had so often thought
at College — you were all so terribly poorly equipped to take on the
thrilling and magnificent opportunities of building a grand new world.
You are all so wrapped up in your own little, comfortable, safe world
that nothing else seems to matter or can matter. One could never

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UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

dream that the Summer number was produced in midsummer of
1940 — it might have been 1920, 19 10 or 1890 even. Are you too young
to think of anything but banter at 16, 17 or 18? With equipment of
polish, good humour and a little knowledge thrown in, can you hope
to compete in a world which is filled with millions of young men who
gravely and passionately believe in worlds they are determined to
build or to smash?

The people like you, with your equipment and your attitude of
mind, thought they won a war and inherited a peaceful and plentiful
world twenty-two years ago. They took nothing very seriously, they
played games, attended business, dabbled with politics and talked a
lot. Grim and determined scoundrels virtually wrecked the world
under their noses before they woke up to realize it. There are few peo-
ple in England today who will not admit that it was our smug compla-
cency, as much as the iniquity of the dictators, that lost the peace for
us. And here they are beginning to realize that it may be worth while
to put every inch one has into a fight that is worth winning and into
the building of a new world afterwards.

If you could just see the guts these people are showing — I don't
just mean the heroes of the RAF — but the mass of people and young
kids, who have it on the chin day and night, and grin and bear it. I
will never forget the small girl we unearthed from a pile of debris and
who smiled grimly and said she wasn't hurt much; and the factory
workers — men and women — who went back jokingly to work in a
plant where many of them were blown to pieces by heavy bombs, and
in spite of further attempts at bombing — we helped to clear the
wreckage — they realized what they were working and fighting for. I
wish you could meet the two boys of 17 I spoke to the other
day — working in munitions all day, learning to shoot and fight in the
evening, and taking their turn on night duty with the local home-
guard watching for parachutists — they weren't blood-thirsty dolts and
they didn't like war, but they meant to see this grim business to an end
and build a better world afterwards.

In many ways you are so unlucky to be safe, sheltered and satisfi-
ed. Both Canada and the United States helped to lose the peace by
being just that. But they aren't really safe — no one is really safe — and

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SCHOOL LIFE IN THE LATE THIRTIES AND FORTIES

that is not a gloomy thought; it is a challenge to live in a "brave new
world" and not in a sheltered "rose garden."

The other day I met an old ucc boy in a regiment which boasts
several of them, and rather bitterly he complained that the College
and the Old Boys had completely forgotten them and failed to make
the least gesture of keeping up friendly ties, whereas some other
schools (like uts) showed a very active interest in their Old Boys on
service overseas. I wonder why?

We dislike war as much as most of you do; we only wish it could
be over soon — but since we did not have the "guts" to prevent or avoid
it collectively, let's put some "guts" into winning it and building some-
thing better afterwards — we can't do it by pretending to live in our
own little secure world of make-believe. And now you can reach for
the waste paper basket and say "damn his nerve, anyway."

IgnatiefFs harsh judgments were a little unfair. The College boys
were not the only ones lulled to sleep by the "phony" war. The maga-
zine he castigated was probably at the printers before the Germans
attacked in the west. Later on, College boys rose to the occasion along
with hundreds of thousands of other Canadians.

The same College Times which carried IgnatiefFs letter contained
another thoughtful one by V. M. Tovell, criticizing the Little Theatre
equipment, the lack of proper coaching, and the negative effect which
the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta had on the development of proper
school dramatics. Tovell's letter had no noticeable effect. It took
Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor to shake that thirteen-year-old tradi-
tion: Mikado was cancelled in favour of Henry V, on the recommendation
of the executive committee of the board. The irrepressible College Times
commented that "No one has even considered stopping reading Romeo
and Juliet because the Italians might win some success."

A boy who spent 1941 through 1944 as a war guest wrote that "UCC
provided a very secure base not only for myself but for many of the boys
who found their way to the College. In retrospect I expect that our
sojourn is now more appreciated than it was at the time."

The war years were crucial in the life of Peter Newman, who
arrived in Canada from Czechoslovakia in 1940, knowing no English.

237

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

So that he could learn the language and become absorbed into the cul-
ture of a new country, Newman's father sent him to board at UCC in
1944. He stayed three years. Newman recently recalled the years.

At the time I was not entirely happy because I didn't have my par-
ents, and boys, being boys, teased me unmercifully when I mispro-
nounced a word, as I often did.

First of all I was an immigrant and at that time it was unusual.
Now it's nothing. But there certainly weren't many immigrants in
Canada and there were hardly any in Upper Canada College. And
secondly I was Jewish, and again it was a minority. And thirdly I was
an only son and had always lived alone and suddenly I was sur-
rounded with boys. So it was hard. That was on the negative side. On
the positive side I right away got into the subculture of the young at
that time which was music — jazz. I became a great follower and fan of
that music, which was my form of rebellion because my parents were
brought up on opera and my mother was a classical pianist, and what
I heard at home was all of that and I rejected that within twenty-four
hours. I took up drumming and later became the sergeant in the
Upper Canada College battalion band. I was the lead drummer and
in church parades I would be keeping step for the whole battalion, so
this was a moment of glory. I also became president of the radio club.
These things may seem trivial now but at the time they were the first
recognition that I had advanced in society, and it was very important
to me. Presidents were elected, and so in terms of the acceptance that I
desperately wanted, it was a very dramatic thing.

The teachers were extremely nice to me, especially Mr. Coulton,
the physics teacher, and Pop Law.

There was very high morale in the band, I don't think there was in
the rest of the battalion, but we all liked our instruments and it was a
chance to play.

In retrospect, there was one very negative thing about school. And
that was the isolation — the isolation from real life, which suddenly
came in like an avalanche when you went to university. And by real
life I mean girls. I don't [know] the experience of others, but I cer-
tainly couldn't cope with it — going through puberty and arriving as a
more or less grown man at university. I don't know if that was the gen-

238

T. W. L. McDermot, principal 1935-42. A
brilliant and kindly man, he did not see
eye to eye with many parents and Old
Boys (The College Times, 1933-35).

L. M. McKenzie, principal 1943-48.
Known as "Butch" to generations of stu-
dents, he was a celebrated mathematics
teacher who was uncomfortable as princi-
pal (The College Times, 1942-44).

Gerald S. Grant, science 1944-64 {The
College Times, 1948-50).

R. M. "Pop" Law, classics 1935-55
(Ashley and Crippen).

E. M. "Ted" Davidson, classics 1942-62
(Mrs. E. M. Davidson).

H. E. "Willy" Orr, classics 1917-66
{The College Times, June 1966).

College Life in the
Thirties and Forties

(Above) A spiffy Board of Stew-
ards, 1933-34 (Brightling Stu-
dios). {Right) The cast of hms
Pinafore (1930), the second in a
long line of Gilbert and Sulli-
van operettas. Arnold C.
Smith, later Canadian ambas-
sador to Moscow and Secretary
of the Commonwealth, is front
row, far left (Brightling Studi-
os). (Below) The College plays
Ridley in the early forties
(Upper Canada College).

Nicholas Ignatieff, Canadian his-
tory teacher 1934-40, who initi-
ated the tours to western Canada
and was later Warden of Hart
House (Mrs. N. Ignatieff).

The Honour Roll 1939-45
(Timothy Ryder).

REQVIESCANT IN PACT

^>»^eji

D BOYS 01 f Mis-

MO [ill t) ON ACTlVt SfWICl

OQUUIY
JWfflUKA

a.r>owiN
j D PtAtrt

In March 1958, the main building was condemned. These pictures tell something of
the story. Note the door frame and the two-by-fours holding up the Prayer Hall ceil-
ing (photos Andy Smith/Panda). {Below) An air photo of the new building in the mid

sixties.

College Life in the Seventies (all photos
from 77*i? College Times)

AW/jC,

(Above) The Upper School masters who bore the
heat and the burden of the strenuous sixties
(Upper Canada College). TOP ROW, left to right:
T. P. CD. Bredin, R. S. Coleman, R.J. Ainsworth,
C. W. Noble, T. M. Adamson, H. F. A. Lacey,
M. B. Wansbrough THIRD ROW: F. C. Brennan,
W. G. Pedoe, R. B. Anthony, J. G. Swift, W.J. Bailey,
K. R. Bonnyman, J. N. Symons SECOND ROW: J. D. S.
Wilson, L. M. E. Paichoux, H. Kay, B. W. Bacon,
J. D. MacDonald, H. Ujimoto, J. W. Linn, J.
Grindlay FRONT ROW: Dr. W. G. Bassett, C. W.
Gallimore, M. H. C. Bremner, J. L. Coulton (Vice-
principal), P. T.Johnson (Principal), J. H. Biggar,
J. A. Gilham, I. K. Shearer. (Right) R. A. Laidlaw.
Known as "Bobby" to the College community, he
joined the board of governors in 1923. The post of
vice-chairman was created especially for him in
1925. He was chairman 1935-40, and honorary
chairman for many years. His generosity to Upper
Canada College was boundless. He is shown here in
a characteristically informal pose (courtesy of
Dr. R. G. N. Laidlaw).

f"^

■

SCHOOL LIFE IN THE LATE THIRTIES AND FORTIES

eral experience, but it was mine. We had a battalion dance, we had a
house dance, and I forget what the others were — but there were only
four occasions in the year, and then you probably had a blind date

Anti-Semitism — my overall impression is that it was virtually non-
existent. I haven't asked anybody specifically. I had that very rough
treatment, but I really believe it was because I was an immigrant.

What you learn is an almost collectivist team work kind of
approach to life, that if you're a part of something you have to carry
your share of the load . . . through team sports, through being part of
an institution You felt some responsibility to your fellow.

I didn't have a lot of friends but I had maybe three or four, two of
whom I still see. I never presented myself as an Upper Canada boy or
tried to pretend that there was an Old Boy network. I suppose some
people do. I didn't, and I don't know whether it exists. But the legacy
for me of Upper Canada College was that it provided marvellous
insights into Canadian society at its very best.

Newman's memories are a contrast to those of D. J. M. Heap, head
boy of 1943. Heap was a Canadian whose memories of the College,
written the year he left, make no mention of the war or the effect it was
having on the school. As a new boy he was lonely, but as time went on
and he was drawn into things he felt differently:

. . . the school was too full of activity for you to be a hermit . . . there
were always organizations to satisfy your urge for talking, for creating.
You acted in the Little Theatre, and vividly recollect how the seconds
passed as you forgot your lines, while the prompter thought it was a
dramatic pause. Yet the plays were dull compared to the Opera, with
the scenery and music and chorus, and the master in the wings hissing
"Sing!"; the best opera was the last one — the one you had no time for.
There was time for scarcely a tenth of the things you wanted to do.
Still, you were in debates; though you rarely won, you always enjoyed
them at the expense of your opponents; and the Curfew Club, where
you ate and dozed and listened amiably to someone else think; even
the Battalion . . . you felt real excitement as you moved off for a route
march, with the band thundering, the dust rising from the track, the

239

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

officers calling orders, the oc out of step and Miss Barrow watching
from the bank.

So always your returning thought wanders at last to old friends,
and long talks with one by the tower window that contemplates
Toronto, or in the prayer-hall at dusk, and walks under the crab-ap-
ple trees above the New Field. And still you walk with him, longing
for what might have been, talking again of what was, till you come
and stand where the books gaze down at you; here, surrounded by
minds of the past, as sun and the Oval green roll in through the ivy-
framed window, you too know that life has been very good.

Many students besides Newman and Heap enjoyed the clubs and
hobbies. The old reliables continued: photography, anthropology, sci-
ence, radio, a lot of music, and the Curfew Club. Stamps and chess were
on and off. A steady and popular group was the School's Settlement
Society, which helped underprivileged children at the University Settle-
ment. New clubs formed with varying success and dealt with chamber
music, sketching, travel, commerce and finance, and mathematics. The
finest new development was the Little Theatre, which became an
immediate success in 1945 under J. D. MacDonald. The group had had
some earlier hits under Fred Mallett, but it had run down a little and
MacDonald happily refurbished it. MacDonald felt that creativity was
what the College was all about, and he was given a free hand in this
area (though he had a long fight with the custodians of tradition, espe-
cially in regard to the annual Gilbert and Sullivan). Fine arts to Mac-
Donald constituted a teaching area, not a performing area; it was
worth while as a medium in which to develop a human being, to add to
a boy's knowledge of the world. It was under his leadership that the Lit-
tle Theatre started to play a significant, prominent role in College life.1

The visiting speaker's program, so prominent under Grant, seemed
to come alive again under McKenzie. Someone addressed the boys
every ten days during his entire principalship. A significant number of
these speakers — more than a third — were clergymen, and almost a
third of the discussions were on religious topics. Many were on current
affairs and were delivered by J. H. Biggar, and a new interest was

240

SCHOOL LIFE IN THE LATE THIRTIES AND FORTIES

stirred in French Canada. The religious talks naturally stressed values.
Perhaps McKenzie was making an attempt to battle the decline in val-
ues and in religious interest. The College Times of July 1942 regretted
"the general decline in standards of thought and behaviour and ... of
concern with duty towards God." It called on the College to take a lead
among schools to remedy the situation. Understandably, it did not say
how to go about it.

241

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Emergency

1 949 -i 965

A GOVERNORS' SUB-COMMITTEE consisting of Vincent Massey,
Major General Bruce Matthews, and Graeme Watson searched
for McKenzie's successor. A long list of names, essentially Cana-
dian, was drawn up: headmasters, university academics, with two or
three Americans added. The terms of reference were broad, but there
was some emphasis on Canadian experience and experience as a princi-
pal. Evidently North Americans were not available, however, and the
committee turned to Sir Edward Peacock to help form a British list.
This endeavour was aided by Philip Ketchum, headmaster of TCS, who
visited Ireland in the spring of 1949 and saw one of the nominees, the
Reverend C. W. Sowby, Warden (headmaster) of St. Columba's Col-
lege. Born in Lincolnshire in 1902 and educated at Oxford, Sowby had
been at St. Columba's for sixteen years. He was flown to Toronto in
May for interviews, including one with Vincent Massey. Fears about
his being an ordained clergyman were allayed, and in June the board
announced his appointment. During the discussions Sowby had asked
the two key questions which he felt a prospective principal ought to ask:
would he have full authority to appoint staff and would he have free-
dom to teach religious knowledge? Having been assured on both points,
Sowby accepted the principalship at a salary of eight thousand dollars
and took up his responsibilities in September. Although it was ninety
years since a minister of the Church of England (Scadding) had had
any influence in College affairs, the enrolment had always had an An-
glican majority and the school had been widely considered as an Angli-
can one. Now, for the first time since the days of Harris and McCaul

242

EMERGENCY

over a century before, ucc had an Anglican clergyman from England
at its head.

The College had half a dozen problems in 1949. Except for about
twenty scholarships, it had almost no endowment. Masters' salaries
were low: the Upper School average of $3,400 and the Prep average of
$2,900 were about $650 below the Toronto averages. There was some
lack of confidence in the school, resulting in a low enrolment: with
accommodation for 465, there were 287 day boys, 100 boarders, and no
waiting list. Sowby wrote later that he had some doubts about the
buildings. He thought the infirmary on the third floor was a fire trap
and the day-boys' dining-room in the basement very ugly. He was also
shaken by the top floor of the main building, where "the windows and
doors showed no right angles or parallel lines."1 Furthermore, he was
concerned about what he saw as a general Old Boy philosophy that a
properly run school should pay its own way from fees. A few Old Boys
had been enormously generous, but the great majority felt no financial
responsibility to their old school. Lastly, Sowby felt at a loss to deal with
the hysteria accompanying the football and hockey games against the
other Little Big Four schools.

The school's top priorities had not materially changed in thirty
years: they were salaries, pensions, and scholarships. The Memorial
Fund collected during McKenzie's time was intact, though not large
enough to erect the Memorial Hall originally hoped for. Sowby's first
idea was to use this fund for more and larger scholarships to attract boys
from everywhere: from small Ontario towns, from French Canada,
from Eskimo and Indian settlements, from the armed forces and diplo-
matic missions overseas, from the United States, from the Caribbean,
and so on.2 Old Boy sentiment, however, so strongly favoured a visible
memorial that an alternative plan was produced which would satisfy
the Old Boys and at the same time solve two of the worst problems in
the building: the infirmary and the day-boys' dining-room. These
would be combined in a Memorial Wing.

Simultaneously with these discussions, an Upper Canada College
Foundation3 was begun under the directorship of Harold A. Roberts,
an Old Boy and long-time enthusiastic College supporter. The Founda-

243

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

tion listed for the College community its needs in addition to the
Memorial Wing: enlarged accommodation for the Prep; a chapel; artifi-
cial ice; married quarters; an extension to the gym; and, of course, bur-
saries, scholarships, and salary and pension improvement. In October
1 95 1 Prime Minister St. Laurent laid the foundation stone for the
Memorial Wing, which was in use by the following September. The
building cost $300,000, of which almost $120,000 came from the 1932
Massey Endowment. The Prep received a boost because 1952 was its
fiftieth jubilee: enough money was collected over a five-year period to
erect a classroom and office block joining the 1902 and 1922 buildings,
a gym, and a separate headmaster's house on the main avenue.

Staff salaries received a good deal of thought in the early fifties. In
April 1 95 1 G. Y. Ormsby, the College bursar, produced for the board a
long memorandum which came to grips with some hard facts: UCC was
competing with Toronto salaries, which were as high as any in the
province, and with a very generous pension scheme which Upper Can-
ada could not match. Ormsby stated that the College's objectives
should be to narrow, if not eliminate altogether, the gaps between the
two systems, and to fix a basic scale. He recommended a regular annual
salary increase and a maximum, but he did not feel the College could
match the Toronto minimum. Ormsby emphasized the enormous
differential in the pension schemes. As a result of his figures, the fifties
were defined (as much as by any other development) by a steady series
of fee raises and a steady rise in masters' salaries. The day-boy fees rose
over 120 per cent to $850, the boarder fees over 70 per cent to $1,750.
During the same period the average salary rose from $3,200 to over
$5,100. Some individual salaries were up over 90 per cent. Another
important development was that masters who had Ontario teaching
certificates could join the Ontario Teachers' Superannuation Fund. At
the same time, UCC drew up a pension scheme of its own. All this was
accompanied by a steady rise in day-boy enrolment, pushing the Upper
School numbers to over 450.

A few academic changes took place in the fifties. The sixth form, an
old concept, was reintroduced. This was a special form designed to give
gifted boys an extra year of intellectual stimulus, physical and social

244

EMERGENCY

maturity, and leadership opportunities, after completing their grade-
thirteen year. All the boys had been accelerated at some point. There
was always some scepticism about the value of the year among parents,
boys, and masters, but most of those who experienced it thought it
worth while, and a large proportion had outstanding university records.
The experiment ended about ten years later because some boys were
taking the two grade-thirteen years to get as high an average as possi-
ble; some universities, among them Toronto, decided to discriminate
against these boys and favour those completing the work in one year.

Another innovation was accommodation for boys who did not wish
to take Latin. For some years this subject had been compulsory for all
boys except those in grade thirteen; after 1950 one or more non- Latin
forms appeared in the school program. This marked the beginning of
the end for Latin as a discipline central to the UCC curriculum. By 1979
Latin was mandatory for grade nine only.

When Sowby arrived, the Upper School forms were very carefully
divided into five streams (ai, A2, bi, B2, and B3), with boys placed
according to their marks of the previous year. Competition for A forms
was very keen; the boys were younger and abler and had to take an
extra subject. One master of this period felt that the A forms were the
best in the country, bi was satisfactory, but B2 and B3 were badly
ignored. Starting in the mid fifties this rigid scheme was gradually sof-
tened into two streams, with the forms in each stream being of equal
ability. At the same time it was presumed that all boys entering the
school were potential candidates for senior matriculation; there was no
idea of introducing commercial or technical courses.

In 1950 an Upper School entrance exam was introduced under the
guidance of Arthur Killip. Killip had taught at both the Prep and the
Upper School in the twenties and then had become the first headmaster
of Hillfield School in Hamilton. Anxious to drop administrative worries
and return to teaching, he rejoined UCC and undertook the selection of
new boys entering grade nine, as well as the task of looking carefully
over a number of the weaker boys coming up from the Prep.

One of Sowby's original concerns had been the teaching of religious
knowledge. To fill what he felt was a great need, he, helped by Mrs.

245

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

Sowby, taught scripture to grades nine through eleven and to the sixth
form, as well as taking the regular Sunday evening boarders' chapel
service. He found it extremely difficult to make the Sunday evening
services meaningful, and after he left, the religious-knowledge classes
were dropped. One thing, however, pleased him very much. He was
anxious that the school have a chapel. Some senior boys suggested to
him that a cloister on the west side of the quadrangle was being badly
used and would make an ideal chapel site. Governor General Massey
liked the idea and agreed to finance it as a memorial to his late wife
Alice. The completion of this project was postponed by the 1958 catas-
trophe, but it was finally dedicated in October i960. For some years a
weekly evening service was held there, as were Anglican confirmation
classes. Some Old Boys have been married there.

In the winter of 1958 Sowby received a strange letter from an old
acquaintance in Quebec predicting some kind of building trouble and
an evacuation. Five weeks later a firm of engineers was called in to
investigate some deterioration in the roof of the main building, and
Ormsby warned Sowby that a large repair bill was imminent. With this
background Sowby attended a governors' meeting on March 11 to be
given the stunning news that the main building was in a serious state of
deterioration, a heavy snowfall might bring down the roof and more
besides, and that the entire building must be evacuated without delay.

In its long history Upper Canada College had sailed some rough
seas. A tradition had grown of battening down the hatches and riding
things out, with every member of the crew pulling his or her own
weight. The 1958 crisis was no different. The evacuation was quick and
smooth. The governors were then faced with three alternatives: close
down, move the school to Norval, or make temporary arrangements
until funds for rebuilding became available. The first choice was
unthinkable; the second would have changed irrevocably the character
of the school; that left the third.

Portable classrooms were immediately ordered and put into use.
Masters and maids were scattered abroad, three of the latter living in
Grant House for thirty months. The bursar's office moved to the Prep,
as did Killip. Morale remained high. Through all the travail, enrol-

246

EMERGENCY

ment remained steady, and the books showed a surplus which was typi-
cal of the decade. In September 1958 the governors showed their faith
in the future and their shrewdness by announcing an increase of 10 per
cent in the total salary budget, the largest total in the school's history.

An amendment to the 1900 Upper Canada College Act was passed,
enabling the College to borrow more than $100,000. Under the leader-
ship of Maitland Macintosh, the chairman of the board, and Bruce
Matthews, the chairman of the financial campaign, the College put up
a target of $2,930,000 for the community to aim at. The Globe and Mail
supplied strong editorial support, arguing that since the College was
devoted almost entirely to preparing students for higher education, it
could not be regarded as separate from the university; Upper Canada
College had traditions of scholarship, quality, civility, pride; high stan-
dards had been maintained when in other places they had fallen into
decay. The paper was less enthusiastic about the condemned building,
which was "undistinguished and jerry-built."

It did not take long to raze the structure into which Dickson had
moved his school sixty-seven years before. The students gathered on the
Prep field to watch the weathercock being removed from the pinnacle
of the tower. When it finally descended, a collective sigh rose: an era
had ended.

The planning of the new building was a joint effort, with all mem-
bers of the faculty joining one committee or another to make it as
efficient as possible. Old Boy sentiment, however, severely limited any
changes the planners wanted to make. There was much love for the old
building no matter what its faults, and the tower, a Toronto landmark,
symbolized for some the lofty ideals which had upheld the school over
the years. The new building, therefore, looked much like the old one.

The Building Appeal was enormously successful. Banks, insurance
companies, and industry — none of which had previously given to sec-
ondary education — were generous in their donations. There were
almost 3,500 donors; gifts ranged from $5 to $300,000. Old Boys aver-
aged $620; parents averaged over $500. There was a general feeling that
this was a real emergency, unlike any other the school had experienced;

247

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

it was a case of do or die. By October 1958, 60 per cent of the objective
had been reached.

In May 1959 the cornerstone of the new school was laid by Gover-
nor General Vincent Massey. That summer h.r.h. The Prince Philip
paid the school a visit, which was taken to be a beneficial omen.* In
April i960 Field Marshal Montgomery dedicated the new front doors,
which had been presented by the Queen's Own Rifles of Canada, and
in September the new building was opened by Vincent Massey. The
cost of $3,200,000 had been fully subscribed, a tribute to the genius of
Macintosh and his colleagues and to the friends of the College who had
dug deep to meet the challenge.

UCC had lived to fight again. It entered the sixties with a brand new
facility but no illusions about the future. During the crisis, D. S. Beatty,
a governor, had written to a parent: "the fee structure over the years
has been insufficient to maintain the facilities. . . . Despite the generosity
of benefactors the school had no endowment (in 1958) . . . and barely

enough working capital for normal requirements UCC is the same as

other Canadian independent schools."^ Beatty concluded that since
Canada was a young country, the generosity of all who believed in
independent education would be needed.

Even as those words were being written, a governors' committee of
Macintosh, H. H. Wilson, and G. P. Clarkson was holding a series of
meetings to consider optimum enrolment, salaries, fee structure, the
state of the physical plant, and anything else that was relevant. Some of
their recommendations became outdated by circumstances,6 but the
Royal Commission, as it was called, was a systematic attempt by the
governors to analyse all the human, financial, and construction ques-
tions which the school faced. It alerted the entire board to the necessity
of foresight and planning. Despite the recent generous raises, starting
salaries in i960 were still lower than those in Toronto schools. The com-
mittee wanted to close this gap and delete the differences between
Upper School and Prep salaries. It also recommended a three-year pro-
gram of renovation in the Peacock Building and the revitalization of
the Foundation. The pension plan was much improved and group life,
accident, and sickness insurance were introduced.

248

EMERGENCY

The building emergency and all that it entailed drained Sowby. He
had had no privacy for about thirty months, and his last years at the
College were spent in poor health. In 1962 an administrative committee
was formed to assist him. It examined the whole question of staff
remuneration — salaries, perquisites, compulsory retirement, tenure of
office. The committee's recommendations, like so much else in the six-
ties, were overtaken by the rapid movement of events outside the school.
UCC was constantly reacting because it was in no financial position to
force the pace. Despite the progress made during the fifties, masters felt
that they were not adequately paid, and most had to work elsewhere
during the summer. There was a good deal of turnover among them:
the common room was unstable; in Sowby 's later years morale was
poor.

After the building emergency and into the early sixties, the College,
in common with much of the western world, was in cultural shock. It
was an especially trying period for those in charge of secondary educa-
tion, and Sowby was no exception. In fact, because of his clerical back-
ground he may have found the situation incomprehensible with no
church authority to back him up. He kept his attitude of spiritual tran-
quillity, his belief in tradition and in ritual, but most of the students
lived in a different world, one in which his moral authority was shaky.
His kindly naivete, his expectation that people would do the right
thing, his belief in the importance of public relations, his fear of unpop-
ularity— these were no substitute for determined checking on bad
teaching or disciplinary action in cases of bad behaviour. He had the
good of the school at heart, but after fifteen busy years, his time had
come. In March 1964 Sowby and the board chairman, H. H. Wilson,
agreed that he would retire the following year.

249

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

School Life Under Sowby

1 949 -i 965

UNTIL THE MAIN BUILDING WAS DEMOLISHED IN 1958, school life
in the fifties was fairly quiet: the boys continued to learn, to
laugh, to grow. The Prep is remembered by both boarders and
day boys. "Diary of a Boarder at the United Empire Academy" must
echo the memories of many boarders of that era (or any era):

Thursday, January 5th: Mr. La Bouche was on duty in the dorm. He
confiscated my Luger water gun, but I still have my pee-wee and I will
get a syrup bottle.

Saturday, January 7th: I sold a toy car to one of the Juniors for $2.00.
That is about 300% profit. I bought a syrup bottle. It squirts magnifi-
cently.

Sunday, January 8th: Fungus and I were making candy in the base-
ment before Chapel when we were raided by some other boys. They
started throwing it around till it got caught in Fungus' hair. Later,
some Intermediates trapped four Seniors in the locker room. I was one
of the trapped. We got water from the showers and bombed them from
the top of the lockers.

Monday, January 9th: Fungus grabbed my feet in skating and in
doing so got a skate blade between the eyes. Gallons of blood were all
over the rink. I did not realise he had so much.

Tuesday, January 10th: Fungus, Horsy and I had a feast last night.
We are going to have a more elaborate one to-night. We had a small
fight with the other dorm.

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SCHOOL LIFE UNDER SOWBY

Wednesday, January nth: We had a fire drill last night. It took 2
mins., 3 sees. We were all awake before it started. Mr. Richard said
this was very good.

Thursday, January 12th: We are having our third and final feast to-
night.

Friday, January 13th: We had the feast last night. We were nearly
caught by the mod but Fungus hid under the bed. We think the mas-
ter must have been half asleep.

George Hayhurst, an enthusiastic athlete, was at the Prep from
1953 to 1958:

The Prep definitely had a positive impact on me as I now look back
upon those years with a great deal of satisfaction and enjoyment.
Whether I would have turned out any differently had I gone to, say,
John Ross Robertson public is a moot point but Fm certain that I
would not have had as much fun nor as interesting relationships as at
ucc. I constantly meet people from those days, and while I am no
longer close friends with anybody from that era, whenever I see people
the rekindling of friendships or acquaintances is always positive.

Athletically while I did not excel, I played on all the teams and
certainly those were my most enjoyable hours at school. Definitely I
was happy at the Prep. It was a great place to be in the 50's. We had a
lot of fun on the fields, made good and interesting friends and even
learned a few facts in the classroom — some of them non-academic. I
suppose the area of my greatest malice toward the school is that
although I did reasonably well scholastically every year, even my last
year when I think I had 62% and finished last in a very clever class — it
was recommended I repeat my year. ... It could have been the stimu-
lus that propelled me to any success I've ever had. ... A good school
the Prep. I just hope the fees don't get so far out of line that I can't
afford to send my two sons there.

Hayhurst's concern about continuity has been expressed by many
Old Boys. Expense and academic potential are the two hurdles to be

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UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

leapt. Yet, God willing, there will always be some continuity. Douglas
Shipp wrote from California:

When I was attending ucc in the Prep School in 1957 I was a new
student from the U.S., a boarder as well as homesick. As you may
remember my Dad had preceded my tenure by approximately 30
years and by his attendance at ucc I was so encouraged.

At any rate I can remember one particular evening I had gone to
the bathroom back in the dorm and upon being seated on a toilet stool
I assumed the well-known position. And I began to gaze at the closed
partition door and after inspection of the many initials and inscrip-
tions one caught my eye. It was reasonably well carved and one I had
never seen before. Yet it brought me more personal warmth, pride,
enthusiasm and feeling than anything else ever could. It read: Frank
L. Shipp sat here 1929.

Need I say any more?

Standards continued to remain high academically, athletically, and
in the extra-curricular programs. Douglas Peppiatt, who entered the
Upper School in 1952, wrote:

... the academic program at Upper Canada College continues to be of
value to me. It was there that I acquired my love of the English lan-
guage which has continued to be a source of both pleasure and profit
to me ever since. It was also at the College that I became interested in
history which also continues to give me considerable pleasure. There is
nothing I can contribute concerning the curriculum but the most val-
uable academic resources were people —

I was never a very good athlete and by the time I got into the

Upper School I was not even a very enthusiastic spectator I always

felt that athletics were somewhat over-emphasized at Upper Canada
in my day and that the star athletes were somewhat over-valued, a
feeling which may not be entirely untinged with jealousy. Neverthe-
less, assuming that physical exercise is necessary for growing boys, I
can think of no way that some of us . . . would ever have got any if it
had not been compulsory.

I found the extracurricular program to be of great value at the

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SCHOOL LIFE UNDER SOWBY

time and I think that some of its effects still linger. The College Times, of
which I was Prep Editor, and the debating club in the Upper School
were great fun and contributed to my ability to write and speak. Simi-
larly what was then the United Nations Club fostered a political inter-
est which has never died. I cannot say that the Junior Farmers Club
created any great love for the soil in me, but it certainly ended any lin-
gering thoughts of going into the meat-packing business. Strangely
enough I thoroughly enjoyed the battalion in the Upper School,
although I never rose from the ranks. I feel that it was a great mistake
to make it a voluntary organization.

There is no doubt that my years at UCC were happy ones,
although not entirely so. This is more a result of the human condition
than a reflection on the College, although it was not, either in theory
or practice, perfect, any more than I expect it is today. I did feel then,
and I am even more aware in retrospect, that the teaching staff was
capable and dedicated. I made many friends at the College and many
of those friendships continue to the present day. The College was, and
still is, in Dr. Sowby's words "A Family Writ Large." Most of us felt a
bond with each other because of the College, and that bond still con-
tinues for many of us. I was aware at the time of learning, that such
learning was necessary, and I think that the College made it as pain-
less as was compatible with effectiveness, and a part of it was positively
enjoyable.

John Ridpath echoed Peppiatt:

I can't overestimate the impact the College had on me. To this
day, when life seems to have lost a little direction or sense, I still go
back to wander around the grounds, or the halls, and there I still find
the nourishment and confidence that I benefited from so much in
those formative years. If I believed in ghosts, I think I would want to
spend my years as a ghost wandering the halls and watching ucc work
its magic on the boys who are so fortunate to be there. . . . My years at
the College (1950-55) were the single most important and formative
experience of my life.

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UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

An anonymous Old Boy's terse comments provide a somewhat
different perspective. He described the academic program as:

Good solid, no-nonsense basics; lack of subject choice an advantage to
the naive teenager. Major disadvantage was the "three sets of exams"
format. This led to a cramming mentality in later years. Likewise the
lack of assignments other than nightly homework.

Bad memories!! As nearly the smallest and youngest of the form,
who could hope to make the first team against those Herculean
gladiators? Always felt that the principal tended to over-glorify foot-
ball/hockey heroes while ignoring the hard workers in the lesser
sports.

Being hopelessly un-athletic, remember the Phys. Ed. master try-
ing to persuade me to do a "flip" on the trampoline. "Alright, do a
somersault!!" Yours truly obediently placed head on trampoline,
pushed with scrawny legs and wobbled to a supine position. The col-
our on the master's face would have fried an egg. He never spoke to
me in my remaining two years at the college. Athletes are born, not
made.

The cadet battalion, which had such a hard time in the sixties, had
this boy's support:

Great experience, discipline, bladder training, loved target shooting,
mock battles with Queen's Own. Still feel capable of disassembling/ as-
sembling Lee Enfield and Bren blindfolded.

My years at ucc were unqualifiedly happy. Level of example set
by staff and guest speakers far beyond that available elsewhere in
Canada, ucc smoothed adolescence, taught ethics, stressed duties over
"rights."

In March 1958 the main building was condemned as unsafe. One of
the senior students, Ian Easterbrook (a grandson of Henry Auden) sent
home the following detailed account of the dramatic days following the
decision to evacuate the structure.

On Tuesday March 11, 1958, at 11.00 a.m. a report from Messrs.

254

SCHOOL LIFE UNDER SOWBY

Mathers and Haldenby, Architects, and Wallace, Carruthers and
Associates Limited, consulting engineers, was placed before the Board
of Governors. It stated that in the event of some unusual stress (high
winds, wet snow, earth tremors) the roof and clock tower of the main
building may collapse.

An emergency meeting of the Board of Governors was held at 4.00
p.m. on that day. It was decided that in order to endanger no lives, the
building should be evacuated at once.

The boarders of Seaton's House were notified at 9.30 p.m. that
evening.

The next morning all the maids, who had quarters in the main
building, were moved to the infirmary [or to Grant House]. The mas-
ters who had apartments were moved. The front office was moved to a
room in the infirmary. Dr. Bassett's office was now in his house. The
principal's secretary was in Grant House. All the above had taken
place before 7.30 a.m. on Wednesday, when the Wedd's boarders were
told of the crisis by Mr. Cape, junior housemaster. His announcement
that the school had been condemned brought laughs, but when he
announced the school would be closed for about a week, you can imagine the
shouts of glee!

At 9.00 a.m. on Wednesday the school met in the gym, with the
masters, and Dr. Sowby announced to the school exactly what the sit-
uation was. The acting chairman of the Board of Governors spoke
briefly.

By noon all was to be moved from the building, and it was to be
sealed. This was of course impossible, but nevertheless an effort was
made.

All boys were forbidden to enter the building. Immediately after
the Board of Governors' decision to condemn the building, all the
masters and help who entered were required to sign a paper freeing
the school of responsibility in the event of collapse.

Numerous changes were effected immediately. The bursar moved
to the prep. The masters' common room was moved to the squash
courts, under the gym. The meals were served to the boarders and
masters in the Memorial Dining Hall under the infirmary. The sports
shop was moved to a room in Seaton's Basement. The library followed,
moving into another room in Seaton's basement, a few days later.

255

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

The main building on Thursday was sealed, all doorways being
locked or boarded up. The clock in the tower continued to operate, as
did the bell system. The electricity was shut off, however.

Within a few days lumber, up to 12' x 12' began to arrive to be
used as supports in the engine room, which was likewise condemned,
yet compelled to continue supplying heat and light.

Master meetings were held and certain men were placed in charge
of particular problems:

Mr. Davidson — food, meals.

Mr. Gallimore — publicity.

Mr. Harrison — evacuation.

etc.

Several masters were staying in Grant House and Rosemary
Sowby remarked that she couldn't remember when she had seen so
many empty liquor bottles.

On Friday and Saturday the tower rooms {College Times room,
Radio Club room, Physics lab.) were stripped.

On Sunday a catering service supplied lunch and supper to give
the maids a rest.

On Monday another meeting of the Board of Governors took
place. At 1 1 .00 a.m. the next day, Dr. Sowby met with the stewards,
and with the rest of the masters at 5.00 p.m.

On Monday and Tuesday the Art Room was cleaned out and
most of the supplies were moved to a room in Wedd's Basement.

Photographs were taken of the Prayer Hall and Main Hall.

The carpenter shop in the basement of the main building contin-
ued to function.

On Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday (March 19, 20, 21) the
organ was removed from the Prayer Hall by Eaton's Organ Company.
It was to be stored.

For a week, trucks had been removing stuff from the college, either
to be sold (Wedd's billiard table, numerous pianos) or to be stored
(Prayer Hall furniture, master's belongings).

On Thursday and Friday of the previous week, review classes had
been arranged for 5th forms. Their exams started on March 1 8.

Numerous rumors flew. It was suggested that one-half million dol-
lars was at the school's disposal to rebuild.

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SCHOOL LIFE UNDER SOWBY

On Wednesday March 12, the Minister of Education (Dunlop)
proposed an amendment to the Upper Canada College Act . . . allow-
ing the school to spend more than $100,000 a year. The amendment
was passed.

Work on the chapel, as such, was halted as that room will no
doubt be used as a classroom next year.

About six prefabs (one, sports shop, 3, to be labs) are to be erected
on the tennis courts.

All masters have cleared their rooms. Numerous bits of furniture
have found their way to the boarding houses or to the masters' homes
(e.g. Harold Roberts, Mr. Sharp, Mr. Davidson) Mr. Biggar has
worked industriously moving beds, etc., into his residence.

It has been announced unofficially that there will be no 6th form
next year.

Mr. Law, after spending several days at a golf clubhouse, is mov-
ing into a room in Wedd's. Mr. Orr has taken over the Wedd's pre-
fects room as an absentee office and archives bureau.

The crafts shop has been moved from the main building basement
to the basement of Grant House.

On Thursday evening, Dr. Sowby came in to Wedd's evening
prayers and stated that the school has no funds to rebuild, and all
money will have to come from Old Boys' pockets. He foresees a new
modern building, with new desks etc. in a few years (he declined to
estimate how long).

[Description of (forbidden) visit to condemned building]

On Thursday Morning, Eric and I got up at 5.30 and made an
inspection of the Main building. We discovered that all the chemicals
from the labs, and a certain amount of physics equipment was in the
gallery of the pool.

Rooms 10 1, 102, 103, 104 looked like antique shops. All the furni-
ture from the upper floors, desks, chairs, record players (3 wind up)
was amassed in these four rooms, awaiting destinations. It was a
pathetic sight.

The little theatre had been untouched, and everywhere diagrams,
notes, scribblings, remained on blackboards, just as if all were normal.

The portraits had been removed from the prayer hall. The hon-
ours boards remained. The organ was partly disassembled.

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UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

The physics lab, and chemistry lab were bare. Mr. Killip's apart-
ment was empty. We went into the tower and found all the classrooms
and club rooms painfully bare. We climbed 20 feet above the fourth
floor into the tower itself, up a tiny winding staircase.

There were dozens of empty maids' rooms which were quite bar-
ren except for an occasional picture or calendar on the wall.

We found the Art Room a shambles. There were paintings (on
paper) all over the floor. Tins, opera paint, scraps of leather, card-
board boxes, were everywhere. Mr. Brennan's room, a chemistry-phys-
ics lab, was not quite empty. A skeleton remained in a locked
cupboard.

Mr. Cape's chemistry lab was still filled with chemicals, waiting to
come down several flights of stairs. Mr. Gilham's physics lab was
clean, except for writing, solutions to problems, all over the boards.

By this time it was getting light. We left by the gym, climbing over
piles of cardboard boxes waiting to be stored.

The school has done an excellent job keeping us informed (not
about the fate of the school. ... I had to dig details out from stewards,
house matrons, passing masters, etc.) with respect to classes, exams,
etc. A report will be sent to you soon outlining what is to become of
the school buildings.

How serious is the crisis:

When the school was last inspected six years ago it was known to
be in fair shape only. You may remember that in the fall work was just
completed on supports in the east wing. A slipping of 6" in various
members necessitated the installation of numerous hefty steel beams.

The school felt that it was only sensible to begin a preventive
maintenance scheme, and hoped to reinforce the rest of the main
building in two stages working during this coming summer and the
next.

The school now is faced with this: The clock tower, and tower and
third floors must come down. If the building is saved it will have only
two storeys. It is likely that a completely new building will be erected
as Dr. Sowby talks enthusiastically along those lines.

It will probably be about five years before all is restored to normal.
Some people have spoken of the rebuild job as a 5 million dollar
project.

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SCHOOL LIFE UNDER SOWBY

I'm sure several of the masters will leave. Miss Barrow's assistant
Mrs. Lamont is to go as soon as a replacement is found.

It is inconceivable what would have happened if one of the gym,
infirmary or boarding houses was lacking.

Tuesday March 25.

5.30 Again this morning. Master's Common Room. Notice re.
school sent to parents. Two other current notices, one from Sowby to
masters about morale, efforts — congratulations and exhortations. The
other was from a committee in classrooms

The basement is divided approximately in two for its entire length
by supports of braced 2x4. The print shop is just moving out. The
camera club room has been deserted. We skipped up to the Prayer
Hall. Organ is entirely out. Picture of Lord Seaton is gone. Boards
alone remain. Several are down already. Cape's room is cleaned.
Desks in Jack Gilham's room are lying down (ready to be lowered out
a window?). Library has books piled on the floor. Old Boys office emp-
ty. Dining hall is empty. Common Room clean. Sowby's offices lit-
tered with papers.

Organ stored by parking lot entrance. Theatre cleaned out. Still
piles of chemicals, equipment in little gym. Most of stuff cleaned out of
corridors, etc. 10 1, 102 etc. bare.

Bell system is out. Fluorescent lights being stored in Bursar's office.

Much work outside. Portables are arriving in the shape of large
lumber piles, foundations are being dug. Trench is being dug from gas
line over to Grant House.

John Linn's room: slowly being cleaned. Most of his furniture has
gone but all his junk sits ready to be packed.

In September i960 the new building was opened. A decade of rapid,
almost frightening change had begun. Life in the school could not help
being influenced by fresh values. Before many years had passed, Dr.
Sowby retired and the College was looking for a new principal.

259

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

The Recent Past

7 ""he GOVERNORS did not look far for Sowby's successor. Patrick T.
Johnson, MA, age thirty-nine, had been born in north-east India and
educated in England. At the age of eighteen he had joined the Gurk-
has and served with them for three and a half years. He had then taken
a degree at Oxford in politics, economics, and philosophy. For the next
seven years he had taught in Florida and at his old school, Rossall. In
1958 he joined the staff at UCC to teach history and English and coach
nearly all games. His reputation as both a teacher and a housemaster
were outstanding when he was appointed principal in 1965.

In 1967 Johnson articulated as the College's purpose the provision
of "a well-balanced education . . . [in] an environment which stresses
tradition, religion, independence, competition, opportunities for leader-
ship and a healthy discipline" in order to build character and encour-
age initiative. The College aimed "to serve Canada by providing her
with . . . young men dedicated to service, loyal to their country . . . with
intellectual, physical and spiritual qualities."1 It was hard enough to
specify aims and objectives; to attain them was a Herculean task.

The sixties, especially the second half, were tough, tough years at
Upper Canada College, as they were for education all over the world.
The College shared the stresses and strains evident everywhere. The
remarkable shifts in values, the overwhelming presence of the Vietnam
War, the loosening of parental control, the meteoric rise of science and
technology following Sputnik, the continuing decline in religious faith
in the West, the surge towards a wide variety of drugs, the professionali-
zation of amateur sport — how could UCC remain untouched by all this?

260

THE RECENT PAST

The school had many non-academic problems to solve. In a throwaway
world, where millions of young people simply wore the same clothes
until they disintegrated, where did traditional jackets and school ties fit
in? The battle against long hair was lost before it began. A decline in
the cadet corps steepened considerably as the decade ran its course.
While drugs and alcohol were pervasive in society, at the College they
were dealt with swiftly. Johnson was whipsawed between the boys, who
wanted to make changes on many fronts as quickly as possible, and the
Old Boys and parents, many of whom wanted him to do their jobs by
resisting change alone. There were times when he felt out of touch with
the students.

Still the College bent, sometimes into, sometimes with, the winds
and struggled through. The Hall-Dennis report, which changed the
face of Ontario education, was carefully studied and pretty well repudi-
ated: neither Johnson nor his colleagues believed in much of the philos-
ophy, and what they did believe in had been done for years anyway.
The repudiation added to the College's appeal for those parents who
rejected what appeared to be the lack of challenge and competition in
the new educational testament. The dropping of the grade-thirteen pro-
vincial examinations in 1967 — a very controversial move, though on
balance, probably a sensible one — created difficulties with which the
school took a long time to cope. The same degree of competitiveness
and scholarship became impossible. There was an inevitable drop in
provincial standards, with the attendant problem of how to deal with
the cheapened product. Parents and staff were unanimous in insisting
that UCC should not introduce any overly simple courses. Because John-
son and the masters opposed inflationary marks, the bright students did
not win their fair share of university scholarships, nor did they get into
the universities of their choice. This situation was still a dilemma in the
mid seventies.

In order to set up priorities, the College board, under chairman D.
M. Woods, undertook a long-range planning process between 1967 and
1972, centred on the curriculum. A faculty curriculum committee
chaired by J. L. Coulton was formed; eight groups — four at the Upper
School, four at the Prep — were asked to study and report on academics,

261

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

athletics, extra curriculum,2 and faculty matters. The key academic
recommendation was that the school should remain basically a univer-
sity training ground and should therefore keep its core curriculum
of English, history, mathematics, French, and science. Options —
geography, biology, German, Latin, art, music — were certainly avail-
able, but nobody could escape the subjects that the faculty felt formed
the heart of learning.

Arising from the final report was a building "Program for Upper
Canada College" costing $1,365,000. Just under eighteen hundred Old
Boys, parents, friends, and corporations donated between $5 and
$100,000. The Upper School got a new library, a lecture theatre, a com-
puter, and an art room. Since the report's publication there has been a
blossoming of art, photography, and other creative endeavours, espe-
cially instrumental music. Cable television was installed in both schools.
For the athletes several new squash courts were constructed, plus a cov-
ered hockey arena. The arena was the gift of a small group of generous
Old Boys. In 1973 a proposal to build a second arena was turned down
after a hot debate; the two deteriorating outdoor rinks were renovated
instead. At the suggestion of the faculty committee a generous educa-
tional or sabbatical leave program was begun; under it one or two mas-
ters have "recreated" themselves every year throughout the seventies.

During the early seventies, as well, the College reorganized to
achieve a broader representation of parents and friends on the gov-
erning board. It had become a tradition for Old Boys to fill all the
vacancies on the board. Now, for the first time it became deliberate pol-
icy to elect non-Old Boy parents as full board members, and as mem-
bers of the board committees. In 1977 Sandra Ryder (Mrs. T. M.)
became the first woman board-member in the College's history. The
Old Boys' Association, which had given sterling service for almost
eighty years, became a committee of the board. This change was a deli-
cate operation which gave some pain to the OBA, but when it was over
and the wounds had healed, the group took on renewed vigour.

Johnson had long stated that he would remain as principal for only
ten years. In the spring of 1974, after a difficult decade, he resigned. His
successor was Richard H. Sadleir, who had taught at the Upper School

262

THE RECENT PAST

from 1953 to 1963. He had then gone to help establish Trent Universi-
ty, where he served as vice-president for seven years. Sadleir, educated
at UTS, Trinity College, Toronto, OCE, and Cambridge, was the first
Torontonian to become principal. He and Johnson worked together
during the autumn term and, on January 1, 1975, Sadleir became
ucc's fifteenth principal. Johnson's ten years had been fiendishly
difficult, perhaps as harrowing as any in the College's history, but he
was able to hand over a healthy school. Under Sadleir, the College has
continued at an accelerated pace along the road that Johnson had
charted.

Gradually the relationship between Upper Canada College and the
surrounding community changed. The long-time philosophy about out-
siders using the grounds was defensive. There was even a time in 1948
when a special policeman was engaged to patrol the grounds on Satur-
day after hours and Sundays. Now, the magnet of the hockey arena
attracted outside groups and eventually led to a summer hockey school.
The influx of friendly strangers to the grounds reversed a philosophy of
eighty years — namely, that the grounds were sacred and for the use of
the College alone. When the boys are not using the facilities in the eve-
nings and on weekends, outside groups often make arrangements to use
them. The College has started to operate a music school, a soccer
school, a tennis school, and a summer hostel. Joggers and dog- walkers
cross paths by day and night, and the main avenue is often clogged with
traffic. Solid fences that turned people away have been replaced by see-
through chain link. The face of the campus has changed.

The development of the faculty as a force to be listened to has been
no less dramatic. Masters now attend governors' meetings and help the
administration in salary considerations; they have, with courteous
determination, levered the salaries to a point where they are almost on
a par with their City of Toronto counterparts.

With the escalation of all expenses, especially the valiant attempts
to bring salaries and wages into competitive line, the seventies have wit-
nessed the College racing just to keep up financially. Since 1969 day-
boy fees have risen almost 160 per cent; boarders' fees, 136 per cent. In
spite of this, enrolment is well over 900 in the combined school: the

263

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

Upper School has 455 day boys and 1 1 1 boarders; the Prep, 298 day-
boys and 56 boarders. For a few years during the early seventies the
annual surplus turned into a deep and troublesome deficit, but strict
economies, a more able and active finance committee, a registration fee,
and a new philosophy that deficit financing would no longer be tolerat-
ed, have straightened out the situation.

The academic quality of the school has not been compromised and
has never been better; it is now commonplace for the entire leaving
class to go on to university or community college. Sowby had hoped for
such a school, but numbers were not large enough for him to be very
selective; Johnson specifically stated that university training was UCC's
aim, an aim of which Colborne would have approved. Accompanying
this improvement in quality has been not only the emphasis on the core
but also continued diversity in the games and clubs programs. Debating
has become epidemic and the school teams have done very well. Art
and music flourish. The de-emphasis on the first teams, which Grant
worked for in the twenties, has been accentuated by a variety in the
sports undertaken: rowing, rugger, badminton, curling, volleyball,
handball — whatever boys can play with some competence is encour-
aged.

There has been a subtle change in the character of the student body.
The growth of the enrolment has increased the number of boys from a
wide variety of backgrounds and decreased the ratio of those from old
Toronto families. The address list now reflects Toronto's ethnic variety
and resembles a small United Nations. Contrary to some beliefs, the
College is not an "Old Boys' School," nor has it been at least since the
Second World War. In the last thirty-five years the highest percentage
of sons of Old Boys in the Upper School has been 26 per cent. It has
dropped as low as 9 per cent; at present it stands at 17 per cent. Fewer
parents care about the social "prestige" attached to their sons' atten-
dance; school events are attended not for their social value, which is
insignificant, but because of the basic interest of the performance, cre-
ative or athletic. This was not always so: in the twenties, when Toronto
was smaller, UCC was seen as a centre of social activity as well as an
elite school.

264

THE RECENT PAST

Today administration and the student body see the word elite in a
new light. Sadleir's message to new prefects stresses that "example is the
essence of leadership." The elite are themselves anti-elite: the stewards
no longer see themselves as authoritarian figures but as counsellors to
the younger boys. At their own request their lockers are mingled with
the younger boys', rather than grouped together and isolated. When
students leave Upper Canada College today it is hoped that they carry
with them, not so much a feeling of being better than others, as a feeling
of confidence at having succeeded in a number of varied and challeng-
ing tasks. Knowing its base in wealth, and not especially proud of it, a
pseudo-aristocracy is making strenuous efforts to become a meritocracy.

As the seventies draw to an end, the teaching quality at the College
maintains its traditionally high standard; complacency about it has
never been lower. The physical plant is, generally speaking, sound.
Above all, relationships between board and administration, parents and
teachers, Old Boys and friends of the school have never been healthier.
On the occasion of its 150th anniversary Upper Canada College has
never been more vibrant.

265

SECTION C

Of Special Interest

CHAPTER NINETEEN

The Collegelmes

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE has numbered among its Old Boys many
remarkable Canadians. None is more noteworthy than John Ross
Robertson. Robertson entered the College at the age of eight in
1850 and then left after a term. He returned in 1854 and this time
stayed for four years. He seemed to become involved in everything ex-
cept academics. He was one of the first oarsmen at the school; he
started football on the College grounds; he was the original proponent
of the College gymnasium and in 1858 organized a tournament and
gave prizes for proficiency in College gymnastics. At the age of seven-
teen, he swam across the Toronto Bay. He rode the first bicycle in To-
ronto and organized the first tournament in Grands' Riding Academy.
In addition, he played cricket for the Wellington Cricket Club. Later in
life he founded the Evening Telegram and the Hospital for Sick Children.
He was an MP, he wrote Landmarks of Toronto, and he also became presi-
dent of the Ontario Hockey Association. The greatest service which he
rendered to ucc was in neither academics nor athletics; in 1857, before
he was sixteen, he founded the school paper — the first in Canada —
called The College Times.

Early that year some College boys, among them Robertson, Edward
M. Tiffany, King Arnoldi, and Henry Prettie, started little printing
businesses in their homes, selling individualized, "personalized" labels
to students to paste in their books. Business was so successful that later
that year the boys started to discuss the possibility of a journal. The
project was helped along by fifty dollars which Robertson had received
from his father. The boys had skipped school to watch the Brown-

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Cameron election riot, and Robertson had been hit on the head with a
flying piece of macadam and laid up for some time. The fifty dollars
was a reward for survival and was promptly invested in the first College
printing business.

The first issue of The College Times was dated September 1857 and
cost three cents. Robertson described it as a "two column, five-inch by
eight-inch publication, set in longer primer type." He and his friends
wrote the paper perched "sneaking a smoke,"1 in a large tree in the
College grounds. It had four pages with two columns to each page.
Robertson set the type himself, proofed and corrected it, locked it into
primitive oak chases, and took it down to the old Globe office, where he
had five hundred copies run off on their Washington hand press. As we
have seen, the first issue brought Robertson into trouble because his edi-
torial denounced the College authorities for planning to sell off some of
the King Street frontage. Principal Stennett ordered the word "Col-
lege" removed from the title and forbade its sale on the school grounds.
This short-sighted move ensured the paper's success.

In March 1858, Tiffany started the rival Boy's Own Paper, but Rob-
ertson bought him out within six months. Robertson's paper changed its
name again to The Boy's Times, which became bi-weekly, then weekly.
In April 1859 it added College Growler to its masthead and carried on
until June i860.

On January 30, 1871, The College Times was revived and published
on and off for eighteen months. Some years later principal John Buchan
encouraged a third attempt, a monthly which came out from March
1882 until some time in 1883. In 1886 one year of Volume VI appeared,
and finally in October 1888 The College Times resumed publication and
has continued without a break for ninety-one years. Inevitably inflation
and other activities have taken a toll. From 1871 to 1894 the paper was
published, sometimes bi-weekly, sometimes monthly; from 1894 to 1953
it came out once a term; from 1954 to 1961, twice a year. Since 1962 it
has been a spring annual. All together The College Times contains a
remarkable record of about one hundred years of the school's history.

The content of the paper or magazine has varied. It has depended
somewhat upon the political climate (that is, the principal's views),

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somewhat on the availability of controversial material, but mainly on
the character and personality of the editor. A separate volume could be
written on the history of this great College institution, which has been
crucial to the good health, sanity, and balance of the student body. It
has provided interesting and challenging jobs for scores of boys; it has
opened a forum for student opinion and for creative writing and pho-
tography; it has told anyone who is interested what the school is all
about. Sometimes the paper has thundered at the administration and at
the students like a metropolitan daily; sometimes it has resembled Mad
magazine. If the following extracts lean towards humour, it is because
that is the thread that has linked the first volume to the last.

The earliest issue in existence is called Volume I, Number 5 and is
dated April 15, 1858. Robertson believed in grabbing his readers' atten-
tion. Under the title A Gold Hunters Adventures came the first words, wor-
thy of Hollywood:

Fred's hand involuntarily sought his revolver, but I restrained him:
"No firearms," I whispered, "if we shed a drop of blood we are
doomed men. Keep cool and trust to chance." In all crowds a leader is
wanted

After a page of this, the readers' tongues were hanging out, but like
the old movie serials it was "to be continued" the following week. Rob-
ertson clearly knew his stuff. Other extracts from 1857 to i860 include:

April 15, 1859

Our readers will remember that we made a few remarks in our first
number about the loss the boys would sustain by the fencing off, of a
part of the playground, for other purposes, and doubted the legality of
appropriating a part of the play ground for any other purpose than
that for which it was granted by the Crown.

We are very glad indeed, at being able to inform our subscribers
that our hint has been taken up . . . we have very little doubt that it
will be fully investigated into.

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UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

June I, 1858
THE QUEEN'S BIRTHDAY

. . . The various Fire Companies paraded our streets, attired in their
new uniform. We remarked sundry specimens of the fair sex particu-
larly attracted by No. 2 Hose. They were allowed an opportunity of
displaying their skill, by the breaking out of a fire at Mr. Ross's on
Yonge Street. They succeeded in arresting its progress, at the sacrifice
of their much cherished uniform.
[Robertson himself was in No. 2 Hose.]

We are much affected at having to record Mr. Wedd's sad bereave-
ment of his youngest child. It died on Thursday, the 27th May, at ten
p.m. of inflammation of the lungs, while in the arms of a lady.

Upper Canada College was broken into by an ex-pupil of the institu-
tion on Thursday last. He pulled down the clock, threw a long step
ladder out of the window, entered the second classical master's room
and demolished his desk. . . . He was labouring under a fit of delirium
tremens at the time.

COLLEGE PLAY GROUND

. . . we have devoted much of our space to the College play ground. . . .
The senate have taken up the matter, and have determined on level-
ing the ground . . . (which) will now favourably compete with any
other cricket ground in the province. All lovers of cricket . . . owe the
senate a heavy debt of gratitude for their liberality.

After Robertson left the school there may have been nobody inter-
ested or able enough to carry on. The College had just passed through
the difficult period of the Barron-Maynard scandal, and when Cock-
burn arrived in 1861 he had the tremendous task of rebuilding confi-
dence in the institution. Cockburn does not come across as a man too
sympathetic to student participation. In any event there was no paper
until January 187 1 , when joint editors F. W. Kerr and Len Harston
revived it under its original name:

TO THE BOYS OF THE COLLEGE

Several of your schoolmates, anxious for your improvement and

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amusement, have undertaken the arduous and perilous work of carry-
ing on a newspaper; and in making known their intention to you in
this tangible form ask your hearty support; for on it, and on it alone,
the success of this undertaking entirely depends. The paper will be
essentially a College paper. Every article that will appear in these col-
umns will be the effort of the genius of one of your schoolmates. All
Canadian party politics will be scrupulously excluded from its col-
umns, and it will be the aim of the Editors and the Society, under
whose auspices the paper has been established and will be carried on,
to make it a College paper, — a paper that will not only give full
expression to the opinions and feelings of the boys of this institution,
but besides this, the rising talents of any of the boys will have ample
room for cultivation, expansion, and improvement. Again we ask you
most earnestly to aid this new undertaking in every way in your
power.

The four-page paper had little College news in it except for the
reports of the Literary and Debating Society. Lengthy articles such as
"A Balloon Voyage from Paris" and "Life of Hannibal" filled much of
the space, and the back page was always filled with advertising. There
was also some comment about half-holidays or lack of them, the condi-
tion of the playing fields, and, inevitably, cricket. At the end of the first
six months, the co-editors celebrated their survival:

This issue is our last. The allotted ten numbers have now been issued,
and here is the last of the series number one of College Times, undoub-
tedly and without question, the greatest newspaper the world has ever
seen. The day of its publication has ever been eagerly awaited by the
noblest and the most enlightened of the sons of men, and the distribu-
tors of this remarkably able and influential paper, have often been
well nigh overpowered by the eager throng that pressed around to
receive from their magnanimous hands the paper "par excellence."

The next year's papers were a little better, printing letters to the
editors and a succession of bad jokes: "How many days has the year of
its own? Three hundred and twenty-five because forty of them are

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UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

Lent." Articles advocating the reformation of the marking system were
printed, as were an increasing number of remarks by "A lover of crick-
et" and "Anti-cricketer." Gradually matters of school interest increased
in number and size, and there was a short column given over to answer-
ing correspondents' questions on a variety of College matters. In June
1873 me full account of a cricket match against TCS was published,
anticipating the magazine of twenty years later.

In 1882 T. C. S. Macklem edited the paper. In later life Macklem
became well known as Provost of Trinity College and the man who
accomplished its federation with the University of Toronto. Single cop-
ies cost ten cents, a year's subscription fifty cents.

After an interval of nearly nine years, the College Times again makes its
appearance — excellence cannot be hidden forever. The literary spirit
of the College lay smouldering for a long time beneath the smoking
ruins of the paper that has to-day revived with more than a flickering
flame; but smoke, though it may often assume shapes both pretty and
amusing, was felt to be of too dull and gloomy a nature to suit the
brighter intellects it was overshadowing, and the love of literature has
at length dispelled the cloud, and resolved itself into a tangible
form — the College Times. The pupils of the College take a lively interest
in their new venture, and will spare no trouble to bring about the suc-
cess they so heartily wish for. It is not, however, among the present
pupils only that the resuscitation of the old paper meets with approval,
but also among those of many years back, who still feel a warm inter-
est in anything connected with "the old College" at which their
younger days were spent so happily and with such advantage to them-
selves. The old College Times, we are told, was eagerly read by the boys
at the earliest opportunity and freely discussed and criticised — of
course in the ablest manner. We hope that its present namesake may
enjoy the same popularity, and suffer as little from adverse criticism,
and we, for our part, will endeavour to make it deserving of such
indulgent treatment.

The Varsity welcomed the paper's revival with enthusiasm, claiming
(without much foundation) that it had been suppressed in 1873 f°r

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printing articles attacking an insecure staff, who thereupon squelched
it. The Varsity intimated that Buchan was more open to suggestion than
Cockburn had been and "suggestions can be made fearlessly."2 The
principle of liberty of the press at UCC was warmly applauded by the
university paper.

Macklem's paper was eight pages in length with much larger type
than its predecessors. It discussed the curriculum quite fully, com-
mented on cricket versus baseball, and ran some articles on Old Boys. It
also had a "Locals and Personals" column with briefs on all manner of
things: "R. W. Y. Baldwin has gone to the North-west," "We would
like to see the ladies' schools welcomed at games this year," "Mr. Wedd
has been suffering from a severe cold," and so on. The Debating Society
was reported on, and there were now two pages of advertising.

The short-lived Volume vi, published in 1886-87, was co-edited by
the irrepressible Stephen Leacock. Leacock's production was heartily
praised by Garth Grafton of the Globe in March 1887, a fateful time for
the College.

Last comes The College Times, rejoicing on its way, full of lofty and
overpowering criticism, ambitious and very fair poetry, holiday antici-
pations, breathings of tennis and cricket in the near future, yet not
without ballast in the shape of a well-considered essay of one sort or
another. Some of the contributions are particularly clever to emanate
from boys under sixteen, and the whole tone of the paper is a hearty,
wholesome indication of the character of the school. Just now it is
deeply occupied with affairs of the temporal welfare of the college, and
the friends of that old institution may well feel encouraged in their
efforts in its defence by the sincere and vigorous loyalty of the boys
themselves.3

The following poem is one of Leacock's written in June 1887 when
he was head boy:

I
If you'll give your kind attention
To an ode of small dimension,

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And will offer no prevention,
You shall hear described by me,

What a place of sin and vanity,

Of swearing and profanity,

And cranial inanity,
I find in ucc.

Of the wicked College boarders,
Not a set of praise-the-lord-ers,
But a herd of vile discorders,

I would briefly mention make.
Their pristine cheek delightful,
Their avarice is frightful,
Their despotism spiteful —

With a tendency to fake.

II
There is nothing equalling them
When the steward comes to ring them
Up, the French they use to Kingdom

Would astonish Socrates:
For though Greeks were vivid speakers,
They are but as puny squeakers
To College boys when seekers

For their most replete Chinese.

On the Sabbath see them reading
Blood and thunder novels, heeding
Not the words of holy pleading

Levelled at the College pew.
Should the venerable sexton
Try to gather a collection,
He receives a rare confection —

Buttons, marbles, gum and glue.

Ill

Caring not if rules are broken,
They consider it a token
Of felicity to smoke an

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Old cigar beside the bay;
Or to spend a modest quarter
For a drink of beer or porter,
Which they know they hadn't ought'er,

As the regulations say.

On a morning in the summer
There is seen the College bummer,
To the fence a frequent comer

Just to watch the girls go by.
They go to Holy Trinity,
To show their asininity
To girls of an affinity,

And wink upon the sly.

IV
They've a lofty scorn of mental
Acquisitions: with a dental
Word they designate the gentle

Poems of the bards of yore.
And they hold the Roman nation
And the deeds of ancient Latium,
As the fabulous creation

And a most infernal bore.

In conclusion be it stated,
They are far degenerated
From the highly antiquated

College boys of '33,
Who abound in stories pleasant
(To themselves), and who incessant
Prove they far excel the present

Sojourners in ucc.

In October 1888 The College Times began continuous publication.
The editor that year was G. F. Macdonnell; he was also head boy and
later returned as a master. The lead article describes the new Deer Park

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building, just then in its planning stages, optimistically stating that it
and the grounds would be preferable in every way to the downtown site.

For the next few years the editorship was always a joint one, and
through 1893 one of the editors was also head boy. This conjunction of
academic brilliance and writing ability was especially true in this era,
although it was also evident down through the decades.

In 1 89 1, the College's first Christmas at Deer Park, B. K. Sandwell
produced some gastronomic comments:

A CHRISTMAS NIGHTMARE
The boarder sat in his lonely room,

Whence all but he were gone,
For it was the eve of Christmas Day

And he was left alone.

And he thought of his friends and parents dear,

And the boy with whom he roomed;
For the College pudding he'd eaten that day,

And he knew that he was doomed.

He thought of his friends and his parents dear,

Till his stomach began to ache,
And he laid him down on his hard hard bed,

And a dozen pills did take.

And before him a vision seemed to stand,

And a wondrous form it took;
A bamboo staff was in its hand,

And he dared not at it look.

But ever it signalled, pointing on.

Then out of the door it strode,
(Although it was locked), and he felt compelled

To follow it on its road.

And on to the basement strode his guide;

To the basement followed he.
Then reeled — for all around the floor

Fresh corpses did he see.

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And he saw his companions once again
Who two days had been lost to sight,

For a master had asked for them after three,
And they hadn't been seen since that night.

And some in a cauldron simmer'd near,

And over it he did stoop;
Then fell on the floor with a sickening thud,

For he smelt — the College soup.

They battered his door down next morning at eight,

And there on the bed they found him,
A corpse, with his face all ashen and gray,

And the bed-clothes all around him.

After he became editor, Sandwell found difficulty in getting his
cohorts to write anything, a complaint shared by the eighty-odd editors
who succeeded him.

Has the poetic muse no devotees within these classic walls? Are there
amongst us no budding Shakespeares, no future Tennysons? The heart
of the editor is heavy within him, and after vainly wrestling with a six
foot and very muscular metre for about an hour, he has come to the
conclusion that all is vanity and vexation of spirit. A week ago occur-
red the vernal equinox! This is spring, the poetic season of the year . . .
not one, no not one single Spring Poem has been deposited on the edi-
tor's desk, or fired under the editor's door. It may be that would-be cor-
respondents are scared. If such be the case we would assure them that
all MSS. will be treated with perfect fairness, until they reach the com-
positors' hands. After that we decline to be responsible for their preser-
vation intact. It cannot be that this school is in the awful condition of
not having one poet among its three hundred students. And if that be
not the case, we call on the bard or bards, whoever he or they may be,
to come forward and allow the world at large to receive the benefit of
their genius. An Easter number, and not a single Spring Poem! This is
awful !

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UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

In 1894 principal Dickson reported to the Board that The College
Times, managed entirely by the boys who had "carte blanche," was not
always an advantage to the College. Because it published critical arti-
cles on educational topics, it put UCC in a questionable position before
the public. (UCC was already in a questionable position having nothing
to do with the paper!) Dickson suggested that it change its raison d'etre
and become a medium of communication between the school and the
Old Boys (the OBA was three years old) and a means of advertising the
College — in other words, an instrument of propaganda. It should be
chiefly a record of athletic and school events with some literary contri-
butions if possible. It could be written by boys, but had to be approved
by the masters, with a master as editor. After consultation with the Old
Boys' Association, the first issue under the new system appeared in
December 1894, with the indefatigable A. A. Macdonald as editor, and
the six stewards plus three other senior boys listed as school editors. The
paper was under the patronage of the oba and sported a natty blue-
and-white cover. From this time, the word "College" in the title was
intended to include every man or boy who had entered the school. The
publication stated two objectives: accounts of school life and all inter-
esting news about Old Boys. Special correspondents would send in let-
ters; articles and reminiscences would be contributed by Old Boys. The
College Times was now an arm of the school administration and the new
1894 Board of Governors.

In the late nineties a different emphasis began to appear, with enor-
mous space reserved for all inter-school games, but especially the first
team results. In the summer of 1897, for example, over twenty-three
pages were given over to cricket matches. Attempts at humour tended
to be heavy. Perhaps with the College fighting for its life, there was no
time or energy left for wit.

The poetry dealt with examinations or games:

Far from the maddening crowd's ignoble strife
The umpire oft has made a swift bee line,
What time they clamoured for the caitiffs life
Who shut the gates of justice on their nine.

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In many a hopeless contest bravely fought,
The dark, unfathomed curve has laid them low;
Full many a fly has soared to fall uncaught,
And swell the score of the detested foe.

The boast of batting and of pitching power,

The fame and glory of victorious clubs,

Await, alike, vicissitude's dark hour

And this year's champions may be next year's scrubs.

A euclidean definition of football in 1899 included "A College wing-
line has position, and it has length and breadth, but neither combina-
tion nor swiftness" and "A referee is a thing of which no decision is
straight."

In 1 90 1 The Man from Glengarry by Ralph Connor was reviewed and
described "as a stimulus to all that is noble and true and strong." The
book was a best-seller and of great interest at UCC because Connor (the
Reverend Charles Gordon) had taught at the school.

The College Times during the early years of the century were charac-
terized by a large number of quotations from Robert Louis Stevenson,
Ruskin, Browning, and other English writers. There was also much ref-
erence to Christianity and the values attached to it. In 1904 an article
appeared recommending that English youth be sent to Canada for their
secondary education in order to prepare themselves for a career in this
country. Implicit was the idea that UCC should be their destination.
This concept was picked up in England, possibly by Parkin; the English
press, including The Times, expressed their approval. Love for England
shone through issue after issue. In Makers of Canada K. S. Macdonnell
wrote of how Canada had "gone from strength to strength commercial-
ly, religiously, imperially" and of "the names of those who have lived
and died for King and country." The article ended with a quote from
Tennyson.

The seriousness of life was even felt by the Prep boys, one of whom
named Kirkpatrick wrote this tearful poem in 1906:

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UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

ON LEAVING THE PREP

O Prep.! to mem'ry and to learning dear,

Place of my earliest happiness and fear,

Of early recollections the most sweet,

When first my eyes those lofty halls did greet.

Place where I first beheld the dreaded cane,

And felt its blow with counterfeited pain,

Where first I met my master's angry eye,

When terror flushed my face and made me cry.

Full well remember I that blessed time,

When in a first form desk did I recline,

And then my second year went by so fast,

The third is o'er and I'm to go at last.

Oh Prep. ! the days have come when I must leave,

Time and his sickle now us two will cleave.

From 1906 to 1908 the stewards were the editors, and humour crept
back into the magazine's pages:

Goodnight, Sweetheart. Your father's silhouette

I see upon the window-blind. To part
Is pain, but ah, I recollect his threat!

Goodnight, Sweetheart!
Alas, he knows the pugilistic art
And so 'twere greater pain to meet him, pet,

For with his fists and feet he's rather smart.
Just hark, he hurls at me an epithet

That makes my blood run cold. I think I'll start
At once. No time to light a cigarette!
Goodnight, Sweetheart!

If one of the gentlemen should drop a raw oyster into his bosom, and
he should have trouble in fishing it out, do not make facetious remarks
about it, but assist him to find it, laughing heartily all the time.

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We do not vouch for the truth, scientifically, of the following equation
handed in to us. Independent investigation is, however, invited from
non-subscribers.

Boy + H2so4 + match = H2so4 - Boy.

The sun never sets on British possessions because the sun sets in the
west and our colonies are in the north, south and east.

EPITAPH

Here lies the body of Mrs. Jane Lowder:
She burst while drinking a seidlitz powder;
Called from this world to her heavenly rest,
She should have waited till it effervesced.

In 1909 the editorship reverted to an individual student, in this case,
the head boy, David A. Keys, later to achieve fame as a Canadian sci-
entist. Keys brightened his issues with articles such as "The Light Side
of Mathematics" in which he proved that 5 = 4 and ended with the fol-
lowing example:

If Caesar had left one dollar for Antony to deposit in a bank paying
three per cent interest compounded yearly it would have amounted by
the year 1910 to about $10,260 followed by 21 zeroes. This same
amount at simple interest would only have increased to $59.62.

The first day of the school year in 191 1 was rapturously dealt with
by editor R. B. Gibson:

The day wears on — how long the first day seems! At length the gong
sounds twice, the signal of our freedom. Soon we make a great
discovery — a sight that thrills us with delight. There in very truth is
the new addition to the swimming-bath in course of completion. The
tank is twenty feet longer, making a total length of fifty feet. It has

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since been beautifully equipped with shower-baths, diving-tower and
electric lights. All this we owe to the grand munificence of an Old Boy,
who with true magnanimity desires to remain anonymous. Our grati-
tude to him knows no bounds. May he long continue to guide the des-
tinies of his good old College!

A minor catastrophe in 191 3 elicited yet more poetry:

THE CHIMNEYSTACK

(A kitchen chimney was

blown down at Upper Canada College

in yesterday's gale. — Morning Paper.)

Haifa ton, half a ton,
Haifa ton downward
Came through the kitchen-roof,
Chimney pots and other stuff,

Smashing tiles and plate-rack.
Lay resting on the top,
Lay threatening to drop,
Threatening our oven,

The rest of the chimney-stack.

Engineer and janitor
Vied with the gardener,
Stibbert with crowbar,
George working like a horse,
The Dean on the spot — of course,

Could any work harder?
Wright on the ladder stands,
What but their busy hands

Can save our larder?

Here! make the rope tight!
Won't you get the team, Wright?
No, here are boys to pull,
Boys from the Hospital.

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How the wind rumbled!
Haifa mo', now she'll go!
Ready now a score or so!
Heave ho, Yeo ho! Yeo ho!

Down they all tumbled.

Somehow they got it off,
Forty cubic feet of tough

Masonry and other wrack.
Then after all the din
Suddenly arose a tin,

Temporary smoke-stack.

During the First World War The College Times was virtually monop-
olized by news of Old Boys. All those killed, wounded, or decorated
were mentioned, sometimes at great length and often accompanied by
photographs. The school community was made fully aware of every-
thing that the masters and ex-pupils were doing in the great struggle.

When the war ended, normality returned, and we find in 19 19 the
Ten Commandments revised by G. S. Cunliffe:

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS
(Revised to suit the requirements qfucc)

1 I am thy Headmaster; thou hast not to obey any other Principal
but me.

2 Thou shalt not draw in school hours caricatures of thy Schoolmas-
ter, nor any drawing of anyone in authority over thee; for I, thy
Headmaster, am a watchful man, and will visit thy sins upon thee;
yea, even unto the extent of a good walloping.

3 Thou shalt not mimic me behind my back; for I shall severely cast-
igate anyone who mocketh me.

4 Remember to walk circumspectly on week days. Five days shalt
thou keep off the flats, and not go out of bounds; but the sixth and
seventh days are holidays, and thou mayest go whithersoever thou

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wilt. In them thou mayest go on the flats and out of bounds, or to a
movie show; but thou mayest not turn thy footsteps towards a
poolroom; for if thou art espied by a Prefect, severe chastisement
will be thy lot.

5 Respect thy Principal and all thy Masters, that thy days may be
long in the school wherein thy parents have placed thee.

6 Thou shalt not apparently attempt to murder any of thy comrades
when thou are scrapping with them.

7 Thou shalt not adulterate the tea or coffee of the person next to
thee at meals with mustard; nor shalt thou put salt in his water.

8 Thou shalt not steal thy room-mate's soap.

9 Thou shalt not try to get thy neighbour into trouble with the Pre-
fects.

io Thou shalt not covet thy room-mate's razor, nor his slippers, nor
his ties, nor his brilliantine, nor anything that reposes in his half of
the room.

The College of the twenties was a lively place and the magazine
blossomed under some spirited and able editors. In 1927 a satirical arti-
cle hinted that Bishop Strachan, not Colborne, had been responsible
for the founding of UCC. Under the headlines "Scandal in School
History — U.C.C. may not have won Waterloo," the article stated:

If Lord Seaton was not our founder, then we are not responsible for
the winning of the famous battle of Waterloo. In that case, what will
we tell the next Governor General when we're telling him who we are.
It has been suggested by some (we hope it is with no ulterior
motive other than the advancement of education) that since Bishop
Strachan founded the college the two schools founded by him in the
Hill District should be joined and made co-educational. We feel sure
that this suggestion will find much approval among the educated
scholars at Upper Canada.

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The continuing influence of the classics was apparent in this 1928
anonymous piece featuring D. M. Dewar:

THE HOCKEID

( Written, not by Homer, but by another man of the same name.)

Then did fleet-skated So-and-so strike the rounded rubber with his
well-wrought stick, so that it went straight for the well-netted goal of
the College. It struck it, nor did it miss, and would have entered, had
not keen-eyed Baker interposed his good ashen stick, and stopped it, so
that it glanced afar off. Then did much-weighing Dewar obtain the
rounded puck, and would have scored a goal, but grey-eyed Athene
appeared in the guise of May.

Then said Dewar in his heart and mind: "Surely it is better to pass
the black disc to May, nor try to score goals every time."

Thus thinking, he passed the puck, but owl-faced Athene van-
ished, nor was she still present. Then, by using his fleet skates, he man-
aged to again obtain possession of the coveted caout-chouc, but at this
moment Such-and-Such introduced his good ashen stick between his
well-wrought skates, so that his knees were loosed, and he fell in the
powdery snow.

Now came the blear-eyed Referee to him, saying, "Truly hast
thou attempted to snatch away that good stick with thy cheating
skates: therefore get thee off the ice for the period of five minutes, nei-
ther return before the time is up."

Then was glorious Dewar wrath, and he cried out, spoke a word,
and uttered it aloud: "Verily is this game framed, nor is it fairly
played. For not only has keen-eyed Athene utterly deceived me, but
the diagonally-seeing Referee is making it worse. Surely I will refrain
from playing this game longer. Let the faint-seeing Referee and the
whole team go to the House of Hades."

Thus he spoke, and went to the well-builded dressing room, and
there was no comfort for him, nor did he cease from his grief.

Glorious, wrathful Dewar spent many years teaching at Appleby
College in Oakville.

Poetry continued throughout the twenties to be a popular mode of

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expression. Most of the poems printed were based on the work of a well-
known author and were on any subject under the sun, from shaving to
rat funerals.

SHAVE QUI PEUT

There are poets who write,

There are poets who rave,
There are poems of love

And odes to the grave;
But there isn't a poet

Who sings of the shave,

Who sings of the shave
In the morning.

So I have decided

To take up the pen
And ere the day passes,

To furnish all men
With a song they can sing

At the dead hour often,

At the dead hour often
In the morning.

It tells of a youth

Who went out every night
To low dancing halls.

And often got tight,
And looked fine after dark;

But oh, what a sight,

But oh, what a sight
In the morning.

It tells how one day

He reeled from his bed
At the dead hour ten,

With a terrible head,
And a feeling that made him

Just wish, he was dead,

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Just wish he was dead
In the morning.

How he felt on his face

A hard three days' growth;

And cursed all the Greeks
With a terrible oath,

And vowed that the shave
Was one thing to loath
Was one thing to loath
In the morning.

He sharpened his razor
To language profane,

He looked in the mirror,
Thought living was vain.

He let out a curse,
Cut his jugular vein,
Cut his jugular vein
In the morning.

He was buried with pomp

In a wonderful grave,
And thousands of men
Have resolved to behave
Like our hero who gladly
Died rather than shave,
Died rather than shave
In the morning.

Not a drum was heard, not a bugle note,
As we through the Prayer Hall hurried,

Only we left him to lie there and rot

In the grave where our rodent we buried.

We buried him darkly at dead of night
The board with our bayonets lifting,
By the struggling ray of the all-night light

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And the moonlight through window-pane sifting.

No useless coffin enclosed his breast,

Nor in handkerchief we wound him.
But he lay there, the bottom-flat rat in his rest

With his mangy fur coat all around him.

Few and odd were the prayers we said.

And we spoke not a word of sorrow;
But we shoved down the board on the face that was dead

As we joyfully thought of the morrow.

We thought as we trampled his hollow bed

And smoothed down the lonely lumber
That the boys and the masters would tread o'er his head

And disturb his remains in their slumber.

Sorely they'll talk of "indefinable something"

And o'er his cold ashes upbraid him,
But little he'll reek if they let him sleep on

'Neath the dais where once we all laid him.

Swiftly and gladly we laid him down

From the fiat of his fame, fresh and gory;

The sickle of Death has right mightily mown
And thus endeth the flat-rodent's story.

F. A. COPELAND

The College Times was not simply an outlet for humour. Serious sub-
jects came under the eye of the editor and his colleagues. In 1923 the
following appeared:

Patriotism, that is visible patriotism, is essentially good manners. Just
as there are many people who mean to do the right thing and yet are
extremely awkward at a social function; so there are many people
who, though they have a genuine loyalty to their country, yet either
do not know how to show their patriotism, or do not show it on
account of laziness, or shyness.

When, after a theatre performance "God Save the King" is

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played, the majority stand up after a fashion: that is to say, they do
not remain sitting. They rise to their feet only to bend down again and
start fumbling with coat and hat. A few stand to attention, but often
are the objects of giggles, or scorn. It is neither amusing nor shameful
to stand at attention. It is a sign that that person is loyal to King and
Country and knows the proper way to show it. The male audience is
usually more particular about this than the ladies, of whom only a
very small minority stand still. Often a man will start well, but when
he sees the lady with him struggling with her coat, manners force him
to help her. The lack of "external partiotism" on the part of the ladies
is probably due to lack of any kind of military training, although the
popularity of the "girl guides" will soon make this but an excuse.

A less widely known sign of loyalty is the lifting of the hat to the
colours of a regiment or company. We saw from the ranks of the Rifle
Company that the majority of onlookers either did not know of, or
care about this act. It is a mark of respect in this case to King, Coun-
try and Company. If anyone knows this, and still does not lift his hat it
is an insult to the Empire as a whole.

About a year ago there was a poster put up in the College
hall: — "How to Honour the Flag." How many boys read that, and of
those how many remember anything about it? Probably very few.

There is not a boy at the College that would admit he is unpatriot-
ic, but there are those who do not take the trouble to show that patri-
otism. It is as fine a thing now to be a member of the British Empire,
as it was in the time of St. Paul to be able to say "I am a Roman Citi-
zen!" We are proud, and justly proud of being Canadians, and it is by
small things that we can prove ourselves proud of our Country and
Empire.

The same issue carried an article on Canadian literature bewailing
the very small sale of Canadian authors and blaming it on Canadians,
who as a nation were not readers. The editor urged his readers to spend
their Christmas money on books.

In the mid twenties Lionel Gelber wrote two articles of a very high
intellectual calibre on a Boys' Parliament and on Canada's problems.
The latter is worth recording in full over fifty years later.

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A NEW FAITH AND A NEW SPIRIT
By L.M.G.
What is the matter with Canada? This is a question which is bother-
ing thinking people; a question crying for solution. Luckily not a voice
in the wilderness, but an apparent indication that there is something
amiss. However, there are, to every condition in all branches of
human affairs, causes immediate and remote which must be placed in
proper perspective before a clear view is to be obtained. But some are
not so cautious.

What is the matter with Canada? Demagogues answer it; politi-
cians exult in it; officious nobodies pass judgment on it. We must
accept their solutions or, according to them, at the border may be
erected a sign warning newcomers to abandon all hope as they enter
here. But there is no solution for Canada's troubles on narrow political
lines. One or another doctrinaire economic theory will not suffice. No
one ambitious political party can succeed where its predecessors have
failed.

What is the matter with Canada? As one hears the query put forth
a picture rises in one's mind: there are the orators (or editors) perspir-
ing in the heat of their virtuous labors to strike a sombre note of immi-
nent ruin. There are the stage-whispers of death amplified into a
strident roar of self-centred striving. Yet never have lamentations been
uttered with such a roseate glow on the speaker's countenance; never
have jeremiads seemed to trail off unending in this way before. For the
speaker always leaves the impression that he has another card up his
sleeve. And it is precisely so, because that card is a joker on which is
written his own political programme. The present spells disaster; his
party in power or his solution being applied connotes infinite success.

This, then, is what is wrong with Canada: she is the inarticulate
pawn in a selfish political game. It is that accentuating of the villainies
on one side and the embellishing the fair graces of the other in an
unscrupulous drama that leaves a bitter taste. Yet it is Canada's mod-
ern history.

Must it always be so? The answer is, No — with reservations. It will
be so until Canadians wake up. There is held in this country an
appallingly low standard of duty towards society and humanity — and
even that grasped but lightly. Public service has lost its meaning in the

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mazes of philanthropy instead of great national issues. Canadians are
not thinking politically. Canadians are not working for national unity
along national lines. The youth foremost in national duty in Europe
and elsewhere, as for example, Mazzini's Association of Young Italy
during the nineteenth century or the present-day Jewish pioneers in
Palestine, is asleep to that which everywhere evokes the best feelings
among the younger generation. There is widespread in Canada not
only an economic depression quite liable to a speedy improvement,
but there is a mental depression which will take years of constructive
education to remedy. At present Canada is in danger of becoming a
Babbit nation: her main streets must become Parliament Hills.

To every problem of moment there are solutions that are of pass-
ing but of immediate effect and others which, coming slower, prove to
be of permanent value. But to suggest an approach there must come a
new train of thought and attitude. One resolving itself into a new faith
and a new spirit. This must be the common bond. Canada is greater
than any single party, formula, theory, or group. What is needed is
determination, not criticism; an infusion of liberal ideals, not polem-
ics.

The drowsy-headed citizen is Canada's problem. For there are
only those destructive forces working for the disintegration of the
country which a lack of public spirit and a firm, not indifferent,
resolve permits to exist.

This is no hour to temporize or to tarry. Let us no longer inquire
what is the matter with Canada, but with conviction not unmingled
with tolerance answer that the great need is a sincere determination
by every one to shoulder his share of the burden. Let there be spread
abroad the seeds of a new faith and a new spirit.

The influence of radio was being felt in the mid twenties, and there
was even a preview of television. The year 1926 brought a paragraph or
two of praise for that long-time Canadian institution Foster Hewitt:

When you sit by your warm fire, smoking snugly, and hear, through
the Radio, a Rugby, Hockey or Baseball game, told so that you feel as
if you were right there, fighting with your team, catching — or
fumbling — each kick, checking, we hope, each rush and pitching each

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ball, remember the poor announcer, hanging, perhaps, by a rope, like
a little spider by its web, on the roof of the Richardson stadium.
Remember, too, that the poor announcer, or rather, the good
announcer, is a UCC Old Boy. You would soon have remembered, if
you were listening to the last McGill-Varsity game. Then you would
have heard him say, "There goes Chief David the old Upper Canada
man. He's played a good game." And Foster is playing a good game,
too. He is doing a hard job, — just try to follow a hockey play by play
and try to tell a stupid microphone all about it, as fast, accurately and
vividly, as Foster does! He is playing one of the biggest parts in Radio
in Canada. What if it is cold! Good old Foster, we'll take up still
another subscription among the Old Boys to get you a sleeping cell in
the cold storage plant, so that you can feel at home at night!

George F. Moss reported at great length on the first practical dem-
onstration of television on April 7, 1927. After speculating on different
aspects of this new wonder Moss concluded:

In the near future, we hope to be able to have a ringside seat at the
boxing matches, to be "right up" on the football games; and enjoy art,
sculpture, and plays from television studios. At present we can only see
a stationary object, but a system has already been devised in the the-
ory for the picturing of moving objects. How it will work still remains
to be seen.

As soon as television is used by the telephone companies, the news-
papers will want to share in the discovery. The present billboards will
most likely consist of television screens, showing news events as they
happen. In time of war, aeroplanes will be equipped with televisors.
No doubt later, the acme of television will be reached; namely, pic-
tures in colour.

In peace and in war, in business and in pleasure, this new power
over natural forces will doubtless take its place among that host of new
discoveries which go to make up our so-called civilization.

In fact, although it may seem fantastic at the moment to picture
this new development as an ordinary factor in the life of a business
man, very probably in a few year's time, it may seem even more fan-

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tastic to our children that business could ever have been successfully
carried on without the aid of television.

An interesting counterpoint to Moss's description of television was a
report that three Old Boys — W. H. Van Der Smissen, Pelham Edgar,
and Frederic Davidson — had all just published important books: a
translation of Faust, a biography of Henry James, and a French novel.
The College Times took great pride in these accomplishments, which hon-
oured the school.

The thirties ushered in an era of good-humoured criticism of almost
everything, probably brought on by economic conditions. A letter
printed in 1931 might have been written forty-five years later:

To the Editor of The College Times.

Dear Sir:

Can you afford space in your magazine for a sincere criticism of pres-
ent radio broadcasting.

Yesterday at dinner time I was sipping soup to the strains of a
famous orchestra. The music stopped. A voice bellowed "Dr. East's
tooth brushes for mamma, papa, sonnie, sissie." Then again, how
could I enjoy my steak after hearing that Dr. Pullem, noted dentists,
extracted teeth by a new, painless method? Such charming dinner gos-
sip!

The other day the Pope broadcasted from Rome. Before the
strains of the last hymn died away a voice from another world burst in.
"Have you all heard of the permanent wave bargained at the Variety
Beauty Shoppe. ..." There was not even so much as a pause between
the hymn and the voice of the announcer.

Last Sunday the church service was barely over when an
announcer cut in with, "Mr. Fish has everything in his shop that
swims." And what has the news that "our old friend, Mr. McGinnis,
will haul cinders and ashes to any part of the city," to do with a Sun-
day service?

Surely there must be a remedy to this state of affairs.
Your obedient servant,
A. McP.

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The school itself came in for a seaching look. G. S. Maclean, a for-
mer editor, wrote in complaining about sloppy College dress, moth-
eaten masters' gowns, the hatless cult, the plethora of College ties and
sweaters, too much smoking, and too much emphasis on inter-house
games. Traditions were important to Maclean, as were games victories.
The first-team spirit of 189 1 was still alive among some Old Boys.

J. A. Romeyn, the editor, had some interesting comments about the
College. Romeyn wanted both The College Times and the clubs repre-
sented on the Board of Stewards; he thought the library administration
was grossly mishandled; he thought there was a general listlessness in
morning prayers. Romeyn's successor, Robertson Davies, continued to
snipe politely at College customs. The school had eight official ties, with
the exception of one, all ugly. Furthermore the College needed some
new yells; the locomotive and the whistler had been done to death.
Davies asked, "Cannot this, the oldest school in Canada, produce some
apostle of the Higher Art of the College Yell?"

Davies's successor, G. H. Robertson, poked gentle humour at the
ancient tradition of initiating new boys:

A NEW DISEASE

We regret to report the outbreak of a new disease at the College; we
might call it Newboyitis. Like most "new" diseases, its novelty is
chiefly in its name and diagnosis. For some time those who have been
in the school for more than two years (usually referred to as "old
boys") have considered it their duty to inflict minor indignities upon
the "new boys." The earlier forms of this disease might be called para-
newboyitis.

These rather barbaric customs were probably the result of the old-
boys not having enough to do. Therefore, they occupied themselves in
giving vent to the desire, natural in all young humans, to amuse them-
selves at the expense of others. The days of enforced inactivity for
school-boys are gone. If anything, there is too much to be done. But
still the disease of "suppressing the new-boys" lingers on. Only this
term we heard of some zealot who proposed that new-boys be made to
run across the quandrangle, in obvious imitation of some of our penal

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and military institutions. Fortunately this stirred up little more than
laughter among those in authority.

The only reason advanced in defence of this "suppression" is that
it inspires in the heart of the novice a respect for the old-boys, who are,
supposedly, imbued with the spirit of leadership and of wisdom. We do
not suggest that this respect is not wholesome. We merely assert that it
should be inspired by the actual example of the old-boys themselves
and not enforced by an archaic system of laws and customs. "These
new-boys are altogether too fresh," we have heard said many a time
and oft. While admitting the undesirability of freshness among the
new-boys, we question the efficiency of the traditional purge.

Ties continued to agitate the school, though they were dealt with
sardonically by J. S. Boeckh in 1934:

But aren't the school ties to identify the wearer with the school (Clause
98, Sub-Section c of the school rules)? If this does not hold true any
longer why not let everybody wear whatever tie they like? This surely
would not lead to any sameness in ties! In fact one would find over 300
different ties ranging in pattern from polka dots (large) to chocolate
bears (small), and in colour from crimson and yellow to claret and
bottle-green.

There is one thing for which to be extremely thankful and that is
the question has at last been decided. Our praises are bestowed upon
the tie committee for the steadfast way they have remained true to
their beliefs in the midst of such strenuous and even alliterate heckling
as this.

A letter to the editor in 1934 identified a problem which has been
alive ever since the school began. Signed "Yours, in this regard, Nazi,"
it deals with litter:

I have seen Golder's Green after a Bank Holiday. I have seen the
Canadian National Exhibition after Children's Day. Unpleasant
sights. Almost equally unpleasant, and much less excusable, is that
carpet of litter, which covers the College grounds on every day of the
week, throughout the whole year.

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I am told that in Germany a fine of a mark is imposed on anybody
seen dropping paper on the streets. I would suggest that the Board of
Stewards and the House Prefects be armed with a similar disciplinary
power and that they should inflict a fine of five cents on our litter-
mongers for each offence.

In case of Masters casting exercise books from class room windows,
the fine should be five cents for each page.

W. L. Grant's policy of introducing the boys to an incredible range
of guest speakers resulted in this in 1934:

It has been said that zeal is like a fire, "it needeth both feeding and
watching." If the converse of this proposition is true, the Oxford
Group Movement must be the very incarnation of zeal for it is copi-
ously fed (in more senses than one) and it is certainly watched.

To make any attempt to sum up the "effect" produced on the
school by the ten members of the "International Team" which tackled
us on Friday, May fourth would be impossible. We heard the sound of
the cornet, flute, harp, sachbut, psaltery, dulcimer, and all kinds of
music. But we were not moved (most of us) to fall down before the
idols which Frankbuchman the King has set up. Perhaps to those of
tender years who have not sinned richly or lived dangerously, the
Oxford Movement can mean little. Indeed unless one has lived an
utterly futile and blase life for a number of years or pinched a hand-
kerchief in some moment of unthinkable abandon, one does not feel
the need of the solace of a changed life, — even though the change be
ever so quick.

Most of the speakers talked about themselves and it probably did
them a lot of good. Some of them talked about God and He didn't
seem to mind. And about changing people's lives, almost over night, it
seemed. Others told how quickly and completely they had "found
themselves" on joining the Group and we remembered something
about forty days in the wilderness and wondered if the happy converts
would soon by crying "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani."

In 1935 a letter was written to the editor about a proposed League

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of Nations Society. This development was strongly influenced by Grant
and anticipated MacDermot's arrival:

One thing must be made plain; our group takes no stand on the sub-
ject of the Rifle Battalion. Several of our members are active workers
in that organization. I myself do not agree with the bayonet practice,
but, apart from that, I have no conscientious objections to it.

What will the group try to do in the school. First it will discuss a
long study course carefully drawn up which deals with every factor
pertaining to peace and war in the world. Second, it will bring promi-
nent speakers and thinkers to the College. Third, it will keep the
League of Nations before the eyes of the school and in this way it will
try and interest UCC in the cause of international goodwill.

This ideal is a worthy one; one for which everybody should be
ready to work. It is an ideal for which one must be prepared to give up
something. Each country will have to give up something. Each coun-
try will have to give up some of its pride. Each individual must be
ready to give up some of his wealth. No ideal can ever succeed unless
one is ready to sacrifice much personal comfort for its realization.

In the autumn of that year MacDermot placed a modern sculpture
by Elizabeth Wyn Wood on display in the front hall. It was a typical
and highly successful attempt by MacDermot to get the boys to think.
The College Times devoted to this daring move several pages which con-
tained a good deal of varied comment from the senior boys.

. . . could not "Reef and Rainbow" just as well have been named "Reef
in Wool's Clothing"? — Anon.

... a feeble attempt to reproduce nature — A. E. Williamson.

The Philistine replies that this kind of cloud would never blot out the
end of the rainbow. Who cares? — G. Grant.

What is the rainbow doing around the reef? — M. Clarkson.

. . . the Reef and Rainbow ... is merely a waste of good tin — K. W.
McNaught.

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The steward system came in for some discussion and criticism in the
mid thirties. Stewards had always been appointed because they held a
particular office. When a boy held more than one office, there was a
vacancy on the Board of Stewards. On two occasions such a vacancy
was filled by another worthy boy. Upholders of tradition objected to
this procedure and made themselves known by long letters to the editor.
(The only purpose of more stewards was evidently to hold the prayer
hall in subjection after the principal had left.) Suggestions for reform
were made which were eventually adopted many years later. The blaz-
er, white with wide blue lapels and blue trim, also came in for odium: it
was "the cynosure of everyone's eye — But so is the uniform of the door
man at the Park Plaza."

In order to encourage literary activity, an extra issue called In
Between Times came out in the thirties. It produced some excellent mate-
rial to which J. V. McAree's column in the Mail and Empire in March
1936 bears witness:

SPARKLING YOUTH
We offer our hearty congratulations to Upper Canada College for the
production of In Between Times, a collection of verses, articles, parodies
and illustrations that combine to make the brightest thing that has
come off a Canadian press in many a day. If this represents the work
of boys not more than 18 years old, it is surely time that we, the elder
generation, applied for our old-age pensions. The youngsters out-class
us 4

As mentioned before, in the spring of 1939 MacDermot introduced
yet another new idea — an annual gift to the College from the leaving
class. The magazine welcomed the innovation:

To a surprised Leaving Class a few weeks before end of term, Princi-
pal MacDermot unfolded a plan for an annual gift to be presented to
the College by the Leaving Class. Backs bristled. Up shot one of the
class to voice the objections of the whole class. The proposal that the
gift be a picture didn't appeal because — well, because he thought the
money should go into something useful for the school, even a building

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scheme. Visions of the class returning to gaze fondly at a tackling
dummy or 467 bricks in the side of a wall flashed through our mind.
Chief unvoiced objections were: (1) that the idea was new and there-
fore, ipso facto, wrong; (2) that each boy would have to disgorge about
$1.50. To us the idea seemed excellent. That each Leaving Class
should leave something of value to the School is a worthy thought. In
time, the College should have a very fine collection of Canadian
paintings.

And luckily poetry was still being written. This one by I von Owen,
himself as editor, was published in 1938:

PLAGIARYTHM
Oh Editor! my Editor! our fortnight's race is run!
You've chased me for a contribution and of course you've won;
But ah, my boy, forget your joy and stop your gay exulting;
You think you have outwitted me and fiendishly are laughing.
But O ha! ha! ha! O these hideous drops of ink!

You say, "of course it's printable?"

But that is what you think!

O Editor! my Editor! rise up from where you lie;

Rise up — I know you've had a shock, but never you say die.

You've only read one verse so far — there's no need to be shrinking,

O — come to think — we're half way through the second — now he's

fainting!

Here driver! Slave-driver! Keep calm, I've caught your head . . .

I knew 'twas bad, but didn't know

'Twas bad as this — he's dead!

In 1940 the Old Boys' Association decided to drop out of The College
Times and publish their own magazine, which they called Old Times.
One of the motives must have been to keep track of and report on the
Old Boys in active service, a task the College magazine could not do.
Old Times promptly took on a separate identity and is still published
three times a year.

Although the war touched everyone, some things continued

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unchanged. For example, in 1940 this appeared under the heading
"Crazes of the Prep":

In the school year there are many crazes which I will try to name and
explain a little about. There are three seasons in the school year and
each one has its crazes.

In the fall we have acorn tops, conkers and handkerchief fights.
The acorn tops consist of an acorn with a matchstick stuck in the top,
and are spun between the pointer finger and thumb. They are very
silent and so are often spun in class. A conker is merely a chestnut on
the end of a string. The idea is to break the other fellow's by hitting his
with your own. When one is broken the breaker becomes a twoer and
fights again. If he broke a five he would become a sevener and this
lasts until the chestnut season is over. The handkerchief fights are
fought with handkerchiefs folded a certain way.

In the winter, snowball fights are the main things. Often the Col-
lege and Prep have fights after lunch, in which the Prep usually loses.

In the spring, even before the snow is off the ground, comes the
longest of all crazes — the alley craze. As alleys are six for a cent, every-
one is well supplied; there are many ways of winning and losing alleys.
For instance, there is pot, straight shooting, and the alleyboard. This
last is probably the worst because it is the greatest temptation. Such
are the crazes of the Prep.

There were changes, too. In 1942 there was a new rule forbidding
boys to carve their names in the Prayer Hall benches. The College Times
took umbrage, claiming that old, famous schools ought to have initials
of students all over the place: "For the sake of posterity it would be a
great pity if we were to be deprived of admiring in after years the ini-
tials of some 'mute inglorious Milton' now lost in the obscurity of IC."

There was a call that same year for more religion in the school
— classroom time when the younger boys could learn the basis of Chris-
tian faith and study periods in which the older boys could discuss
religion. The war was hitting home. The boys were not shielded from it.
Fathers and brothers were at risk every day. So, for that matter were
friends:

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KILLED IN ACTION
J.C.C.

Blow, wind in the tower,

As you blew three years ago,
And sing in the tower as you used to sing

To the friend I used to know.

Let there still be games in the fields

Where he played three years ago;
And the games will go on, though the memory pass

Of the friend I used to know.

These halls are little changed

From the halls he used to tread.
But these faces are theirs who cannot know

What it means that he is dead.

Yet I cannot tread the fields,

Or the halls he used to tread.
But I think he still is watching me.

My mentor who is dead.

I shall have other friends,

And I shall know grief again:
But never a friend like this one dead,

O, such bewildering pain.

IMO

The English war refugees were still at the school in 1942, although
some of the older ones were starting to drift back home. An English
father wrote about his feelings, which were probably shared by all the
families whose sons came to Canada.

I still think that the decision to try to get my son home this year is a
right one, but let there be no mistake about our feelings, his and mine.
We bless the day that sent him to Canada: we bless the beauteous
land where he has received health, strength, education and kindness
beyond all computation. It was right that he should come.

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The ties that bound Canada to England were never stronger than in
the early forties, but the editor of 1942, E. A. McCulloch, was express-
ing a firm Canadian view in commenting on a clothing decree issued by
the principal in the spring of that year:

... the original spirit behind the decree is still alive, the spirit of imitat-
ing the English Public School, and its stiff Victorian ideas about the
qualifications of a gentleman. Upper Canada College is in Canada, a
comparatively new country, where everyone who is engaged in busi-
ness and who is not a member of the Church of England is not neces-
sarily no gentleman, and in the same way, we have our own ideas
about dress. Our clothes have been designed to some extent to fit a
Canadian climate. In what way is a neat wide collared shirt, coloured
to match the coat with which it is worn, and cool and comfortable in
this hot weather, inferior to any white shirt, with tie or without? Cer-
tainly, after a few days of wear, apparently spotless, it is vastly supe-
rior to a slightly soiled and very crumpled white shirt, especially if the
latter has a very dirty piece of coloured rag tied loosely and sloppily
about the neck. And this is as good a time as any to be saving on laun-
dry bills and labour. But the question of dress is just a part of the big
effort to be like the English. Let the school stop trying to force a neo-
anglicanism on its students; let it try to become a Canadian institu-
tion, taking all the best that England has to offer, but distinctly Cana-
dian in thought and culture, abandoning those things that are even
now being abandoned in England on account of the war.

The war was making the boys think, and their thoughts were
reflected in the magazine's pages. A long article defended the French-
Canadian war effort and finished, "Let us try to understand our fellow-
Canadians better. . . . Mud thrown is ground lost." Later in the year
came the statement that "the war had swept the College out of its con-
servative rut . . . had made it a more truly educative . . . institution."
There was continued questioning of the fagging "tradition" and it was
dropped soon after the war.

The age-old bugaboo of school spirit cropped up again in 1944. The

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difficulty was always to define it. S. G. Mackie, a war refugee about to
return home wrote:

I am fond of the school, and let the boy take note, that cannot say the
same ... he is the one that has no school spirit. ... It is this communion
with the school, with her buildings, her customs, her scholars, past,
present and to come, of which I feel a part which we all must feel that
means most. It will not be the school yells or the Inspection or the
Prize Day that I will remember but . . . the way the tower peeps
through the chimneys at the Quad; which of the lights in the library
turn on and off, and above all the books I read there and the faces of
those that sat opposite me.

As the war drew to a close a somewhat more sprightly air appeared
in The College Times from time to time. "King's Row" or "The Colonel's
Parade" described the masters at prayers much as they must have
appeared to boys for over a century.

And then Mr. Orr. Now he is virtually a "Classic." You can forecast
his movements with easy accuracy. He inevitably swirls in most
grandly behind the Principal, but yet leaving an impressive gap
between them. He is the only other master who dons a gown and he
never misses Prayers.

Should the "Stewards will take charge" be announced, Mr. Orr is
out of his seat before anyone has stopped praying. He steps swiftly
across the platform to go out right behind the Principal and as he
reaches the floor proper slows up, invariably gives an "Eyes Right" to
the school, leading the procession from the Hall. Exactly opposite is
the procedure if the Masters are asked to withdraw. Our Archivist
rises leisurely (i.e. a minute or two instead of — 2 sees, flat), generally
has a word with the Principal, picks up his "Crime Sheet," all the
while eyeing the assembly. He leaves the Hall by far the last, with
majesty befitting a "King" or a "Caesar," which is the probable origin
of those appendages

Mr. Mallett has a style peculiar to himself. You may always see
him, chatting near the West door to the Hall, a full five minutes before
the Principal arrives. For Mr. Mallett is the most punctual of all mas-

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ters in all things. He generally has a folder or something official with
him, to bury in his pew, and he often appears to be sleeping, although
(from experience) he is far from that. If he has the occasion to address
the school, his motions are always the same. "Book on Lecturn . . .
1. 2. 3.4., hand in pocket . . . 1.2., glasses out, glasses on, return case,
address school.

Mr. Knights is a regular attendant — you cannot miss him, but if
for an instant, he thinks you have, there is always a window to open or
an urgent exchange of news and views to be had with a nearby master.
But Mr. Knights has a fine voice and although we may smile at the
"golden tenor" of the "People's Choice," we do welcome the lead in
hymns, even if the occasional line is omitted, for Mr. Knights rarely
uses a hymn book.

Then Mr. Shearer; Boredom personified. He is the master most
genuinely uninterested by it all. Watch him frown some time when
Mr. Knights opens a window behind him. The blast generally lands
squarely amidships (i.e. from the shoulders up). From his boredom,
there frequently comes a most humourous expression, especially when
some of his own scholars are reading the lesson. . . .

Mr. Sharp is very unobtrusive. He never "errs or strays like some
(lost) sheep" and his only eccentricity is an occasional passion for the
flashy tie. This or these light up the whole section. We have never seen
Mr. Sharp in a different seat and hardly ever absent.

The remaining members of the Bench or "King's Row" are fault-
less and unspectacular for the most part. It always takes us some little
while to find Mr. Biggar; Dr. Bassett permits himself the very infre-
quent liberty of a smile; we wonder what causes them for they come at
queer intervals?

Mr. Mazzoleni, Mr. Law — we almost forgot Mr. Law. Nothing
but good seems to come from Mr. Law anywhere. Forever "Pop," he
seems to act as the "Guardian of the Row," sitting just near enough to
be one of his boys, and near enough to his colleagues to be of them. He
is the "St. Peter of the Assembly" and indeed we might even remark
that for those who ultimately attain the "Pearly Gates," Mr. Law will
probably be there with St. Peter and will show them around, making
them feel at home.

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The traditional light-hearted poetry made a comeback in 1945 with
R. M. Dawson's "Here's to the New Boy of Cheeky Thirteen."

Here's to the new boy of cheeky thirteen,

Here's to the old boy of twenty;
Here's to the Stewards in Prayer Hall serene,

Here's to the prefects a-plenty.

Let the toast pass!

Empty the glass!

Old Upper Canada, always first-class!

Here's to the master on homicide bent,

His victim the lazy day-dreamer;
Here's to the boys in detention room pent,

Now to the husky First Teamer.

Here's to the sergeants with voices of brass,

Now to the boy with Sam Browne, sir;
Next to the crammer, the first in his class,

Now to the one who's well down, sir!

So let them be new boys or let them be old,

Master, student, I don't care a feather!
I propose that we toast them, both timid and bold,

And so let us drink now together!

In the post-war world, the magazine had some serious messages. In
1948 the subject of leadership, Golborne's original interest, came in for
comment:

In this time of rapidly changing values, one quality which is becoming
more and more necessary is that of leadership. ... It is reassuring at
such a time to turn to this College and to observe it creating qualities
of courage and leadership in its students. At a school like Upper Cana-
da, the students have a far greater chance to develop their innate
potentialities in these lines than they do at other educational institu-
tions. At Upper Canada, as far as it is possible in any school, the
pupils are given a chance to govern themselves ... we have an educa-

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tional machine which will turn out — and has done so — men truly fit to
guide their countries and lead their peoples when the time comes.

Three years later Peter Warren wrote of UCC and society:

For several years many of us at UCC have been worried by the problem
of the snobbishness supposed to be prevalent in the school — and in
other schools.

I suppose that a certain amount of this exists in any school. At
ucc, where a large part of the school life is based on athletics, some
boys tend to grade their fellow-students according to their ability in
sports. Others, affectionately called "brains" by lowbrow society, seem
to stick together in class as well as in other activities. It appears, there-
fore, that these divisions are the product of common interests and
mutual friendship.

However, if we all were to realize that each one of us, in his own
mind at least, is striving to do his share in school activities, I am cer-
tain that much of this unnecessary and, in many cases, unrecognized
distinction would disappear; and I am just as certain that this so-
called snobbishness exists in just the same proportion in any other
school.

On the other hand, ucc may appear aloof to the outsider who has
probably never had the chance to judge the school properly. I must
admit that I have been at several parties where a number of very like-
able high school students seemed neglected while a large group from
his school gathered in another corner for the inevitable bull session.
Conversely, I have attended several teenage dances wearing a UCC
sweater only to be met with jeers and catcalls.

However this may sound, I am not asking you to "go out and sell
dear old ucc!" I am merely saying that we should all realize how for-
tunate we are to be able to attend this school but, more important,
that this privilege does not make us any better than anyone else.

We've had the song, now let's have the dance!

In 1 95 1 the College's old friend Nicholas Ignatieff wrote a percep-
tive foreword for the winter number of the magazine:

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The Foreword is usually done by an Old Boy who has achieved dis-
tinction and therefore has something useful or inspiring to say. I, on
the other hand, am not an Old Boy, but a very undistinguished Old
Master who struggled with indifferent success to make Canadian, mod-
ern and ancient history useful and inspiring to boys of the College.

For my lack of imagination in the class-room I tried to make up by
giving some of the boys at least an opportunity to be inspired by the
exciting panorama of greater Canada — we went on a number of expe-
ditions in the North and West.

Some of you may be a little sceptical about constant references to
Canada's unlimited resources, great opportunities, "Canada's Cen-
tury" and the like. You are perfectly right. They can prove empty
words, just platitudes unless somebody is going to do something about
it.

None of this will come to pass if resources are ruthlessly exploited
without thought of the future, if the bulk of the intelligent and ambi-
tious people settle down to live as peacefully as possible in our few
great cities.

Many Canadians will have to get excited about the real challenge
of its immense space: the application of the best that science and tech-
nology, coupled with imagination and courage, can offer to develop
and make habitable much of the Northern and difficult country that
makes up Canada.

I was wrong in thinking, though, that one or two rough expedi-
tions would kindle the imagination of most boys. It is not that simple.
One must get the very nature of Canada into one's blood, live with it,
think of it, learn to love it enough, in all its aspects, so that one thinks
of nature as a friend whose co-operation one must win, instead of a
slave, to be exploited.

That is why I was so happy to see the way in which both the Prep
and now the Upper School are making increased use of their Norval
property. What you do there is not just an unimportant adjunct to
College life. It is the development of a new attitude of mind which lies
at the very basis of Canada's future — love and respect for her Nature.

In this, once again, as in the past, the College is doing pioneering
work of inestimable value.

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UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

The same year, W. C. Graham wrote an article about Canada's eco-
nomic dependence on the United States. Graham closed by saying,
'[We] would be . . . advised to turn [our] attention to this evident and
real threat to our independence." The lead editorial drew the reader's
attention to Canada's past and present greatness. In a sardonic mood,
the editor went on:

Many of the examples cited in this little epistle have been great Cana-
dian triumphs that have played extremely important roles in the pan-
orama of world history. But we must not teach this in schools or let the
Canadian public know anything about it. Our neighbours might be
offended and the idea might get abroad, especially among ourselves,
that Canadians and their achievements are worth more than a casual
glance and that Canada is a great country to live in.

The instigation of any such mental process along these lines is
extremely dangerous because it might jolt us out of our national apa-
thy and give us the idea that we have a country that is worth knowing
something about.

Many must have memorized Voltaire when he dismissed Canada
by saying "What a silly idea to settle down in Canada on snowdrifts
between beavers and bears," because we do suffer from a chronic feel-
ing of national ineptness that practically blinds our eyes to the great
things that Canadians have done — many of them without fitting
reward or recognition. Better we learn and remember what Sir Win-
ston Churchill said of Canada, "Upon the whole surface of the globe,
there is no more spacious and splendid domain than Canada, open to
the activity and genius of free men."

But we must not regard our past achievements in any spirit of vain
complacency. We Canadians should be humbly thankful for our many
blessings and we should strive to be worthy of our country and our
forefathers. It is now our turn to contribute to Canada's greatness.

A public opinion poll taken in the Upper School and dealing with
internal matters was published in The College Times of June 1955. It
showed that most boys intended to go into business, engineering, law, or
medicine; the great majority favoured UCC as a day school in the city;

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62 per cent favoured the battalion; the average homework load was 2.1
hours per night; out of every ten non-academic books read, 1.6 came
from the school library.

Much of this was pretty heavy stuff but there was time for fun too. A
world-wide institution of the fifties was celebrated in 1957 under the
title The Elvisad. It was an epic poem, Book One of which read:

I sing of "gitars" and a boy, who first from Memphis, by fate, came to

New York and, later, Hollywood,
Much buffeted was he both by Critics and Music Lovers because

of the unforgetting wrath of parents.
Suffering many hardships, also, in Canada as well, until he should

gather a following and bring his songs to Teenagers.
From him came our "Hound Dog", our "Don't Be Cruel", and the

stately "Love Me Tender".

As the new building was being completed in the summer of i960,
The College Times felt it was appropriate to talk about a time-honoured
subject, tradition:

Two forms of tradition prevail at Upper Canada College. The first
sphere of tradition, the epitome of loyalty, courage, and gentlemanly
deportment, is the essence of true school spirit. This highly commend-
able goal is somewhat offset by senseless "traditions" such as the few
existing remnants of fagging, and by false hero-worship, the idolatry
commanded by bravado and rebelliousness in some facets of school
life.

Fortunately, the weakness displayed by these isolated incidents is
the shameful property of a minority element. Nevertheless, as long as
such a handicap persists, tradition in its finest sense is inexorably and
undeniably enfeebled. Tradition, often axiomatic, should be founded
on a solid base of wisdom; its towering strength lies mainly in its judi-
cious simplicity.

The new school will be lacking in one distinguished aspect of the
old hall of learning — atmosphere. However, when we return in a
quarter of a century to reminisce at assembly, we shall want to enter
not a mere building, but rather a structure steeped in a vivid sense of

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keen striving in the realm of academics as well as athletics and the div-
ers functions of school life. We have been given a unique opportunity
to commence with the building of such an atmosphere now.

As we come to move into our newly-erected school, after two years
in uninspiring, although adequate, portables, we may start afresh. We
must weed out and abolish the last vestiges of "traditional" inanity,
thus strengthening the cream of our "unwritten laws." Tradition will
remain an immovable cornerstone of Upper Canada College. In this
way, and only in this way, can such an integral feature of the old fab-
ric be incorporated and irresistibly linked forever with the new.

About the boys leaving the school that summer, the editor, W. G.
Ross, wrote:

I would venture to say that they are as well or better prepared than
any other students on the Continent. In addition to the learning that
they have received through others, ucc boys are encouraged to forget
conformity and complacency and to initiate new ideas and concepts
for themselves. Some have already tasted the responsibilities of author-
ity and each boy has been subjected to discipline during his sojourn at
the College.

In the summer of 196 1, Arthur Killip, who had returned to the Col-
lege in 1950, had this to say in The College Times' foreward:

Upper Canada is old enough and tolerant enough to take the risk of
boys and even masters making mistakes. There is great freedom for the
development of experimental methods and ideas — the seeds of great-
ness grow in an atmosphere where one is not afraid of being occasion-
ally wrong.

I noticed also the power and prestige of the Old Boys' Association,
which being traditionally conservative, can, to some extent, act as a
brake on the progressive and over-adventurous tendencies of the age.
In addition it has always, especially in emergencies, revealed itself as
the solid rock on which the College is founded and upheld.

But I feel that the finest quality of the College is that it provides a
setting in which boys of all types of ability and interests can be sure of

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finding scope to develop in their own special field. And that is the hall-
mark of a great school.

The seventies are still with us, too close for fair analysis, but it is
clear that standards have not fallen, The College Times still does what it
was intended to do — give the students a chance to air both their views
and their creative abilities. The magazine is not written by boys
perched in a tree, but the first editor would applaud it just the same.

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CHAPTER TWENTY

Games

IN 1 89 1 THE COLLEGE MOVED from its cramped quarters in downtown
Toronto to the wide open spaces of Deer Park. In doing so it attracted
to its teaching ranks A. A. (Prant) Macdonald, former head boy, ex-
pert long-distance runner, and fine all-round athlete. The thirty acres
of grounds and the country isolation combined with Macdonald's en-
thusiasm to focus attention on games in a more intense way than ever
before. They had been important from the beginning. Now they were
vital.

In addition to teaching, Macdonald had two responsibilities: one
was the directorship of the games program, the first such in UCC's histo-
ry, the other was the editorship of The College Times. In March 1895 he
wrote an editorial which expressed the College, indeed the English-pub-
lic-school, games ethic of the period.

The best that can be said of any educational institution is that it edu-
cates in the literal sense of the word; that is, draws out the faculties of
the student, and produces an all-round evenness of finish and symme-
try of development. In such a scheme of education the training of the
body must play a vitally important part. The school is the nursery of
the State, and its duty is to train and send out boys strong and vigor-
ous physically, as well as mentally, who will be able to perform man-
fully and with good heart their appointed task among life's workers.
We have no need of a school that turns out weak-backed, spectacled
wonders, but we do need a school that produces a stamp of boy whose

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GAMES

very appearance is a guarantee that his education has been, primarily
speaking, complete.

And, apart from the physical, there is a purely educational value
in school athletics. Nowhere can the great qualities of life be better
learned than on the playground. The boy that has learned to "play
the game," be it football, cricket, or hockey, in the best sense of the
word, has learned a great lesson, and one that will be of life-long
benefit to him. He has learned to take hard knocks like a man, to
accept a superior's decision with good grace, to be unselfish and con-
sider the glory of his club rather than his own, to struggle against
heavy odds, and, if need be, to acknowledge himself beaten; in short,
he has learned to be a manly boy. Add to these the great qualities of
nerve, judgment, power of rapid decision, and we have many of the
elements that are indispensable in the battle of life. And one other
great claim that athletics have is that they, more than anything else,
create associations and memories that lead old boys to look back upon
their school days with fondness. No one can ever forget his feeling of
pride on gaining a place on a school team, or his exultation when that
team gained a victory. Even in our old days of rivalry and election
strife between day boys and boarders all breaches were healed when a
match of any kind was being played, and, the hatchet buried for the
day, each boy emulated the other in volume and length of cheering.
What days those were, and how old boys, when they meet, love to talk
about them now!

Macdonald's rationale for games was the first to appear, although
games were played at the College almost from the beginning. The most
prominent of these was cricket. Indeed G. G. S. Lindsey, an Old Boy of
the 1 870s, claims for the College the distinction of having introduced
into "the lake regions of Canada, cricket, football, and organized ath-
letic games."1 (Lacrosse, he leaves to the Indians.)

The founding of the College and the playing of cricket were virtu-
ally simultaneous. Four early masters, George Anthony Barber,
Frederick Barron, William Boulton, and John Kent were the holy
quartet of Canadian cricket, with Barber being singled out as the
father. Barber, Barron, and Kent "wielded the willow with great skill"2

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UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

and immediately put the College on the cricketing map. The first
match played by the College eleven was against the Toronto Cricket
Club in July 1836 and was, happily, a victory. The Patriot wrote at that
time:

National amusements are emblematic of national character; they
partly borrow their tone from it, and partly contribute to form it. . . .
The englishman's game is cricket. It is a pastime dear to the Lon-
don nobleman, and the Sussex peasant, — to the full-blooded youthful
aristocrat of Eton; and the honest ploughboy of Hampshire. The play-
ers' virtues in this game are promptitude, activity, cheerfulness, and
noiseless vigilance. "Still as the breeze, dreadful as the storm," is every
combatant. . . . How fully, then, are the noblest traits of the English
character manifested in this game! Cool courage, that does not spirt
out at intervals but runs on with even tenor; animation without blus-
ter; and action with but few words

Such being our opinion of the surpassing excellence and virtues of
cricket, we are delighted to hear that the boys of U.C. College have
formed a cricket club. The members consist of some of the masters, ex-
pupils, and boys at present pursuing their studies

Sir John Colborne always took the deepest interest in the promo-
tion of this noble game and our present thoroughly English Lieutenant
Governor [Sir Francis Bond Head] is too accurate an observer of
human nature, not to know that the amusements of the youth tinge
the character of the man, and that British feelings cannot flow into the
breasts of our Canadian boys, thro' a more delightful or untainted
channel, than that of British sports. A cricketer as a matter of course
detests democracy and is staunch in allegiance to his King.

[Recently] The young cricketers . . . challenged the Toronto Club.
. . . There was some excellent bowling, batting, and fielding on both
sides. The day was brilliant, and the heat greatly tempered by a cool
breeze. Several ladies sat under the trees, encouraging the players, and
stirring them to emulation by their presence; and the respectable
groups of spectators gazed on the animated spectacle with pleasure. At
the conclusion of the match, His Excellency Sir Francis Head, rode up
to the ground and was received with those clear-toned and hearty
cheers, which the lungs of cricketers can so melodiously emit.

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GAMES

May the young Gentleman of the College, play their game on the
field of life, with a credit equal to that they have earned on Thursday,
and may they never have to contend with opponents less generous
than those whom they encountered on that occasion and by whom it
would have been an honour to be defeated! Many of our Englishmen,
heroes, lawyers, & divines, have, at the game of cricket, won youthful
laurels, prophetic of those which overshadowed their maturer brows.1

For twenty-five years the Upper Canada College Club was com-
prised mostly of Old Boys, and seems to have been the New York Yan-
kees of its day, though we cannot be sure how tough the opposition was.
Starting in i860 students began to take a larger part. Principal Cock-
burn supported the game through the sixties and seventies, aided by
John "Gentle" Martland, who was president of the club for twenty-
seven years. During his presidency, the College team became entirely
made up of current pupils. In 1863 the College played the Old Boys for
the first time and found the experience so pleasant they have been play-
ing them without a break ever since. In 1867 the College played its first
match against Trinity College School, Port Hope, winning by the
improbable margin of an inning and 176 runs; this rivalry has contin-
ued almost without a break for one hundred and thirteen years.

In the late eighties an article was written by the eminent Goldwin
Smith, whose comments on cricket are noteworthy, humorous, pungent,
and wrong:

Athleticism is a curious and characteristic product of our generation.
Its birth is quite recent. At Eton and Oxford in my day there was
cricket and there was boating; there were cricket matches and there
were boating matches; but there were not athletics. Nor was there any
bodily exercise or field for bodily display and distinction except the
games and boating. There was a fencing master, but he had scarcely
any pupils. Running, walking, leaping and throwing matches had not
come into existence. A good oarsman or cricketer had his need of
school or college admiration or renown, but this revival of Greek feel-
ing about success in games and bodily exercises had not set in. The
Public School matches and boat races were objects of interest to Eton,

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UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

Winchester, Westminster, Harrow and their circles, but the general
public paid very little attention to them and they received little
notices in the newspapers. Now they are national events.

Cricket and baseball have both evidently been developed by evo-
lution out of the infantine game of trap-ball, the bowler or pitcher
being substituted for the trap, and the running being backward and
forward in one case and round the ring in the other. Single-wicket
cricket and the English boys' game of "rounders" are the "missing
links." That out-of-door games are excellent things in their measure,
we are all agreed. But in England all measure has been lost. Men live
to play games instead of playing games to live. Surely it is laughable to
see a man sheathed in defensive armour of the most elaborate kind
march solemnly out before a vast concourse of spectators and with a
gait which bespeaks his consciousness of his heroic responsibility to dis-
play the skill which by years of laborious practice he has acquired of
preventing a ball from hitting three upright sticks.

The aristocratic and leisure game of all others is cricket, a match
at which, when the players are first-rate, takes seldom less than two,
often three days, and if the defence continues to improve its advantage
over the attack may presently take a week. Cricket probably will
never be naturalized here; besides its inordinate demands on time the
difficulty of keeping up lawns in our hot summer is against it.

The College's prospective move to Deer Park intensified interest in
games, and cricket was no exception. In the spring of 1891 the first
cricket team played twelve matches right through June 28 — no rubbish
here about exams getting in the way of more important pursuits! Fur-
thermore, the board had approved of a cricket professional to coach
and do other things and he — Bowbank — was appointed for the 1891
season. Parkin's arrival did nothing to lessen interest. An 1897 article
could have been written by the principal himself:

The very conduct of the game tends to propriety, precision and good
form. A cricket umpire, acting for gentlemen, has a pleasant and easy
time. To question his decisions would be an offence against good
breeding and the laws of etiquette. This is one of cricket's greatest
claims to support, that it teaches and inculcates all the military quali-

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ties, insisting at the same time upon courtesy, dignity and generosity,
and that intangible, but yet desirable, idea — good form.

It is with great satisfaction we learn that Dr. Parkin has decided to
make cricket compulsory this summer. A professional has been
engaged for nine weeks, and every one, whether enthusiastic cricketer
or not, should resolve to do his best to make this a record season. Now,
at considerable expense, a new venture is being made in cricket and it
rests with the school to say whether the results will justify it.

The idea of "compulsion" in sports will come with a shock to some
who at present take no interest in the game. For such the course is
plain, namely, to devote themselves to cricket for the sake of the
school's success. Nothing helps like enthusiasm; and general activity
and readiness, guided by a skilful "coach," is bound to produce credi-
table results. Hitherto the trouble has been that College cricket cen-
tred in about thirty players, the rest taking but a passive interest. Now
with steady supervision of the juniors it is hoped that an army of crick-
eters will grow up in the College. Matches between "flats" or "forms"
can be arranged when the game becomes universal, and by a division
of "creases" boys may be graded and promoted when necessary to a
higher crease, thus providing interest and excitement. It is a grand
opportunity to revive College cricket and we trust the Eleven of '99
will carve out a niche for themselves in the pillar of fame.

Cricket's great rival made its appearance during Cockburn's princi-
palship. Organized baseball had started in New Jersey in 1846; the first
professional baseball team was organized in 1869. UCC, ever alert to
international developments, experimented with the new game, perhaps
inspiring the monumental match, or mis-match, of May 187 1 . Their
opponents were the Weston Church School and the score was UCC 64,
Weston 17. The game took two and a half hours, with UCC scoring in
every inning. The College pitcher, J. L. Cronyn, scored ten runs him-
self, an exhausting performance that allowed Weston to score thirteen
of their runs in the ninth. How the teams managed to score 81 runs in
150 minutes will remain a mystery; how Cheeley, the Weston pitcher,
survived the bombardment is another. Nevertheless, baseball had raised
its American head on the Upper Canada College campus, and it has

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UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

continued to do so to this day. Just before the school moved north, it
was playing competitive baseball with the collegiate institute. In its iso-
lation at Deer Park it continued the game but only on an informal
basis. Today there are house teams, but baseball has never achieved the
status of an official school sport.

The dominance of cricket over baseball has certainly something to
do with tradition; it has had something to do with cricket's being a first-
class game and with its undoubted character-forming traits. But in a
society obsessed with speed, cricket has sometimes seemed anachronis-
tic. Both games could continue as friendly rivals for a long time to
come. Volumes could be written about cricket at Upper Canada Col-
lege. It has survived for as long as the College itself, against the
onslaughts of tennis, track, rugby, and baseball, a brief spring term,
capricious weather, final exams, and long weekends. It even survived a
shortage of cricket balls in 1944. How much longer Canadian boys will
continue to play under such handicaps is uncertain. What is certain is
that the game, under the patient guidance of generations of dedicated
masters, has given pleasure to, and helped to build the characters of,
thousands of Upper Canada College boys.

In delving into the football story, it is difficult to distinguish between
Canadian football, English rugby (rugger), and soccer. A. A. Macdon-
ald tells us that, previous to 1876, the association game — soccer — was
played. In that year a Swiss master named Fiirrer introduced English
rugby to the College. It became the official College autumn game with,
once again, masters playing alongside boys as members of the first team.
Originators included Hamilton Woodruff, W. L. Conolly, Charles
Atkinson, and Frank Keefer.

In 1902 there was a lot of indecision at the school as to just what
form the game should take. The old English scrimmage with its open-
ness and uncertainty had been abandoned at some earlier date for a
Canadian-type scrimmage. A debate developed about the introduction
of American rules, which demanded precision and a scientific
approach. The College Times saw the inevitable demise of the English
game and thought, with a tinge of sadness, that the sooner the Ameri-
can game was brought in the better. (How delighted the editor, E. M.

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Sait, would have been to see the amount of English rugby played by
UCC in the seventies!) The fifteen-man game continued to be played
until 1902 when a man was dropped. That game was played until 1933
when the number of players became 12. Gradually, as the modern pla-
tooning disease took hold, more and more colours were given at the
school-team level; the professional rules, if not the professional ethic,
became too popular to ignore.

In the eighteen-nineties football was not only one of the main school
games, it had important social overtones. In December about fifty boys
attended an annual football supper, which was more than just a supper,
it was an occasion. After the feast — gallons of soup, turkeys, and apple
pie — there were toasts to Queen, country, College, and Stony Jackson,
followed by songs, choruses, violin duets, banjo solos, and selections on
the mouth organ, all finished off with "God Save the Queen." The
chronicler of one supper declared that "the whole affair was out of
sight."

Although hockey was widely known in the eighties, it took some
time to arrive at Upper Canada College. The first news of skating was
in 1883 when a semi-comical article in The College Times described a trip
to the Adelaide Street rink.

Reaching the Rink, we watched for a short time the different skaters,
the majority of whom kept circling round and round like the horses
and carriages of a merry-go-round, while an envied minority were in
the middle of the Rink performing evolutions and twists with seem-
ingly the greatest of ease. . . . We then proceeded to don our skates; we
stood up. What caused that rocking? Was it an earthquake, or was it
only the pop which we had indulged in at the "Taffy"? We start for
the ice — a little too quickly, perhaps for the good of our bones; but
how were we to know that that curling stone was in the way? We start
off on the ice; now the fun begins in earnest. Oh, my! what was that?
What mule kicked us, or who struck us with a sledge hammer from
behind? Echo answers, "Neither; it was the ice". Sad conclusion — it
was. Someone helped us up ... he smiled, and told us to strike out with
one leg and keep the other in front, so we did so; but what was the
consequence? Evidently our feet had some little misunderstanding for

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they kept spreading and spreading until — But the finishing touch was
yet to come when, after getting the stars out of our head, we looked up
and saw a girl holding up a scuttle of coal — no, it is a muff, up to her
mouth, in vain endeavours to keep from laughing. Horrors! it is Ame-
lia Jane Smifkens, the girl we have been trying to make an impression
upon for the last six months.

In 1887 shindy, alias shinney, shinny, or shinnie, was popular. It is
not clear what the game consisted of, but it was played with a peculiar
crooked stick and was not yet tainted by the professionalism "of cos-
tumes, badges, referees or umpires."

Oddly, to the modern eye, hockey did not begin at UCC until 1888,
when an outside hockey rink was made; by 1891 the game was estab-
lished as the winter sport. One wonders what competition it had. The
first school hockey team played the winter of 1890-91 and was cap-
tained by J. B. McMurrich. With the move to Deer Park, two rinks
were built, one of which was covered. In the mid nineties the College
masters disapproved of the school team entering the Toronto Junior
Hockey League, perhaps fearing a type of play not in accord with the
school's values, but this policy did not last long. The first game played
against Ridley was in 1896 at the Granite Rink, a "splendidly contest-
ed" match according to Harry Griffith of Ridley and won by UCC 1 1-9.
For the next two or three years pressure continued to mount, and in
1899 a movement started to enter UCC in the Ontario Hockey Associa-
tion. All the good teams were in some league and it was difficult to get a
match otherwise. Moreover, some objective such as the Junior Champi-
onship of Ontario would catch the imagination not only of the team but
of the whole school. The OHA was evidently established, dignified, and
cleansed of professionalism. Gentlemanly conduct among the players,
courtesy to officials, and regard for authority were the hallmark of the
OHA. The College did join the association and was rewarded early on
with a championship in 1902.

For many, hockey rivalled football as the most popular College
game either to play or to watch. In the twentieth century, lacking artifi-
cial ice, the school teams travelled miles to practise or play wherever

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GAMES

they could. Maple Leaf Gardens was a favourite spot after 1934; many
exciting games and outstanding teams were developed in that arena.
Two outdoor artificial rinks built in the mid 1950s gave the whole
school a better chance for enjoyment, and the 197 1 indoor arena has
proved to be a great boon for the game.

Track (though not much field) began early in the College history. A
number of events were evidently very popular at the King Street site:
there is evidence that the 100-yard dash, the 220, and the quarter-mile
were all run during the 1880s, although there was no true running track
until the College moved north.

The first running track was laid out on the new school grounds in
the spring of 1892 by Stony Jackson and some students.

Among the innovations that have been made since last September,
one which ought to find a great deal of favour with the boys is the pro-
posed cinder path. It has been generally supposed that this would be
ready for the coming games, but this impression is an erroneous one.
Such an undertaking is one that cannot be done in a day, and which,
if poorly done, had better not be done at all. For proof of what we say,
witness the track in Montreal, which, in a comparatively short time
after its completion, cost nearly two thousand dollars to have repaired.
Warned by such examples as this, the College authorities have
decided to go slow and have a track which will not need constant look-
ing after. So, although we will not have a cinder track for this year's
games, still we can have the pleasing assurance that next year ucc will
have a track that will leave nothing to be desired.

Jackson, not content with laying out the quarter-mile track, was
also "engaged in superintending the construction of a cinder path
across the trackless bogs of the south-eastern lawn, and regularly puts in
at least two days' work every fine afternoon." ("The trackless bogs of
the south-eastern lawn" now consist of three autumn soccer fields or two
spring cricket fields and a baseball diamond, and shudder to the roar of
traffic sweeping down Oriole Parkway around to Lonsdale.)

A hundred years later, Games Day carries on annually. In addition,
it is a rare spring week that does not see a track meet of some kind,

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often with students of a dozen different schools, in a wild mixture of col-
ours, running and jumping on the oval.

The move to Deer Park and its vistas opened up more opportunities.
In 1 89 1 Macdonald presented a handsome challenge cup for cross-
country running. The course was five-and-a-half miles long, north and
west of the grounds. It seems to have been open to all forms, and to have
gained popularity as the years went by. (In 1894, 44 boys ran, 29
finished, and the winner's time was forty-one minutes, twenty-five sec-
onds.) In 1892 another Cup was presented — this time for a spring
steeplechase — by William Hendrie and his five sons, all Old Boys. The
course was well-remembered:

. . . the brook which winds through the irregular valley behind the Col-
lege. The volume of water is not great, but sufficient at some seasons to
wear a broad channel, with irregular banks sometimes rising like a
wall eight or ten feet high. Through this valley and on both sides of
the brook, the runners follow a zig-zag course from flag to flag, and by
some strange freak of fortune the flags always lead across the hardest
places. Twelve times, by actual count, the stream is crossed; twice the
sides of the valley itself are climbed; two fences have to be scaled; and
then there is the famous water-jump where George has repaired the
old dam. From the little grove where the race begins to the winning
flags is something less than half-a-mile as the crow flies, but the zig-
zag route with all its ups and downs requires a good deal of staying
power, to say nothing of agility and speed.

Cricket, football, and hockey were seen in the nineteenth century
and for part of the twentieth as more important than any other games
because they were team, not individual, sports; they built character and
school spirit, which was a crucial concept that could coalesce around
them. In 1882 there was an attempt to promote tennis at the expense of
"cricket or any other given sport," but it was not very successful. The
idea cropped up from time to time throughout the years, but generally
the view prevailed that there should be one official game in each term
to which all students paid homage. It was not until after the Second

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World War that the school gradually broke away from the "big three"
games syndrome.

Despite the official line, other sports were practised from time to
time. Although rowing was not officially a UCC sport until recently,
College boys certainly rowed while members of the school as early as
1859. A rowing club that had some prominence on Toronto Bay was
made up of boys from Upper Canada College and the Model Grammar
School. They rowed in a six-oared, lap-streaked boat called the Clipper.
The crew was coached by Thomas Tinning, who at that time was
champion oarsman of Toronto Bay. In the early 1920s an attempt was
made to revive rowing, and some competition took place with Malvern,
Parkdale, Hamilton, and St. Catharines. Transportation expense and
lack of time made it difficult to develop successfully, but the group
worked hard. They suggested some generous Old Boys might buy an
Eight and a Four and a school bus. It was not the last time this idea
arose. Rowing was a good sport for non-cricketers, but fifty years went
by before it caught on. On its 150th birthday the school has a fanatical
group of oarsmen, who keep unbelievable hours, high academic stan-
dards, and attain creditable competitive results.

Swimming, moribund at King and Simcoe, came alive at Deer Park
with the erection of a swimming pool. The eminent B. K. Sandwell, not
satisfied with one good swimming pool, wanted two:

We congratulate the college on its acquisition so long, long deferred, of
a real, good swimming bath. The bath is now in full operation, and is
really excellent. It is also supplied with two very good shower baths,
and every other appliance. This is a thing which no large school
should be without, being calculated to promote at once health,
strength, and manliness among the boys. We can't see, however, why
we should not have both the outdoor and indoor baths.

How Sandwell expected to operate an outdoor pool except in July is
not explained, but superb use was made of the indoor one which was
enlarged under Auden and lasted until 1932. The guiding genius of the
pool was A. L. Cochrane, who taught swimming, diving, and water polo

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UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

until 192 1. In 1937 a new pool gave impetus to aquatics, which since
the early forties have given many boys a much-needed alternative to
hockey.

Although water sports were Cochrane's specialty, he was also an
excellent boxing instructor and was responsible for introducing this skill
to College boys, ucc was one of the first schools in Canada to have a
boxing tournament, 1896 being the year. Qualities such as self-reliance
and skill in attack and defence were said to result from this sport. Like
many other games its popularity depended on how good at it you were.
For many years it was mandatory for all new boys to enter the annual
tournament. A few enthusiasts continued to compete in their senior
years. There was absolute silence during the bouts, both contestants
were applauded no matter how well they had done, and for the finals
many fathers (no women allowed) attended in black ties to watch the
boys compete under floodlights at night. H. M. Buxton succeeded
Cochrane, but when he left there was nobody to carry on. A first-class
instructor was indispensable for a sport like boxing. Dr. Sowby made
the boxing voluntary in 1954 and it promptly died.

Tennis had only a brief history at King and Simcoe. In Deer Park
tennis was played in a desultory way from the beginning, but caught on
as an alternative to cricket following the Second World War. After the
squash courts were built in 1971, racquet sports became even more
firmly established as official College games.

There was little basketball in the nineteenth century, but the game
was resurrected around 1900, and was endured as long as it did not
interfere with football. Jeanneret spent much time and energy trying to
develop basketball in 191 3, but it did not come into its own for many
years.

One curious aberration was golf. Under the impetus of that indefa-
tigable master E. R. Peacock, a rough nine-hole course was laid out on
the open land west of the Deer Park grounds. With the purchase of
twenty additional acres in 1901, the game became more popular:

There has been a good deal of vigor expended on the game of golf this
autumn. Among both boys and masters, old players are keener than

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GAMES

ever, and a number of new enthusiasts have cropped up. Zeal for the
game, indeed, has sometimes proved an annoyance if not a danger to
the innocent frequenters of the College avenue and football fields; for
many of the wielders of golf clubs prefer the smooth turf and nearness
of the home fields to the lesser attractions of our distant links. We are
glad to be able to promise a nearer hunting ground to the club for next
spring, when five fresh greens will be completed on the new College
property, just across the Forest Hill Road. The player will then take
his first drive within a stone's throw of the College, and can either
make a short round on the new holes, or work out on to the old course,
coming back again for a finish near home.

The only matches played by the club this term have been by
teams of Masters, who met teams from the faculty of Toronto Univer-
sity. On the Varsity links the College representatives won by 1 8 up,
and on the home course by 35 up.

Before 1920 there is little evidence that games were compulsory for
all College boys. At King and Simcoe there was not really room. At
Deer Park, despite Parkin's attempt at compulsory cricket, many day
boys had an enormously long trip home, with the result that boarders
really dominated the sporting scene. This concentration on the few who
boarded rather than the many who did not, placed emphasis on the
school teams rather than on intra-mural games. The emergence of rival
boarding-schools, therefore, helped to shape the direction the games
program took.

It was in the eighteen-nineties that inter-school rivalry began to
emerge as a force to be reckoned with in school life. In 1889 Ridley was
founded, and two years later the College played its first football game
against that school. The game was dropped for three years, then
resumed again in 1895, and has been played every year down to the
present. In 1896 the two schools first met at cricket; these matches, too,
have continued unbroken. Hockey against Ridley began the same year,
but the rivalry has been spotty, unbroken only since 195 1. In 1899 St.
Andrew's College began, and in 1900 the Little Big Four of TCS, Rid-
ley, SAC, and UCC was formed in football. In 1901 cricket followed.
Other school teams developed much later: swimming and basketball in

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UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

1942; squash in 1944; tennis in 1951 ; and soccer in 1968. Little Big
Four rivalries were begun in swimming, squash, and tennis.

Games had started to play an enormous part in the life of the Col-
lege. It was not unusual for twenty or thirty pages in The College Times to
be given over to detailed descriptions of cricket games. In addition, the
Old Boys' athletic activities provided a source of interest.

The inter-school rivalry, sometimes quite fierce and not at all
friendly, explains to some degree the article in the December 1893
College Times by C. H. Bradburn, chairman of the Board of Stewards.
The "great principle of patriotism" was invoked to persuade all to play
one game per term, regardless of "their natural inclination." Bradburn
claimed that the official game for each term was dictated by public
opinion outside the College and beyond its control.

As we feel that the majority of the boys do not understand the object of
the present system of managing the games, we propose giving, as con-
cisely as possible, the reason for the present condition of affairs.

A minority seem to be in favour of playing several games during
any given season of the year, and as it is but right, that as far as possi-
ble, everyone should enjoy himself after his own fashion, it appears, at
first sight, to be only just that these should be able to gratify their wish.
Opposed to this, however, is the great principle of patriotism. We have
ventured to use this term in reference to a boy's love for his College,
and who will presume to deny that every sincere and manly boy does
not love "his College" with his whole soul? And so, on account of their
patriotism, the boys are asked to forego their natural inclination. Sup-
pose for a moment that we were to support more than one game a
term, a case might arise such as this: The best "Rugby" player might
be a great lover of "Association." True, he excels at "Rugby," but he
does not care so much for it as for the other game, and in consequence
the football team and the College loses its best representative. It might
be even worse. Suppose, two, three, or even four of our Rugby team
were disposed to play "Association," our fifteen would be ruined and
the firm reputation of UCC, won on many a hard-fought field, would
be sacrificed to the pleasure of a few. Hence we conclude that we can
have only one game each term to make one game a success. That the game

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GAMES

each term is the particular game it is, arises from public opinion out-
side the College and over which we have no control. We can only
show that UCC can, and will, excel in any manly sport which may be
popular. The question then arises. Is this system a success? Last year
the whole energy of the College was thrown into Rugby football; and
did the blue and white jersies ever leave the field except as victors? In
winter we played hockey, and the nominal junior champions of
Ontario were shown how to play that game by UCC. In summer the
cricketers laboured diligently on the crease, and TCS, which prides
itself in knowing how to play that game, at least, was no match for our
eleven. Nevertheless, the boys grumble at having to pay one dollar a
term to support these organizations and our annual games. Were last
year's games a failure? Perhaps they were, but we never heard so. And
when the Stewards have received these hardly gotten dollars — are
they not used properly? We firmly believe, and the majority of the
boys believe, that they are.

These views must have been shared by the administration, for this
general philosophy held sway for more than half a century, an astonish-
ing tribute to the tradition that it was important to win for the love of
the College. But the accent on playing one game, on patriotism, and on
winning had its inevitable consequence: the deterioration of the value
of good sportsmanship — a high price to pay. After the First World War,
Choppy Grant continued the policy that unreserved options were not
the best way to encourage school spirit. He thought a team player had a
better training for later life than a swimmer or tennis player. These
curious and unproved points of view took many years to die.

At the same time, under Grant's impetus house games and school
teams both burgeoned in the thirties. The school regularly had two or
three football, four hockey, and three cricket teams. In the seventies this
organization is supplemented by an enormous house-games program.

As the College moves into the future, the games program is large
and varied: football, rugger, soccer, hockey, basketball, swimming,
squash, tennis, cricket, rowing, and track-and-field are all accepted in
the College curriculum, and a large interschool calendar has been built
up. Baseball is played for fun. Skiing, golf, and curling are off-campus

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pursuits. When the conditions are right, will sky-diving and skate-
boarding be added?

The proliferation of games at Upper Canada College clarifies the
College's current attitude to the dilemmas of the past. Games are no
longer for boarders alone, they are for everyone. Insofar as it is possible
to supervise them, they are compulsory. Emphasis on games has been
softened by the heavy clubs program. One game is no more important
than another; they all serve a purpose — the full development of the stu-
dent. An invaluable corollary of both games and clubs is the close rela-
tionship built up between teachers and students, much closer than is
possible in a classroom. The College has fought hard and with some
success against the professionalization of its games. There are two key
elements in professional sports without which none of them could exist:
money and winning. Since money is the essential, and without winning
there is no money, winning is also essential. If winning is essential, then
the true purposes of games — enjoyment, exercise, cameraderie, skill-
learning, the building of confidence — become secondary. The only end
is winning and all means are directed to that end. It has not been easy
for College athletes, especially in those sports which are obviously pro-
fessionalized, to resist following their commercial leaders; it has been
equally difficult for some adult members of the College community. In
1976 a card entitled "Code of Sportsmanship" was printed and distrib-
uted to every College boy as well as to the students of some other
Ontario independent Schools. Gentle Martland, Prant Macdonald, and
Stony Jackson would probably have wondered what it was all about.
The present and future task is to ensure that their efforts were not in
vain.

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CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Cadets

IT IS DIFFICULT TO ESTABLISH A DATE on which the College Rifle
Company, alias the Rifle Corps, later the Cadet Battalion, held its
first official parade. The first hint of any military enthusiasm at UCC
is mentioned earlier, when during the 1837 Rebellion, a troop of boys
offered their services to the Lieutenant-Governor.

Early in Principal Cockburn's regime, military drill was the subject
of much attention in schools in England, Canada, and the United
States. Ways were sought to promote what was thought of as a patriotic
spirit. The aim was to foster love of country along with a disposition to
defend it, and to develop obedience and discipline. The important habit
of prompt obedience could then be carried over into the classroom. By
1865 drill had been introduced into schools in many Ontario centres,
including Toronto, London, and Port Hope. The College was probably
one of the earliest participants; it is known that in 1863 the older boys
paraded weekly under a Major Goodwin, a strict disciplinarian but
"kind-hearted" and "cheery."1

In 1865 Fenian troubles were creating much unease in Canada, and
several Upper Canada College students asked Principal Cockburn's
permission to transform the recently formed cadets into a company of
the Queen's Own Rifles. In December of that year an unknown num-
ber of pupils were enrolled, and in January 1866 the company was
attached to the 2nd Battalion, Queen's Own Rifles. Thus, Upper Can-
ada College was possibly the second Canadian school to have an
"official" cadet corps, following Bishop's College School in Lennoxville,
Quebec, whose corps was organized in 1861.

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UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

The Queen's Own were called out on March 8, 1866, and though
the College boys were not specifically mentioned, they appeared at
every parade and march anyway (they even had their own marching
song). On St. Patrick's Day the company waited for any trouble arising
out of the parade, but nothing happened. When the Fenians actually
struck at Fort Erie on June 1 , the Queen's Own were ordered out to
meet them. School was dismissed for the day and the College company
reported for duty only to find that, by orders of General Napier, they
must remain in garrison to guard the armouries and official stores.
Some students wanted to "desert" to join the battalion at the front, but
evidently no one did. They performed the duty which was given them.
After the raid there were plenty of volunteers in Toronto, and so the
College company was released; but, just in case, it was "agreed that
should the College bell ring at any time out of class hours, the members
of the Company would . . . assemble at the Armoury."2 The bell did, in
fact, ring once, and the College boys were the first to report to the
armoury, but it was a false alarm. A dense crowd gave them three
cheers.

It has been thought that the Upper Canada College Rifle Company
received "battle honours" for its passive though honourable role in the
Raid. Not so. The Queen's Own Rifles did not receive such honour;
neither did the College. However, General Napier did give them hon-
ourable mention in his report, and it is true that they were called out
for service (along with Bishop's College School) — apparently the only
time in Canadian military history this has happened. Over thirty years
later, the government decided to present medals to those who were
engaged on active service in the Fenian Raid: the College Rifle Com-
pany, though denied the privilege of fighting, had performed some
important functions, and all the members of the company still living
received a medal.

In the summer of 1867 the Upper Canada College Rifles united
with the University company to form one corps. They attended a mili-
tary camp at Thorold, and seem to have had a typical, enjoyable
"camping experience," including a final march through a drenching
thunderstorm.

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CADETS

The Rifle Company's history is obscure for about twenty years. In
1886 Principal Dickson was requested by the College's Committee of
Management to report about the possibility of organizing the students
under the Queen's regulations as a voluntary company for drilling pur-
poses. The committee then authorized the formation of such a group,
and Dickson was asked to get tenders for full uniforms and patterns for
them. Colonel Otter of the Queen's Own Rifles recommended a uni-
form which was approved. At $9.50 per suit, it consisted of:

Dark gray Norfolk Jacket trimmed with Scarlet with Standing Collar
showing scarlet, Shoulder straps with scarlet piping and the letters
ucc, Brass buttons bearing College crest, Sleeve of Jacket to have
maple leaf of braid; Trowsers. Same material as jacket with scarlet
piping over the seam; Leggings, of plain leather; Forage Cap-round
with scarlet braid and button in the center of the crown, Brass badge
on band of cap bearing the College crest resting on a maple leaf; Non-
commissioned officers to be distinguished from privates by chevrons of
black braid with red border.

The 1886 prospectus lists a total of 73 of all ranks out of a College
enrolment close to 300.

Late in 1889 fifty uniforms appear to have been obtained from Eng-
land for a total of four hundred dollars. It is not clear what relation
these bore to the 1886 uniforms. Also, light and very effective rifles were
approved which were guaranteed to perforate a one-inch dial plank at
six hundred yards. Whether these were actually purchased is unknown,
but later on there were complaints about a Peabody Rifle, too heavy for
even a grown man.

Hard news resurfaces again in December 1891 with another new
uniform introduced:

The rifle company, contrary to the expectations of all, was fully organ-
ized the last week in November, and immediate measures were taken
for it to start drill. Accordingly about twenty-five boys appeared in the
gym on an appointed day. . . . The new uniforms consist of a shell-
jacket (with three rows of brass buttons) of blue military cloth, and

333

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

trousers of same material with white stripes. The headress is a forage-
cap of College colours. This uniform resembles very much that of the
Governor-General's Body Guard, besides being altogether College col-
ours. They reason why most of the boys have not joined is very likely
that the company was very long in getting started, and that everybody
was waiting until the others made a move. The seniors, however, espe-
cially those in the sixth form, have another reason, namely, that as
they are leaving the school this year it is not much use in joining for
such a short time. Every boy who expects to be here for two or three
years more should join, as the uniform is not dear, only costing Si 6,
and will last as long as anybody would need it in the College and a
long time afterwards besides. The company has drilled regularly, each
one has cleaned and brightened up his rifle and bayonet, and if it was
of a greater size the rifle company would without doubt be one of the
most sucessful institutions in the College. Therefore, join it.

For the next few years the Rifle Company continued to be a College
institution, though short on numbers. It was an expense for the partici-
pants and involved much time-consuming drill without any kind of
compensating fun such as shooting or extra leave. Those in the corps
thought everybody "of suitable stature" ought to be a member: it
bestowed lasting physical benefits and, more important, every boy who
had "a spark of national spirit in him" should make himself acquainted
with "the means by which he might help to save his country in time of
need."

Through most of the nineties an air of desperation is evident among
those extolling the company's vitues. Though the company is described
as "very smart and military in their blue and silver uniforms" when
marching with the Royal Regiment of Canada in 1893, there was a real
lack of interest and enthusiasm, not only in the College generally, but
even on the part of the members, who numbered only twenty-three that
year. Because the College was in dire financial straits, the students not
only paid for their own uniforms but for their instructor as well. Equip-
ment was inadequate.

An effort is again being made to get suitable rifles from the govern-

334

(Above) The College Times staff of 1893,

headed by B. K. Sandwell (seated in

centre) (Upper Canada College).

(Right) George Glazebrook, editor

191 7. He was later to become an

eminent historian and civil servant

(Upper Canada College).

The College Times

^S^^^Vmi^H

Et^^H

cr '■

1 1 /

v _

Robertson Davies, 1 931. Author,

playwright, and Master of Massey College

(The College Times, 1948-50).

David A. Keys, 1909. He became

Canada's top nuclear scientist

(The College Times, 1908-10).

More well-known
College Times editors

' ' 'J

Henry B. M. Best, 1 95 1 .
President of Laurentian

University (The College
Times, 1951-54).

V >

Brian Doherty, 192 1. Founder of
the Shaw Festival (Shaw Festival).

Sports

The boxing and football pictures are from /^V^-Av #»■.

the turn of the century. The steeplechase
picture was probably taken twenty years
later. The stream ran across Avenue Road
about a hundred yards north of the Col-
lege grounds and south of the Belt Line
(University of Toronto Archives).

These are the earliest pictures available

of College first teams (Upper Canada

College).

Rugby 1883-85

Hockey 1891-92

Cricket 1889

Cadets, 1893 (Upper Can-
ada College).

^ ^>

,— ... —

*-* 1 • | >^y ^-* 1

11 7^g— /*>

*/ '

>--

The cadet corps changed
uniforms every so often, per-
haps to attract students
when enrolment in the corps
was low.

Rifle Company, 1899 (The

College Times, 1928-29)

(Below) Cadets, 1909 (Upper

Canada College).

««<«***»£ vV.'

The cadets reached their
height in the twenties and
thirties. Inspections and
parades were social affairs of
some significance. At the
inspection in May 1932
{middle picture) a group of
dignitaries stands in front of
the principal's house. Mar-
garet Grant is third from the
left. In the centre of the pic-
ture are Marjorie Parkin
Macdonnell (Mrs. J. M.),
Vincent Massey, Mrs. Mas-
sey, and Colonel Hertzberg,
the inspecting officer. Prin-
cipal Grant is on the
extreme right. The other
pictures are from 1932-33.

RSM F. N. Carpenter. This photograph
was taken in the thirties (Milne Studi-
os). {Below) Inspection, May 1940. The
SM's high standards carried on for some
years (Upper Canada College).

CADETS

ment. The ones now being used by the corps are of the Peabody make,
an arm which has long since been "condemned." At the time of the
formation of the present company in '91, The Charles Stark Co., Ltd.,
was so kind as to present it with a very valuable rifle as a prize for
shooting. From lack of proper "shooting irons" this has never been
competed for. It has been decided, however, that next spring this
handsome trophy will be shot for, even if the rifles then used have to
be borrowed.

The complaint that no incentive in the form of special leave was
being offered to the corps had some merit; on the other hand in those
years the College was fighting for its survival and the Rifle Company's
worries had very low priority. Despite that the autumn of 1898 found
the cadets under a new command.

After a year of idleness the company has been revived and reorgan-
ized. In order to give greater permanency to the command than there
has hitherto been, one of the masters, Mr. E. R. Peacock, will here-
after take command. The company already numbers over forty, and it
is hoped that next year there will be two or three companies. D. J.
Cochrane is first lieutenant, and will also hold the Rifle Stewardship.
Douglas Young is second lieutenant. The uniform adopted is similar to
the new service uniform of the Queen's Own Rifles — Rifle green with
forage cap. The officers will wear the uniform of a lieutenant of the
Queen's Own, without the cross belt or badge.

Sergeant-Major Holmes, of Stanley Barracks, has been getting the
recruits into shape for the last month, and had done a great deal of
work in the short time allotted to him. The heavy snow has stopped
the outside drill for the present, but it is hoped that after the holidays
drill will be held in the Armouries once a week. If so, the company will
march to the Armouries whenever the condition of the weather and
roads will permit.

As Canada moved into the twentieth century and the College
achieved independence, Captain Peacock and the company gathered
some strength. In December 1900 The College Times reported:

335

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

Contrary to the expectations of some of the boys, the Rifle Company
has turned out exceedingly well this year. All the members do their
very best at every drill, and as they have had two drills a week while
the good weather lasted, they now compare very favourably with any
of the militia companies in the city.

At the beginning of this term Capt. Peacock was lucky enough to
secure as drill sergeant the instructor of the Queen's Own Rifles, who
is a splendid drill. So we have great hopes of doing well in the parades
next spring.

On the return of the troops from South Africa, the Company
paraded 42 strong. The march was a long one, but the College did
splendidly, getting a great deal of praise for their fine appearance.
Although all the members had 9 o'clock leave, they showed their
regard for the honour of the corps by being in well on time.

We hope soon to begin rifle practice at the Armouries, and expect
also to play a little indoor baseball.

Next February comes the great event of the winter term — the
Rifle Company dance, to which all look forward with pleasant expec-
tations. Last year the dance went off splendidly, the decorations were
fine, the floor and music all that could be desired, and not a hitch
occurred from beginning to end. This year it has every prospect of
being even better, if that were possible.

The brave words of the article were not reflected in deeds, however.
These were lean years for the company. The appointment of an ardent
imperialist, Sir George Parkin, as principal had not helped, nor did
what might have been the spur of the South African War. Parkin wrote
to Kingsmill about the antiquated equipment and lost material. He felt
it was a public duty to double the corps's numbers. The full strength of
the company was forty-eight in 1902 and it leapt to seventy-five the
next year, but still there was much dissatisfaction. The company had
become noisy and undisciplined after Peacock's departure in 1902 and
admittedly one of the worst in the country. Students wore parts of their
uniforms around the school looking "half civilian and half military."

On the whole the drill season this year has not been a great success. It

336

CADETS

is true that at Church parade in May the School Company did
extremely well. We were the strongest Company on parade, and all
the company and section movements that had to be executed were
smartly performed. It is also true that the individual members of the
Company have probably a more thorough knowledge of their drill
than ever before, and yet we have not had a good season.

This is much to be regretted, especially when the reason is seen to
be the utter lack of "esprit de corps" that has prevailed. With a few
exceptions hardly a boy in the Company has taken any interest, or
shown any public spirit at all. It has been the fashion for some time to
consider the Company as a tiresome thing: "One has to go in, but it
wouldn't be at all the proper thing to do to try and work decently in it.
Drill is a thing that has to be done, and so let us do it as badly as possi-
ble." These are a few examples of the kind of spirit that of late has
been animating the School Company. It is a wrong spirit, and a cow-
ardly spirit, and it shows a lack of interest in the School itself that such
a despicable state of things should be the case.

A year later the concept of an obligatory cadet corps arose. Eyes
turned to England, where Harrow and then Eton had made military
drill and instruction in shooting mandatory for all boys. "The ultimate
advantage to the country of this training it would be hard to overesti-
mate." The College evidently did not agree, for no action was taken.

The Board of Governors, which had not taken much interest in the
cadets for about twenty years because they had more important things
in hand, decided to look into the situation, and in September 1906 they
asked one of the masters in the College "or other party in charge of the
College Rifle Corp"3 to report to the executive committee. There is no
recorded response to this official inquiry but it was reported a little later
that one and a half hours of drill per week was all the time the boys had
to spare for drilling. Many parents were apathetic and were writing in
to ask to have their sons excused. The senior boys especially were saying
they had no time to put into drill.

Brand new uniforms, introduced perhaps as an incentive, gave the
company another new look in 1908 — the colour was khaki and there
were knee breeches, puttees, tan shoes, and a Norfolk coat "of the

337

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

officer pattern." A stetson hat with blue-and-white pugaree added "the
necessary touches of local colour." The suggestion was made that it
would "be possible to use this uniform for outdoor purposes after a boy
has left school."

The enrolment in the Rifle Company gradually increased to 63 out
of 200 students by 1910. In 1912 Sergeant Carpenter first appeared as
instructor, and by the following year the numbers had climbed to 103.
For the first time the corps was split into two companies, one of board-
ers and one of day boys. A description of the annual inspection of 191 2
indicates that a new spirit was abroad.

At three-thirty to-day the oval presented a picturesque scene. A wide,
grassy lawn enclosed by a bank of foliage in various tints of green:
along the terrace groups of College boys and a goodly number of
friends: on the opposite side the Preparatory boys in their afternoon
garb of white; the Union Jack waving from the top of the flagpole;
and the blue sky over all. This, however, was but the setting. The cen-
tre of the picture was also the centre of interest. There, drawn up in
true military style, facing the terrace, stood the College Rifles, with
Captain Jones in front, and precisely at three-thirty the captain
ordered the General Salute for the inspecting officer, Major R. K.
Barker.

The formal inspection followed, and it is safe to say that nothing
out of place could have escaped the practised eye of Major Barker,
and all the time there wasn't a movement in the ranks. Next came the
march past. Then the Captain put the company through the manual
drill, and next Lieut. McLean was ordered to show their proficiency in
the Firing Exercises. After this followed Company Drill. In all the
different movements and formations on the march, Captain Jones dis-
played not only his own knowledge of the work but also the discipline
and training of the Company.

Everything was going well when a daring party of rebels having
seized a strong position some distance to the eastward, opened fire
upon the defenders of the College. The Captain lost no time in form-
ing his company for the attack. The whole scene suddenly changed to
a field of battle; the Company to an army advancing against the ene-

338

CADETS

my's position — advanced guard, firing line, supports, and reserves.
The advance was in extended order by sections and half companies,
under their respective officers, while Captain Jones directed the opera-
tions as Commander-in-Chief. There was a good deal of firing on both
sides, and at times almost a fusilade. Good markmanship was at a pre-
mium, for the rebels kept well under cover behind the bank. The
enemy proved to be in greater strength than was expected, and at one
stage the firing line of the attacking force had to retire to shelter and
wait for the reserves. This movement was executed without confusion,
and all the wounded were brought back into safety. When the reserves
came up the attack was renewed. The firing line got nearer and nearer
to the enemy's position and finally rushed it in a splendid bayonet
charge. The rebel loss in killed and wounded was not ascertained, but
a considerable number were taken and marched back to the camp as
prisoners. They were a motley crowd — yanigans, outcasts, and wild-
westerners, with a sprinkling of insurrectos. The Government owes a
debt of gratitude to the College Rifles for rounding up so many unde-
sirables.

After this mimic warfare, the tallest and smallest members of the
Company gave an exhibition of baiting the bull, while the rest of the
Company were changing to continue their exercises before the inspect-
ing officer and the admiring gaze of the fair spectators. Then for a
quarter of an hour the Physical Drill squad went through a variety of
movements in beautiful style, culminating with the building of the
pyramid with Warren I on the summit unfolding a banner of the Col-
lege. The last event of the afternoon was a bayonet bout between two
champions representing Guelph and the United States.

About half way through the programme Major Barker addressed
the Company, and complimented the officers on the fine appearance
of the whole command. He said that last year Upper Canada College
had the finest company in the district, and this year, he was pleased to
say, the position of the company was unchanged. Major Barker was
particularly pleased with the skirmishing, and remarked on the ability
of the officers to properly handle their several divisions, and the dash
and discipline of all concerned in carrying out the various movements.

After the programme was finished Major Barker spoke a few
words of praise to the Physical Drill Squad, and Col. Sweny, one of

339

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

the Governors of the College, followed with some good advice. At the
end, as the Company doubled from the field, they were accompanied
by a round of applause, which was perhaps the best possible return for
a hard year's work.

It was not long before the lamps went out all over Europe, and the
boys who had been playing soldier on the green College fields became
men losing their lives on the fields in Flanders.

A direct cause-and-effect connection between the Rifle Company
and advancement in the armed forces would be difficult to establish. No
record was kept of boys who were in the cadet corps. Members of the
Company — officers, nco's, privates — fought alongside Old Boys who
had had no use for the military drill. Both were wounded or not, died or
survived, were decorated or not, indiscriminately. Some achieved high
rank; some no rank. All fought honourably. Joining-up was taken for
granted, a low-key thing, not considered heroic or glorious. As the war
dragged on, the numbers in the Rifle Company increased — the boys not
speculating on its usefulness, just doing their job. The war was not glo-
rified; glory clung to the men, nevertheless.

The Rifle Company had to get along without an instructor during
much of the 19 14-18 period. Sergeant Carpenter, who became acting
Sergeant-Major in the 9th Battalion of the 1st Canadian Overseas Con-
tingent, was virtually irreplaceable. Numbers, however, stayed up: in
19 1 7, a record 140 out of 156 students, and in 191 8, 180 with a brand
new bugle band.

It is uncertain when the Rifle Company became compulsory, proba-
bly in 1919. In 1900 all "boys of suitable age and physically qualified
[were] expected to join the corps." By 19 12 they were "required" to
join. Once again the enrolment during the next few years belies this
policy. An NCO class was formed in 1918-19 to train the younger boys
for leadership as they moved through the school.

The arrival of Grant as principal, himself an army major, brought a
flurry of activity. During his first year virtually the entire Upper School
enrolment was in uniform. Between 19 19 and 1925 a voluminous corre-
spondence took place between Grant's office and army district head-

340

CADETS

quarters. He asked permission for the College to carry colours, both the
King's colour and the College colour — the latter to be paid for by
Upper Canada College. Actually, the College colour was given by Miss
Eleanor Gooderham and dedicated by the Bishop of Toronto in a cere-
mony in April 192 1. In 1923, for the first time, the Upper Canada
cadets took part in the Annual Garrison Parade. Bayonets, no longer
allowed to Canadian cadets generally, were issued to the UCC company
with special guarantees in case of loss or injury (to the bayonets, not the
students). In fact, bayonets and scabbards did go missing from time to
time to the accompaniment of much pain at HQ. Grant's communica-
tions took in everything under the sun: uniforms (price twenty dollars
at Beauchamp & How), and the quality of the khaki; greatcoats;
signalling equipment; machine guns (Lewis and Vickers); telephones;
buzzer sets; the cleaning of rifles. One wonders how the dynamic princi-
pal had time for anything else.

In September 19 19 Sergeant Carpenter, now a Sergeant-Major,
returned to the College to assist A. L. Cochrane with physical educa-
tion. There is no doubt that his influence, more than any other, created
a cadet corps that became a vital part of UCC life for many years. By
1926 all ranks had risen to 271, and the following year a fifth platoon
was added. This was a far cry from the pre-war years, and, without
doubt, the result of Carpenter's dedication, supported by Principal
Grant's enormous enthusiasm. An Old Boy has written about the era of
the early twenties:

The Rifle Company was an accepted activity of reasonable impor-
tance at the College. . . . Participation was expected unless a boy could
show good reason for exemption. . . . The Annual Ball and the Inspec-
tion were gala events, attended in strength by the fairest representa-
tive of BSS, Havergal and Branksome. The Bugle Band and drums
attracted those with musical talent and the enthusiasts . . . attended an
NCO Class ... in the early morning.

. . . the high numbers of the Canadian senior officers in the Second
World War who were Old Boys, were nurtured in the Rifle Company

341

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

by . . . Carpenter. . . . The seeds of duty, discipline and cooperation did
not fall on barren ground.

Prior to 19 14 the company had been affiliated with the Queen's
Own Rifles, but during the European conflict the militia system was in
abeyance. Consequently, the cadet corps had fallen into some disarray,
and the connection with the QOR had lapsed. For the first few years
under Grant and Carpenter, the UCC corps was an independent unit,
but the boys did not like that very much.

In 1923 two regiments were anxious to have the College corps as an
affiliate. Both the Toronto Regiment's Colonel D. H. C. Mason and the
Queen's Own's Sir Henry Pellatt asked Grant to join them, but not
wanting to show favouritism, he turned both down. In 1925 Grant con-
ceived the idea of taking turns, and so the boys paraded that spring
with the QOR and the next spring with the Toronto Regiment. Appar-
ently there was a cry of outrage from the Queen's Own, because Grant
wrote to Sir John Willison, a member of the College board, to express
surprise at the amount of feeling aroused by this innocuous action. (The
Toronto Regiment had grown out of the 3rd Battalion, and some ill-
feeling had developed between them and the QOR.) Both regiments had
Old Boys in prominent positions — Seth Pepler, the commanding officer
of the Toronto Regiment, had inspected the College cadets that
spring — and both wanted the affiliation as a prime source of young
officers. From 1927 on, the College was affiliated with the Queen's Own
Rifles.

In those post-war years, cadet training was taken very seriously, not
just at the College but in many parts of the educational world. A dozen
or more university professors and clergymen, including Chancellor Bur-
wash of Victoria, Archdeacon Cody of Toronto, Rabbi Jacobs of Holy
Blossom Synagogue, and V. L. Hughes, Chief Inspector of Toronto
Schools, signed a lengthy propaganda pamphlet entitled The Cadet Sys-
tem in Schools, which extolled the virtues of cadet corps while ignoring
their vices. According to this document:

Cadet drill did not instil a spirit of militarism. Boys enjoyed it for its

342

CADETS

immediate effects. Universal liability for defence was right; the ques-
tion was how best to provide it. The Cadet system provided the train-
ing "when lessons learned . . . are never forgotten"; it was cheaper to
train citizens when at school than later; it interfered with ordinary
duties less; it qualified men for more complete training in a shorter
time in the event of war; a cadet was not a soldier — he was a boy disci-
plined through wholesome exercises; drill exercises were good for dig-
nified bearing and a graceful carriage, both of which would influence
him morally for good; the military training in Germany testified to the
improvement in health, strength, bearing, and self-respect . . . ; it
trained boys to be . . . obedient; it developed a boy's genuine patriot-
ism; they could be made proud of their King, their flag, wearing the
King's uniform, keeping step to patriotic British-Canadian music
behind the Union Jack; it trained a boy to be careful of his language
and manners ... to value neatness and cleanliness.4

Grant, asked to sign this extraordinary document, politely declined,
saying vaguely that there were one or two ideas he did not agree with.
Enthusiastic as he was about some aspects of the Upper Canada cadets
corps, which stressed discipline as an antidote to licence and duties
rather than privileges, and supportive as he was about the imperial con-
cept, he could not stomach the whole message. In truth, as a pacifist, he
was probably ambivalent about the corps.

The solemnity with which cadet training was taken at the time con-
trasted absurdly with the comedy that kept bursting to the surface. The
Sunday before the presentation of the colours to the Rifle Company, the
boys were scheduled to parade at Christ Church Deer Park. The ser-
mon that morning was to be an appeal to vote "yes" on a referendum
on whether Toronto should remain dry. Principal Grant took immense
pains to point out that, although he agreed that drunkenness was an
admitted evil which all Christians must fight, the referendum was a
question on which devout Christians could differ. He could not take the
responsibility of having an official UCC parade to an address which
equated a positive vote as the duty of Christians. An Old Boy expressed
disappointment at the cancellation of the parade and ended his mes-

343

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

sage, "Is the Gooderham and 'Wet' influence to govern at the College
and College functions? I will not be present on April 25th."5

Comedy made itself felt at the Rifle Company dance, too, as the fol-
lowing letter attests.

Dear Mr. Grant, It appears that I am supposed to have forced my way
into the College Rifle Company dance at the point of a revolver.
While waiting to obtain permission to enter, I showed a revolver,
which I always carry at night, to the ticket-collector. I did not point
the revolver at anyone, merely brought it to view. At the same time I
remarked, smilingly "Try and keep me out!" Rather foolish, I will
admit but I naturally meant it jokingly and was led to believe that, as
such it had been taken. I am very sorry that it seems to have been
otherwise. I hope you will accept my apology and now consider the
matter at an end. Awaiting the relief of your favourable reply, I am,
Yours sincerely,6

In December 1924, a court of inquiry was convened for the purpose

investigating and reporting on the loss of one belt, waist, and one frog
bayonet on charge to Upper Canada College Cadet Corps, Toronto
and to decide upon whom shall fall the cost of replacement.

The court having assembled, it proceeded to take evidence:

1st Witness. — Cadet Lieut. J. Y. Woods, ucccc having been duly
sworn states: at Upper Canada College, on the evening of November
20th, 1924, I was playing badminton in the gymnasium with friends.
Smoke was smelt. On investigating we perceived flames shooting from
the locker. The fire was put out with three extinguishers and the hose.
The door was pried open and the rifle found partially burnt also the
remains of a belt, bayonet, and scabbard.

4th Witness — Principal W. L. Grant having been duly sworn states: I
am Principal of Upper Canada College, all precautions against fire

344

CADETS

including a night watchman are taken. The fire in question entailing
loss of military arms etc., has been investigated, but we have been
unable to trace its cause.

REPORTS

The Court having considered the foregoing evidence and having
viewed the equipment destroyed by fire beyond repair, report that as
far as can be ascertained the fire occurred quite accidently and was
promptly extinguished, and the loss of equipment entailed was quite
unavoidable and recommend that

i Belt Waist (p.p.) (191 4) valued at $1.26

1 Frog Bayonet 040

Total. Si. 66
be replaced at the expense of the Public.7

The affair of the burned belt and scabbard was still alive in Febru-
ary when a letter from the ordnance office noted conflicting evidence
about the locked door; was it open or wasn't it? In reply, Principal
Grant, with monumental patience, stated that he had done all a man
could do and hoped he could be left free for other duties.

In 1929 the College celebrated its centennial, and as part of the
jubilee, new uniforms were devised by the commanding officer and the
adjutant. The key changes were: "ucc" blue replaced khaki; berets
(just being introduced to the tank corps) replaced the peak caps; and
black gaiters replaced the puttees. This uniform, worn in October 1930
for the first time, is still worn by the members of the voluntary cadet
organization. As further evidence of its success, the company became a
battalion with eight platoons.

The thirties brought some anti-battalion sentiment to the fore. B. K.
Sandwell, one-time editor of The College Times and in 1932 the editor of
Saturday Night, wrote:

The whole question of cadet training in schools is surrounded by so
many misconceptions that any action which the school authorities in
Toronto may take concerning it is pretty sure to be misinterpreted. On

345

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

the one hand there is the misconception, the most serious of the lot,
which regards cadet training as a means of influencing the opinion of
the rising generation in favor of a regimented set of 1932 ideas con-
cerning the structure of society, the nature of property, and the abso-
lute authority of the state. Cadet training has actually very little
influence of this kind even on minds predisposed in such directions,
and on minds with any leaning in the opposite direction it has the
opposite effect. On another hand there is the misconception that if the
youth of the land were never given any training in the arts of war they
would never have any occasion to employ them, and the country
would infallibly enjoy perpetual peace.

Between these two extravagant notions lies the truth, which is that
during the adolescent stage of growth, a stage in which the individual
is chiefly concerned — and frequently much bothered — about perfect-
ing his own adaptations to the impinging surfaces of the human life
around him, much help may be given him by a reasonable amount of
drill in which he and all his fellows are treated as mere units in a
machine made up of a great number of human bodies. The sense of
being part of such a machine, and of functioning well in it and having
it function well around one, is one of the most precious of the possible
acquisitions of youth, and plays a large part in the conversion of the
loutish youth into the presentable young man. But it should not be
overdone, and more important yet, it should not be taken too serious-
ly. I question greatly whether youngsters of fifteen should be told that
their King and Country will be in a mess if they do not left-wheel with
perfect precision on the drill-sergeant's word of command. Youngsters
of ten certainly should not and probably should not be taught to left-
wheel at all except as they do it in play in admiring imitation of their
gloriously uniformed elders.

There is no question of Toronto endorsing the non-preparedness
views of which Miss Agnes Macphail is perhaps our chief exponent.
There may be a quesiton of Toronto withdrawing somewhat from a
too extensive and over-emphasized pursuit of loyalty by means of leg
exercises.

In spite of such statements the battalion gathered strength and in
1935, when it helped the QOR celebrate its seventy-fifth anniversary,

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CADETS

there were nineteen officers and forty-four NCO's. Although no awards
were given for the best cadet corps, the ucc standard was very high
indeed.

In June 1938 Sergeant-Major Carpenter, "the SM," retired to his
ancestral home in North Wales. He had been an inspiration, the heart
and the soul of the cadet corps for almost twenty years. He had taken a
personal interest in virtually every member of it and had overseen every
detail of its development. That the battalion endured as long as it did is
due to the foundation he laid down between the two wars.

For the next twenty-five years the battalion was an accepted part of
the College fabric. In addition to the drills and ceremonials, various
practical exercises were introduced to keep abreast of the times. The
boys themselves were sometimes more aware of the need to up-date pro-
cedures than the administration. In The College Times of Christmas 1942,
in the blackest months of the Second World War, D. G. Hahn
expressed the view that the battalion was out of date and had been for
three years. Hahn wanted less time on drill, more time on the practical:
lectures, map reading, military law, signalling, etc. As the months
passed, some of these developments took place.

By the sixties, the unquestioning loyalty to the whole idea of a cadet
corps began to waver. The seeds may have been sown in the thirties and
only begun to break surface in the fifties. The old certainties were being
questioned. Was imperialism a good thing? No question in 1900 or
1915; but under the hammer-blows of war, depression, and commu-
nism, and demands for self-determination, the British and other
empires had been steadily disintegrating. Religion and patriotism had
lost their hold on youth. It became harder to discover a fixed purpose in
life. The Vietnam War, brought into homes by television, confirmed to
a civilian population that the glamour of war was a myth.

An organization like the cadet battalion, depending so much on tra-
dition in an age when tradition had lost some of its gloss, was bound to
suffer. In June 1965 the Board of Governors' minutes noted, for the first
time in sixty years, bad discipline at the battalion parade. The same
month the CO of the battalion, R. F. G. Walsh, wrote thoughtfully:

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UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

The Battalion is always subjected to a great deal of criticism. I feel
I must present some arguments on behalf of the Battalion. During the
nineteenth century every young man was inspired with the thoughts of
military service. Today in the twentieth century, youth does not pos-
sess this natural love for anything military. Thus we have a certain
lack of interest present in matters to do with the Battalion. I must
agree that some of the present activities of our Cadets corps are greatly
removed from the idea of a modern army. However, much of the win-
ter courses relate to modern-day equipment and warfare. FN's, the
rifles of the Canadian army, are understood by cadets. A lecture on
national survival is given to every cadet. Lectures in first aid and map
using are also given. One might say that the .22 and .303 rifles that the
Battalion uses on parades are obsolete and be correct. The point, how-
ever, is that cadets do learn a sense of self control, a sense of self disci-
pline and a certain respect for tradition. It is not easy to stand for
fifteen minutes without moving. It is not easy to prevent yourself from
talking back to someone. Upper Canada tries to instill in every pupil
this sense of self-control and discipline

Officers are classed as the "elite" of the Cadets corps. But behind
the facade of "Sam Brown[e]s" and silver hat badges lies a certain
ability to lead and to explain. Ever since the foundation of the Battal-
ion young men have been produced who have acquired the ability to
lead. Undoubtedly these young men will in the future hold positions
requiring responsibility in all facets of life. Thus the Battalion will
have yielded men accustomed to possessing a position of responsibility.
The statement that you must learn to take commands before you give
them seems to apply to our Battalion. Most of the "gripers" do not
possess rank of any sort. It is these people I feel who have not learned
to take orders and thus are not fit to "give" orders.

The role of the Battalion will never become impractical as it is
claimed. Boys will continually apply their energy and resources to
cadets and thus they will receive certain intangible qualities of charac-
ter which will stand them in good stead for their whole lives.

Various proposals were adopted during the following years in order
to give the battalion more meaning, but the graph pointed steadily

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CADETS

downwards. John Boeckh, the cadet colonel in 1974 and a third-genera-
tion College student, wrote:

It would be foolish to assume that Battalion holds the interest of as
many people as it used to. In today's "Modern Society" there are
many activities to captivate the mind of the young student, and com-
pulsory military service does not seem to generate the violent enthusi-
asm that it once did. However, Battalion does have a purpose for those
who try to derive some usefulness from it, but they, unfortunately, are
the exception, not the rule. The Battalion's benefit lies not in terms of
the military knowledge rendered but, rather, in the message it tries to
convey. Nowadays, it is fashionable and desirable to "do your own
thing." However, one must realize (as too few do) that one cannot do
only what one pleases.

It is becoming increasingly difficult to run a Battalion with only
token support from some quarters. . . .

The following year from Christopher Neal:

The Upper Canada College Cadet Battalion survived another year
despite growing disapproval from boys as well as criticism from mem-
bers of the Board of Stewards.

In the most recent years some comments have been made, in a
genuine attempt to justify the continuance of the corps at UCC — and
some of the arguments have been well thought out.

My main comments concern the lack of development shown in the
Corps of today. All other aspects of school life have changed, and have
followed a direction of evolution — not so with the Cadet corps. It is
true that standards of dress and deportments have been lowered by
following the civilian patterns, but is that progress? I do not argue
with these changes; they were probably inevitable — but progress? I
have a plea to leave with the Cadet corps. Let it progress or it will
surely die. New equipment, such as teaching aids, weapons and cloth-
ing could be introduced, on loan if necessary, as they are to other
Cadets Corps.

I believe that if the Upper Canada College Cadet Battalion is to

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UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

remain a viable, and meaningful part of ucc life, then it must change,
and I personally would prefer to see it changed rather than disbanded.

The principal, Richard Sadleir, after due consideration, disbanded
the cadet battalion as a compulsory College institution as of January
1976. His remarks are notable:

"What do you think of the Battalion?" Since returning to the College
last January, no question has been put to me more frequently by boys,
parents, and Old Boys. I have been subjected to a barrage of
conflicting opinion upon this controversial aspect of the College's pro-
gram.

The Battalion has been left with little beyond its ceremonial drill
which is a pretty irrelevant exercise to many people today and difficult
to defend when it becomes the be-all and end-all of a program.

While boys of the school appeared to do their best on inspection
day last May, to my mind, their best was not very good, and certainly
without much heart.

Since then I have discussed directly a revision of the Battalion pro-
gram with scores of people, including the Board of Governors, the
masters, the Board of Stewards, Old Boys, parents, other headmasters,
active and retired officers of regiments of the militia and the naval
reserve. There was almost a unanimous opinion that substantial
change was necessary and necessary now. Consequently, effective Jan-
uary 1, 1976, the Battalion program will, until further notice, become
a voluntary activity at Upper Canada College. The annual inspection
in its traditional form will not, therefore, be held this year.

For many Old Boys the end was greeted with some dismay, bitter-
ness, and sadness. After all, the cadets had been a part of the College
life since before the turn of the century, and many pupils had found
security and had experienced growth in the uniform. Moreover there
was an undercurrent of feeling, especially among older men, that the
battalion had been a nursery for the officers and men who had per-
formed so brilliantly and courageously, not only during two world wars,

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CADETS

but in the Crimea, during the Fenian troubles, and in South Africa.
Only time can soften this sense of loss.

In the years since the compulsory battalion was disbanded, a volun-
tary organization has existed. Starting in 1977 the Army Cadet League
of Canada helped to organize a course in military science. A new
approach to cadet activities was planned which took into account not
only military science, but battle drill, field craft, weapons training, and
a modicum of parade-square drill. It was a totally new course, more
advanced and educational than any cadet program yet evolved: ele-
mentary tactics, military history, theories of leadership and command,
as well as other items were included. The number of students involved
has been about thirty.

351

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

The Prep

7"ODAY'S PREPARATORY SCHOOL AT UPPER CANADA COLLEGE is a
child of the twentieth century, but the concept of young boys attend-
ing the College goes back to its inception. Advertisements began to
appear in Ontario newspapers in late 1829, heralding the College's
opening. The Kingston Chronicle offered special terms to boarders six to
twelve years of age, and the Upper Canada Gazette announced that a pre-
paratory school would be attached. Although no special building was
set aside at the King and Simcoe campus then being constructed, a hur-
ried decision was made to add a room to the Old Blue School in College
Square. This room, 24 feet long, 18 feet wide, and 10 feet high, cost £40
and was the first preparatory school.

Of the fifty-seven boys who arrived at the College on opening day,
January 4, 1830, twenty-six were put into the prep. By the end of the
first term, half of the eighty-nine students were prep boys. All the ages
are not available, but two of the youngest "originals" were George
Murray Jarvis, five years and nine months, and Edward Sherwood, six
years and nine months. Another five-year-old, James Stanton, son of
the King's Printer for Upper Canada, appeared in October. As the
early years passed, the ages of the prep boys varied enormously, and the
register shows boys of sixteen and seventeen entered — perhaps they
were illiterate in Latin.

The prep had its own master in those early days. The first was the
Reverend J. W. Padfield; he was replaced by the Reverend John Kent
in 1833. Padfield's salary was £150 per annum, considerably below his
colleagues in the senior forms, reflecting the widespread view of the ele-

352

THE PREP

mentary teacher still alive in some places today. It is true that his aca-
demic qualifications were not on a par with those of his senior-form
counterparts, but his work load was considerably heavier — most senior
forms had fewer than nine boys in them. The curriculum consisted of
English reading and spelling, writing, the elements of arithmetic, and
the first rudiments of Latin grammar. When the boys had mastered the
Latin, they moved up into the first form.

Between 1833 and 1897 the preparatory school became simply a
preparatory form and then disappeared. In January 1897 the principal,
George Parkin, reporting to the board on the state of the school, said
that many boys entered UCC at fourteen, fifteen, or even sixteen years of
age with no knowledge of languages. Tutoring was expensive for par-
ents and hard on the masters. These boys should come to UCC earlier.
The word "prep" was not mentioned, but prep seeds were now scat-
tered abroad. By the following September a preparatory form of ten
boys had been organized, and in December an extra master, A. W.
Playfair, was hired to take over the young form.

Two years later, Parkin pulled out all the stops in a memorandum
which outlined his future plans for ucc. He was very keen on breaking
up the school into smaller units, or houses, and eventually bringing
both the houses themselves and the masters in charge of them onto the
grounds. The most important of these units was the preparatory, which
he over-optimistically wanted to be ready for September 1900. It was to
accommodate thirty boarders and thirty day boys at a cost of $25,000.

When the College achieved independence in November 1900, one
of the government's conditions was an endowment of $50,000. This sum
was collected and immediately allocated to a prep. Parkin felt that the
building of a preparatory school was of the utmost importance, and he
was filled with a great sense of urgency. He had already some plans in
his head — dormitories of sixteen boys each with space for another dorm.
He wanted the school open for the next September.

A committee of Parkin, the Toronto architect Eden Smith, Frank
Arnoldi (the College solicitor), and two board members, John Hender-
son and W. T. Boyd, was appointed to report to the board on all details
connected with the new venture. Parkin's first idea was to lease thirty

353

UPPER CANADA COLLECil.

acres near the College for extra playing fields. When it was decided to
place the building at the north-east corner of Lonsdale and Forest Hill
roads, the committee looked to ten acres across Forest Hill Road, as
well as another ten north of the College. In April it was reported that
options had been taken on 22.5 acres, whose final cost was $10,830. Five
men— W. G. Gooderham, J. W. Flavelle, W. R. Brock, W. H. Beatty,
and W. D. Matthews — each pledged two thousand dollars for the land
purchase. City Council meanwhile agreed to divert Forest Hill Road a
block to the west. By November 1901 Parkin could report that the
filling in of Forest Hill Road was going briskly and a row of elms had
been planted on the new western boundaries, the present-day Dunve-
gan Road. The College now had an unbroken square of fifty acres, and
the prospective prep a brand-new playing field at its back.

Meanwhile, specifications for the new building had been author-
ized. E. R. Peacock, senior housemaster and head of the English depart-
ment, was designated to work with Eden Smith on the design. Plans
called for a three-storey brick structure with a basement for dressing-
rooms, lockers, and showers; a large playroom or gym; a workshop; and
a dark room. There was a dumb-waiter for trunks. On the first floor
were three classrooms, a dining-hall with a fireplace, kitchens, music
rooms, a reading-room, and a recreation room. On the top floors were
dormitories, masters' rooms, and a sick room — in fact everything a
school of a hundred boys could want. The boys' living arrangements
were a special feature: in addition to every boy having his own wash
basin and locker for washing gear, laundry bag, etc., each of the four
dormitories was divided into separate cubicles with curtains for privacy.
This was most unheard of in 1901 and may have reflected the Thring-
Parkin influence.

Parkin's original estimate of $25,000 was, as such estimates usually
are, optimistic. In February 1901 it was $35,000; in March, $40,000.
The final cost was in the neighbourhood of $50,000, but the money was
available.

In May 1901 Parkin wrote to his good friend, Lady Minto, wife of
the Governor General, asking her if she would lay the cornerstone of the
new building. Delighted to be connected with what she conceived to be

354

THE PREP

an admirable school, she consented to come. On June 15, in the pres-
ence of an enormous crowd and the band of the Royal Grenadier
Guards, the ceremony duly took place. Beneath the cornerstone was a
box containing the papers of that date and a roll containing the names
of all the students since 1829. This useful and flexible building was
called the Prep until a classroom addition was erected in 1922-23, when
it became known as the House or the 1902 Building. Just before he died
in November 1962, Sir Edward Peacock approved the wording of an
inscription over its main doors and it is now the Peacock Building.

As the Prep turned from a dream into a reality, Parkin became
vitally concerned about a headmaster and a matron. For the matron,
circumstances helped to dictate the choice. Small out-of-town boys,
some of whom needed careful treatment in health and diet, had contin-
ued to apply. The new Prep not being ready, special arrangements had
had to be made for them, and they had been put in the care of Parkin's
eldest daughter, Alice. By September 1901 seven small boys were living
in the Parkin house, and Alice was being paid eighteen dollars a month
to look after them. (She dressed them in Eton suits and expressed the
desire to have eleven of them so she could form a cricket team.) As the
time came closer for the Prep to open, it was evident that Alice, who
liked the work and did it well, wanted to be the first matron. She had
impressed some mothers, who favoured her appointment, but her par-
ents thought it would be impossible. They were wrong. When school
opened in September 1902, Miss A. S. Parkin was the Lady Superin-
tendent of the Preparatory School.1

Choosing a headmaster for the Prep was a different matter. E. R.
Peacock had drawn up the plans for the building and Eden Smith had
thought them first class, which, indeed, seventy-odd years have proved
them to be. Parkin had promised Peacock the headmastership, and
Peacock had asked W. L. Grant to join him as his chief assistant. Grant
and Peacock got along very well together, and Grant agreed. Parkin
confirmed the arrangements with them both. In June 1901, however,
Parkin wrote to the board chairman, G. T. Denison, "It has been my
intention to recommend the appointment of Mr. Peacock as the best
available man in the College to take charge of the Preparatory School if

355

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

suitable domestic arrangements could be made. ... It would be well
for the Board to go very carefully into this question as soon as pos-
sible. . . . "2 The letter goes on to speak "of the man who takes charge,"
almost as though, while he was writing the letter, Parkin was changing
his mind.

The next month the executive committee was considering a vice-
principal who would live in the comfortable Prep quarters (the two jobs
were tied together), but Peacock's name was not mentioned. The next
time Parkin wrote to Denison, in September, Peacock's name was con-
spicuous by its absence. Parkin was desperately anxious to get a first-
class man of good reputation for work he considered more important
than anything in the school. "I am not yet able to recommend a proper
person,"3 he wrote. In November he confided to his diary that he was
"thinking of writing to [Dr. M. G.] Glazebrook (headmaster of Clifton)
... to make enquiries about a man competent enough to take up the
Prep and perhaps the vice-principalship."4 By December, Grant saw
the writing on the wall, "Peacock has not much chance of his Prep
House. ... "5

For the first six months of 1902 Parkin vacillated about the appoint-
ment without letting Peacock know. He was starting to doubt the wis-
dom of combining the Prep with the vice-principalship. Applications
flowed in from England; but he said he would not appoint anyone with-
out going to England to see him. Mrs. Parkin, writing continually from
England, where she had gone for her health, helped keep him off bal-
ance. She did not want a perfect stranger in the Prep. She suggested the
whole Parkin family moving in for a year or two. Parkin could not help
being swayed by the woman he loved so well. He did consider moving
in so that he could keep the place in his own hands, rationalizing such a
move by saying a new headmaster would be expensive. He wrote Mrs.
Parkin in April expressing fear at the risk of anyone but themselves
starting a place on which they had staked so much. "The change of

plan about Mr. P. has not been easy I am more and more convinced

that our original idea might have led us into endless trouble. Of course
what decided me was the opposition on the Board . . . making the
change was very painful."6 Peacock's autobiographical notes help to

356

THE PREP

clarify the change of plans. "I . . . suggested to the Principal that he let
me take over the Prep. This he promised, but when it came before the
Governors they refused to let me give up the headship of the house. I
said no more but immediately looked for a job outside. . . . "7

When the news came out, Grant was furious and Peacock took the
news hard. Parkin reflected, "It is not easy to put anyone in his place . . .
a few good clear talks may straighten things out."8 Peacock did not take
long to respond. By May 16 he had resigned to become personal assis-
tant to E. R. Wood of Dominion Securities. He moved to England in
1907 and climbed steadily upward in the financial world, becoming
head of Baring Brothers, a Rhodes trustee, a director of the Bank of
England, and financial advisor to the Royal Family. Though at the
College for only seven years he made a powerful impact: he was a fine
scholar and teacher, highly respected by boys and colleagues.

The board's unwillingness to allow Parkin to keep his promise to
Peacock is incomprehensible. UCC suffered an immeasurable loss. Pea-
cock held two top College posts and had performed admirably at both.
While planning the Prep he had worked weekend after weekend on the
details of the classrooms, dining-hall, dormitories, and even the showers.
He had been promised the job, wanted it, and deserved it. When
cheated of it he felt sick and then angry, and in his anger he resigned.
Grant, among others, resigned at the same time in protest.9

Parkin was not happy about the turn of events. The Prep was not
settled, and a new man he had hoped to appoint there would not come
because he felt he could not work on equal terms with J. S. H. Guest, a
young master at the main school who was slated for the Prep.

Parkin's last thoughts before he left for England were that he would
try to find someone there to come over at Christmas, while Alice ran the
domestic side of things. The idea of combining a Prep head and a vice-
principal was set aside for the time being. J. S. H. Guest was appointed
Senior Housemaster of the Preparatory School in the meantime. The
building, delayed by a carpenters' strike, was ready for him in Septem-
ber.

Guest's own memories of his start at the Prep are interesting. He
pays tribute to Peacock's plan of the building. "Too many schools are

357

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

planned by men who know nothing of the requirements of a boarding
school. ... It was not so with the Prep. The building was . . . far ahead of
any other school of its time . . . well-lighted, cheerful, and full of little
thoughtful arrangements which made it easy to manage."10 Guest knew
that Peacock had agreed to take the headmaster's post, but thought he
had resigned it in September 1901, not June 1902. Consequently, Guest
said he had the job of organizing the Prep through 1901-02 and was
offered the headship in March 1902. It does not seem likely that he
would have been offered the job in March while Peacock was still
expecting to get it, but the truth has been lost in the mists of time.

Guest pays great tribute also to Alice Parkin's energy and ability in
getting the school organized during the summer while everyone else was
away. Workmen out, furniture in, curtains up, all details looked to. She
left behind her rules about such things as laundry which Guest reck-
oned were still in use fifty years later.

When Upper Canada opened in September 1902, George Sparling
was acting-principal and Guest was running the Prep. The first term
there were twenty-four boarders and twenty-one day boys, half a school
to be sure, but a promising start.

Guest, a bachelor of twenty-nine, had taught for four years at an
English grammar school and one year at the Upper School before tak-
ing over the Prep. He specialized in Latin and French and taught well.
Parkin had considered him a thoroughly good man with definite ideas
and the ability to manage and interest boys. He was conscientious, thor-
ough, reliable, systematic, and punctual. Guest soon proved to be head-
master material. At the end of his first term he spoke of moral training,
self-reliance, and bodily strength as three requirements for Prep boys.
He stressed thorough supervision in an atmosphere as much like home
as possible. Work was a thing to be done well for its own sake, not
merely for examinations. Prep boys were to be kept separate from the
older boys in work and games. (This concept became a tradition which
has lasted over seventy years.) Soccer, not football, was to be the
autumn sport in order to give younger, lighter boys a chance to do well.
Guest wanted the Prep to prove a source of strength for the College — to
raise the standard of scholarship and provide it with a constant supply

358

THE PREP

of boys with a couple of years' good work habits, manners, and disci-
pline, loyal to the College and its traditions.

Guest had nine years at the Prep. He was not an exciting innovator
but he was sound and thorough, the sort that checked the boys in the
dining-hall to see that all shoes had been shone. The school was a suc-
cess from its first day. The enrolment had more than doubled by the
end of 1906 and never fell below a hundred between 1906 and 191 1. It
was a somewhat one-sided success, however. While day-boy numbers
climbed from twenty-one to sixty-five, boarders numbered only thirty-
six throughout most of the same period, reaching fifty in only one year,
1907-8. The boarder "problem" is one which has plagued the school
during its entire history.

During the Guest years, the program developed well: there was an
annual snowshoe race, the odd paper-chase, visiting speakers, carpen-
try, and a much-used gym. In 1908 a dancing class was started, the
library was expanded, and a soccer tournament was held. The next
year some scenes from The Merchant of Venice were performed, and a dra-
matic club was organized soon afterwards. Even tennis was played in a
rough fashion. Team sports against outside competition grew slowly
and steadily. The Prep played hockey against the St. James' Choir on
January 30, 1904, its first recorded official game."

In 1905 and thereafter, a boxing tournament was organized; the
same year a cross-country run was spurred on by a trophy presented by
E. R. Peacock. In 1907 the new area west of the Prep was levelled and
turned into a Prep cricket field, paid for by an Old Boy, H. D. Warren.

Six years after its birth, the Prep had outgrown its new home and an
additional classroom had to be added to the south-west corner of the
building; it had a sun room on top of it. When Guest left in 191 1 to
open his own school — Appleby, in Oakville — he left behind him a
thriving community. He had lived up to Parkin's assessment: conscien-
tious, thorough, reliable. The masters he appointed did not make much
of a mark with the exception of one — J. N. B. Colley. Jim Colley stayed
only four years, from 1906 to 19 10, but he must have liked the work and
the boys because he returned to the Prep in 1939 and stayed for twenty
more years. He was an ardent classicist and a fine cricketer, a gentle

359

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

man. Alan Stephen, his headmaster the second time, said, "Nothing
can go really wrong when Jim Colley's around."

On April 28, 191 1, the board appointed J. L. "Duke" Somerville to
be the Dean of the Preparatory School at a salary of two thousand dol-
lars. He had joined the College under Parkin in 1897, and had played a
large part in its affairs since then. A difficult colleague and something of
a malcontent, he had played a mysterious role in the Peacock affair,
replacing him as senior housemaster in 1902. He was, however, an
excellent teacher and a very powerful personality, who was remem-
bered with a mixture of awe, fear, and reverence by Old Boys long after
they had left the Prep.

When Grant became principal in 191 7, the board told him that he
was absolute in his power and jurisdiction and, as a result, the Prep was
under his control. He was also asked "to enter into the most considerate
relations with Mr. Somerville and to bring about . . . unlimited coopera-
tion. . . . "I2 These two mutually contradictory instructions were
undoubtedly the board's way of trying to deal with the difficult Duke.
In truth, as the years passed, Grant and Somerville did not get along.
The principal was not welcome at the Prep and did not come. (It is said
that Somerville had been in love with Alice Parkin, and, as a result,
never turned up at the principal's house. Alice had married Vincent
Massey in 1915; her sister Maude was the principal's wife.)

During Somerville's twenty-three years, the Prep's enrolment grew
steadily, sometimes dramatically. There were no entrance tests; if Som-
erville liked your father, you were in. Guest had taken some students to
Appleby with him, and the Duke's Prep opened with eighty-seven boys.
Eight years later the number had virtually doubled. The day-boy popu-
lation grew strongly; the boarding situation was a different matter. The
average number of boarders in any year was forty-one, not enough to
fill three dormitories, let alone four.'3

The Prep's classrooms were bursting at the seams. Principal Grant
called it an ant-heap. A temporary solution was found through the use
of two portables in 192 1. In January 1922, facing a Prep population of
180 in a school built for 100, the board considered the advisability of
building an extension. The legislature gave the board permission to bor-

360

THE PREP

row $100,000, and $60,000 of this was designated for the Prep classroom
block. The new building designed by Sproatt and Rolph was begun,
and in November 1922, the Lieutenant-Governor laid the cornerstone.
Named the Parkin Building, it opened for business in September 1923
with a school population of 244. A new Prep chapter was started.

This building was not a total success. The original estimate of
$63,000 had ballooned to $1 10,000, and the architects were heavily cen-
sured. It took two years to collect the money and the final $io,ooo-plus
was donated by W. G. Gooderham. Grant was exasperated by the extra
cost, though he did admit the Prep was a joy to see. The building,
attractive in some ways and built like the Rock of Gibraltar, was oddly
placed: on an east- west axis with all the classrooms facing south (very
hot in June!); also it fitted uneasily into the architectural style of the
1902 building. It accommodated the student body, however, and gave
the boarders more breathing space. Yet even as the cornerstone was
being laid, Grant was setting impossibly low enrolment goals. He
warned parents that the Prep was not going to grow very much, and
that his ideal for the school was to do first-class work with two hundred
picked boys. The Prep enrolment did not drop that low for ten years,
and then only because of the disastrous economic situation.

During the late twenties the Prep continued to flourish. In 1928
Grant felt that the Upper School building was both overcrowded and
wearing out. The governors found another site at the top of the north-
ern slope of Hogg's Hollow on Yonge Street. The site committee
warned Grant and the board that Prep parents would not send their
sons to the new location and that part or all of the Prep should be left at
Deer Park. This, of course, lessened the amount of saleable land and
showed how important the Prep had became as a feeder to the Upper
School. The move did not take place.

During Somerville's regime a tradition began which has lived on at
the Prep until the present day. It is a tradition which came from the
Upper School — namely, that good teachers come and like the place
and stay. In 191 2 F. N. Hollingshead arrived to teach mathematics and
coach the football team. He did both for twenty-nine years. In 191 6
came H. Earl Elliott, called Bill, who also taught mathematics and

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UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

coached hockey. He left in 1959 after forty-three years. In 1920 Samuel
Foote, writer, painter, craftsman, musician, dancer — he of the 16-
cylinder Cadillac and Stutz fame — arrived and stayed twenty-eight
years. He was followed by Timothy Gibson in 1923 and S. Alan Harris
in 1925. Gibson taught Latin and mathematics, coached virtually every
game, and left in 1966. Harris, another mathematician, coached the
first soccer team for many years, coached hockey as well, and was
instrumental in bringing Norval back to life. He left in 1965. For six-
teen years these five worked together in harness on a teaching staff of
about ten.

Surrounding this nucleus of able and interesting men were others
who did not stay but who enriched the lives of the boys: Philip Ket-
chum, one of the four teaching brothers, who later became headmaster
of Trinity College School; W. R. "Bill" Stewart, who went on to
become assistant superintendent of secondary education, and then dep-
uty minister of education for the province; Arthur Killip, long-time
headmaster of Hillfield School in Hamilton; Eric Morse, well-known
Canadian canoeist and woodsman; George Spragge, author and educa-
tional archivist. On the distaff side was Agnes McQuistan — known only
as "Nurse" — who inspected between the toes and behind the ears of
thirty-two years' worth of boarders. Whether Grant or Somerville made
the appointments upon which so much of the Prep's success depended is
a moot point. Regardless, they became Somerville's men and the Prep
was his school.

A complex man with a many-sided personality, Somerville ran the
Prep like a personal fiefdom. There is no evidence that he introduced a
single new idea into the curriculum or allowed anyone else to do so. He
seems not to have written a single word concerning his ideas about edu-
cation. He was a terrible organizer, throwing the boys every which way
into any form. Parents were kept well away; their ideas were not wel-
come. He had a running love-hate relationship with some of his col-
leagues; there were no discussions, no meetings. If a man asked to
attend an out-of-town school game, and Somerville himself could not
go, the answer was, "No." He carried the men's monthly pay-cheques
sticking out of his pocket and handed them out when he chose. He was

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THE PREP

jealous of men getting along too well with the boys and forbade them to
bowl at the cricket nets. Elliott, who eventually outlasted all Prep mas-
ters, left once for four years because he could not stand it. When a new
master arrived from England, the Duke chose not to speak to him for
six days, though he knew perfectly well who he was. Making a job offer
to another man, the Duke promised him he would not need to teach
French. On the new master's arrival, Somerville told him he was teach-
ing all the French in the school. He left the man trembling with rage
until the timetable came out — no French! Despite this cruel humour
and a streak of sadism, the Duke could be, and often was, extremely
kind and socially hospitable. He showed one face today, another tomor-
row, and his reactions were unpredictable. With the boys, he was a fine
teacher, even brilliant, and most boys thought the world of him. One
Old Boy recalls Somerville having eight boarders in every evening to go
over their homework — that boy felt loved. The only time the Duke was
ever seen to be upset was when a master's pet squirrel ran up his pant
leg.

The Depression caused the Prep's enrolment to drop and Somer-
ville's retirement was hinted at. In February 1933 he announced his res-
ignation. The board voted him an annual pension of $2,500 and his
sixth form gave him a fountain pen inscribed to "The Duke." He
pretended — for a moment — to be angry; he could not resist the acting.

In the spring of 1934, in preparation for a third chapter in the Prep
story, Grant produced a long memorandum outlining what was needed.
A headmaster with a more up-to-date knowledge of teaching methods
and better organizational skills came first. Then came better Upper
School control of the Prep by the principal and the department heads;
French taught instead of Latin in the early forms and taught in a less
humdrum way; more time for, and better teaching of, English; a better
library (there actually was not one); more drama; science apparatus;
arts and crafts. Lastly, they needed better masters. Thus Grant was say-
ing that the Prep needed a thorough overhauling because the Duke had
let the school go to ruin. On many points he was totally accurate, but
on one he was dead wrong: "none of [the masters] are men whose
influence a boy will remember in after life as something vital."14 Since

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UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

Grant had not been very welcome at the Prep, he can be excused for
such a glaring error. But he had not done his homework. Elliott's
hockey teams remembered him long after they had forgotten most other
parts of their school life; many Old Boys considered Foote or Gibson or
Harris among the best teachers they ever had, and decades later they
considered them friends as well. Grant's feud with Somerville resulted
in judgments which were too harsh. He wrote to Peacock that Somer-
ville was loyal to UCC as he saw it, but his epitaph should read:

Here lies J. L. Somerville

Who played the malcontent under three principals.15

A year later Grant was dead, and Somerville's successor was turning
the Prep inside out.

To succeed Somerville the board chose a man so unlike him that the
two might have come from different planets. Their one common interest
was their work. Alan G. A. Stephen was a Yorkshireman, aged thirty-
two, who had come to Canada in 1925, via Shrewsbury and Balliol Col-
lege, Oxford, where he had taken an honours degree in history, and the
University of London, where he had taken a diploma in education. He
had been marked for the Prep while at Oxford by George Glazebrook,
Old Boy and eminent Canadian historian. Stephen was the first
Englishman who had spoken to him in Oxford; they became friends,
and Glazebrook suggested Stephen's name to Somerville. He came to
the Prep for the year 1925-26, after which Somerville dismissed him. He
returned to Christ's Hospital in England for four years and then came
back to the Upper School to take over the history department, to coach
cricket and soccer, to be Jackson housemaster, and to help run The Col-
lege Times. Grant had a high opinion of Stephen who had "fire and visi-
ble energy."'6 He obtained the enthusiastic support of Alice and
Vincent Massey, as well as that of W. H. Fyfe, principal of Queen's.
When first appointed to run the Prep Stephen was labelled senior mas-
ter, somewhat as Guest and even Somerville had been, but he soon was
officially headmaster. The board obviously had difficulty coping with
the concept of a principal and headmaster on the same campus.

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THE PREP

One central idea Stephen had brought with him from Christ's Hos-
pital was the essential equality of secondary and elementary education.
At that fine school there was no separation between the staffs; they used
the same common room and were paid on the same scale. Art, craft,
and music masters taught both levels; men wishing to move from ele-
mentary to secondary classes were not being "promoted." So, to Ste-
phen the Prep was not an appendage to the Upper School, it was a
school in its own right. This unique association was accepted by the
board, by Grant, and by Grant's successors to the present time.

Stephen's energy turned the Prep into a hive of activity. "Steve," as
he was known, was on the boys' side; everything, even superannuation,
was to be decided in the boys' best interests. Parents, held at arm's
length by Somerville, were immediately welcomed: a fathers' cricket
match, instituted in 1935, is now an annual Prep affair; parents' eve-
nings were begun; and mothers were invited to chauffeur groups. Eton
collars went out; IQ tests and entrance exams came in. French was
improved; a science room was set up. A select grade nine called Upper
Remove was formed for very able boys too young for Upper School life.
There was a school play his first year; later each form put on a play.
Crafts, formerly reserved for boarders, were started for everyone; art
was encouraged. There was a Prep chorus, then two of them. Musical
instruments were much in evidence. The symphony was visited; there
was a violin recital and a song recital; there were trips to the Winter
Fair and the Museum. Steve had been a Scout leader in London, and
scouting, then in its fourth year, received a tremendous boost. A camera
club and numerous other hobbies sprang up. A library was fitted out,
and books poured in. Later, every form had its own library and a spe-
cial reading period was introduced into the curriculum. There were
boarder weekends and reforestation projects at Norval, a ski club and
overnight ski trips. A believer in token student government, Steve
began an elected school committee which has lasted forty-five years. In
the fifties there was a boarder newspaper.

Though not a skilled athlete, Stephen encouraged games and was
always out encouraging the boys. He was helped not a little by the
superb 1934-35 hockey team, which swept all before it on the way to the

365

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

city championship. A very warm feeling developed among Stephen,
coach Elliott, and the team's parents, a feeling which lasted for decades.
A first soccer team was also organized, but Steve was not only or even
primarily a first-team man. A special skating program was organized
for the very young boys, and second and third teams developed in all
the team sports. Gymnastics was introduced and even a little tennis.
Showers were installed to encourage cleanliness and diminish sweat. In
short, Stephen spent virtually every waking hour thinking and discuss-
ing ways in which the lives of the students could be enriched.

In addition to his ability to "think small," that is to work out the
tiniest detail of a myriad of activities, Steve also found time to "think
big." One of his first concepts (which never fully came to fruition) was a
pre-Prep of several classes which would provide the Prep with a con-
stant supply of students, much as the Prep supplied the Upper School.
The arrival of part of Mrs. Kay Milsom's Hillside School in 1942 was
the response to this. He was always keenly interested in the education of
gifted children who, he thought, were not allowed to push ahead at
their own pace because of the provincial system's rigidity. In 1946 he
wrote a very clear memorandum about this to the Hope Royal Com-
mission, which was inquiring into the provincial educational system. At
the Prep Stephen developed a rather complex promotion system
designed to allow children to move ahead at their optimum speed. Ste-
phen was instrumental, in 1949, in forming the Junior School Branch of
the Canadian Headmasters' Association, an organization which is
thriving thirty years later.

Stephen's concern about people, so evident throughout his life, was
not circumscribed by the Prep. In his early years at Upper Canada a
collection was taken up every term for some charity. In 1940, after
France fell and Britain was in peril, he opened the Prep doors to British
children. In October 1941, eighty-one boys — almost a third of the
Prep — had fled from the war. When the Upper School building crisis
occurred in 1958, Steve immediately offered to share Prep facilities with
administration, faculty, and students.

All this activity at the Prep meant steady growth in numbers and
reputation. Stephen took over a school of 169 boys, divided among ten

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THE PREP

masters; he handed on 299 boys, which included a full boarding-house
of 56, and eighteen full-time masters. It was not long after his arrival
that the Prep was turning away day boys; the boarding situation, how-
ever, he never really succeeded in solving. In 1947 the board was told
that Toronto boys constituted the great majority of boarders at the
Prep. This did not change despite strenuous efforts to make boarding a
pleasant experience and to convince parents everywhere that it was
worth while. It was not until weekly boarding was introduced in 1964.
just before Stephen left, that the boarding-house was filled as it had
been during the war.

Stephen left the physical plant much improved. Early on, gates
were installed at the Prep entrance. In 1939, largely due to his enthusi-
asm, Norval House was built for boarders' weekends. The Prep's fiftieth
jubilee in 195217 gave Stephen the scope to expand the facilities vastly.
About $400,000 was collected over five years for a combined gym-audi-
torium, a separate headmaster's house, and a classroom-cum-office-
block, linking the 1902 Building and the Parkin Building. The head-
master's house enabled the Prep to have (for the first time) proper in-
firmary facilities, a fine senior housemaster's apartment, an adequate
masters' common room, and parents' reception rooms. In 1960-62,
$200,000 was spent renovating the original 1902 building. Finally, as a
parting gesture, a superb bunk-house named Stephen House was added
to the Norval property.

Stephen had inherited from Somerville that experienced nucleus of
men already noted: Hollingshead, Elliott, Foote, Gibson, and Harris.
Some of them survived Stephen's regime better than others, but for the
first half of his headmastership, when most of his experiments and inno-
vations took place, Elliott, Foote, Gibson, and Harris stayed with him,
providing that enormously stable foundation that is so necessary. He
himself appointed three long-term men, each of whom gave good serv-
ice for more than twenty-five years: George Gait, who taught English
and directed plays; Walter Ruffell, who taught English, maths, and
Latin; and Henry Atack, who ran the music department. Stephen also
brought three men to the Prep who eventually ran their own schools:
Humphrey Bonnycastle, who went to Rothesay School in New Bruns-

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UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

wick; John Schaffter, who went to St. John's-Ravenscourt in Winnipeg
and later St. Michael's University School in Victoria; and Malcolm
Maclnnes, head of St. Faith's, Cambridge. He was the first to bring a
full-time art master and outstanding musicians to the Prep. In 1942
Mrs. Kay Milsom came to stay nineteen years. Thirteen years after Ste-
phen's retirement, ten men he selected to teach at Upper Canada Col-
lege are still doing so. One of the best moves Stephen ever made was
taking Charlotte Cruickshank onto the staff. For years Miss Cruick-
shank formed an inseparable team with Mrs. McQuistan in the in-
firmary, before taking charge of the dining-room. She retired in 1978
after over forty years of looking after young boys in one way or another.

Under Stephen's leadership the Prep was a lively, friendly, happy
school with a high academic standard. Teaching at the Prep was not an
adversary situation; the relationship between masters and boys was
courteous and natural. The parents often went out of their way to wel-
come new masters. This atmosphere was Stephen's, and he accom-
plished it without pandering to the customers. (In fact, he undoubtedly
rankled parents, especially Old Boys, when their sons were turned
down.) Discipline was seldom a problem, based as it was on a general
atmosphere of good order, created by the good motivation of most of the
boys, a busy school day, enthusiastic co-operation from most parents
and, generally, the respect shown by the masters for the boys' rights.

The Prep was not free from problems, however. The faculty was
underpaid, though Stephen did more than anyone else to try to rectify
this. As early as 1936 he pointed out that some of the key Prep men
could have received considerably higher salaries in the public system:
some as much as a thousand dollars more. Again in 1949 he produced a
schedule showing that the average Prep salary was at least five hundred
dollars below the average Toronto public school salary. In March of the
following year G. Y. Ormsby, the College bursar, produced a detailed
memorandum showing the discrepancy to be over seven hundred dol-
lars and the pension differential to be even greater. In 1954 Stephen
lamented that he had trouble getting first-rate young Canadian mas-
ters. Five years later an outstanding young Canadian master whom Ste-

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THE PREP

phen wanted to keep moved to Ottawa with an offer he could not
refuse: $5,600 compared to the Prep's $3,800.

Extra-curricular activities were left mainly to the housemasters
towards the end of Stephen's time. He did not find much time for help-
ing new teachers in the classroom, and so for most men it was sink or
swim — not a bad arrangement if you are a good swimmer. Towards the
end of his career very few significant changes took place: Stephen was
running out of ideas and the younger men were not encouraged to pro-
duce them.

In retrospect Alan Stephen was, at least during his first twenty years
in the saddle, ahead of his time. A kind man, humorous, of great physi-
cial and moral courage, he left an indelible mark on Upper Canada
College and on the Prep in particular. He created for it a separate and
distinct personality which it continues to enjoy.

Since 1966 the enrolment has increased to over 350, about the opti-
mum size, without adversely affecting the atmosphere. More masters
have been added, with the result that the pupil-teacher ratio has actu-
ally improved. The men have tended to be trained in a specialty such as
French or science, though most have a "minor" discipline as well. Work
assignments have therefore been very flexible.

Gradual trends in the curriculum had included much more time
and emphasis on French, including trips to Quebec and to France;
more time given to science, with special emphasis on practical and out-
door work; a strong shift into Canadian studies; some environmental
studies; inclusion in the curriculum of much more creativity —
photography, film-making, pottery, drama, and printing have joined
art and music. Instrumental music has had a phenomenal growth in the
late seventies.

In 1971-72 a second storey was added to the 1952 link between the
Peacock and Parkin buildings. All the rooms, planned by the Prep mas-
ters themselves, were designed for some special creative activity or else
added strength to academic disciplines — a large library, and laborator-
ies for mathematics and French.

Many Prep masters have been skilled athletes and so there has been
an increase in the number of teams and more coaching rather than just

369

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

supervising. The almost total ascendency of three sports has been
replaced by the free choice of a large variety of games, limited only by
the facilities. The great advantage of this trend has been that far fewer
boys are watching and more are participating themselves.

Of very profound importance has been the much greater part
played in the running of the school by the masters. They have been
encouraged to express their views on a variety of topics — salaries, pen-
sions, curriculum, games policy — and an ongoing planning and devel-
opment committee, with a revolving chairman and membership, has
examined every aspect of school life.

About one hundred boys leave the Prep every year, about eighty of
whom go on to the Upper School. The Prep still performs the function
Parkin planned for it — as chief feeder for the secondary school. The
boarding-school has remained full ever since it adopted weekly board-
ing, but the academic quality of "the boarders lagged so far behind the
general standard that plans were laid in 1979 to phase out Prep board-
ing.

During seventy-seven years the Prep boy has not changed much, if
at all. The uniform is more varied and colourful, the language is more
pungent, the hair is longer (a totally superficial change with no moral
significance at all). He works hard, for the most part, and he plays
hard. He is probably more competent and worldly-wise. He is kinder
and more thoughtful, if less formally polite. He is the hope of the future.

370

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Norval

IT IS HARD TO BELIEVE that the College, for almost half of its life, has
owned the Norval property on the Credit River near Georgetown.
This superb facility was not purchased with its present use as an out-
door educational laboratory in mind; the motive was quite different.

When Henry Auden became principal of the College in 1903, its
financial status was relatively satisfactory. By mid 19 10, however, some-
thing must have alerted the Board of Governors to impending trouble:
in September the board appointed a sub-committee of three —
board chairman W. G. Gooderham, his son Norman, and W. D.
Matthews — to consider the question of a suitable location for the Col-
lege in case a move was decided upon. This board action was the first
official recognition of the possibility of a move from the Deer Park cam-
pus, a matter which took nine years to settle.

The board's instincts were sound. During the 1910-1 1 school year a
sharp financial reversal took place which accelerated rapidly through
191 2. ' At the end of March 191 3 there was a general recognition of fall-
ing enrolment and continued deficits — in fact, a state of crisis. Frank
Arnoldi, the College solicitor, reported that the government would
allow UCC to borrow thirty-thousand dollars and the board chairman
was to see Auden about redeeming the situation. Would Auden, in fact,
be prepared to co-operate with the board about a change in principal-
ship?

Out of this emergency arose the idea, probably Auden's, of selling
off part or all of the Toronto property. The proceeds could then be used
to purchase a site in the country and to provide a foundation for an

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UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

endowment, something the College had not had for twenty-five years.
Auden, an ardent naturalist, may well have believed that the country
was the best location for a school. Here was an opportunity to build a
country school and solve the financial crisis at the same time.

Events moved quickly. On April 15 the Mail and Empire reported
that Upper Canada College had secured the government's permission
to sell its property. Plans were made for a subdivision — on paper — to
help decide what to sell and under what conditions. As well, through
the spring and summer, masses of letters flowed in to the College from
people all over Southern Ontario who were anxious to sell their
land — invariably ideal for school use. The Board of Governors, playing
their cards close to their collective chest, denied any interest in buying.
Arnoldi, speaking for the sub-committee, said no active steps were being
taken to sell Deer Park — but offers would be received just the same.

Auden wrote to Gooderham laying out in great detail his ideas for a
new school on a new site. The property should be between twelve and
twenty miles from Toronto; and from 100 to 150 acres. The school
should be entirely residential (no weekly boarders even), with ten
classes for two hundred boys; it should have a gym, swimming pool, and
covered rink, as well as all the essentials. Three boarding-houses for
forty boys each and a separate Prep of fifty would be under the princi-
pal and nine men.

By early July the site committee was recommending the property of
Dr. R. T. Noble near Norval Village, fifty-five minutes by train from
Union Station. The committee report was ecstatic, foreseeing botany,
forestry, gardening, farming, tobogganing, skiing, fishing, boating (Au-
den even visualized damming the river for rowing), along with pure
water for the foreseeable future.2 The original package seems to have
been 613 acres at a total cost of $89,500; but the final area, seven par-
cels put together, was just under 528 acres at a cost of $62,750. (Since
that time 80 acres have been sold.)

The governors visited Norval on July 18; E. R. Rolph, the architect,
went a few days later; and in late August the purchase was formally
approved by the board. Auden expressed the delighted view that the
site was the best that could be found anywhere for school purposes. In

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NORVAL

his Prize Day Speech on October 13, 191 3, he said that the new College
would "have everything that nature and art can supply, and under
such conditions the future of the school will put the past into the dark
shade."3

The Old Boys' Association had already approved the proposed
move, and on October 16 a grand party was thrown by Gooderham,
who was president of the Old Boys in addition to being chairman of the
board. About eighty men attended, travelling to the new site by a spe-
cial car attached to the Grand Trunk 8:40. Six hours were spent roam-
ing, listening to speeches, or enjoying an excellent King Edward Hotel
lunch of fried chicken. The guests saw where the buildings and the
playing fields were to be, and an epoch-making baseball game was
played.

Much work still had to be done planning the buildings. Auden was
invited by the famous American headmaster the Reverend Endicott
Peabody to visit Groton; as well he sailed to England to visit and study
the best English public schools. Auden took to England with him some
draft plans, which were highly praised by an authority on school build-
ings. In February 19 14 the plans were presented to the Board of Gover-
nors, and for the next few months work went blissfully on. Auden wrote
a lyrical description in the summer College Times setting out for the stu-
dents the commanding view: the school close or garden of 400 feet by
600 feet; the three houses — Kingsmill, Denison, and Gooderham; the
tower modelled on Merton College, Oxford; the swimming pools in the
Credit River; the space available for a rifle range and a nine-hole golf
course.

To top everything off, on June 8 the entire school went on a special
ten-car train, chartered by Gooderham, to see Norval for themselves.
Scattered among the group were some Old Boys, the school matrons,
and a few wives and smaller children.4 When the students — about 270
of them — arrived at the site, most of them plunged into the river and
spent the day there. Another baseball game preceded another King
Edward lunch, more speeches followed, the plans and elevations were
unrolled for all to see, and by five o'clock it was over. The high point of
the move to Norval had been reached.

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UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

In late July the bubble began to burst. The total cost of the enter-
prise had risen to over $600,000, almost twice Auden's February esti-
mate. Even more significantly, the sale of the Toronto property was
becoming clouded amid the rumblings of the guns of August.

The previous September the H. H. Suydam Realty Company had
offered $1,125,000 for the College property in Deer Park, which had
been divided into three parcels: Parcel One valued at $275,000; Parcel
Two at $273,234; and Parcel Three at $576,766. The idea was for the
College to occupy the old site for two to three years while the new
buildings were erected, and then for the entire Deer Park acreage to
become a residential subdivision.5 Suydam, however, soon found he
could not pay for all three parcels. He suggested that he take only the
twelve acres bounded by Lonsdale, Forest Hill, Kilbarry, and Dunve-
gan, and postpone the purchase of parcels two and three.

Though Auden's dream was essentially dead, it would not lie down.
The board continued to ruminate about the move, and correspondence
with Suydam continued. In the winter of 19 15 the date of delivering the
remaining property to him was pushed from 19 16 to 1918. Suydam
could not even pay for parcel one, and his desperate proposals were
turned down by the board. By November 19 16 the situation was this:
the College had Norval, to which it could not move and for which it
had spent something over $93,000; they had sold the first parcel of the
Toronto property and received about $199,000, but Suydam still owed
them $76,000; parcels two and three were in limbo.

The following summer Principal Auden left, to be replaced by
W. L. Grant. The indecision about what to do with Norval was
nowhere more evident than in Grant's correspondence with his father-
in-law, George Parkin. Impressed by the property himself, Parkin
thought Grant should spend two or three years in Toronto creating con-
fidence in the College community while overseeing the construction of
the new school on the country site. That was in July; by November Par-
kin was vacillating. First, the Prep should not be shifted; it was the Col-
lege's Toronto feeder, which the College could not afford to lose.
Second, the families with strong church connections might withdraw
their sons and send them to one of the other boarding-schools. Third,

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NORVAL

there would be no social life in an isolated community for the masters;
the "glory and glitter"6 of the city connection would be lacking.

By the end of 191 7 the board were of the opinion that it would be
some time before a move to Norval was possible, and they aimed to do
their best in Toronto with the prospect of making "a big advance"7
when it was decided to move. By the spring of 1918 the situation was
tricky. Suydam still had not paid, but with the end of the war in sight,
the board feared that Suydam might pay and the College would have
to move with no buildings at Norval to move into. Moreover, following
Parkin's lead, thinking about the Prep had changed. The board
thought it would be necessary to retain the Prep in Toronto for junior
day boys. With this in view, the board wanted to be sure to hang on to
parcels two and three — at any rate until the clouds cleared. If there was
to be a moving date, the College wanted the decision to be in its hands,
not Suydam's.

The war ended and the board tended more and more to think of
keeping the second and third land parcels and accepting money for
parcel one alone. Grant felt that if this happened, the development of
the endowment on which he was determined in order to improve mas-
ters' salaries, and which had been a condition of his appointment,
would be curtailed seriously. The architects, Sproatt and Rolph, were
anxious to continue the Norval project and said the new buildings could
be completed by September of 192 1 if work could commence that sum-
mer of 1 919. The board, evidently swayed by Grant, were still holding
open the option of moving, and curiously enough they were reconsider-
ing the whole question of the Prep joining the main school in the move.
All the vacillation was in vain, however. In May, Suydam definitely
wanted out of his contract; his American partner had found better
opportunities in which to invest. A month later he had still paid only
$212,000, and the board asked him for $350,000 to buy his way out.
Suydam refused. The great Norval project was again abandoned "for
the time being."8

On October 14, 19 19, Grant wrote a memorandum containing
many ideas about the College's future. On Norval he was clear:
although originally delighted with the beauty of the property, he had

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grown more and more doubtful over a two-year period. The one and
only justification for the move was the endowment, but the new site
development would swallow the entire price of the Toronto campus.
Also the mood was changing. Few Old Boys were still enthusiastic. The
winter was cold and windy at Norval; the summer, hot and plagued by
mosquitoes. There was only one railway line, the radial was some dis-
tance away, and automobile traffic was closed for four months of the
year. Grant was, at the same time, disappointed and relieved. He reso-
lutely turned his back on Norval, determined to build a great school in
Toronto.

In sum, the College had exchanged 12 acres in Toronto for 528
acres in Norval plus about Si 80,000 — a trade designed to keep those
involved arguing for decades.

Seven years passed, and as the College approached its centenary,
Principal Grant was looking elsewhere for a new College site. In April
1928 a firm decision was made to sell Norval. In September a syndicate
from Cleveland was said to be considering purchasing the property for
$100,000. Nothing happened. In June 1929, anxious for cash to com-
plete its anticipated new site in York Mills, the board empowered
Frank Arnoldi to sell Norval for $90,000 — all cash or its equivalent in
securities satisfactory to the board chairman. Again nothing happened,
though one suggestion was that Norval be sold to the government as a
rifle range. Six more years went by, and the board passed a motion to
move more vigorously to sell Norval. It was now on the market for
$75,000.

Grant died in February 1935 and was succeeded by T. W. L. Mac-
Dermot. His counterpart at the Prep was A. G. A. Stephen, and it was a
memorandum by Stephen in 1937 which resurrected Norval from a
limbo of twenty years and shaped the course it took for the next forty.9
The boarder enrolment at the Prep had been dropping, and Stephen's
idea was to find a spot within easy reach of Toronto for boarders' week-
ends. It should have skiing slopes, a stream for bathing, and some bush
for Scout work. With this facility, the Prep could boast that it had the
benefits of both a city and a country education. As a result, new board-
ers would undoubtedly be attracted. The concept was slow to develop,

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NORVAL

but MacDermot and Stephen found a friendly ear in J. Graeme Wat-
son, a member of the board's executive committee. Watson visited Nor-
val in June of 1938 and his interest was aroused. He was appointed a
one-man committee to look into the matter, and in December he pro-
duced a far-sighted "Memorandum re ucc Norval Property."

Watson saw Norval as an unproductive investment which had cost a
large sum of money and on which UCC did not want to spend any more.
It is not clear who first raised the question of "reforestation," but out of
subsequent visits to the property with government forestry personnel,
four intertwined objectives developed: education, publicity, increased
market value, and recreation. Watson thought that College students,
starting with Prep boys as an experiment, might well be able to do some
planting, chiefly of conifers. It would be an educational experience, the
property would increase in value, and the College would get valuable
publicity. Other educational uses such as nature study were possibili-
ties. An added asset would be a sounder position in case of tax assess-
ment, because the property would be used for educational purposes.
Recreationally, Watson was optimistic about the skiing possiblities. In a
couple of paragraphs, he became visionary. "The ultimate possibilities
of the development of Norval are great ... let the imagination have a
little rein to visualize all sorts of activities which would bring the boys
close to nature and thus supply something which is seriously lacking in
the training and experience of so many modern city-bred boys. . . .
Given a few years' development of the property ... it might become
apparent that ... it was an asset worth more than its sale value."10

The first steps to put the Watson plan into operation were taken on
May 6, 1939. Forty-five UCC Scouts and Cubs planted twelve thousand
pine seedlings under the direction of Arthur M. Richardson, who was in
charge of reforestation for the province. Six special trees were planted
by six special people: Mrs. Graeme Watson, Mrs. Richardson, Col.
A. L. Noble of Norval, board chairman R. A. Laidlaw, Principal Mac-
Dermot, and the youngest boy present, David Todd. Since then over
650,000 trees have been planted, the bulk by students. Massive plant-
ings are now completed; only maintenance work remains.

Visitors to the Norval property seldom fail to comment on its natu-

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UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

ral interest and beauty: the Credit River meandering through its broad
valley on the way to Lake Ontario; the ancient, elevated benchlands
that mark the verges of an older and mighty waterway; the upland
stands of hardwoods, some of which were already old at the time of pur-
chase; the lush, open meadows which contrast with acres of thick
conifer plantations. Nature — with a little help from her College
friends — has provided a varied and fascinating landscape for the enjoy-
ment and learning of all those who experience the Norval Outdoor
School.

Norval and the College have also provided a valuable wildlife
reserve on the edge of a megalopolis. A Georgetown paper-clipping of
1979 reported: "Motorists were surprised Wednesday morning Febru-
ary 7 when a herd of deer ran up and down the highway and finally
crossed it from Upper Canada College land. Traffic was tied up while
everyone watched in amazement." The deer have since returned to
enjoy the refuge which the management program (including the main-
tenance of more than two miles of fencing) is designed to perpetuate.
The property is, in fact, rich in a variety of wildlife: foxes, rabbits, deer,
birds, and even the occasional brush wolf. If the continuing problem of
hunters (who use both firearms and bows and arrows) can be solved, the
deer will long be Norval residents.

Another facet of Norval encouraged by the Watson memo was rec-
reation. The board approved a plan to build a "ski shack" on the brow
of the hill overlooking the Credit. An anonymous donation of one thou-
sand dollars was forthcoming, and on June 9, 1939, Norval House, an
attractive, rustic, solidly built bunk-house capable of sleeping twenty-
two was opened by Mrs. Graeme Watson. Among those who planned
and constructed the house were Sam Foote, a long-time Prep teacher,
and Charlie Coupland, a neighbouring farmer who was soon appointed
the College's Norval agent. The immediate aim was more Prep board-
ers, and in the momentary enthusiasm, the Globe and Mail of June 1 o
reported that Norval House was the "first in a series" that would even-
tually provide accommodation for all Prep boarders. Use began imme-
diately and before the end of term all the boarders had been at least
once. The next winter, the first of the war, boarders went out for ski

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NORVAL

weekends. Soon Prep boarders used the House every weekend, weather
permitting. When on the property, boys did the chores — helping with
meals, cutting wood, sweeping, pumping water, and so on. But it was
not all work; there were collecting, nature games, contests of different
kinds, building bridges and rafts, making dug-outs and forts, or just
plain "messing around." In 1950 Upper School boarders began to use
the property. They stayed in the original farmhouse, named Upper
Canada House, which they converted to their own use under the lead-
ership of Donald Maskell, their physical-education instructor. Boarder
weekends and reforestation by senior Prep boys carried on until the mid
sixties, when new directions were taken.

From time to time through the fifties and sixties various members of
the College community, including members of the board, uncertain
about the educational value of Norval and knowing that its monetary
value was rising, wondered aloud what Norval might bring if subdi-
vided commercially or residentially. When the College's main building
was condemned in 1958, the temptation to sell Norval was enormous; it
was assessed at $310,000 and the board thought that $450,000 should be
asked. Fortunately, the money was raised in other ways.

Of all the College community, the man most responsible for keeping
Norval on its agenda for thirty years was Alan Stephen. During his last
years as Prep headmaster, the subject of Norval was almost an obsession
with him. In late 1962 he received permission to start an arboretum
named after S. Alan Harris, a long-time Prep faculty member who had
worked actively in the reforestation program for many years. A year
later Stephen announced that $4,100 was being donated by the Sports-
men's Show for a small science laboratory to be added to Norval House.
All through those years, he kept hammering away at the same
theme — preserve Norval in perpetuity for College use. Stephen feared
that, after he retired, the College might abandon Norval.

Two events gave the Norval development a fresh impetus even as
Stephen was stepping down. The first was the erection of Stephen
House, an idea first officially mentioned in November 1964. It was a
beautiful bunk-house-cum-dining-area-cum-science-lab, financed by
the Laidlaw Foundation and designed by Old Boy architect Blake Mil-

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UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

lar. For it Millar was awarded a Massey Medal. The College now had
two bunk-houses and two science labs to encourage and accommodate
increased demand. The second event was the appointment to the Prep
faculty of Norval director B. M. Litteljohn, a Canadian authority on
wilderness, with a background in Canadian history, park management,
and photography. Litteljohn's job was to supply the demand. In early
1967 he and two colleagues, Glyn Owen and Donald Baldwin, pro-
duced a Norval Brief, pointing the direction the College should take for
the foreseeable future. The aims were specified:

At the Norval Outdoor School, property management should go hand
in hand with a greatly expanded education program for both Upper
Canada College students and others. Management should be largely
directed toward the restoration of forest cover and the related protec-
tion of wildlife and the Credit River watershed. The learning program
should emphasize environmental concerns, including applied conserv-
ation, and recreation which is in harmony with the integrity of the
natural environment. The over-riding educational goal should be to
foster knowledge and appreciation of nature and a sharpened environ-
mental conscience which assigns man a constructive role in the natu-
ral environment, of which he is a part. As swift urban growth proceeds
in southern Ontario, the role of the Norval Outdoor School —
both as a semi-wild area and a conservation-oriented educational
institution — will increase in value to Upper Canada College and the
larger community."

The first pay-off from Litteljohn's brief came in the spring of 1969
when the Prep grade eights each spent a week on the property with a
special curriculum drawn up by the science department. It was a
smashing success. Now the entire Prep spends time on the property with
all the faculty taking part, including the musical groups. The environ-
ment has become a part of the Prep curriculum. The board has estab-
lished a special Norval committee, and the property has a separate
Norval Outdoor School budget administered by a director.

In the early seventies a married couple came onto the Norval prop-
erty, the husband as property manager, the wife as assistant cook to

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NORVAL

Mrs. Evelyn Martin, whose family had moved into and renovated
Upper Canada House. The married couple had a new house of their
own constructed during "The Program for UCC" in 1971-72. About the
same time, the property was opened up for other schools, notably St.
George's College and UTS, both of which now make wide use of the
facility. During this period, too, a sturdy steel bridge, appropriately
named after Litteljohn, was swung across the Credit, linking the two
halves of the property on a permanent basis.

Non-College users frame their own programs, constrained only by
UCC guidelines concerning proper use of the natural environment and
physical plant. Boys from the College enjoy a variety of learning experi-
ences. Not all of these concentrate solely on environmental concerns.
For example, the Prep chorus and band, or the Upper School little the-
atre or jazz workshop group find at Norval a good place to pursue unin-
terrupted and intensive work free from distractions. More frequently,
however, groups go to Norval to actively engage in outdoor and envi-
ronmental studies. The Prep boys, by far the heaviest users of the
facility, are exposed to many activities, including: field biology; photog-
raphy, sketching, and other art activities designed to enhance the
aesthetic apprecation of nature; orienteering and map interpretation;
lessons in the art and science of living and travelling through natural
areas; bird-banding and identification; camping out, including winter
camping; botany and applied forest management. Aside from the value
of these activities, the relative isolation of Norval provides an ideal situ-
ation for building good rapport and a spirit of co-operation within the
various groups.

With constant Prep use, rapidly increasing Upper School use, and a
large group of visiting schools, the Norval facility is now run on virtu-
ally a full-time basis. It has travelled a long, rocky, and different route
from that foreseen by Gooderham and Auden in 19 13. It is four times
the size and at least twice the distance from Toronto that Auden want-
ed. These are both fortunate facts. Had it been closer to the city or
smaller, it might well have been sold by now. As it is, UCC remains sol-
idly based for a large day-boy market and has a facility unique among

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UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

Canadian schools (perhaps among schools anywhere on the continent)
for environmental education.

By an irony of history, this happy turn of events came about because
of the tragedy of the First World War. Although other doubts about the
move developed later, without the war the College might have moved
to Norval — with what in the future? We can be sure that Auden's ghost
smiles down on the crowded annual picnics, the boat races on the
flashing river, and the hundreds upon hundreds of students who take
strength and sustenance from their experiences on the property. The
original baseball game is played many times over every spring on the
original spot, Gooderham and his son there on the sidelines, laughing
and applauding.

382

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Epilogue

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE'S HISTORY is roughly divided into two
halves, each defined by a different century. The first half is un-
likely to be repeated, but that is no reason for ignoring it. The
College that Colborne founded has its roots deep in the nineteenth cen-
tury; some of the gilt that clings to it still, was applied at its inception.
How has it lasted so long?

UCC was founded to train boys for leadership roles in the infant colo-
ny. The word elite, rooted in the Latin word for elect, is defined as "the
choice or most carefully selected part of a group, as of a society or pro-
fession." There is no doubt that Colborne intended the students to
become the colony's leaders; in that sense, UCC was an elite school.
Because of the heated King's College debate on Anglicanism, it was
deliberately non-denominational. Because of its enormous endowment,
it was dirt cheap. UCC was not simply for the rich. Because of the pre-
sumed difficulty of finding good teachers in Upper Canada, men with
remarkable academic qualifications were imported from Great Britain
at great expense to instruct in the classical type of curriculum which
had helped to produce that country's leaders. Because it was to be a
superior school, Colborne demanded high-priced buildings in spacious
grounds. So far, so good. The colony needed leaders trained under the
most felicitous circumstances at a reasonable expense in a cool and
uncontroversial religious ambience.

Almost from the beginning, though, things began to go wrong.
There were the expenses: the buildings were extravagant; there were
too many masters being paid too much. The endowment produced little

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UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

or nothing for a very long time, saddling the school with an enormous
debt. The school's administration was brutally incompetent. The site
was in Toronto, home of John Strachan and the Family Compact, cen-
tre of the Anglican ("established") church, headquarters of the self-con-
stituted aristocracy, more British than Britain. In UCC the union of
power, money, and the Church of England was more accidental than
deliberate, but it was real, and any school in UCC's situation was
unlikely to generate the enthusiastic support of the Ontario hinterland.
Again, there was the religious aspect of the school itself. The masters
turned out to be good teachers, but why were so many of them Anglican
clergymen? It was not that they pushed their own beliefs on the student
body (there is no evidence that they did), but they held all the responsi-
ble positions: it was hard to believe that ucc was not an Anglican semi-
nary. Finally, despite the fees being competitive with other grammar
schools, it was not socially representative; most of the parents were well-
to-do Toronto Tories. There were others, of course, attracted by the low
fees and high standards, but it was the total picture that counted:
Upper Canada College was seen not just as a school to train an elite,
but almost immediately it was seen as a school for the children of the
elite — quite a different thing. The only criterion of elitism which is not
acceptable is one based on class or money, rather than ability. Fairly or
not, the College became branded with this unacceptable elitism early in
its career, and the brand still lingers on its skin. The College commu-
nity has been seen as carrying the kind of elitism that puts on airs.

For the first thirty years the same basic picture emerged: inept
administration, fine teaching, financial difficulties. The Anglican clergy
gradually disappeared, but the religious and social make-up of the
enrolment remained much the same. The College survived through
thirty years of tumult because enough people saw that it supplied a
sound education. Moreover, there was no real competition: it was the
top educational institution in the province. As Colborne had hoped, the
graduates undertook leadership roles in the government, in the univer-
sity, and in the legal profession.

When the endowment began to pay off in the 1860s and 1870s, all
the jealousies created by the school's history ballooned into greed: the

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EPILOGUE

endowment had been "stolen"; the endowment must be returned. For
over fifty years there were perpetual onslaughts on the College's exist-
ence by individuals and groups, both in the press and in the legislature.
Then under Parkin the school's life was saved; it had become poor but
honest. In its poverty and isolation and exhaustion the College turned
in on itself and back to its roots, embracing its Britishness more fer-
vently than it had ever done. Spiritually it became a Canadian copy of
the English public schools. Allegiance to empire became as strong as
love of country. The school's attitude to games — an end in themselves
rather than the means to an end — reflected its own self-image.

The twentieth century opened the second half of the College's histo-
ry, bringing independence and some shifts of emphasis. Slowly the clas-
sical tradition died; the importance of English, history, and science
grew. Little by little, ucc began to realize it was Canadian in fact, not
just in name. But in the transformation to a private school, the College
lost — or at least misplaced — something. As a public institution with
some acceptance of noblesse oblige it had taken for granted that many of
its students would seek public leadership. Privilege demanded personal
sacrifice. In its independent phase, and perhaps as a result of its self-ab-
sorption, the College's commitment to public leadership was suspended.
(To be fair, scepticism about public leadership has not been a UCC
monopoly. The possibility exists that leaders are no longer wanted, that
the bankruptcy is not so much a lack of supply as one of demand.) The
public strategists of the nineteenth century have become the highly
competent private tacticians of the twentieth. Nevertheless the days
when those superficial signs of quality — Latin grammar and a flashing
drive through cover-point — were the passports to success have disap-
peared. Much more is needed in terms of creativity or compassion or
competence.

During a hundred and fifty years UCC has been under the control of
seven different boards, councils, or committees. Some of them had no
conception whatever of their functions, some had very clear ideas, and
some fell in between. Clear-thinking and a high level of ability has been
more and more apparent as the years have passed, and what was once a

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UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

vague paternalism has been transmitted into a delicate balance of work,
wealth, and wisdom.

Judging by the history, being principal of Upper Canada College
has been one of the most difficult administrative positions in Canadian
education. The characteristics needed to undertake the arduous post
are extraordinarily difficult to find in one man. The prime require-
ments would appear to be the stamina and hide of a rhinoceros. For the
rest — monumental patience, a sense of humour, ability in at least one
academic discipline, an understanding of young people, adaptability, a
willingness to experiment and make mistakes, a comprehension of what
Old Boys are all about, the courage of convictions, a resilience to cope
with captious colleagues, sympathy with parental concerns — the list is
endless.

All through the political turmoil, riding the financial roller-coaster,
through decades of low pay and lack of retirement allowance, through
the erratic leadership at board or administrative levels, the quality of
teaching has seldom been other than thoroughly competent, and more
often than not first class. The classical training thought to be so central
to decisive thinking for almost a century was sustained by a marvelous
succession of department heads — Mathews, Scadding, Wedd, Jackson,
Orr. As a matter of fact, the classical department has had only eight
heads in 150 years. No less impressive have been the heads of the math-
ematics department: Dade, Brown, Sparling, Somerville, McHugh,
McKenzie, Sharp, the last four without peer anywhere. English was
late on the scene as an important discipline, but when it arrived the
troops were led by men like Dickson and Peacock, Mowbray and
Crake, Blunt and Gallimore. In foreign languages there were Stephen
Leacock and the revered Classey. All these men were simply the lead-
ers. Crowding them and sometimes overtaking them were Boulton and
Martland and A. A. Macdonald, Grant and Stephen, Killip and Igna-
tieff, Mills and Law and de Marbois, Cochrane and Carpenter and
Holmes, MacMillan and Mazzoleni. At the Prep their counterparts
numbered Colley and Hollingshead, Foote and Elliott, Gibson and Gait
and Harris — the line stretches to the horizon.

These were complicated men— most of them — sometimes hated and

386

EPILOGUE

feared for imposing long, hard, boring tasks which seemed useless to the
students; sometimes respected and admired as leaders; sometimes
enjoyed as companions; sometimes loved as friends in need. They
taught, not because they could not do anything else — most of them
could — but because they did not want to do anything else; their need to
teach gripped them like a vice. They considered themselves "fortunate
to be allowed to spend their lives teaching" the subjects they loved to
the students they loved (though sometimes the students could not guess
it). There was something in their approach to teaching that let the boys
know "they never thought any other job could compare with this one."
Their ambition consisted of sharing their own joys and insights with
others. Along with these enthusiasms lay the belief that the pupils were
more important than themselves. The boys knew; they were always
able to recognize the difference between the performers and the men
who really cared — the born teachers. "In every generation there were
masters who lived by honesty, self-sacrifice," and courage, who had spe-
cial and unconquerable "resources within themselves." These inner
resources were the clue to their lives and provided the clue to their stu-
dents' lives. They were the people who held out to year after year of
confused youth the "hope that life was not just a bad joke or a meaning-
less biological episode." They were the glory of Upper Canada College.
The questions for the eighties and beyond concern society's need for
independent schools, and if there is such a need, what their basic char-
acteristics should be. To those who see education or schooling as a low
priority, schools like Upper Canada College carry no message. To those
who think schools are important but who are content with a provincial
government monopoly, Upper Canada College carries no message. But
to those who believe in a variety of schools and who believe that parents
have the right to a choice for their children, colleges like Upper Canada
are crucial. Generous support must arise from belief in the idea of inde-
pendent education, not from the belief that the donor will get some-
thing tangible in return. Whether or not one has children, whether or
not they are of school age, whether or not they are boys, whether or not
they have university potential, the issue remains the same — state
monopoly or freedom of choice.

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UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

If Upper Canada College has a place in the field of independent
education it has two imperatives. The first is to increase the endowment
to the point where the fees can flatten out and those four horsemen —
salaries, pensions, scholarships, and bursaries — become substantial
enough so that men and women will happily make a career at the
school and the student body will not become solely the sons of the
wealthy. Since the loss of the original endowment in 1887 scores of first-
class teachers have taught at the College for low pay and with little to
look forward to at the end of the road. One task is to ensure that those
days have gone forever. As for the student body, the fees speak for them-
selves. Although a good many boys receive financial assistance in order
to attend the school, it can never be known how many did not apply for
financial reasons. Upper Canada College should be a school that can
welcome almost any boy, regardless of financial background, provided
he has the qualifications. Any weakening in the position of the College
which is the oldest, the largest, the best known, and one of the most
strategically placed of independent schools weakens the position of all.
The scholarship and bursary program and the salaries and pensions
that have been built up with such difficulty over the years need massive
strengthening to endure the onslaught of inflation. From now on an
independent school without a substantial endowment is a contradiction
in terms. Such an endowment can come from only those who believe.

The second imperative is to continue to look forward, to anticipate
the educational needs of tomorrow and not cling to encrustations of the
past. This means a careful analysis of traditions and a separation of the
useful and the timeless from those which no longer make sense. The cat-
alogue of traditions, some immortal, some more transitory, is impres-
sive: from the very beginning good teaching, especially in classics and
mathematics, by masters who cared; cricket of a high calibre for over
140 years; games and clubs and hobbies superintended by enthusiastic
masters; The College Times; a debating society over a century old; an
endless line of distinguished speakers sharing with the students their
experiences and wisdom on every topic under the sun; tolerance
towards all creeds and colours. What new traditions could spring from

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EPILOGUE

this fertile soil? A renewal of sportsmanship of the kind Newbolt wrote
about, perhaps: winning or losing "not for fame or glory" but with
grace, because the spirit of the game is what matters. In a world where
"man's greed and cruelty are too widespread and persistent to be
ignored," perhaps the old traditions of "fair play, duty and honour,
bravery and fortitude" could be resurrected or strengthened. Perhaps a
school is the only place left where belief can be nourished that "man
may still be worth bothering about and that human existence may still
be given dignity." Perhaps a tradition may grow that science is a disci-
pline not just of mindless destruction but of creation too, a discipline
through which the environment will be enhanced. Perhaps music will
take the place of honour in the school curriculum which it has in the
real world. There are infinite possibilities for the growth of new tradi-
tions.

It has been a long, grinding uphill climb; from time to time the Col-
lege has clung by its fingernails to the face of the cliff, catching its
breath, looking for the next foothold, afraid to peer into the abyss
below. From today's perspective, ucc stands on a summit, looking like
Janus both forward and back. The school is wise to remind itself of the
axiom that an institution ignorant of its own history is destined to
repeat it. Is ucc likely to repeat its twentieth-century chapter? The
answer depends on the faith and care and love of its friends. A good
education can be got cheaply to be sure, but only at the expense of those
men and women responsible for the program. The College has for a
long time operated in an environment of physical beauty — of fields,
trees, and buildings — and a belief in wisely used space. If it is allowed to
operate in an atmosphere of financial space, a world in which it can
breathe easily, a third and still brighter chapter will be added to the
first two. When the year 2029 arrives, Colborne's legacy will then be
honoured by all, friend and foe alike, for what it has contributed and
continues to contribute to the Canadian educational scene.

The author foresees a bright future for Upper Canada College. He
believes that it will not only survive, it will prevail because it has a core

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UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

of compassion and endurance. This volume is about the courage, the
honour, and the pride which have illuminated its past. It is not merely
the record of Upper Canada College. It is intended as a pillar of hope
for its future.

390

Appendices

APPENDIX ONE

The College Motto and Crest

IN 1 790 an English clergyman named John Jortin wrote a Latin poem
called "Ad Ventos — ante AD. mdcxxvii" (To the Winds — Before
1727). The poem evidently referred to a British fleet dispatched to
keep an eye on Britain's enemies who favoured the Old Pretender, the
heir of James II. The last line, "Palmam qui meruit, ferat" (Whoever
hath deserved it let him bear off the palm), probably means "May the
best man (Stuart or Hanoverian) win." Later, the motto was attached
to the arms of Lord Nelson.

When first used at Upper Canada College about 1833, it was not a
general motto, but simply an inscription stamped upon prize books.
Two palm branches encircled the name of the College and were fas-
tened together by a ribbon bearing the Latin words. John Ross Robert-
son in Landmarks of Toronto said that this form was used until i860, when
Dr. Henry Scadding decided that a crown should be put into the
design. Scadding argued that not only had a lieutenant-governor
founded the school, it was also a Royal Grammar School. Robertson
was wrong about the date. As early as 1855, perhaps 1850, the College
was using the device of a crown, that of George IV, inside the palm
branches. For the next eighty years it used a variety of crests. Each new
version may have signified some change in College philosophy; more
likely the administration simply tired of the old design.

To confuse the picture, Scadding was asked in 1889 to devise a final
edition of the College crest. He probably did so and may well have pro-
duced the complex insignia which was displayed for so many years over

393

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

the west door of the prayer hall in the 1891 building and is now placed
over the door to Laidlaw Hall.

In 1956 L. C. Kerslake wrote an explanation of this crest:

The small wreath, crossed anchor and sword in the centre of the crest
are found in Lord Nelson's coat of arms.

The open book in the upper left corner is symbolic of education
which is the primary function of any school. The quadrant-shaped
figure in the upper right corner is a section of the standard of St.
George and signifies the school's connection with England and Great
Britain, the native land of the founder, Lord Seaton.

Technically speaking, the crown should not be included in the
crest, as the school was not instituted by royal charter. However, loy-
alty to the Crown is one of the fundamental traditions of UCC and is
certain to endure as long as the school itself.

The cornua copiae just above the motto stands for the fullness of
school life which is one of the distinctive marks of UCC.

In fact, this insignia is simply the Seal of Upper Canada, authorized
in 1820, to which are appended the College's motto and palm branches.

During the last fifty years the College crest has remained un-
changed. Some of the earlier devices are depicted here.

C.J. S. Bethune

Examination Certificate

1855

The College Times Masthead
March 1882

394

APPENDICES

C^AM c0/

The College Times Masthead
December ii

yf ..*.. ii.

kSK

^5g^^«!gffli

FOUNDED 1829.

U.C.C. Prospectus
c. 1900-1910

In General Use
1916-31

In General Use Since 1931

Dr. Scadding's 1889 Device (?)

395

APPENDIX TWO

Governors

1829-1833

Board for the General Superintendence of Education

President
Venerable John Strachan

1 833-1 849
Council of King's College

President
Venerable John Strachan

1850-1853
Upper Canada College Council

1853-1887

Senate of the University of Toronto

1 887- 1 900
Board of Trustees

Chairmen
1 888- 1 894 John Beverley Robinson
1 894- 1 899 J.J. Kingsmill
1 899- 1 900 G. T. Denison, in

396

APPENDICES

1900-
Board of Governors
Chairmen
1900-1911 G. T. Denison, ill
191 1- 1 934 W. G. Gooderham
1 935- 1 940 R. A. Laidlaw
1941-1952 J. Graeme Watson
1952-1957 Maj.-Gen. A. Bruce Matthews
1957-1962 J. M. Macintosh
1 962- 1 967 H. H. Wilson
1967-1972 D. M. Woods
1972-1977 D. S. Beatty
1977- A. J. Ormsby

397

APPENDIX THREE

Principals

1829-38 The Rev. Joseph H. Harris, MA, DD

1 839-43 The Rev. John McCaul, LL D

1 843-56 Frederick W. Barron, MA

1857-61 The Rev. Walter Stennett, MA

1 86 1 -8 1 George R. R. Cockburn, MA

1881-85 John Milne Buchan, MA

1885-95 George Dickson, MA

1 895-1902 George R. Parkin, MA, LLD

1902-17 Henry W. Auden, MA

^^-SS William L. Grant, MA, LLD

l9?>b~^2 Terence W. L. MacDermot, MA

1 943_48 Lome M. McKenzie, ba

1 949-65 The Rev. C. W. Sowby, ma, DD

1 965-74 Patrick T. Johnson, MA

:975_ Richard H. Sadleir, ma

398

The Prep

(Above) Alice Parkin, daughter of George Parkin, the first Prep matron.
She married Vincent Massey in 191 5 (Upper Canada College). (Below)
The Prep building 1902, as designed by E. R. Peacock and Eden Smith.
It was named the Peacock Building in 1962 (from Upper Canada College
1829-1920).

C/2

-a

3
O

-a
c
o
o

JS,
H

•-4a&i>-

*t?w

a™*

Three of the earliest Prep first teams
(Upper Canada College).

The Prep masters, June 1934, just as Duke Somerville was retiring. Somerville and
five of these men spent a total of over two hundred years at the Prep, creating its repu-
tation. They are (left to right) J. H. Blow, Reginald Terrett, H. E. Elliott, G. W.
Spragge, J. L. Somerville, J. Goodger, Timothy Gibson, F. N. Hollingshead, C. W.
Jones, R. M. Baldwin, Samuel Foote, S. A. Harris. The dogs name is Rex (Upper
Canada College). (Below) Present Prep headmaster, R. B. Howard, with boys.

Life at the Prep

Boarders' evening inspec-
tion by Agnes McQuis-
tan, known as "Nurse."
Ears, fingernails,
toes — nothing escaped
her eagle eye every night
from 1932 to 1964 (Page
Toles).

The Masque of Aesop, written especially for the Prep on its fiftieth birthday in 1952 by
Robertson Davies. The three fates measuring out the life-span of Kenneth Langdon
(Aesop) with such relish are Fred Eaton, L. C. Ash, and Lloyd Rain. Gordon Tisdall's
god-like Apollo looks on (Ballard and Jarrett).

Norval

Principal Henry Auden, Dr. R. T.

Noble, and board chairman

W. G. Gooderham, the three

protagonists in the purchase of the

Norval property (Upper Canada

College).

The celebrated first Norval
I baseball game (Upper
Canada College).

Departing for home after a his-
toric day (Upper Canada College).

Industrial

Subdivision.

Gecyetou'n-

(Above) The key
Norval planners:
S. Alan Harris,
after whom the
arboretum is
named; Arthur
Richardson of
the Department
of Lands and
Forests; and
A.G. A. Stephen,
Prep headmaster
1934-66 (Globe
and Mail). (Left)
The Norval
property, slightly
diminished from
its original
boundaries by
the sale of eighty
acres.

(Above) Norval House as seen in 1939 when the Prep boys first used the property (Up-
per Canada College). (Below) Stephen House, completed in 1965. The architect, Old
Boy Blake Millar, won a Massey Medal for the design (Bruce Litteljohn).

APPENDIX FOUR

Headmasters

1902-1 1 J. S. H. Guest, ma

191 1-34 J. L. Somerville, BA

1 934-66 A. G. A. Stephen, MA

1966- R. B. Howard, BA

399

APPENDIX FIVK

Quarter-Century Club

1829-56

J. du P. De la Haye

1925-66

A. G. A. Stephen

1842-83

C.J. Thompson

1928-67

M. H. C. Bremner

1844-84

M. Barrett

1931-73

J. H. Biggar

1850-91

W. Wedd

1932-64

Mrs. A. McQuistan

1856-87

J. Brown

1933-60

G. Y. Ormsby

1862-91

J. Martland

1933-73

K. D. Scott

1872-1903

G. B. Sparling

1934-78

H. Kay-

1877-1917

W. S. Jackson

1936-78

Miss C. Cruikshank

1891-1920

R. Holmes

1936-67

T. Aikman

I 894-192 I

A. L. Cochrane

1938-

Miss B. Barrow

1897-1934

J. L. Somerville

1938-

Dr. W. A. McTavish

1897-1935

C. F. Mills

1939-73

Dr. W. G. Bassett

1902-35

W. Mowbray

1939-73

I. K. Shearer

1902-38

Dr. A.J. Mackenzie

1 940-68

C. W. Coupland

1904-29

M. W. McHugh

1940-74

K. E. G. Chambers

1906-10, 1939-60 J. N. B. Colley

1 941-71

W. H. Ruffell

1910-35

Miss M.Joy

1943-

R. B. Howard

1912-41

F. N. Hollingshead

1944-71

H. Atack

1 9 1 4—6 1

F.J. Mallett

1945-75

J. D. MacDonald

I9I6-59

H. E. Elliott

1945-

Miss S. Owen

1917-66

H. E. Orr

1946-78

F. C. Brennan

1920-45

O. Classey

1946-

J. L. Coulton

1920-48

S. Foote

1946-76

C. W. Gallimore

1923-66

T. Gibson

1947-72

J. W. Linn

1925-65

S. A. Harris

1947-

Dr. V. T. Mould

400

APPENDICES

Honorary

H. A. D. Roberts

I95I-

J. A. Gilham

1948-

M. K. Greatrex

1954-79

W. H. Pollard

1948-78

E.J. Weeks

1954-

J. N. Symons

1949-

Miss B. Y. Eckhardt

1954-

F. Phair

401

APPENDIX SIX

Head Boys

1830-33

Scadding, Henry

1858 Loudon, J.

1834

Ruttan, W.

1859 JessupJ. G.

1835

Fitzgerald, W.J.

1 860 Tyner, A. C.

1836

Ewart, I.

1 86 1 Paterson, J. A.

1837

Hurd, E.

1862 Bell, C. W.

1838

Ewart, J.

1863 Connon, C. H.

1839

HelliwellJ.

1864 Cassels, Alan

1840

Boulton, H.J.

1865 Ryrie, D.

1 84 1

Crookshank, G.

1 866 Armstrong, W.

1842

Bethune, N.

1867 Dale, W.

1843

Wedd, William

1868 Fletcher, J.

1844

Cousens, C. S.

1869 Wallace, F. H.

1845

Hudspeth, T.

1870 Bruce, J., aeq.

1846

Crooks, A.

1870 Cameron, J. C, a

1847

Palmer, G.

1 87 1 Elliott, J. W.

1848

Grier, J. G.

1872 Biggar, W. H.

1849

HuggardJ. T.

1873 Bowes, E. A.

1850

Blake, D. E.

1874 Northrup, W. P.

1851

Rykert, A. E.

1875 Davis, A. G.

1852

Walker, N.

1876 Sutherland, A.

1853

O'Brien, D.

1877 Ponton, A. D.

1854

Moss, T.

1878 Davis, E. P.

1855

Jones, W.

1879 Langton, H. H.

1856

Bethune, C.J. S.

1880 McKenzie, W. P

1857

Henderson, Elmes

1 88 1 Walker, W. H.

aeq.

402

APPENDICES

1882 Young, A. H.

1917

Thomson, W. M.

1883 Smith, A. G.

1918

Stowe, H.J.

1884 Jones, J. E.

1919

Bardens, F. C.

1885 Biggar, G.C.

1920

Mcllwraith, A. K.

1886 Macdonald, A. A.

1921

Gibbon, M. F.

1887 Leacock, S. B.

1922

Auden, M. F.

1888 Crocker, H. G.

1923

Graburn, A. L.

1889 MacDonnell, G. F.

1924

Plumptre, A. F. W.

1890 Moss, C. A.

1925

Burton, F. W.

1 89 1 Hilliar,T. H.

1926

Burton, F. W.

1892 Franchot, K.

1927

Henderson, E. M.

1893 Sandwell, B. K.

1928

Griffith, D. L.

1894 Bolton, S. E.

1929

Griffith, D. L.

1895 Henderson, V. E.

1930

Lawrence, G. M.

1896 Coyne, J. B.

1931

Romeyn, J. A.

1897 Aylesworth, A. F.

1932

Smith, A. C.

1898 Roaf, H. E.

1933

Smith, W. C.

1899 Darling, H. M.

1934

Bruce, D. I. W., aeq.

1900 Creelman, J. J.

1934

Campbell, A. G., aeq

1 90 1 Henderson, E. M.

1935

Goulding, W. S.

1902 Harrison, F. C.

1936 Daly, T. C.

1903 Fletcher, K. G.

1937

Christie, P. A.

1904 Wright, C. S.

1938

Baldwin, R. W.

1905 Gordon, K. K.

1939

Baldwin, R. W.

1906 Stairs, D.

1940

Soanes, S. V.

1907 Beatty, P. W.

I94i

Corbett, D. C.

1908 Benjamin, J. A.

1942

Stanley, J. P.

1909 Keys, D. A.

1943

Heap, D.J. M.

19 10 Keys, D. A.

1944

Kilbourn, W. M.

191 1 Grant, J. W.

1945

Stanley, D. C. H.

191 2 Gibson, R. B.

1946

Macklem, M. K.

191 3 Biggar, W. H.

1947

Stephenson, H. E.

1 9 14 Peterson, J. A. S.

1948

Trotter, H. E.

1915 Miller, B. H.

1949

Andison, D.

1916 Kinney, A. M.

1950

Yeigh, L. E.

403

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

1 95 1 Wickett, T. H.

1952 Kirkwood, J. M. M.

1953 Noxon, A. B.

1954 Clarkson, S. H. E.

1955 Ross, J.N.

1956 Gladney, H. M.

1957 Kerslake, L. C.

1958 Wallace, M. B.

1959 Young, C. E.
i960 Fitch, W.

1 96 1 McLeod, J. C.

1962 Arthur, J. G.

1963 Wilkins, J. A.

1964 Gallimore, I. C. G.

1965 Thorp, J. W.

1966 Bradshaw, M. A.

1967 Turnbull, C.J. M.

1968 Oxley, P. M.

1969 Lace, R. D.

1970 Thompson, D. A.

1 97 1 Wood, M.J. B.

1972 Sinclair, A. N.

1973 Knight, D. A., aeq.

1973 Wang, J. K. T., aeq.

1974 Coneybeare, J. J. C.

1975 Stephens, N. D.

1976 Kuo, P. T. C.

1977 LegaultJ. R. F.

1978 Cloutier, J. F.

1979 Endicott, T. A. O.

404

APPENDIX SEVEN

Editors of The CollegeTImes

1857-59

John Ross Robertson

[903-06

Mr. E. F. Crowdy

1871

L. Harstone

[906-09

Board of Stewards

W. A. Langton

[909

D. A. Keys

1872

W. A. Langton

[910

R. B. Gibson

1873

E. B. Brown

[911

R. B. Gibson

W. N. Ponton

[912

W. H. Biggar

1882

T. C. S. Macklem

[913

G. C. Aykroyd

1882-83

A. W. McDougald

[914

B. H. Miller

1886

S. B. Leacock

1915

A. M. B. Kinney

F.J. Davidson

[916

E. C. Shurly

1888

G. F. Macdonnell

t9i7

G. de T. Glazebrook

K. D. W. MacMillan

[918

A. F. Taylor

1889

C. A. Moss

[919

A. K. Mcllwraith

H. P. Biggar

[920

G. S. Maclean

1890

T. H. Hilliar

[921

W. C. Innes

J. H. Flintoft

B. W. Doherty

1891

R. Franchot

[922

A. F. W. Plumptre

W. W. Edgar

[923

R. W. Hill

1892

B. K. Sandwell

E.J.Smith

W. P. Moss

[924

J. H. Biggar

1893

C. H. Bradburn

[925

R. H. Lindsay

Mr. A. A. Macdonald

[926

R. H. Lindsay

I 894- I 900

Mr. A. A. Macdonald

[927

S. B. E. Ryerson

1900

Mr. W. A. R. Kerr

[928

J. W. Graham

1 901

Mr. A. W. Playfair

[929

D. S. Holmested

1902

Mr. E. McC. Sait

t930

J. A. Romeyn

405

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

1931

Robertson Davies

1956

J. F. Hutchinson

1932

G. H. Robertson

1957

D. D. Lister

1933

A. G. Campbell

1958

D. H. McMurtry

1934

J. S. Boeckh

1959

W. G. Ross

1935

J. S. Boeckh

i960

J. A. D. Stuart

1936

P. L. P. Macdonnell

1 961

D. R. A. Marshall

1937

J. E. D. Stuart

1962

G. D. Leveaux

1938

D. G. Watson

D. K. Jeanneret

1939

R. W. L. Laidlaw

1963

J. W. Bosley

1940

I. M. Owen

1964

M. G. IgnatiefT

1941

P. R. Arthur

1965

G. A. Pargeter

1942

E. A. McCulloch

1966

D. L. Macbeth

1943

J. B. Lawson

J. W. Smith

1944

D. S. G. Adam

1967

D. Kassner

1945

M. K. Macklem

1968

M. H. Webb

1946

J. A. Norman

1969

D. G. Flood

1947

H. W. Rowan

1970

B. G. Batler

1948

C. S. Stevenson

J. H. Gibbons

1949

J. W. Wiegand

I97i

G. F. Davies

1950

A. W. Plumstead

1972

A. E. S. Thompson

1951

J. R. Longstaffe

1973

J. L. Mitchell

H. B. M. Best

1974

R. W. Bell

1952

J. R. F. Bower

1975

A. C. Elliott

W. M. Franks

1976

J. C. Kofman

1953

A. B. Noxon

1977

B. R. Burrows

1954

S. H. E. Clarkson

1978

N. C. Voudouris

1955

D. R. Martyn

1979

B. W7. Muncaster

406

APPENDIX EIGHT

). Herbert Mason Medal Winners

IN THE LATE EIGHTIES, a College tradition began that, though
changed somewhat over the years, has continued to the present. John
Herbert Mason, a Toronto businessman who had founded the Can-
ada Permanent Loan and Savings Company, visited England in 1887
with his son Fred, an Old Boy. While there they visited HMS Worcester,
an old wooden warship moored in the Thames which served as a train-
ing college for merchant navy officers. On the visit they learned of a
gold medal presented each year by Queen Victoria to an outstanding
cadet. Both Mr. Mason and Fred thought such a medal might be a
good scheme at UCG. Fred died of tuberculosis the next spring, and Mr.
Mason presented the College with one thousand dollars to endow a gold
and a silver medal, the J. Herbert Mason medals, in honour of Fred
and his brother Herbert D. The criteria for the awards were the same as
those for the Queen's medal: cheerful submission to authority; self-re-
spect and independence of character; readiness to forgive offence; desire
to conciliate the differences of others; and (above all) moral courage
and unflinching truthfulness.

In the twenties the medals came under fire from the boys and also
from the masters, who wanted them discontinued. Because too much
importance was attached to them, they made boys self-conscious. Grant
courageously recommended their discontinuance, but the governors
rejected the suggestion. Instead the number of nominees, formerly lim-
ited to six, was expanded so that there was no limit. The rule about
striking off one name at a time was changed; the master in charge
struck off those he thought had no chance.

407

UPPER CANADA COLLE(.l

In 1932, and again in 1933, The College Times launched a spirited
attack on the medals. The qualifications, said the magazine, "reminis-
cent of. . . a mid-Victorian school story," were incomplete — intelligence
was omitted. Submission to authority carried to excess was a fault (con-
sider Luther, Dante, Galileo). What about independence of character?
The 1932 editor, Robertson Davies, went on to question whether
schoolboys had the sort of discrimination required to weigh these vir-
tues; judging between one character and another should be left to God.
The next summer The College Times urged that the conditions be radi-
cally amended or the medals abolished because they had outlived their
usefulness. Mason's son, D. H. C. Mason, queried the articles, and
Grant promised to see to what extent they represented the views of the
whole College. Possibly as a result of this controversy, the gold and sil-
ver medals became of equal value. In the seventies Sadleir softened the
wording of the medals' criteria, increased the slate, and changed the
voting procedures so that the election no longer carries the emotional
charge it once did.

J. HERBERT MASON MEDAL WINNERS

Gold Silver

1888

G. Clayes

1889

G. F. Macdonnell

A. E. Hoskin

1890

H. P. Biggar

E. C. P. Clark

1891

J. L. Counsell

A. F. Barr

1892

W. H. Hargraft

A. R. Robertson

1893

F.J. McLennan

D.J. Rayside

1894

F. W. McLennan

A. Angus Macdonald

1895

R. S. Waldie

M. C. Cameron

1896

R. H. Parmenter

E. P. Brown

1897

W. C. Petherbridge

C. W. Darling

1898

C. W. Darling

J. A. S. Graham

408

APPENDICES

Gold

Silver

1899

E. N. Martin

H. F. Lownsbrough

1900

E. Boyd

M. B. Bonnell

1901

R. H. Britton

H. E. Beatty

1902

H.J. E. Keys

J. F. Lash

1903

J. L. Pattinson

A. M. Boyd

1904

O. A. Arton

W. Dobson

1905

W. Dobson

G. R. Davis

1906

G. R. Davis

J. D. Woods

1907

G. E. Saunders

P. W. Beatty

1908

D. M. Goldie

J. V. Young

1909

H. M. Dawson

G G. Carruthers

1910

J. R. Woods

A. W. Sime

1911

M. A. Clarkson

C. D. B. Palmer

1912

G. G. Garvey

E. N. Gunsaulus
V. A. MacLean

1913

P. H. DeGruchy

C. M. Chandler

1914

A. M. Inglis

G. C. Aykroyd

1915

C. G. M. Grier

C. N. A. Ireson

1916

T. G. Drew- Brook

E. W. Francis

1917

L. B. Hardaker

E. C. Shurly

1918

C. W. Sime

W. R. Mitchell

1919

T. L. Cross

H. H. Hyland

1920

E. S. Davis

J. W. Brathwaite

1921

P. H. Greey

F. G. Shurly

1922

F. G. Shurly

G. D. Lewis

1923

G. T. Meech

C. M. King

1924

R. W. Hill

A. C. Logie

1925

C. A. Seagram

G. M. Wilton

1926

G. M. Wilton

J. H. Biggar

1927

A. B. Matthews

S. Benavides

1928

D. E. McQuigge

D. M. Dewar

1929

J. I. Stewart

J. W. Magladery

1930

W. D. S. Morden

T. A. Schnauffer

1931

J. V. Cressy

J. S. Woods

1932

F. N. Smith

E. D. Fraser

1933

J. R. Denny

D. C. Dellis

409

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

Gold

Silver

1934

D. W. Ross

J. R. P. Gampbell

1935

J. D. Woods

W. D. Cox

1936

J. A. Simpson

W. G. Harvey

1937

J. R. Woods

D. F. Lind

1938

D. W. Grant

J. C. Carpenter

1939

J. A. Whittingham

W. W. Drinkwater

1940

N. A. Urquhart

J. H. Devlin

1941

J. B. Aird

H. M. Little

1942

D. G. Herron

A. K. Stuart

1943

H. R. Lawson

G. W. Jamieson

1944

M. P. Murphy

P. C. Bremner

1945

E. G. Beatty

R. R. Horkins

1946

D. A. Barr

G. I. Pringle

1947

D. B. Gossage

T. H. Crerar

1948

D. S. Kent

J. G. Sladen

1949

J. W. Linklater

J. E. Fletcher

1950

R. C. W. Logie

L. E. Yeigh

1951

R. W. Binnie

P. H. Warren

1952

McG. Leishman

R. M. Standing

1953

P. S. Lindsay

W. E. Davison

1954

W. Webb

G. A. Maclnnes

1955

G. A. Lewis

J. R. Elder

1956

J. B. Maclnnes

A. S. Hutchison

1957

W. M. McWhinney

E. A. Barton

1958

C. A. Pielsticker

J. W. Medland

1959

T. W. Sargeant

N. T. Norris

i960

S. B. MacMurray

W. G. Ross

1961

F. W. Thornton

J. A. D. Stuart

1962

B. W. Ritter

P. J. Brennan

1963

R. H. Hyland

L. L. Howden

1964

F.J. S.Hall

J. A. McCabe

1965

T. S. Wilson

L. H. Black

1966

M. H. Biggs

B. M. Doherty

1967

D. W. Reid

H. A. Fisher

1968

J. C. Harvey

R. L. McCabe

1969

J. A. Heintzman

A.J. Hunter

410

APPENDICES

Gold

Silver

1970

S. W. Lang

R. G. N. Wright

1971

C. E. B. Taylor

D. J. Hadden

1972

R. G. Meech

R. M. Abraham

1973

J. N. Yamada

A. K. Harvie

1974

D. C. Barrett

I. C. McCluskey

1975

C. R. Carter

D. A. Grean

1976

G. B. Hendrie

G. P. Meredith

1977

P. S. MacGowan

G. L. R. Ranking
R.J. C. Stodgell

1978

I. R. E. Beverley

R. D. Galvin

1979

T. G. Leishman

T. A. O. Endicott

41 1

APPENDIX NINE

Commanding Officers
of the Cadets

1893 Cap

1894 Cap

1895 Cap

1896 Cap

1897

1898 Lieu

1 899 Lieu

1 900 Lieu

1 90 1 Lieu

1902 Lieu

1903 Lieu

1904 Lieu

1905 Lieu

1906 Lieu

1907 Cap

1908 Cap

1909 Cap

1910 Cap

191 1 Cap

1912 Cap

1913 Cap

1914 Cap

1915 Cap

1916 Cap

1917 Cap

1918 Cap

F. F. Hunter

I9I9

Capt. J. Y. W. Brathwaite

H. F. Gooderham

1920

Capt. B. A. Mulqueen

W. O. Watson

1921

Capt. F. G. Shurly

H. R. Roaf

1922

Capt. C. M. King

1923

Capt. R. C. Clarkson

J. D. Cochrane

1924

Capt. A. C. Logie

T. M. Dunn

1925

Capt. J. A. D. Craig

H. M. Peacock

1926

Capt. A. B. Matthews

W. P. Unsworth

1927

Capt. J. G. Macdonnel

E. R. Kirkpatrick

1928

Capt. F. L. Shipp

R. Britton

1929

Capt. P. J. F. Baker

N. R. Gooderham

1930

Capt. T. A. Schnaufer

A. Gilmour

1931

Capt. D. F. B. Corbett

C. S. Morse

1932

Capt. S. C. Wellington

F.J. Mulqueen

1933

Capt. J. N. Gordon

H. M. Dawson

1934

Capt. G. L. Symmes

W. E. Saunders

1935

Capt.J. M. Gifford

T. R. Manning

1936

Capt. J. E. Bone

V. A. Maclean

1937

Capt. J. C. Carpenter

F. M.Jones

1938

Capt. N. W. Gooderham

S. B. Pepler

1939

Capt.J. B. Lawson

C. N. A. Ireson

1940

Lt.-Col. D. H. Simpson

H. W. Vacher

1941

Lt.-Col. D. G. M. Herron

H. B. Tarbox

1942

Lt.-Col. W.J. Parry

C. W. Sime

Lt.-Col. H. R. Lawson

H. H. Hyland

1943

Lt.-Col. E. D. G. Farncomb

412

APPENDICES

1944

Lt.-Col. P. C. Bremner

i960

Lt.-Col. F. W. Thornton

1945

Lt.-Col. H. P. Wright

1961

Lt.-Col. P. J. Brennan

1946

Lt.-Col. W. A. Leckie

1962

Lt.-Col. D. I. Cameron

1947

Lt.-Col. A. C. Whealy

1963

Lt.-Col. J. A. McCabe

1948

Lt.-Col. J. W. Linklater

1964

Lt.-Col. R. F. G. Walsh

1949

Lt.-Col. W. R. Campbell

1965

Lt.-Col. J. H.Schneider

1950

Lt.-Col. R. W. H. Binnie

1966

Lt.-Col. N. R. Frost

i95i

Lt.-Col. A. L. McBain

1967

Lt.-Col. R. L. McCabe

1952

Lt.-Col. P. S. Lindsay

1968

Lt.-Col. C. A. Armstrong

1953

Lt.-Col. R. I. Cartwright

1969

Lt.-Col. F. S. Lazier

1954

Lt.-Col. B. A. Bartels

1970

Lt.-Col. C. E. B. Taylor

1955

Lt.-Col. A. S. Hutchison

I97i

Lt.-Col. J. B. Dalton

1956

Lt.-Col. T. G. Bastedo

1972

Lt.-Col. A. K. Harvie

1957

Lt.-Col. B. C. Matthews

1973

Lt.-Col. J. L. Boeckh

1958

Lt.-Col. W. G. Pedoe

1974

Lt.-Col. P. C. Neal

1959

Lt.-Col. D. H. Walton-Ball

413

APPENDIX TEN

Head Stewards

1954

I. M. Gray

1968

W. C. Sharpstone

1955

J.J. L.White

1969

A.J. Hunter

1956

J. B. Maclnnis

1970

J. W. H. Cranford

1957

E. D. Scott

I97i

P. G. Findlay

1958

J. O. Essaye

1972

J. H. Gibbons

1959

G. C. Magee

1973

R. R. Oss

i960

T. M. Allen

1974

I. G. McCluskey

1961

E. M. Squires

1975

D. A. Crean

1962

P.J. Brennan

1976

G. P. Meredith

1963

R. H. Hyland

1977

R. J. C. Stodgell

1964

F.J. S.Hall

1978

I. R. E. Beverley

1965

T. S. Wilson

1979

T. G. Leishman

1966

R. W. Brooks-Hill

1980

R. G. Willoughby

1967

D. W. Reid

414

APPENDIX ELEVEN

Head Prefects' Trophy Winners

1940

Wedd's

1961

Seaton's

1941

Jackson's

1962

Howard's

1942

Seaton's

1963

Mowbray's

1943

Wedd's

1964

Howard's

1944

Jackson's

1965

McHugh's

1945

Martland's

1966

Seaton's

1946

Martland's

1967

Howard's

1947

Wedd's

1968

Scadding's

1948

Wedd's

1969

Howard's

1949

Wedd's

1970

Howard's tie

1950

Martland's

Seaton's tie

1951

Mowbray's

1971

Scadding's

1952

McHugh's

1972

Seaton's

1953

McHugh's

1973

Seaton's

1954

Seaton's

1974

Jackson's

1955

Wedd's

1975

Howard's

1956

Wedd's

1776

McHugh's

1957

McHugh's

1977

Martland's

1958

Seaton's

1978

Seaton's

1959

Seaton's

1979

Orr's

i960

Seaton's

415

Selected Bibliography

ABBREVIATIONS

BUA Bishop's University Archives (Lennoxville, Quebec)

CO Colonial Office

dhe Documentary History of Education

kcc King's College Council

MTLB Metropolitan Toronto Library Board

ohs Ontario Historical Society

PAC Public Archives of Canada

PAO Public Archives of Ontario

QUA Queen's University Archives (Kingston, Ontario)

UCCA Upper Canada College Archives

UTA University of Toronto Archives

I. PRIMARY SOURCES
A. Non-book sources:

BUA —

MacDermot Papers

Legislative Library —

Upper Canada College Sessional Papers 1 868-99

Upper Canada College Pamphlets

417

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

MTLB —

Baldwin Papers

J. G. Howard Diaries

T. A. Reed Scrapbooks

Scadding Diaries

Larratt Smith Diaries

PAC —

Denison Papers

W. L. Grant Papers

Leacock Papers

Parkin Papers

Willison Papers

Record Group i E, State Records of the Executive Council

Record Group 5 A, Civil Secretary's Correspondence

Record Group 5 B, Miscellaneous Records

Record Group 5 c, Provincial Secretary's Correspondence

Colonial Office Series 42

PAO —

J. C. Bailey Papers

Blake Papers

Boulton Letters, Women's Canadian Historial Society, Vol. i<

Gzowski Papers

Hodgins Papers

Howard Papers

Jarvis-Powell Papers

Kingsford Scrapbooks

Langton Papers

Macaulay Papers

Merritt Papers

Strachan Letter Books

Strachan Papers

Record Group 2 Ministry of Education

Record Group 3 Premier's Papers

QUA—

Peacock Papers

418

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

UCCA —

The documents in the Upper Canada College Archives are so
numerous and scattered that they cannot be listed in an
orderly fashion. Of special significance, however, are the
complete run of The College Times and the Harris Papers.

UTA —

Office of the Secretary of the Board of Governors. Minutes.

A73-0015/001
King's College Council. Board of Governors. Letter Books.

A70-0024/001 (01) (02)
Office of the Chief Accountant. A68-0010/316
Senate. Statutes. A70-ooo5/ooi(o3)
Upper Canada College. A76-0002 and A74-0018
UCC Council. Board of Governors. Minute Book. 1850-53.

A70-0024/058

B. Printed Sources:

COCKBURN, G. R. R. Statement to the Committee of the Legislature on
Education. Hunter, Rose, 1869.

CRUIKSHANK, E. A., ed. The Correspondence of Lieut. Governor John
Graves Simcoe. Ontario Historical Society, 1923.

FAIRLEY, MARGARET. The Selected Writings of William Lyon
Mackenzie. Oxford University Press, i960.

Final Report of the Commissioners of Inquiry into the Affairs of King's
College University and Upper Canada College. Rollo Campbell,
1852.

GODLEY, J. R. Letters from America. John Murray, 1844.

HARRIS, REV. J. H. Observations on Upper Canada College. R. Stan-
ton, 1836.

HODGINS, J. G. Toronto University Question, Vols. 1-16. Unpub-
lished.

MAGRATH, T. W. Authentic Letters from Upper Canada. Curry, Dub-
lin, 1833.

MCCAUL, JOHN. The University Question Considered. H. & W.
Rowsell, 1845.

O'BRIAN, M. S. The Journals of Mary O'Bnan 1828-38. Edited by
A. S. Miller. Macmillan, 1968.

419

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

Ontario Grammar School Masters' Association. The U. C.
College Question. "True Banner" Power Press, 1868.

Proceedings had in the Legislature of Upper Canada during the years
1 83 1, 1832, and 1833. Desbarats & Derbishire, Montreal,
1845.

SYLVESTER, ALFRED. Sketches of Toronto. Holliwell, Toronto,
1858.

URE, G. P. The Hand-Book of Toronto. Lovell and Gibson, Toron-
to, 1858.

C. Newspapers:

Albion

The Church

Colonial Advocate

Mail and Empire

Newspaper Hansard (microfilm — newspaper extracts of Ontario

legislative debates)
St. Catharines Standard
Saturday Night
Telegram (Toronto)
Toronto Daily Star
Toronto Globe
Toronto News
Toronto World
Upper Canada Gazette
The Varsity
Weekly Sun

2. SECONDARY SOURCES

A. Books and Monographs:

ATWOOD, MARGARET. Days of the Rebels. Natural Science of

Canada, Toronto, 1977.
BAMFORD, T. w. Rise of the Public Schools. Nelson, 1967.

420

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

BELL, w. N. The Development of the Ontario High School. University

of Toronto Press, 191 8.
BERGER, CARL. The Sense of Power. University of Toronto

Press, 1970.
,ed. Imperialism and Nationalism 1884-1914: A Conflict in

Canadian Thought. Copp Clark, 1969.
BOORMAN, SYLVIA. John Toronto. Clarke Irwin, 1969.
COLEMAN, H. T. J. Public Education in Upper Canada. New

York, 1907.
CRAIG, G. M. Discontent in Upper Canada. Copp Clark, 1974.
. Upper Canada: The Formative Years. McClelland &

Stewart, 1963.
DAVIES, ROBERTSON. Stephen Leacock. McClelland & Stewart,

1970.
dendy, WILLIAM. Lost Toronto. Oxford University Press, 1978.
DICKSON, G., and ADAM, G. M. A History of Upper Canada College.

Rowsell and Hutchison, 1893.
FILLMORE, STANLEY. The Pleasure of the Came. Toronto

Cricket, Skating, and Curling Club, 1977.
firth, E. G. The Town of York. University of Toronto Press,

1966.
GLAZEBROOK, G. P. DE T. Life in Ontario. University of Toronto

Press, 1968.
GOSSAGE, CAROLYN. A Question of Privilege: Canada's Indepen-
dent Schools. P. Martin Associates, 1977.
HARRIS, ROBIN s. Quiet Evolution. University of Toronto Press,

1967.
HODGINS, J. G. Documentary History of Education in Upper

Canada (Ontario). Vols. 1-28. L. K. Cameron, 1906.
. Historical and Other Papers and Documents. Vol. 1. L. K.

Cameron, 191 1.

Schools and Colleges of Ontario, iyg2-igw. L. K.

Cameron, 191 o.
inglis, BRIAN, ed.John Bull's School Days. Hutchinson, 1961.

421

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

KILBOURN, WILLIAM. The Firebrand. Clarke Irwin, 1956.

king, j. McCaul, Croft, Fornen. Macmillan, 19 14.

LAWR. D. A., and GIDNEY, R. D., eds. Educating Canadians: A Doc-
umentary History of Public Education. Van Nostrand Rein-
hold, 1973.

leacock, STEPHEN. The Boy I Left Behind Me. The Bodley
Head, London, 1947.

. Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town. McClelland &

Stewart, 191 2.

LEGATE, DAVID M. Stephen Leacock. Doubleday Canada, 1970.

MCLACHLAN, JAMES. American Boarding Schools. Charles
Scribner's, 1970.

MC NAB, G. G. The Development of Higher Education in Ontario.
Ryerson Press, 1925.

OGILVIE, VIVIAN. The English Public School. B. T. Batsford,

1957-
PARKIN, GEORGE R. The Great Dominion. Macmillan, 1895.
POULTON, RON. The Paper Tyrant. Clarke Irwin, 1971.
ROBERTSON, J. R. Landmarks of Toronto. Vols. 1-6. J. R.

Robertson, Toronto, 1894-1914.
. Old Toronto. Edited by E. C. Kyte. Macmillan,

1954-
ROSS, G. W. Getting into Parliament and After. Wm. Briggs, 191 3.
ROSS, SIR G. w. Speeches delivered in the Legislature, April 21, 20,

1887. Toronto, 1887.
ROTHBLATT, SHELDON. The Revolution of the Dons. Faber and

Faber, 1968.
SAMUEL, SIGMUND. In Return: The Autobiography of Sigmund

Samuel. University of Toronto Press, 1963.
scadding, HENRY. Toronto of Old. Edited by F. H. Arm-
strong, Oxford University Press, 1966.
SCHULL, J. J. Edward Blake. 2 vols. Macmillan of Canada,

1975 and 1976.
SIMON, BRIAN. Studies in the History of Education, 1780- 1870.

Laurence & Wishart, i960.

422

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

SISSONS, c. B. Egerton Ryerson, His Life and Times. Clarke Irwin,
1937. Oxford University Press, 1937.

SMITH, G. C. MOORE. The Life of John Colborne, Field Marshal
Lord Seaton. John Murray, 1903.

SOWBY, C. w. A Family Writ Large. Longman, 1971.

SWAN, CONRAD. Canada: Symbols of Sovereignty. University of
Toronto Press, 1977.

Toronto Scrapbook.

trevelyan, G. M. British History in the Nineteenth Century,
1782-igoi. Longman Green, 1925.

The University of Toronto and Its Colleges, 1827- igo6. The Librar-
ian. The University Library, 1906.

WALLACE, ELISABETH. Goldwin Smith, Victorian Liberal. Uni-
versity of Toronto Press, 1927.

WALLACE, w. s. A History of the University of Toronto, 1827- ig2 7.
University of Toronto Press, 1927.

willison, SIR JOHN. Sir George Parkin. Macmillan, 1929.

YOUNG, A. H., ed. The Roll of Pupils of Upper Canada College
Toronto, January 1830 to June igi6. Hanson, Crozier and
Edgar, Kingston, 191 7.

WILSON, J. D., ARMSTRONG, F. H., and STEVENSON, H. A.,
eds. Aspects of igth- Century Ontario. University of Toronto
Press, 1974.

WILSON, J. D., stamp, R. M., and audet, L-R, eds. Canadian
Education: A History. Prentice-Hall, Toronto, 1970.

B. Articles:

COOK, TERRY G. "George R. Parkin and the Concept of Bri-
tannic Idealism". Journal of Canadian Studies. Vol. 10, no. 3
(August 1975).

GIDNEY, J. D. "Centralization in Ontario Education". Journal of
Canadian Studies. Vol. 7, no. 4 (November 1972).

. "Elementary Education in Upper Canada: A

Reassessment". Ontario History. Vol. 65, no. 3 (Septem-
ber 1973).

. "The Rev. Robert Murray: Ontario's First

Superintendent of Schools". Ontario History. Vol. 63, no. 4
(December 1971).

423

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

. "Upper Canadian Public Opinion and Com-
mon School Improvement in the 1830's". Histoire Sociale/
Social. Vol. 5, no. 9 (April 1972), pp. 48-60.

Houston, susan E. "Politics, Schools and Social Change in
Upper Canada". Canadian Historical Review. Vol. 53,
no. 3 (September 1972).

page, R. J. D. "Carl Berger and the Intellectual Origins of
Canadian Imperialist Thought, 1867-19 14". Journal of
Canadian Studies. Vol. 5, no. 3 (August 1970).

purdy, J. D. "John Strachan's Educational Policies".
Ontario History. Vol. 54 (1972), pp. 45-64.

SPRAGGE, G. w. "Elementary Education in Upper Can-
ada, 1820-40". Ontario History. Vol. 43 (1952).

C. Dissertations and Research Papers:

cook, terry G. "Apostle of Empire". Unpublished PHD

Thesis. Queen's University, 1977.
SMITH, isobel. "Upper Canada College: The First Decade".

Unpublished research paper. York University, 1975.

D. Other sources:

Barron Family Papers (in possession of Mr. Christopher Bar-
ron).

Watson Family Papers — Beverley Jones diary (in possession of
Mrs. Alan Watson).

PAO

Public Archives Canada — Annual Report 1935.

Public Archives Canada — State Papers uc Q Series. Anno-
tated copy.

University of Toronto — Pamphlets.

Upper Canada College — Pamphlets.

The Bystander, Vol. I (January-June 1881), pp. 14-16.

Canadian Magazine: Vol. 1, no. 6 (August 1893), pp. 451-59;
Vol. 7, no. 5 (September 1896), pp. 477-79; Vol. 54, no. 5

424

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

(March 1920), pp. 407-16; Vol. 56, no. 2 (December
1920), pp. 170-72.

Correspondence with Old Boys is in the possession of the au-
thor.

425

Notes

CHAPTER I— SETTING 179I-1828

A clear, concise account of the educational scene in the province of
Upper Canada prior to the founding of Upper Canada College can be
found in Canadian Education: A History, edited by J. D. Wilson, R. M.
Stamp, and L-P. Audet. J. D. Wilson's excellent "Education in Upper
Canada: Sixty Years of Change" (Chapter 10) was especially valuable.
In writing this chapter, I have incorporated considerable material from
this source.

Also of value was J. D. Purdy, John Strachan's Educational Policies. J. G.
Hodgins, Documentary History of Education, Vols. 1 and 3, and George
Dickson and G. Mercer Adam, History of Upper Canada College,
i82g-i8g2 (hereafter Dickson and Adam) have material germane to
this period.

1 The Correspondence of Lieut. Governor John Graves Simcoe, Vol. I, p. 143.
Simcoe to Colonial Secretary of State Dundas, April 1792.

2 Despatch of the Duke of Portland, The Colonial Secretary, to the
Legislature, November 4, 1797. Cited in DHE, Vol. 1, p. 18.

CHAPTER 2— BEGINNINGS 1 828-38

i The year 1942 saw the inception of the Founder's Day Dinner, now

an annual event, to celebrate Colborne's birthday.
2 Colborne to the KCC. Cited in DHE, Vol. 3, p. 24.

426

NOTES

3 Colborne's "instructions" were not really instructions at all. The
colonial secretary, Sir George Murray, had written Colborne a
memorandum prior to his embarkation for Canada explaining the
delicate King's College situation. The memorandum stated that the
House of Assembly was unhappy about the Anglican and exclusive
flavour of the charter; a new one was desired. The British govern-
ment regretted not pleasing those it desired to please and accepted
the fact that the Assembly expressed the prevailing opinion. The
message suggested that the Legislative Council and House of Assem-
bly resume their consideration of the question. These "instructions"
effectively put the solution in Colborne's hands because the Council
and the Assembly could never agree.

4 The House of Assembly to Colborne, March 1829. Cited in DHE,
Vol. 1, p. 273.

5 Colborne to Vice-Chancellor Jones of Oxford. Cited in DHE, Vol. 1,
p. 286.

6 Enormous is a relative word. In England, Eton, Rugby, and Harrow
occupied a world remote from other schools. Arnold, for example,
got £4,000 a year, and housemasters £1,500. In other public schools,
£150 to £250 was considered quite enough for assistant masters right
up to 19 14. In Upper Canada, the College salaries were grand com-
pared to the grammar-school masters'.

7 The Old Blue School had had several sites: the south-east corner of
King and George; near the north-east corner of King and Yonge;
and, at this time, the middle of College Square. It had been painted
blue with white trim by John Strachan.

8 Final Report of the Commissioners of Inquiry into the Affairs of King's College
University and Upper Canada College, p. 339.

9 Colborne to Jones. Cited in DHE. Vol. 1, p. 287.

10 Dickson and Adam, p. 37.

1 1 In 1832 William Dunlop, in Statistical Sketches of Upper Canada, wrote,
"And these masters being chosen from Oxford and Cambridge, of
which universities they are graduates, for their talents, we may say
that the means of education are now as good in Canada as at any of
the great chartered schools of England. The only objection is that

427

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

the majority of the masters are Cantabs; whereas it would have
been more advisable had they been selected from the more orthodox
and gentlemanly university."

12 PAO, CO 42, Vol. 388, pp. 75-82, Colborne to R. W. Hay.

13 The year's calendar in 1830 differed from today's mainly regarding
the summer break. The winter term ended around March 10, and
was followed by a week's vacation. The spring term was followed
almost immediately by the summer term, which ended August 16. A
six-week summer vacation finished towards the end of September.
The autumn term then broke off before Christmas, leading into a
two-week holiday.

14 Albion, Vol. 8, no. 38, p. 303, February 27, 1830.

15 Upper Canada Gazette, April 22, 1830.

16 Colborne to the House of Assembly, Feb. 4, 1830. Cited in DHE, Vol.
1, p. 296.

17 William Lyon Mackenzie reckoned that between 1829 and 1835 the
Legislative Council threw out 154 bills sent to it by the House of
Assembly.

18 Dr. Harris, in explaining the part played by religion in the curricu-
lum said, "I would also remark on the occasional reading and com-
mitting to memory of the Scripture, that as the Scholars consist of
the children of Parents of every religious denomination, particular
care is taken to adhere strictly to the simple text without any com-
ment or explanation further than concerns its literal and grammati-
cal sense and in the Preparatory School, in consequence of a repre-
sentation made to me some time since, those scholars who are
Roman Catholic make use of the Douai version of the New Testa-
ment." Dickson and Adam, p. 56.

19 A lack of clear, concise wording was apparent in the 1798 land-
grant of 549,000 acres for education. The request had been for four
grammar schools and a university. The actual grant spoke of free
grammar schools and "other seminaries of a larger and more com-
prehensive nature." Nobody ever knew what was meant by this
description. It could certainly describe a university; it could just as
easily describe the institution Colborne later founded in York. UCC

428

NOTES

was a seminary, and it was certainly larger and more comprehen-
sive than the standard grammar school. Few people were convinced,
however, that it was what the Crown had had in mind, and it was
never forgotten that UCC's rich endowment came from the provin-
cial education grant.

20 The final College endowment consisted not of one township but of
lots scattered throughout more than forty townships. By exchanges
of land and re-surveys, the total area reached just over 64,000 acres,
the equivalent of one township.

21 Goderich, like Murray and others, did not like the name Colborne
had chosen. Indeed, many people still did not know what to call the
new school. Minor College was widely used.

22 PAO, PAC ig35 Report, p. 251, Goderich to Colborne.

23 UTA, Office of the Chief Accountant, UCC Council Minutes, June
19, 1830, A68-0010/316.

24 After ucc moved out, the old grammar-school building was closed
for a time. Some years later parents living in the eastern part of the
city, who found the College too far away, started a movement to
resuscitate the grammar school. In 1836, the Home District School
was again occupied under the headmastership of Charles Cosens.
This school was the forerunner of Jarvis Collegiate.

25 Scadding in Dickson and Adam, pp. 39-40.

26 Historically speaking in England, a Visitor could have some impor-
tance in the setting of policy. As time passed, the title became nomi-
nal. In Colborne's day, it implied the possibility of inspection or
supervision to remove abuses or irregularities.

27 Egerton Ryerson, quoted in DHE, Vol. 2, p. 7.

28 Colborne to Methodist Conference, ibid., p. 1 1.

29 Ryerson to Colborne, ibid., p. 12.

30 This and other quotes in this paragraph, PAO, CO 42, Vol. 395, p.
131, Feb. 23, 183 1.

31 Colonial Advocate, May 19, 1831. During the next twenty years Mac-
kenzie must have mellowed somewhat. In 1852 his sons William
and George joined the school "never intended for the people."

32 PAO, Macaulay Papers, Strachan to J. Macaulay, May 12, 1831.

429

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

33 The actual annual cost of the College's operation was high
— between £6,000 and £7,000. By 1839 the College had fallen
behind by over £30,000 in its accounts.

34 From the Third Report of the Select Committee on Education 1833. Cited in
DHE, Vol. 2, p. 106.

35 Mrs. Boulton to Boulton, pao, The Boulton Letters, Vol. 18, p. 47,
April 4, 1834.

36 PAO, CO 42, Vol. 419, pp. 317-22. Phillips to Colborne, June 16,
1834.

37 Seventh Report of Committee on Grievances, March 13, 1835. Cited in
DHE, Vol. 2, p. 188.

Thomas Radcliff, a half-pay officer, conservative, reasonably
well-to-do, and an Anglican, wrote home to his father about the
shortage of common-school teachers who were paid (when they were
paid at all) £2 per quarter per pupil, with a class of about twenty in
the winter and fewer in the summer when many stayed on the farm.
This was a shocking contrast to ucc, where the lowest salary was
£300, "a noble brick house," and boarders at £50 per annum. Rad-
cliff did not seem perturbed by the contrast. Authentic Letters from
Upper Canada, p. 205.

38 Glenelg to Head, Dec. 5, 1835. Cited in dhe, Vol. 2, p. 281.

39 Colborne went on to become Commander of the Forces putting
down the rebellion in Lower Canada. He became Lord Seaton in
1840 and died, full of honours, in 1863.

40 7, Wm. iv, 0 16.

41 Harris's first wife and elder child had died within six days of each
other in November 1833. His second wife was Lady Colborne's sis-
ter.

42 pao, The Boulton Letters, Vol. 18, p. 46, Boulton to Mrs. Boulton,
Nov. 30, 1833.

43 MTLB, Observations on Upper Canada College, p. 19.

44 The Church, Feb. 10, 1838.

45 The Church, Feb. 26, 1838.

430

NOTES
CHAPTER 3— SCHOOL LIFE UNDER HARRIS 1 828-38

The chief source for this chapter was Dickson and Adam, especially
Chapters 6 and 17, written by William Thomson and John Ross Rob-
ertson respectively. The Merritt journal quotations are from The College
Times, Easter 1897. Other Old Boys' reminiscences are scattered
throughout various College Times issues around the turn of the century.

1 On leaving UCC Kent declined the offer of bursarship of King's Col-
lege, a decision he doubtless never regretted. Instead, he became
editor of the High Anglican newspaper, The Church.

2 Charles Lindsey, The Life and Times of William Lyon Mackenzie, Vol. 1,
p. 40. Cited in W. Kilbourn, The Firebrand.

CHAPTER 4— GROWING PAINS 1 838- 1 86 1

i MTLB, Scadding diaries, Sept. 5, 1838. Scadding, while teaching at
UCC, was the first rector of the Church of the Holy Trinity. He
became canon at St. James' Cathedral, was president of the Cana-
dian Institute, and was one of the founders and first president of the
York Pioneers Society. After his retirement in 1862 he became a
prolific chronicler of early Toronto, writing Toronto of Old and over
seventy treatises on a variety of subjects. On two occasions, in 1856
and 1 86 1, he was acting-principal, having refused the principalship
the first time. In i960 his name was honoured when one of the new
day-boy houses was named Scadding's.

2 Ibid., Dec. 21, 1838.

3 Final Report of the Commissioners of Inquiry . . . , p. 360.

4 The 1 84 1 "Subjects of Examination," in addition to the standard
work, included Sophocles's Oedipus Rex; Horace's Ars Poetica; por-
tions of Plato and Longinus; plane trigonometry, logarithms, and
elementary conic sections; mechanics; natural philosophy (astron-
omy and optics; elementary); and logic.

43i

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

5 Charles Dickens, American Notes. Cited in The College Times, Summer
1910, p. 30.

6 The enrolment was in the habit of soaring and diving inexplicably.
Between the end of 1839 and the end of 1840 it dropped from 170 to
129. Between the end of 1841 and the end of 1842, it climbed from
129 to 168.

7 Letters from America,]. R. Godley, Vol. 1, pp. 194-97.

8 The original fees of £8 for day boys rose to £9 in 1837 and to £10 in
1850. From 1855 to i860 there was a period of instability when they
actually dropped. In i860 they stabilized at $40 (£10). The original
boarder fees of £25 rose to £30 in 1834, to £40 in 1850, and stabi-
lized at $180 (£45) in 1857.

9 Wells had been a half-pay army officer appointed to both the Legis-
lative and Executive councils. He had had no training in book-
keeping, and the accounts were in a shocking state. De la Haye
owed £400, G. A. Barber owed £1,539, Wells himself owed £215.
Arrears of land sales amounted to £6,000, arrears of dues totalled
£4,000 — over £13,000 was missing. John Strachan was one of a
number of friends to whom Wells had extended large unsecured
loans from the treasury. Several people had never even paid the first
instalment on their land purchases. As a result of these bizarre dis-
closures, Wells was dismissed.

10 UTA, Board of Governors, King's College Council. Letter Book.
March 16, 1840. A70-0024/092.0001-001 1.

1 1 The College Times, Easter 1901, p. 17.

12 Meredith became principal of McGill in 1846, and later served as a
high-ranking federal civil servant from 1867 to 1878.

1 3 This position was not, in fact, open. The College already had three
classical masters: Mathews, Barron, and Scadding. Mathews's
departure and Barron's elevation to principal allowed Ripley to fit
in.

14 Proceedings of KCC, Nov. 18, 1843. Cited in DHE, Vol. 4, p. 299.

15 Barron was a boxer, a fencer, an oarsman, "the best and most grace-
ful skater on the Bay of Toronto," a member of the Royal Canadian
Yacht Club, and a premier cricketer. In 1836 he played on the first

432

NOTES

UCC cricket team ever formed. (The quotation is in the Barron
Family Papers.)

1 6 The Church, Nov. i, 1849.

17 Between 1847 and 1854, 1,264 students attended the normal school.
Almost 60 per cent were Methodists or Presbyterians; less than 17
per cent were Church of England — a sharp contrast to the College
faculty!

18 Since King's had opened in 1843, UCC had fulfilled its role as feeder.
In the first year it supplied thirty-one out of thirty-four students.
Over a seven-year period, more than 65 per cent of King's matricu-
lated students and 1 7 per cent of its occasionals came from the Col-
lege. In total, 103 out of 282 students were from UCC. In 1848, UCC
boys took the top six Exhibitions at King's.

19 Final Report of the Commissioners of Inquiry, p. 3.

20 Ibid., p. 365. Some of Mr. De la Haye's Memorandum notes were
not without a grim humour:

Mr. Gifford 1831 Dead, not worth

a straw £6.11.8

Mrs. Hall 1831 What's her

Christian name? £52.1 1.5

Mrs. Hutcheson 1839-40 Not worth suing. £35.9.11

T. Morgan 1833 Don't know who or

where he is £10.16.0

21 MTLB, Baldwin Papers, Vol. 33, no. 41.

22 Ibid., no. 42.

23 Ibid., no. 50.

24 Seniors were allowed out three times a week until five. Juniors were
allowed out only on Saturdays. A written invitation could obtain a
Sunday leave.

25 UTA, Upper Canada College, Board of Governors, Minute Book,
1850-53. Feb. 24, 1 85 1. A70-0024/058.

26 Ibid.

27 Ibid., May 30, 1851.

28 The details of the Barron-Maynard scandal are all contained in
PAC, Provincial Secretary's Correspondence, 182 1 -6 J (RG.5.C.1.), Vol. 452.

433

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

Other information is in PAC, The Upper Canada Executive Council Min-
ute Books (rg.i.E.i.) See State Book O, p. 44 and in Provincial Secre-
tary's Office Letter Books 183J-6J (RG.5.C.2.), Vols. 30 and 32.

29 UTA, King's College Council, Minutes, July 1847, A70-0024.

30 The press reported the police-court evidence in great detail. The
Daily Leader wanted to know what was happening at UCC, which
was, after all, a public institution, endowed with public money. The
Globe wondered how Maynard had managed to stay at the College
for such a long time without being removed, and went on to criticize
the whole system of governing the College from Quebec. It was a
splendid opportunity to disparage everything about UCC.

31 Elmer, expelled in 1847, returned to testify against Maynard. May-
nard had taunted him with his blacksmith origins and later struck
at his head and face. Elmer had caught the blow on his arm and
seized Maynard by the throat, but Maynard 's black satin cravat
had slipped through Elmer's hands. Maynard had then hit Elmer
three times, Elmer replying with a blow from his slate. Elmer felt no
hatred, only contempt.

32 Hearing about the writing of this history, Maynard's great-grand-
daughter, Nancy (Thorne) Murray of Sault Ste. Marie, wrote to
the author giving some details about her great-grandfather. She
describes him as a brilliant mathematician with a violent temper,
who caned boys for picking his prize Holland tulips. "There might
not be money for butter, but always money for . . . tulip bulbs."

33 The population of York in the 1851 census was 30,775. The Church
of England adherents numbered 1 1,577 (about 38 per cent).

34 Brown's stay at UCC stretched to thirty-one productive years, but he
almost did not get in. Maynard, having been dismissed, sent har-
rowing letters to both the Governor General and the senate bewail-
ing his severe treatment. He was a man who, twenty years before,
had left England, friends, and good prospects, who had punctually
and faithfully performed his duties, who was not yet fifty but had
five children, who was unfit for other employment and, who, with a
bad press, might not find another job. He asked to be reinstated.
With a new set of governing statutes, he said, everything would be

434

NOTES

all right. The Governor General took two months before telling
Maynard to vacate the premises by December 3 1 . Nothing discour-
aged, he tried again — on the verge of a Canadian winter, removing
heavy stores, making many adjustments. Could he wait until spring?
The Governor General demurred. Still in his house at the end of
January, Maynard lost the key. At long last, well into February,
Brown took possession.

35 PAO, Strachan Letter Books, July 1856. After he left UCC Barron
was offered a post in the Normal School but turned it down. Barron
then headed Cobourg Grammar School and later Barron's School
for Boys at Gore's Landing, Rice Lake. He was an ardent Mason,
eventually becoming Senior Warden of the Grand Lodge of Cana-
da. His son, Judge John Barron, an Old Boy, was a member of the
House of Commons and was instrumental in augurating competi-
tion for the Stanley Cup. Judge Barron's son, John A. Barron, was
one of six original RCN midshipmen who started the Canadian Navy
in 1908. He rose to command one of the biggest dirigibles of all
time, the R-100.

36 Currency — always difficult to interpret accurately — changed from
sterling to dollars between 1855 and i860. From 1857 on dollars will
be referred to in the text at the convenient conversion rate of £1 =
$4.00. As of April 1857 salaries were: principal $2,400, classical and
mathematical masters $1,336, the remainder $800. All but two
received a residence. In addition, all masters received one-ninth of
half the fees received each term. An average male teaching salary in
provincial towns was $700.

37 PAC, RG.5.C.L., vol. 522.

38 The College Times, Easter 1 go 1 , p. 16.

39 On his application Connon said he was prepared to lecture on a
variety of subjects, including the life and death of Socrates, the
fables of Aesop, the seven wonders of the world, the seven champi-
ons of Christendom, the shores of the Mediterranean, the rise and
fall of Carthage, the routes of commerce, Charles the First, the life
and poetry of Gray, Cowper, Byron, Shelley, Wordsworth, Tenny-
son, etc.

435

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

40 Making judgments about the College's university scholarship record
is very difficult. The university had a rule which stated that only the
last year of a winner's education was cited. A boy with several years
at a grammar school and one last year at UCC might win an award.
UCC received credit. In 1851 a boy named Marling, who had had
four years at UCC and then left for one year's tuition with a Mr.
Wickson, won a scholarship, and Wickson's name was cited. Barron
was irked by this.

41 It is interesting to note that ten days after Stennett's appointment
was announced, a group of Old Boys sent a petition to the Governor
General blaming the recent (1854-55) decline in UCC's fortunes on
the university senate, and asking that the school be placed under the
control of a council of its own, composed of ex-pupils. The petition
was signed by, among others, Larratt W. Smith, John Beverley
Robinson, Lukin Robinson, Adam Crooks, and R. L. Denison.
Stennett might have been happier with them as the governing body.

42 After his retirement from ucc Stennett moved to Keswick, where he
designed and built with his own hands a small stone church called
Christ Church. He also ran a private school called Beechcroft, at
Roches Point. Later he succeeded his father-in-law, Dr. A. N.
Bethune, as rector of Cobourg.

CHAPTER 5— SCHOOL LIFE IN THE FORTIES AND FIFTIES

Between 1 895 and 1 905 The College Times ran a good many gossipy rem-
iniscences by Old Boys. Much of this chapter consists of extracts from
these articles, though they are not specified here.

1 UTA, KCC, Board of Governors, Minutes, December 3, 1842.
A70-0024.

2 UCCA, Morris letter.

3 UCCA, Hutt letter.

4 Birdsall letter and diary. Courtesy of Mrs. R. Birdsall Elmhurst,
Hastings, Ontario.

436

NOTES

5 The Roll of Pupils of Upper Canada College, p. 15.

6 PAO, Jarvis-Powell Letters, Letter no. 36, June 8, 1842. Francis's
facility in English evidently improved rapidly. By the time he left
UCC in 1843 he had done well. During his career with the govern-
ment Indian department he read several papers before the Cana-
dian Institute which were described as "clear and eloquent."

7 Dickson and Adam, pp. 230-31.

8 UTA, UCC, Board of Governors, Minutes 1850-53, March 27, 1852.
A70-0024/058.

9 PAO, Strachan Letter Book, Reel no. 10, March 17, 1840.

10 PAC, RG.5.C.1., vol. 18, no. 2149, June 15, 1839.

1 1 Ibid.

12 Beverley Jones diary. Courtesy of Mrs. Alan Watson.

CHAPTER 6— MATURITY l86l-l88l

1 UCC has had four doctors spanning 116 years: Barrett, James
Thorburn, A. J. Mackenzie, and W. A. McTavish.

2 UTA, Minute book of Committee on ucc, March 6, 1865.
A74-0018/006.

3 The enlargement was due for completion in 1870, but in March of
that year a fire intervened, damaging stables, sheds, and Cockburn's
own house.

4 T. W. Bamford, Rise of the Public Schools, p. 90.

5 The Upper Canada College Question, p. 55.

6 DHE, vol. 2 I , pp. 4-29.

7 There was no system of automatic salary raises at this time. Masters
simply had to ask for them; some succeeded, some failed. The uni-
versity senate passed a statute if it thought a raise was appropriate.

8 The College finances were so sound, money was available for loans
"for a long or short period of years at 8 per cent interest." Farm
property was the preferred security. Quote is from the Toronto Globe,
1878. Cited in The College Times, Christmas 1935.

437

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

9 Smith had been born in England, educated at Eton and Oxford,
and taught at both Oxford and Cornell. He had great intellectual
gifts and exceedingly individualistic views about almost everything.
He was a leading figure in the "Canada first" group, derogated
imperial federation, and advocated the political union of North
America. His main work was literary and editorial, and he was
extremely influential.

io The Toronto World, Feb. 28, 1881.

11 St. Catharines Standard, March 1, 1881.

12 After leaving the College, Cockburn entered politics and banking.
He ran as a Conservative in Centre Toronto in 1887, winning the
seat and holding it until 1896. He chaired the House Committee on
Banking and Commerce for some time and was Chief Commissioner
for Canada at the World's Fair of 1893. In private life he became
president of the Consumer's Gas Company and the Ontario Bank.
His son, Major Churchill Cockburn, an Old Boy, won the Victoria
Cross in the South African War.

CHAPTER 7— SCHOOL LIFE UNDER COCKBURN 1 86 1 -1 88 1

This chapter consists almost entirely of Old Boys' reminiscences, culled
from The College Times. There are several exceptions.

1 UCCA, vol. 3. Some Reminiscences written by Hugh Hornby Langton.

2 In Return: The Autobiography of Sigmund Samuel, p. 45.

3 UTA, Senate, Minutes. Sept. 25, 1887. A70-0005.

4 UTA, The Varsity, vol. 2, no. 14, Jan. 20, 1882. The Varsity, describing
the gym as a "rheumatic old barn" and the sanitary arrangements
as "a disgrace to a Central Prison," wondered how the boys could be
blamed for liking the streets and hotels.

5 In Return: The Autobiography of Sigmund Samuel, p. 44.

438

NOTES
CHAPTER 8— METAMORPHOSIS 1881-19OO

1 Among those present were Larratt Smith, who had served on the
Board of Management; Christopher, son of John Beverley Robin-
son; G. T. Denison of the numerous Denison clan (between 1830
and 1898, thirty-four Denisons entered ucc); G. M. Evans, the for-
mer master; and the Reverend A. H. Baldwin, rector of All Saints
Church.

2 The total 1882-83 salary bill for eleven full-time masters, including
Buchan, was just over $14,000. (The 1829 total had been £2,550 or
$10,200. The average College salary in 1882 was $1,283; the average
salary for a male teacher in Ontario cities was about $750.)

Collegiates then averaged seven teachers each, and pupil-teacher
ratios were much the same at UCC, collegiate institutes, and high
schools — about 20 to 1. The collegiate institutes around the prov-
ince were making clear progress, as was to be expected. In June
1883 a table of junior-matriculation honours showed Toronto Colle-
giate Institute taking ten first-class and nineteen second-class hon-
ours. Upper Canada College took five firsts and eleven seconds.
Whitby took three firsts and nine seconds. Clearly the College's role
of chief nursery to the university was being challenged.

3 Globe, June 10, 1886.

4 Ibid.

5 Ibid. The true ownership of ucc's endowment was never settled and
never will be. The College, the university, and the grammar schools
were each equally positive it was legally theirs. Blake's fiat state-
ment was simply the usual university line.

6 John D. Robarts Research Library, University of Toronto. News-
paper Hansard, March 12, 1887.

7 The management committee was chaired by Edward Blake, chan-
cellor of the university. Other members were William Mulock, the
vice-chancellor; Mr. Justice C. S. Patterson; Colonel C. S. Gzowski;
and Larratt Smith.

8 Telegram, March 23, 1887.

9 Toronto News, March 24, 1887.

439

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

io Mail and Empire, Jan. 7, 1929.

1 1 Toronto Daily News, March 25, 1887.

12 UCC had supplied the university with one chancellor — Edward
Blake — and four consecutive vice-chancellors: James Patton, Adam
Crooks, Larratt Smith, and Thomas Moss.

13 John Beverley Robinson, recent lieutenant-governor; Larratt
Smith, Toronto lawyer; S. C. Wood, former provincial treasurer;
W. Barclay McMurrich, Toronto lawyer; John Macdonald. All
except Wood were Old Boys.

14 There was some excitement in the neighbourhood. Christ Church,
Deer Park, foresaw a much larger congregation, and a committee
was set up to investigate the possibility of additional land. Also the
prospect of increased traffic caused the Clinton Avenue (Lonsdale
Road) residents to request a 135-foot extension through to Yonge
Street, an extension which has never taken place.

15 Globe, Oct. 25, 1893.

16 The construction of the Belt Line Railway had been predicated on a
real-estate development which never materialized. After two years
of large losses, the passenger service was abandoned. The Upper
Canada College station, located where the line crossed Avenue
Road, was burned down by Hallowe'en pranksters ten years later.

1 7 The trustees had asked Henry Scadding to prepare a sketch for the
official coat-of-arms which the College then adopted. It is uncertain
which device Scadding presented.

18 The non-university pupils were entering a variety of occupations. In
1889 for example, 6 entered banking, 27 commerce, 7 agriculture, 2
the civil service, 7 machine shops, and 8 law. This was a fairly typi-
cal distribution of the era.

19 These were six senior boys who met with the principal to discuss
internal College problems and who were supposed to set an example
to the student body. They were originally the three first-team cap-
tains of football, hockey, and cricket, the senior officer of the Rifle
Corps, and the two top students, one boarder (Head of the House)
and one day boy (Head of the Town). In the mid twenties, some
years after the house system began, the four senior prefects were

440

NOTES

added. In 1932, The College Times editor became number eleven. In
1954, owing to some disorganization of the stewards, a head steward
came into being. The stewards have never been elected by the stu-
dents, and therefore never have really represented them, but it has
been good training for seniors to be responsible for others.

20 In 1886 Toronto male salaries ranged from $750 to $1,200, the Col-
lege's from $750 to $1,650. In 1891 the average Toronto salary was
$804, the ucc average $1,168. In 1893 the highest UCC salary was
$1,500. One spark of brightness in the picture was the establishment
of a retirement fund for all teachers and officers of the College. On
salaries up to $1,000, 5 per cent was taken off; up to $1,600, 7V2 per
cent; up to $2,600, 10 per cent. The money was invested at 6 per
cent and credited semi-annually.

21 PAO, RG.2.D.7, Box 3, Dickson to Ross, Nov. 4, 1892.

22 PAO, RG.2.D.7, Box 3, July 6, 1894.

23 Ibid., Dickson to Ross, March 22, 1895.

24 Saturday Night, May 11, 1895.

25 PAO, RG.2.D.7, Box 3, Letters to Ross.

26 PAO, RG.2.D.7, Box 1 1, Smith to Ross, June 7, 1895.

27 PAO, RG.2.D.7, Box 3, Dickson to Ross, Jan. 22, 1896.

28 Dickson recovered quickly. By 1896 he had founded and was also
teaching at St. Margaret's College at the corner of Bloor and Spadi-
na, where his wife was principal. It was a well-known girls' school,
rivalling Havergal and Bishop Strachan School. He also was one of
the founders of St. Andrew's College.

29 William Arthur Deacon, as quoted in Apostle of Empire.

30 The most vocal and potent Canadian supporters of imperial federa-
tion were the "four Georges" — Parkin, Denison, Grant of Queen's,
and Ross. All were closely connected with ucc. Denison attended
thirty-four meetings on ucc matters in the first half of the year
alone. One of his correspondents saw ucc as a centre of imperial
training, half-filled with English students. The displaced Canadians
would go to Eton or Rugby.

31 Parkin's first Prize Day, a glittering affair attended by virtually
everyone of importance in Toronto, was marred by G. T. Denison's

441

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

boorish refusal to invite Goldwin Smith, who had regularly pre-
sented prizes. The next year, with Smith present, Denison said
Smith should be behind prison bars. Even the Toronto papers that
were friendly to UCC denounced Denison.

32 The trees on the Deer Park site have always been an important part
of the school's atmosphere. A succession of excellent groundsmen
has kept them as healthy as possible, pruning, cutting down, and
planting. In 1966 there were 664 trees on the grounds. The arrival
of Dutch Elm disease has meant that one by one Parkin's elms have
been destroyed. Only a few remain.

33 Clifton College in Bristol did have a successful combined operation,
and Parkin wrote to an old New Brunswick friend, Dr. M. G. Glaze-
brook, the headmaster, to ask for an explanation.

34 PAC, Parkin Papers, Parkin diary, vol. 63, Oct. 1, 1896.

35 PAO, RG.2.D.7, Box 6, Thorburn to Parkin, July 1899.

36 PAC, Denison Papers, vols. 9 and 10, Parkin to Denison, Apr. 18,
1902.

37 The papers, with the exception of the Weekly Sun, cheered Parkin to
the echo, but the Sun asked a pointed question: What was the prin-
cipal of a public institution doing on a public platform propagan-
dizing on behalf of a political party? The Sun stirred up memories of
the Dickson debacle and asked further, "Who can doubt in what
sentiments a boy in Upper Canada College is trained?" The Weekly
Sun, Dec. 16, 1897.

38 In October, Ross became Premier of Ontario; Richard Harcourt
became Minister of Education. At almost the same time G. T. Deni-
son replaced the ailing Kingsmill as chairman of the UCC board.

39 Leacock had left in the summer of 1 899 to pursue a brilliant career
in economics and literature. He had never been happy teaching at
his old school, considering himself overworked and underpaid.

40 G. T. Denison (chairman), Frank Arnoldi, W. T. Boyd, Henry
Cawthra, W. G. Gooderham, John Henderson, R. K. Hope, W. R.
Brock, J. W. Flavelle, W. D. Matthews, J. S. Willison, and six ex-
officio members. The last four named were not Old Boys. As a
board, these men were trustees of the Crown.

442

NOTES
CHAPTER 9— SCHOOL LIFE IN THE EIGHTIES AND NINETIES

This chapter consists mostly of Old Boys' reminiscences culled from The
College Times. There are several exceptions.

1 UCCA, vol. 3. Some Reminiscences written by Hugh Hornby Langton.

2 The Boy I Left Behind Me, p. 74.

3 A. H. Young, head boy of 1882, on the other hand, was very severe
on the place of UCC. He thought high schools were every bit as good
from the educational point of view and hated the concept that UCC
was a "school for gentlemen's sons," a phrase which had done more
than anything else to embitter people against the College. He urged
the boys to make their way on their own merits, pooh-poohing the
idea of "good family" — words which had little meaning in Canada.

4 The Boy I Left Behind Me, p. 89.

5 Ibid., p. 92.

6 Flintoft letters, courtesy of Michael Wills.

7 Harris's letters are in the UCCA, courtesy of Professor Robin Harris.

8 S. Leacock, Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town, in the Preface.

9 Robertson Davies, Stephen Leacock, p. 20.

10 There is evidence that the discipline was more than irksome. Dick-
son admitted to Larratt Smith that punishment was too severe and
new regulations were drawn up. The punishment book had to be
produced at every meeting of the Board, and all suspensions had to
be reported to the Board.

CHAPTER 10— INDEPENDENCE I9OO-1917

1 Creelman, who was instrumental in obtaining the College's inde-
pendence, said that most of the $50,000 was donated as a personal
tribute to Parkin. UCC on its own could not have done so well.

2 In 1902 money was authorized for plans for a new gym, rink, and
swimming pool.

3 UCCA, Scholarship file, Bursar's office.

443

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

4 On one occasion when Churchill was in Toronto he lunched with
Parkin. A prize was offered by a Miss Plowden for anyone who
could make Churchill think of anything but himself for five minutes.
Parkin claimed the prize, having got him absorbed in "national
questions." PAC, Parkin Papers, vol. 63, Jan. 5, 1901.

5 PAC, Parkin Papers, vol. 95, Jan. 23, 1902.

6 At half-time in the final game, the score was 3-1 for Stratford. UCC
tied the game and won 7-6 in overtime. Parkin, who could not
attend through pressure of work, had the porter bring him regular
reports. After two hours he was worn out.

7 pac, Parkin Papers, vol. 95, March 12, 1902.

8 Ibid., vol. 96, June 26, 1902.

9 Larratt Smith wrote to Parkin in 1903, "... but for your masterful
administration ... at a very critical period, it [UCC] would never
have attained that strength and popularity which it enjoys today."
PAC, Parkin Papers, vol. 19, Jan. 15, 1903.

10 Martland had written to J. J. Kingsmill, "... our more wealthy
Ontario men have not accustomed themselves to giving." UCCA,
Box 20, July 1, 1896.

1 1 PAC, Grant Papers, vol. 9, Grant to Irving Robertson, Dec. 2, 1929.

12 PAC, Parkin Papers, vol. 1 14 (private memo).

13 Parkin cited Eton, Harrow, and Rugby, where headmasters
received $25,000 to $30,000, and housemasters could clear between
$5,000 and $10,000 per annum. Other public schools were much
worse off.

14 Grant quotes Parkin as saying, "There is a great danger of getting
Canadians in as masters . . . they are apt to be so crude." Parkin,
very much a Canadian himself, felt that boarding-house duties
could be properly carried out only by those with boarding
experience — namely Englishmen. Parkin's views on smoking may
have gone back to his early Baptist upbringing. On one occasion he
confined the entire boarding-school to the grounds for a week
because two boys were found guilty of smoking. He wanted smoking
put down, and intended the whole town to know about it. Quote is
from PAC, Grant Diary, p. 31, Dec. 25, 1901.

444

NOTES

15 UCCA, vol. 17, Auden's Prize Day Speech, Oct. 14, 1904.

16 Neither the gates nor the heavy brick pillars which supported them
survived the 1970s. Inebriated, late-night northbound Avenue Road
drivers demolished virtually the entire structure over a number of
years. In 1975 the one remaining post was dismantled and the
entrance was renovated without the gates.

17 UTA, Upper Canada College, Board of Governors and Executive
Committee. Minute Book 1898- 1906. July 9, 1903. A74-0018/010.

043I-0435-

18 The Taffy Shop on Simcoe Street had moved north with the College
to Lonsdale Road. The new tuck shop was its spiritual successor and
was formally opened with a grand feed. It was demolished in the
summer of 1977 because it was falling down.

19 The College Times, Christmas 1914, p. 3.

20 PAC, Grant Papers, Brown to Grant, Aug. 26, 191 7.

CHAPTER 1 1— SCHOOL LIFE UNDER AUDEN 19OO-1917

This chapter consists of extracts from The College Times, reminiscences of
Old Boys interviewed by the author, and some other material.

1 PAC, Grant Papers, West to Grant, Oct. 27, 1901.

2 Ibid., Idington to Grant, Oct. 18, 1903.

3 UCCA, Coate to Auden, March 9, 1907.

4 PAC, Grant Diary, Nov. 24, 1901.

CHAPTER I 2— REJUVENATION 1918-1935

Unattributed quotations in this chapter are from The College Times or
have been contributed by Old Boys.
1 PAC, Grant Papers, Peacock to Grant, March 17, 1918.

445

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

2 Quotes are from Grant's article in The College Times, Easter 191 8,
pp. 1-4.

3 One exception was on Armistice Day 191 8. Somerville gave the
Prep a holiday; Grant did not do the same, and the Upper School
boys walked out. Grant apologized to the school the next day.

4 Grant's comical reference for Stephen is in UCCA.

5 Very few scholarships were founded in the twenties, thirties, and for-
ties, but activity picked up again in the years following the Second
World War. By 1979 the College Foundation supported forty-eight
boys on scholarships and fifty-three on bursaries to a total of over
$121,000.

6 PAC, Grant Papers, Grant to Willison, Feb. 19, 1920.

7 In 1916 the enrolment had been 214; in 191 7, 273. By September
1918 it was 338, including more boarders than at any time since
1894.

8 The north-east cricket field was named Lord's, and the north-west
field, naturally, Commons. The nomenclature was invented by
C. G. M. Grier, an Old Boy who had returned to teach at the
school.

9 Some Old Boys, even board members, were quite irritated at the
concept of house loyalty, which they feared would supersede loyalty
to the school. There is no evidence that it ever did.

10 Sir John Willison, who had been on the board of UCC through three
administrations, said the only thing he had been ashamed of was the
salaries paid to the masters. Generally speaking, he felt the scale of
salaries for teachers was one of the country's greatest scandals.

1 1 In 1925 the fees were still less than those at Bishop Strachan School
and much less than at corresponding American schools.

12 PAC, Grant Papers, Willison to Grant, Sept. 11, 1924.

13 During this period R. A. Laidlaw joined the board and became
vice-chairman, a post created for him. He eventually picked up the
mantle of generous benefactor worn before him by men such as
H. C. Hammond, W. H. Beatty, and W. G. Gooderham.

14 Toronto Daily Star, June 26, 1922.

15 Holmes was at the Ontario Art School for about ten years. In 1930

446

NOTES

he had a most extraordinary death. He gave a speech at the OAS
which ended, "My dear boys, I offer you my affectionate thanks,"
and sat down. They discovered one or two minutes later that he was
dead. QUA, Peacock Papers.

1 6 pac, Grant Papers, vol. 24, Sept 19, 1926. The Curfew Club had
been started by a young master, Geoffrey Bell. It was a group of sen-
ior boys who met on Sunday evenings, inviting knowledgeable and
experienced guests to speak on and discuss social issues and public
affairs.

17 Mail and Empire, Sept. 14, 1929.

18 B. K. Sandwell, hinting at how the next centenary might be better
conducted, listed several suggestions, among which was the cutting
down of Oratory. He concluded that the suggestion would not be
acceptable. All centenary organizers were equally determined to cut
down Oratory and all had failed: you could no more have a centen-
ary without Oratory than you could have a bath without water!

19 Peter Sandiford, a professor of education at the University of Toron-
to, had told Keppel that McCulley at Pickering and Grant at UCC
were the two people in Ontario doing creative work in secondary
education. Sandiford favoured UCC as the larger and better-known
institution.

20 Grant was ecstatic about the work of Mathers and Haldenby, who
became the official UCC architects at that time. Vincent Massey had
had a large part in the choice of this firm.

21 PAC, Grant Papers, vol. 8, Peacock to Grant, Oct. 20, 1932.

22 Grant admitted in 1932 that a very large number of parents were
not paying their bills, and their sons were being carried. At the same
time he was proud that UCC had actually increased its staff without
lowering salary or wages. The overdue accounts had been a peren-
nial problem, now exacerbated by the severe economic conditions.

23 uta, Upper Canada College, Board of Governors, Draft Minutes
1917-1934, Orr to Board, May 25, 1933. A74-0018/003.

24 PAC, Grant Papers, Grant to W. H. Fyfe, Nov. 23, 1918.

25 Ibid., Grant to H. R. Beeton, May 24, 193 1.

447

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE
CHAPTER 13— SCHOOL LIFE UNDER GRANT I918-I935

This chapter consists entirely of Old Boys' reminiscences and extracts
from The College Times or Old Times.

CHAPTER 14— UNSETTLED YEARS 1 935- 1 948

1 The selection committee was headed by Vincent Massey, who was
strongly influenced by Maude Grant. MacDermot was said to be
"her" appointment. PAC, Grant papers, vol. 44, J. M. Macdonnell
to Maude Grant, Oct. 20, 1935.

2 The day he was appointed, MacDermot met Mackenzie King, who
said that if the appointment gave MacDermot the pleasure it gave
him, "I shall have reason to feel that the occasion will be long
remembered." BUA, MacDermot Diary, April 18, 1935.

3 bua, MacDermot Diary, Apr. 5, 1935.

4 The pupil was George Grant, son of the late principal, now a profes-
sor at McMaster University. By 1978, over fifty-thousand exchange
visits had been arranged. Biggar received the Coronation Medal in
1952 and the Order of Canada in 1968.

5 The five house-head prefects responded to MacDermot's initiative
by making a supplementary presentation which delighted him — a
trophy for the house that made the greatest contribution to school
life. Competition for the head prefects' trophy was still taking place
in 1979.

6 BUA, MacDermot Diary, Aug. 5, 1936.

7 Arnold once told MacDermot's son Gait, who wrote the music for
Hair, that he would never make a successful musician!

8 Some fine non-academic appointments were made in MacDermot's
era: Dr. W. A. McTavish replaced Dr. McKenzie as College physi-
cian in 1938. Joining him was Miss Barbara Barrow, who became
College nurse, beloved by hundreds of students. Tom Aikman was
head groundsman from 1936 to 1967, when he died on the job. Ken-

448

NOTES

neth Chambers looked after the maintenance department from
1940 to 1974. All these gave service above and beyond the call of
duty.
9 The average 1937 salary was lower than it had been ten years
before. Alan Stephen felt that a pay increase of approximately S800
a year for five years was needed to catch up with the outside system.

10 Upper Canada College at War. UCCA, Box 3.

11 All quotes are from BUA, MacDermot Diaries, vol. 1. Jan. 26,
1934-Sept 1, 1937, and vol. 2, Apr. 5, 1938-Mar. 12, 1940.

12 After the war, MacDermot became High Commissioner to South
Africa and then Australia; later he was Ambassador to Greece and
to Israel. As head of personnel at the Department of External
Affairs he maintained high standards and was responsible for much
of the growth in that department. He became a director of the CBC.
When he died he was chairman of political science at Bishop's Uni-
versity in Lennoxville.

13 PAC, Grant Papers, Massey to Macdonnell, June 1, 1943.

14 For some years he worked for the Department of Education and
then taught mathematics at Loretto Abbey.

CHAPTER 15— SCHOOL LIFE IN THE LATE THIRTIES AND FORTIES

This chapter consists of interviews with Old Boys and extracts from The

College Times.
1 In the summer of 1951 the members of the Little Theatre took
Thornton Wilder 's Our Town to Great Britain, where they received
enthusiastic reviews. The London Daily Telegraph wrote, "... Upper
Canada College could compete in our highest class."

449

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE
CHAPTER lb I.MERGENCY I949-I965

1 A Family Writ Large, p. 24.

2 A typical boarder enrolment of the fifties showed 23 per cent from
Toronto, 42 per cent from the rest of Ontario, 34 per cent from out-
side Ontario.

3 When the main building was replaced in i960, the funds collected
by this Foundation Fund were drained. A new foundation was
incorporated in January 1962.

4 Prince Philip had consented to become the College Visitor in 1955.
The office had fallen into disuse since the abdication of Edward vm.

5 UCCA, UCC Governors' Correspondence 1958-59. D. S. Beatty to
Napier, March 11, 1959.

6 The optimum school size was assumed to be about 750. Five years
later the enrolment was 800, and fifteen years later, over 900.

CHAPTER 17— SCHOOL LIFE UNDER SOWBY I949-I965

This chapter consists of College Times extracts and letters from Old Boys
to the author.

CHAPTER 1 8— THE RECENT PAST

1 The College Times, 1967, p. 4.

2 In fact, though the phrase is often used in this context, there is no
extra curriculum: everything that happens between a student's
arrival at and departure from school is curriculum. For many boys
the extras hold more meaning than the core does.

450

NOTES

CHAPTER ig— THE COLLEGE TIMES

1 J. R. Robertson, as quoted in The Paper Tyrant, p. 16.

2 UTA, The Varsity, vol. 2, no. 22, March 17, 1882.

3 Globe, March 23, 1887.

4 Mail and Empire, March 21,1 936, cited in The College Times, Easter
1936, p. 14-

All other quotes are from The College Times.

CHAPTER 20— GAMES

i Dickson and Adam, p. 263.

2 Ibid.

3 Cited in Stanley Fillmore, The Pleasure of the Game, pp. 67-69.

All other quotes are from The College Times.

CHAPTER 21— CADETS

1 Dickson and Adam, p. 105.

2 Ibid., p. 109.

3 UTA, Board of Governors, Minute Book, June 1 898-December
1906. A70-0024/010.

4 UCCA, Box 21.

5 Ibid., Letter to Grant.

6 Ibid.

7 Ibid., Court of inquiry.

Other quotes are from The College Times, which was the chief source
of information for this chapter.

451

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

CHAPTER 22— THE PREP

The author is grateful to J. A. Hearn, assistant headmaster of the Pre-
paratory School, for reading this chapter and making invaluable contri-
butions to it.
i Unluckily for the Prep, when Parkin was appointed to the Rhodes

Trust, Alice had to follow him. She left in November for England.

Some years later she married Vincent Massey and so returned for

many years to the College community.

2 UCCA, Box 8, Parkin to Denison, June 24, 1901.

3 UCCA, Box 14, Parkin to Denison, Sept. 4, 1901.

4 PAC, Parkin Papers, vol. 94, Nov. 15, 190 1.

5 PAC, Grant Papers, vol. 27, Dec. 6, 1901.

6 PAC, Parkin Papers, vol. 95, Apr. 12, 1902.

7 QUA, Peacock Papers.

8 PAC, Parkin Papers, vol. 96, May 4, 1902.

9 In 1902 Parkin also left UCC to take up the Rhodes Trust. Had
Rhodes not died so young, and had Parkin not lost faith in Peacock,
the Parkin-Peacock-Grant combination would probably have had
no parallel in Canadian school history for sheer ability, imagina-
tion, and influence.

10 J. S. H. Guest in Old Times, July 1952, p. 15.

1 1 Against the other Little Big Four schools, it played St. Andrew's
(then in Rosedale), in football, hockey, and cricket in 1904, and
football against Ridley in 1910. (Just to complete the record, its first
cricket game against Ridley was in 19 13, and its first hockey game
in 1935. Against TCS — cricket 1915, football 1916, hockey 1927.)

12 UTA, Board of Governors, Minutes, Dec. 10, 191 7. A70-0024/003.

13 By 1928 the Prep had 223 day boys and 58 boarders, a total not
reached again for thirty years. The Depression hit the independent
schools hard, and when Somerville left in 1934 numbers had slipped
back to 189, only 20 of whom were boarders. They crept back to
over 200 in 1936 and have never been below that since.

14 UCCA, Principal's Office, Folder "A.G.A.S.," Feb. 1934.

15 PAC, Grant Papers, vol. 8, April 10, 1934.

452

NOTES

1 6 Ibid., May 14, 1934.

17 The year was really a giant party. Robertson Davies wrote the
Masque of Aesop especially for a cast of young boys; there was a large
dinner for the class of 1903-04 with fireworks after; Stephen even
named his dog "Billie."

CHAPTER 23— NORVAL

The author is grateful to B. M. Litteljohn for his critical and salutary
observations on and general contributions to this chapter.

1 Perhaps it was a coincidence that in September of that year an offer
of $650,000 was made for the 52.5-acre site in Deer Park. By Janu-
ary 19 1 3 came another offer, this time for $750,000. Both were
refused.

2 By 19 1 5 the College was investigating the pollution poured into the
Credit by the Provincial Paper Mills in Georgetown. It sought
advice from the University of Toronto and various scientists.

3 Auden's Prize Day Speech is in The College Times, Christmas 19 13.

4 The day got off to a bad start when, near Malton, the train ran over
a man, cutting off his right foot and putting out his right eye. A. L.
Cochrane, the College's famed P.E. instructor, applied tourniquets.
One of the boys, Seth Pepler, helped by carrying the man's
shoe — and foot — in his hand through the train. Despite their efforts,
the man later died.

5 Controller (later Mayor) Tommy Church advocated the city buy
the College property for a park with educational facilities, a library,
a fire hall, and a police station, but the price severely discouraged
this imaginative suggestion. Two alternatives for vehicular traffic
were brought forward: one was for a diagonal street joining the cor-
ner of Avenue Road and Lonsdale with Kilbarry and Old Forest
Hill; the other was an Avenue Road extension north, straight
through the grounds. Both schemes, of course, were killed.

6 PAC, Grant Papers, vol. 33, Nov. 5, 191 7.

453

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

7 uta, Upper Canada College, Board of Governors and Executive
Committee Minute Book. Dec. 10, igi 7. A74-0018/01 1.

8 Ibid., September n, 19 19. A74-00 18/004.

9 Curiously, Stephen's memo never mentioned Norval. He must have
been considering another property closer to Toronto. It was soon
evident that Norval could supply the need.

10 ucca, Memorandum re UCC Norval Property, Dec. 8, 1938.

1 1 A 1978 Study by the Halton Region said that Upper Canada Col-
lege "has shown exemplary management to maintain and upgrade
this natural area." Halton Region Environmentally Sensitive Area Study,
1978, p. 241.

CHAPTER 24— EPILOGUE

pp. 387 and 389. The quotations are from recent articles by Dr. John
Rae, the Head Master of Westminster School, which appeared over a
period of months in The Times Educational Supplement, London, England,
and are used by permission of the author and of the Editor of The Times

Educational Supplement.

454

Index

Aikman, Tom, 448
Aird,John Black, 212-13, 227
Andrew, Geoffrey, 207, 224
Anglican Church, 16;

influence of, 2, 3, 4, 5, 54-5,
383, 384, 42 7. 434; and
ucc, 12, 14, 19-20, 26, 33,
44,55,62,65, 126, 127,
163,242-3,384,433
Arnoldi, Frank, 208, 353, 371,

372,376,442
Arnoldi, King, 269-70
Arthur, George, 41, 45, 46
Auden, Henry W. "Hank",
168-9, !7°> I7I> J72, *73,
174-5, 176, 178, i79> 181,
182, 185, 186, 189, 190,
200, 205, 230, 254, 325,
37i-3.374,38i
Auden, Mark F., 189-90

Baird,J. M., 177-8
Baldwin, Donald, 380
Baldwin, Lawrence, 116, 121
Baldwin, Robert, 20, 22, 50,

52,53.54
Baldwin University Act

(1849), 53, 54. 57
Barber, George Anthony, 1 1 ,

12, 14,42-3,315-16,432
Barrett, Dr. Michael, 49-50,

56, 64, 70, 73, 77, 85-6, 86,

88, 437
Barron, Frederick W., 24, 40,

42,46,49,50,51.52,53,
54,55,56,57-61,62,63,69,

72,74,75,77-8,79.8o,8i,
83, 175, 272,315-16,432-3,

435, 436

Barrow, Miss, 240, 259, 448

Bassett, Dr. W. G., 226, 234,
255, 306

Beatty, D. S., 248

Beatty, W. H., 124, 131, 354,
446

Biggar, J. H., 206, 224, 240,
257, 306, 448

Birdsall, Richard, 75-6

Biriukova, Miss Yulia, 231

Bishop Strachan School, 212,
231,341,446

Blake, Edward, 109-10, III,
132,439,440

Blake, W. H., 54, 55, 59, 63

Blunt, H. P., 206, 219, 386

Board for the General
Superintendence of
Education (Upper
Canada), 4, 9, 10, 1 1-12,
21, 23

Board of Governors (ucc),
164, 166, 167, 170, 173,
!74, !75, I86, 196, 201,
202, 204, 208, 212, 223,
228, 229, 230-4 passim, 242,
246, 247, 248, 255, 256,
260, 262, 263, 265, 279,
280,318,337,342,347,
350,353,355-6,357,360-1,
364,37i,372,373,375-8o
passim, 442, 443, 446

Board of Management (ucc),

81-2. See also Committee of

Management
Board of Trustees (ucc),

122-3, 124, 125, 126, 127,

128, 131
Board of Visitation (ucc), 55,

56
Boeckh, J. S., 297
Boeckh, John, 349
Bonnycastle, Humphrey, 212,

368
Boulton, Rev. William, 1 1,

12, 13, 16,24,27,40,315,

386
Bowes, Joseph, 97, 100
Boyd, W. T., 124, 167, 353,

442
Bradbum, C. H, 328-9
Bremner, M. H. C. "Big

Mike", 206
Brennan, Frank, 231, 258
Brock, Henry, 109, 1 18, 152
Brock, W. R., 354, 442
Brown, James, 63, 64, 65, 70,

84, 86, 87, 107, 109, 137,

386, 434, 435
Buchan, John Milne, 106-7,

108, 109, 140, 168, 270,

275, 439
Buxton, H. M., 326

Cadet Battalion, 209, 215,
225-6, 229, 238, 239,
239-40,253,254,291,299,
311, 331-50; beginnings,
331-2; commanders and

455

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

instructors, 172, 205, 217,
225-6,331,335,338,339,
340, 34i. 342, 347; decline
of, 261, 347-50; enrolment,
333. 334, 335, 336, 338,
340, 341, 346; and First
and Second World Wars,
340, 341-2, 350; purposes,
217,229,331,334,337,
342-3, 346, 348, 349;
uniforms and equipment,
333, 334, 335, 336, 337-8,
341,345,348,349

Cambridge University
(England), 12, 427

Cape, Mr., 255, 258, 259

Carpenter, Frederick N.
"S.M.", 180, 185, 205, 215,
217,221,225-6,338,340,
341,342,347,386

Cawthra, Henry, 124, 131,
442

Chambers, Kenneth, 448-9

Chandler, Charles M., 176-7,
1 80- 1

Checkley, Francis, 87

Clarkson, G. P., 248

Classey, Owen, 199, 205, 215,
220, 386

Cochrane, Arthur L., 130,
131, 155, 164, 169, 171,
194, 198-9,211,214,325-6,
341,386,453

Cockburn, George R. R., 67,
84-7, 88-9, 90, 96, 97-8,
101, 105, 106, 137, 272,
275,3i7,3i9,33i,438

Colborne, Sir John, 16, 25, 27,
38,42,316,426-7,430;
background, 6; and
educational system, 7, 8-9;
and ucc, 8-13, 15, 16-17,
20,22,23,24,25-6,45,89,
118, 126, 264, 286, 307,
383, 384, 428, 429

College Council. See
University of Toronto

College Times, The, 103, 125,

I40, 200, 210, 224, 237,
241,253,256,270-313,320,

347,373,388,441;

beginnings, 66, 76, 269-70,
271; editors, 253, 269, 271,
272, 274, 275, 277-8, 279,
280, 282, 283, 286, 295,
296,301,303,312,314,
320-1, 345; emphasis in,
279-80, 281, 282, 285, 290,
295,296,302,304,310,
328; and In Between Times,
207, 300; quotes from, 78-9,
102-3, 103-4, 105, 142, 157,
158, 178,213,216,235-7,
241,271-312,314-15,
321-2,328-9,335-6;
supervision, 279-80, 364

collegiate institutes, 91, 439.
See also high schools

ColleyJ. N. B. "Jim", 359,
386

Collinson, John H., 121

Commission of Inquiry into
the Affairs of King's
College University and
Upper Canada College,

52-3,54,57
Committee of Management,

333. See also Board of

Management
Common School Acts: (1816),

4; (1850), 62
common schools, 4, 13, 23, 51,

62,91
Connon, C. W., 67, 104, 435
Connor, Ralph. See Gordon,

Rev. W. Charles
Copeland, F. A., 290
Cory, R. Y., 186-7
Coulton, J. L., 231, 238, 261
Coupland, Charlie, 378
Cox, W., 206
Crake, J. H. "Jimmy", 167,

168, 169, 178, 182-3, !89,

194, 386
Crean, J. G., 217
Creelman, A. R., 124, 133,

443
Crooks, Adam, 91, 92, 93,

94-5, 96, 436, 440
Crowther, Keith, 207

456

Crowther, Lome, 173
Cruickshank. Charlotte, 368
Cunliffe, G. S., 285-6
Curfew Club, 220, 239, 240,

447

Dade, Rev. Charles, 12, 16,

24,37,41-2,49,58,386
Davidson, E. M. "Ted", 231,

256, 257
Davidson, Rev. John, 207
Davies, Robertson, 296, 453
Dawson, R. M., 307
De la Have, J. du P., 1 1, 12,

14, 16,27,37,43,63,79,

432
Delbos, Charlie, 188-9
De Lury, Alfred, 1 15
deMarbois,J. M. B. P.

"Jock", 205, 216, 224, 227,

386
Denison, George T., II, 58, 59,

60, 61
Denison, George T., m, ill,

124, 125, 129, 132, 167,

172,355,356,373,439,
441-2
Department of Education
(Ontario), 94, 114, 120,
121, 125, 126, 133, 140
Depression, 208, 293, 363, 452
Dickson, George, 109, 114,
1 15, 117, 120, 121, 122,
123, 124, 125, 126, 127,
129, 140, 147, 150, 157,
168, 175, 247,279-80,333,
386,441,443
Dixon, F. E., 39, 72, 78
Dodd, John, 37, 76, 77
Drewry, Mr., 12, 16, 27, 37

Easterbrook, Ian, 254-9
Edgar, Pelham, 121, 295
Edinburgh, Duke of. See

Philip, Prince
educational system (Upper
Canada and Ontario), 1-5,
10, 12, 15, 51, 67, 91, 95,
106, 108, 109, no, III,
1 13, 168, 191, 192, 261,

INDEX

331, 366; and Colbome, 7,
8-9; influence of Anglican
Church on, 2,3; influence
of Simcoe on, 1-2, 7; and
John Strachan, 4, 7; and
Egerton Ryerson, 51, 62-3;
and ucc, 113, 114, 133-4
Elgin, Lord, 51, 52, 53, 78
Elliott, H. Earl "Bill", 212,
361-2,363,364,366,367,
386
England. See Great Britain
Eton (school), 15, 3 17, 337,

427,441
Evans, George Mountain, 65,
66, 439

Family Compact, 3, 4, 7, 14,

34, 43, 44, 384
First World War, 166, 172-3,

188, 216, 285, 340, 342,

374, 375, 382
Flavelle, Sir Joseph W., 168,

354, 442
Flintoft, J. G., 142
Foote, Samuel, 211,361, 364,

367, 378, 386
Fotheringham, John, 115,

146, 147
Fraser, William H., 87, 109
Fiirrer, Edward, 87, 136, 320

Gallimore, Wilfrid, 231, 256,

386
Galloway, Kenneth, 231
Gait, George, 367, 386
Gelber, Lionel M., 291-3
Gibson, R. B., 283
Gibson, T. Graeme, 217, 221
Gibson, Timothy "Gibby",

212, 213, 362, 364, 367, 386
Gilbert and Sullivan

operettas, 206, 207, 237,

239, 240
Gilham, Jack, 258, 259
Glazebrook, George, 178, 364
Glazebrook, Dr. M. G., 356,

442
Globe, The (Toronto), 65, 85,

89, III, 1 18, 126, 131, 270,

275,434
Globe and Mail, The (Toronto),

247,378
Goderich, Lord, 17, 23, 429
Godley, John Robert, 44-5
Goodall, Reginald, 207
Gooderham, W. G., 124, 172,

173, 196, 198,208,354,

361,371,372,373,381,

442, 446
Goodwin, Colonel, 72, 75, 331
Gordon, D. G., 107
Gordon, Rev. W. Charles

(Ralph Connor), 115, 281
Grafton, Garth, 275
Graham, John, 21 1, 212, 213,

215, 216
Graham, W. C, 310
grammar schools, 2-3, 4, 5, 10,

H, 15, 17,23,29,51,62-3,

67,89,90,91,96, 106,427;

and Colborne, 7, 8, 13, 26;

and land grants, 4-5, 23, 26,

428-9
Grant, George, 299, 448
Grant, George Munro, 129,

158, 191,441

Grant, Gerald, 231

Grant, Maude, 101, 191, 193,
360, 448

Grant, William Lawson
"Choppy", 132, 155, 158,
164, 165, 166, 167, 173-4,
175, 176, 181, 182-3, 183-5,
190, 191-4, 195, 196-8, 199,
200, 201, 203, 204-5, 206,
207-9, 210, 212, 215, 216,
217, 218, 220, 221, 222,
224, 225, 226, 230, 240,
264,299,329,340-1,342,
343, 344, 344-5, 355, 356,
357,360,361,362,363-4,
365, 374, 375-6, 386, 446,
447, 452

Grant House, 198, 246, 255,
256,257,259

Great Britain, 2, 80-1, 94,
103, 132, 138, 228, 230,
236,281,303,304,316,

318,331,357,366,384;
influence on education, 1,
2,3,4, 7,8,9, 12, 13,20,
26, 41, 43, 84, 88, 128, 130,
131, 133, 167, 168, 169,
195, 207, 223, 243, 281,

304, 337, 373, 383, 385,

427,441,444
Greene, Vincent, 187-9
Grier, C. G. M., 179-80, 207,

446
Guest, J. S. H. "Gimper",

172, 176, 177, 184,357-9,

360, 364

H. H. Suydam Realty

Company, 172, 374
Ham, Albert, 132
Harcourt, Richard, 133, 441
Harris, G. H. Ronald, 143-54
Harris, Rev. Joseph H., 12,

16,27-9,34,37,41,43,46,

49, 64, 65, 242, 428, 430
Harris, S. Alan "Sam", 212,

213,362,364,367,379,386
Harston, Len, 272-3
Hayhurst, George, 251
Head, Sir Edmund, 66
Head, Sir Francis Bond, 35,

84,316,331
Heap, D.J. M., 239-40
Henderson, Elmes, 38-9, 72
Henderson, John, 167,353,

442
Hendrie, William, 324
high schools (Ontario), 91, 94,

95, 106, 107, 108, 113, 114,

115, 124, 169, 170-1, 171-2,

191, 198, 199,232,439,443
Hollingshead, F. N., 2 1 1 , 2 1 2,

361,367,386
Holmes, Robert, 121, 130,

169, 194, 198, 206, 386,

446-7
Home District Grammar

School (York). See Royal

Grammar School (York)
House of Assembly (Upper

Canada), 3, 7, 8, 15, 16, 21,

457

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

23, 25, 36, 45, 45-6, 89, 90,
93,95, 112, 113,427,428

Howard, F. H., 210-1 1, 215,
217,219

Howard, John C, 37-8, 63,

76,77
Hull, Mr., 130, 155

Ignatieff, Nicholas, 206, 220,
224, 227, 235-7, 308-9, 386
Ingram, W. H., 155-6

Jackson, William S. "Stony",
87, 109, 120,121, 129, 130,
132, 135-7, '47, 149, 155,
169, 174, 178-81,321,323,
330, 386

Jackson's House, 195, 364

Jarvis, E. S., 231

Jarvis, George Murray, 352

Jeanneret, F. C. A., 172, 326

Johnson, George W., 121,130,
155, 169, 185

Johnson, Patrick T., 260, 261,
262, 263, 264

Jones, Beverley, 83

Jones, C. W., 212

Jones, Rev. John Collier, 8, 9,

4i
Jones, (Justice) Jonas, 43, 82

Kay, Harry, 206, 224
Kent, Rev. John, 31, 32, 50,

55,315-16,352,431
Kerr, F. W., 272-3
Kerr, William, 132
Ketchum, Philip, 242, 362
Kettle, H. G. "Rik", 206, 231
Keys, David A., 283
Killip, Arthur, 205-6, 245,

246, 258, 312, 362, 386
King's College, University of,

23,25,29,43,45,52,383,
427; becomes University of
Toronto, 50, 54; and
Colborne, 7, 8, 11, 17, 20;
endowments, 4-5, 8, 17, 20,
21, 25, 26, 52, 54; financial
inquiry into, 52, 53;
founding of, 4, 5;

suspension of, 7, 8, 10, 45;

and UCC, 8, 10, 16, 17, 20,

22-3,26-7,43,45,46,52,

53,54,57, "2, U4,433,

436
King's College Council, 17,

21,23,26,41,44,49,51,

52, 58, 74, 82
Kingsford, R. E., 112, 124
KingsmillJ.J., 124, 125, 131.

336, 373, 442
Kirkpatrick, Guy, 143, 148
Knights, J. J., 306

Laidlaw, R. A., 202, 203, 208,

223,377,446

Laidlaw, Walter, 202

land grants, 20, 22; for

grammar schools, 2, 4-5, 9,
25, 26, 428-9; for King's
College, 4, 8, 26; for ucc, 9,
17, 19, 20, 22, 26, 88, 89-90,
428-9

Langton, Hugh, 97, 100, 103,

135
Law, Ralph M. "Pop", 226,

238, 257, 306, 386
Leacock, Stephen, 1 15, 130,

137-41, 156-7,275-7,386,

442
League of Nations Society,

209, 220, 222, 298-9
Legislative Assembly (Upper

Canada), 37, 93
Legislative Council (Upper

Canada), 7-8, 16, 37, 427,

428
Lindsey, G. G. S., 315
Linn, John, 231, 259
Literary and Debating

Society (ucc), 78, 104,

141-2, 157, 186,253,273,

275, 388
Litteljohn, B. M., 380
Little, C. H. "Herbie", 207,

214, 216, 217, 227
Little Big Four schools, 243,

327,328,452
Little Theatre, 231, 237, 239,

240, 257,381,449

458

McAree, J. V., 300
McCaul, Rev. John, 43-4, 46,

47,48,61,65,74,82-3,90,

242
McCourt, E. A., 226
McCubbin, Dr. J. W., 226
McCulloch, E. A., 304
MacDermot, Terence W. L.,

206, 218, 222-7, 228-30,

231,299,300,376,377,

448, 449
Macdonald, A. A. "Prant",
no, 120, 121, 130, 155,
165,280,314-15,320,324,

330, 386
MacDonald, Jay D., 231, 240
Macdonald, John, no, m,

440
Macdonald, Sir John A., 67,

84,85
Macdonnell, G. F., 130, 277
Macdonnell, Norman, 181-2
McHugh, Marshall W.

"Billy", 170, 171, 178, 182,

188, 189, 194, 206, 215, 386
Maclnnes, Malcolm, 368
Macintosh, Maitland, 247,

248
McKay, A. C, 115
Mackenzie, Dr. A. J., 163,

437, 448
Mackenzie, C. Gordon, 1 72
McKenzie, Lome M., 206,

228, 230, 231, 232, 233-4,

240, 241, 242, 243, 386
Mackenzie, William Lyon,

15,21,22,25,27,34-6,38,

428, 429
Mackie, S. G., 305
Macklem, T. C. S., 140, 274,

275
Maclaren, J. J., 124
Maclean, G. S., 296
McLellan, Dr.J. A.,87, 106
McMaster, W. J., 124
MacMillan, Sir Ernest. 207,

386
McMurrich, W. Barclay, 123,

124, 440

INDEX

McQuistan, Agnes "Nurse",

362, 368
McTavish, Dr. W. A., 437,

448
Maitland, Peregrine, 3, 4, 5, 6
Mallett. F. J., 172, 194, 305-6
Marling, S. A., 7, 106
Marling. "Spike", 188
Martin, Mrs. Evelyn, 381
Martland, John "Gentle", 86,

88,96,98-101, 106, 108,

109, 115, 120, 123, 126,

127, 129, 135, 137, 145,

146, 147, 148, 149, 150,

151. I53> '54. 163-4,317,

330, 386
Martland's House, 195, 219
Maskell, Donald, 379
Massey, Alice S., 246, 355,

357. 358, 360, 364, 452
Massey, Vincent, 174, 202,

204, 226, 230, 242, 246,

248, 360, 364, 447, 448, 452
Massey Foundation, 202, 203,

244
Mathews, Rev. Charles, 12,

16, 24, 41, 42, 46, 48, 49,

58, 64, 386, 432
Mathews, George, 165
Matthews, Bruce, 242, 247
Matthews, W. D., 354, 371,

442
Maynard, Rev. George, 37,

38,40,42,46,49,57-61,62,

63. 73, 78, 82,83,272,

434-5
Mazzoleni, Ettore, 207, 218,

219, 220, 306, 386
Meredith, E. A., 48, 432
Merritt, Thomas R., 34, 35
Merritt, W. Hamilton, 34-5
Methodist Church, 3, 19-20,

126,433
Millar, Blake, 379-80
Mills, Charles F. "Doggie",

132, 155, 169, 194.215.

226, 386
Milsom, Mrs. Kay, 366, 368
Model Grammar School

(Toronto), 67, 79, 84, 85,

90, 105,325
Monthly Times, The. See College

'Times, The
Morphy, Arnold, 125
Morris, Edmund, 74-5
Morse, Eric, 362
Moss, George F., 294-5
Moss, Thomas, 1 1 1 , 440
Mowat, Sir Oliver, 126, 128
Mowbray, William, 167, 168,

169, 181-2, 194, 215, 222,

386
Mulock, Sir William, 87, 1 1 2,

439

Murray, Sir George, 10, 11,
16-17,427,429

Neal, Christopher, 349-50
Neilson, W.A., 120, 157
Newman, Peter C, 237-9, 240
News, The (Toronto), 11, 112,

i>9

Norval, 246, 309, 362, 371-82,
454; buildings, 367, 378,
379-80; and the Prep,
376-7,378-9,380,381;
proposed move to, 172, 174,
196-7, 200, 202, 371-2,
373-6, 452; purchase of,
172, 371-3; and recreation,
378-9, 380, 381; and
reforestation, 377-8, 379,
380, 365, 454

Norval House, 367, 378-9, 379

Old Blue School. See Royal

Grammar School (York)
Old Boys' Association (ucc),

118, 124, 126, 166, 171,

172, 237, 262, 265, 280,

301,312,373
Old Times, 179-80, 301
Ontario, 1, 2, 91, 133-4, 167,

168, 191,352
Ormsby, G. Y., 207, 244, 246,

368
Orr, H. E. "Willy", 194,

203-4, 257, 305, 386

Osier, Judge Featherston,

151. '5-'

Ouchterlony, David, 231

Owen, Glyn, 380

Owen, Ivon, 301

Oxford University (England),
12, 15,88, 128, 158, 165,
166, 191,317,364,427

Padfield, Rev.J. W., 12, 14,

27,352-3

Pardee, T. B., 1 1 1

Parker, Gordon, 183, 184

Parkin, Alice S. See Massey,
Alice S.

Parkin, Sir George Robert,
128-9, 130, 131. '32, 133,
134, 135. 137, 156, 158,
163, 164-7, '68, 170, 175,
183, 184-5, 190, 191, J98,
230,281,318,319,336,
353-7, 358, 359, 360, 370,
374-5,385,441,442,443,
444, 452

Parkin, Maude. See Grant,
Maude

Parkin Building, 361. 367,

369

Parlee, Medley K., 206

Paterson, John A., 87

Peacock, Edward R. (later Sir
Edward), 130, 1 55-6, 165,
167, 176, 181, 185, 191,
198, 199,203,242,326,
335, 336, 354, 355-7, 358,
359, 36o, 364, 386, 452

Peacock Building, 248, 355,

369
Pepler, Seth, 342, 453
Peppiatt, Douglas, 252-3
Philip, Prince, Duke of

Edinburgh, 233, 248, 450
Phillips, Rev. Thomas, 12, 14,

16,24,33,40,41
Playfair, A. W., 132, 165, 353
Potter. C. G.. 170, 194
Preparatory School ( l

169, 176-8, 195, 200,

21 I-I3, 219, 225. 2]2, 233,

243, 244, 245, 246, 248,

459

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

250, 251-2, 255, 281-2, 302,
338,352-70,374,375.428,
446, 452; beginnings, 14,

163, 165,352-3,354-5;
boarding, 176-8, 195,
211-13,250,367,370,376,
378-9; buildings and
grounds, 163, 169, 198, 233,
244, 353-5, 357-8, 359,
360-1,367,369;
curriculum, 261, 353, 362,
363, 365, 369; enrolment,
14, 165,264,352,358,359,
360,361,363,367,369,
376, 452; extra-curricular
activities, 359, 365-6,
369-70; masters and staff,
176-7, 193, 198, 206, 210,

211, 212, 213, 232, 243,

248, 352-3, 355-7, 358,
359-60, 361-5, 367-8, 368-9,
369, 370, 452; and Norval,
309,376-7,378-9,380,381
Prettie, Henry, 269-70
private schools, 63, 108
public school system, 2. See
also common schools,
grammar schools

Queen's Own Rifles, 144, 227,
248,254,331,332,333,
335, 336, 342, 346

Rendall, P. S., 207
Resident School House. See

Upper Canada College,

boarding
Reynolds, Eric, 207
Richardson, Arthur M., 377
Richardson, R. D., 103-4
Ridley College, 229, 322, 327,

452
Ridout, Godfrey, 218-20
Ridpath, John, 253
Rifle Company. See Cadet

Battalion
Rilley,John, 196
Ripley, William, 48, 51, 53,

54,57
Roberts, Harold A., 243, 257

Robertson, G. H., 296-7

Robertson, John Ross, 30, 31,
66, 72, 76, 92, 117, 269;
and College Times, 66, 76,
269-70, 271, 272; and
Landmarks of Toronto, 38, 269

Robinson, Sir John Beverley
(Chief Justice), 4, 34, 47

Robinson, John Beverley
(Lieutenant-Governor), 14,

32,33,59,94, no, 114,

124, 146,436,440
Robinson, Peter, 4, 14, 38
Rolph, E. R., 372
Romeyn, J. A., 296
Roseveare, R. V. H., 207
Ross, George W. (later Sir

George), 108-9, H2-14,

121, 123, 124, 126, 127,

131, 164, 441, 442
Ross, W.G., 312
Royal Grammar School

(York), 2-3, 3-4, 7, 8, 9, 10,

11, 12, 14, 21, 1 14, 352,

427, 429
Ruffell, Walter, 367
Ryder, Sandra, 262
Ryerson, Charles, 26, 85
Ryerson, Egerton, 63, 84-5,
107; as Superintendent of
Education, 51, 62-3, 67, 90,
91; and Upper Canada
Academy, 19-20, 25, 26;
and Upper Canada
College, 19-20, 67, 85, 90

Sadleir, Richard H., 262-3,

265, 350
St. Andrew's College, 172,

191.327,441,452
Sait, E. M., 320-1
Samuel, Sigmund, 98, 104-5
Sandwell, B. K., 157,278,

325, 345-6, 447
Sanson, W. M., 212
Scadding, Henry, 14, 18-19,

42, 46, 60, 64, 65, 69, 72,

84,86,242,386,431,432,

440

460

Schaffter, H.John P., 187,

368
Scott, Dr. A. Y., 107, 1 14, 137
Scott, K. D., 207
Seaton's House, 195, 226, 255
Second World War, 205,

227-8, 229, 230, 233, 235-8,

239,301,302-3,304,305,

326,341-2,347,366
Sharp, Norman, 226, 257,

306, 386
Shearer, I. K., 226, 306
Sherwood, Edward, 82, 352
Shipp, Douglas, 252
Simcoe, John Graves, 1-2, 4, 7
Simmons, George, 183-4, 196
Small, John T., 128
Smith, Eden, 353, 354, 355
Smith, G. Winder, 207
Smith, Goldwin, 94, 125,

126-7, 163, 165, 198,

317-18,438,442
Smith, Larratt W., 123, 436,

439, 440, 443, 444

Somerville, J. L. "The Duke".
132, 155, 164, 167, 169,
176, 188, 193, 210, 211,
212, 360, 361, 362-3, 364,
367, 386, 446, 452

Southam, William, 194

Sowby, Rev. C. W., 226, 242,
243, 245-6, 249, 253, 255,
256, 257, 258, 259, 260,
264, 326

Sparling, George Belton
"Guts", 87, 109, 114, 115,
118, 129, 130, 137, 165,
169, 358, 386

Spooner, C. R., 21 1

sports, 30, 63, 1 00- 1, 113, 120,
121, 135, 136, 142, 155,
158, 171, 199,205,208,
211, 212-13, 217, 227, 229,
252, 254, 262, 264,
295,3i4-i5,3i7-i8,32i-2,
328-30, 365, 369-70, 388-9;
baseball, 116, 142, 275,
318,319-20,323,329;
basketball, 172, 326, 327-8,
329; boxing, 180, 199, 326,

INDEX

359; cricket, 100-1, 1 16,
120, 142, 154, 178, 193,
194, 206, 272, 273, 274,
275,280,315-19,320,323,
324-5, 326, 327, 328, 329,

359, 388, 452; football, 1 16,
120, 155, 178, 194-5,269,
315,320-1,322,324-5,326,
327,329. 452; golf, 326-7;
hockey, 155, 164, 178, 226,
229,262,321-3,324-5,327,
329. 359>366, 452;
intramural teams, 195, 295,
3J9, 320, 327, 329; rowing,

264, 325, 329; rugby, J36,
178,264,320,321,329;
soccer, 136, 178, 320, 323,
328, 329, 366; swimming,

155, 158, 171, 199, 211,
325-6, 327-8, 329; tennis
and squash, 116, 136, 157,
203, 206, 262, 320, 324,
326, 328, 329, 359, 366;
track and field, 120, 136,
155, 320, 323-4, 329, 359
Spragge, George, 362
Spreckley, A. E., 207
Stanton, Robert, 10, 352
Stayner, Thomas A. and

Larry, 59, 60, 61
Stennett, Rev. Walter, 49, 51,
64-5, 66, 67, 68-9, 86, 270,
436
Stephen, Alan G. A. "Steve",
193, 206, 212, 225, 227,

360, 364-7, 367-9, 376-7,

379, 386, 449, 453, 454
Stephen House, 367, 379-80
Sternberg, Miss, 177, 212
Stevenson, Andrew, 107, 109,

147, 150
Stewards, Board of, 120, 158,
180, 197,214,227,232-3,

265, 280, 282, 296, 297,
300, 305, 328, 329, 349,
350,440-1

Stewart, W. R. "Bill", 362
Strachan, John, 4, 9, 14, 27,
34,42,63,82,384,427,
432; and education, 3-5, 15,

21, 91 ; influence on
government, 3-4, 6; and
King's College, 4-5, 7, 8,

22, 23, 44; and ucc, 1 1-12,
14, 15-16,21-2,23,44,46,
48,51-2,59,286

Strachan, Robin, 226
Suydam, H. H., 374, 375. See

also H. H. Suydam Realty

Company
Sweatman, Rev. Arthur, 87
Sweny, G. A., 339

Tatham, W. G., 207
Tattersall, Dick, 218-19, 220
Taylor, B. C, 226
Taylor, E. G, 207
Telegram, The (Toronto), 95,

in, 126
Thompson, Christopher J.,

47, 70, 76, 86, 107
Thorburn, Dr. James, 131,

437
Thring, Edward, 128, 129,

354
Tiffany, Edward M., 269-70,

270
Todd, David, 377
Toronto, 36, 51, 84, 131, 137,

193,331,332,346; and

ucc, 28, 29, 90, 91,94, 95,

113, 197,233,374,375,384
Toronto Regiment, 342
Tovell, V. M., 237
Trinity College (University of

Toronto), 56-7, 136, 274
Trinity College School, 88,

242,317,327,329,362,452
Tucker, Miss Mary, 194,

217-18, 226

university (Upper Canada),
2, 4-5, 16, 26; suspension of,
7, 8, 10, 17. See also King's
College, University of

University College

(University of Toronto), 57,
90

University of Toronto, 17,47,
50,56,57,86,87,91,94,

95,96, 104, 106, 107, 109,
112, 114, 125, 132, 136,
150-1, 158, 172, 201, 274,
332; and College Council,
54, 56; and ucc committee
of the Senate, 57, 61, 64, 65,
66,67,68,69,88, 118

University of Toronto Schools
(uts), 237, 381

Upper Canada, Province of:
1-6

Upper Canada Academy, 26

Upper Canada College, 47,
50, 51, 67; Anglican
influence in, 12, 14, 19-20,
26,48,55,62,65,99-100,
126, 127, 163,242-3,383,
433; assessments of, 25-6,
27-9,44-5,51-2,67,90,95,
108, 1 12-13, 137-8, 139-40,
191, 193, 220-1, 228-9, 265,
383-90; beginnings, 5, 6, 8,
9, io-ii, 13, 14, 16;
boarding, 18, 19, 30, 31,
32-3,50-1,55-6,57,63,64,
65, 68, 75, 76-7, 83, 85, 86,
88,89,90,91,93,94,96,
98-9, 108, 118, 123-4, 131,

133, 138-9, 1 40- 1, 143-54,
166, 172, 176, 180, 186-7,
189-90, 195-6, 197, 200,
202-3, 215, 220, 250, 327,
330, 379, 450; building
crisis, 203, 246-8, 249,

254-9,3H,366,379;
centenary, 200, 201; clubs,
78, 141-2, 157-8, 178,
185-6, 199,209, 220,239,
240, 253, 264, 296, 330,
365, 388; and Colborne,
8-13, 15, 16-17, 20; College
crest, 158-9, 440; cultural
influences, 77-8, 79, 104,
157, 158, 185-6, 192, 206,
207, 210, 218-19, 224-5,
240-1,264,298,299,300,
359, 365; curriculum in, 11,
15, 19,20,22, 27-8,43-4,
45,51,55,57,67-8,85,88,
1 14-15, 120, 125, 130,

461

UPPER CANADA COLLEGE

139-40, 168-9, 192,
199-200, 207, 215-16,
244-5,254,261-2,275,383,
385.389.431,450; Deei
Park building and grounds,
1 15-16, 1 17-20, 122, 130,

132, 133. 136, 143. '46,
154-5. 163, 165, 169, 171,

172, 186-7, 194-5. 196. 197.
200, 202-3, 207, 226-7, 233,
243,244,246-8,254-9,262,
263,265,277,283-5,314,
322,323,324,325,326,
327,371,372,374,376,

442, 443, 445, 453;
Depression, 208; discipline,
15, 68, 82-3, 103, 1 13, 122,
l3°> J57, !78, 208;
discontent with, 19-23, 25,
26,27,44,52,67,89-90,
93-6, 107, 108; educational
trips, 224, 309;
endowments, 8, 9, 15, 16,
19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 25, 26,
28, 45, 52, 54, 55, 66, 69,
85,86,89,90,91,92,93,
94,95,96, 106, 107-8, 109,
iio-i 1, 1 12, 1 13, 1 14, 1 17.
121, 124, 127, 131, 132,

133, 166, 172, 196, 197,
202, 203, 204, 243, 248,

353, 372, 375- 376, 383-4.
384-5, 388, 429, 439;
enrolment, 14, 44, 53, 62,
67,68,90,91,94, 109, 120,
125, 126, 131-2, 133, 163,
165, 169, 170, 171, 172,

173. 194. 197. 199,208-9,
243- 244, 248, 263-4, 333.
371,432,446,456; faculty
and staff, 9, 1 1, 12-13, 22,

24-5.27,37-40,41-4,47.
48,49-50,54-5,57,61,
64-6, 67, 69, 71-4, 84, 86-7,
88,89,94,96,97-101, 107,
109, 114, 120-1, 125-6,
127-9, 129-30, 132, 135-7,
155-7, 165, 166-8, 169,
170-1, 172, 174, 178-85,
192, 193, 194, 198-9, 203-7,

216-19, 220, 221, 225-6,
227, 231-2, 242, 244, 249,
262, 263, 375, 383, 384,
386-7,388,430,435,439,
441,444,446,447,448-9;
fees, 14,20,45,53,63,65,
69,92,94. in, 113, 120,
123, 125, 169, 173, 186,
193, 197, 208, 232, 243,
244,248,251, 263,384,
388, 430, 446; financial
issues, 52,53, 55, 57,61,66,
68-9,86,88, 117, 1 2 1-2,
123, 125, 127, 131, 132,
171, 173,203,208,243,
264, 371, 384; fraternities,
157, 186; funding, 9-10, 1 1,
14, 17,20,45,55,61, 1 16,
117, 120, 130, 133, 196,
200; government of, 11,
26-7,50,54,55,57,61,63,
68,69,93, 113, "4, 124,
130, 133, 133-4, 163,385-6;
health care, 30, 74, 86, 122,
'31, 153'y house system,
195-6, 209,353,440,446;
King Street buildings and
grounds, 10, 17-19, 30, 62,
64,66,76,85,91-3,94, 107,
1 1 1-12, 117, 1 18, 119, 137,
201, 278,314,323,327,
352,383,437,438;
proposed relocation (1929),
200, 201-2; religious
training, 33, 130, 131, 137,
166, 177, 240-1, 242, 245-6,
302, 428; scholarships, 163,
193-4, 196, 197-8, 243, 244,
261, 388, 436, 446; status
of, 13-14, 14-15, 16,23-4,
45, 109-10, 113, 114;
uniforms, 21 1-12, 296, 297,
303-4. See also College
Times, The; King's College,
University of; Preparatory
School; Norval; sports

Upper Canada College Act
(1894), 124,247,257

Upper Canada House, 379,
381

462

Varsity. See University of

Toronto
Varsity, The, 140, 274-5, 438
Visiles Interprovinciales, 206,

224

Wallace, Frank H., 100,

101-2
Walsh, R. F. G., 347-8
Walter, Arnold. 226
Warren, Peter, 308
Waters, Mr., I 10, 1 14
Watkins, B., 165, 183-5
Watson, J. Graeme, 230, 242,

377,378
Wedd, William, 54-5, 58, 60,

64, 65, 66, 70, 73, 84, 86,

98, 107, 109, 1 14, 1 18, 120,

198,272,275,386
Wedd's House, 136, 195, 255,

256, 257
Weeks, John, 231-2
Wells, Joseph, 45, 432
Williamson, A. E., 155, 299
Willison, Sir John, 175, 194,

198,342,442,446
Wilson, H. H., 248, 249
Wilson, T. H., 141
Wood, S. C, 123, 124, 440
Woodruff, Hamilton, 320
Woods, D. M., 261
Worrall, James, 226
Wright (gardener), 190, 284

York (Upper Canada), 5, 6,

10, 434; favouritism

towards, 19-20; schools in,

2-3, 7, 8, 10, 20, 26
Young, Archibald Hope,

98-9, 115, 146, 147, 149,

150, 154,442
Young, George Paxton, 100
Young, Thomas, 25, 77

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