When we first came to King’s, Elvis was already the king of rock’n’roll, and was doing his military service in Germany. Fidel Castro had just ousted Batista in Cuba, and Queensland was celebrating one hundred years of separation from New South Wales. Rubber thongs or ‘flip-flops’ had just appeared on the trendy scene from Japan, soon to become a symbol of youth culture. Hugh Cornish would appear as the first face on Television in Queensland and Wally Lewis was about to be born. Lady Chatterley’s Lover was about to be freed from censorship overseas, and a smuggled copy was soon to circulate inside a brown paper in College. The microchip and the contraceptive pill were ready to be released on the world.

How then did King’s College St Lucia feel to the freshers of 1959? Australia was in a period of post-war growth and confidence. Although it was less than fifteen years since the war had ended, we all looked forward, not back. We were the product of a good secondary education, had passed the Senior (public) examination and most of us had State Government Cadetships or Commonwealth Scholarships to pay our Uni fees. Moreover, if your parents couldn’t afford to support you there was usually a living allowance as well. King’s at St Lucia was a new, modern symbol of all this optimism. Its capacity of eighty was about to be doubled, so it was a construction site as well.

King’s then was also the training college for the clergy of the Methodist Church. In addition to their ministry training, these theological students were expected to do another University degree; many were excellent students. Our ranks included some thirty theologs (logs for short); this was a shock to many, both logs and the rest of us, but I am sure we were all the better for living, working and playing together. Fresh from the strictures of school and home, to most of us this was an exciting new world. My good friend Ron Store speaks of “…the maelstrom of competing ideas, the range of perspectives from students preparing for different professions, and the different world views held.  The intellectual ferment was both exciting and challenging.  Suddenly a new world of music, art, literature and ideas began to inform my intellectual and spiritual development. The friendships formed then have endured throughout my life”.
 

For me, the diversity was marvellous. Here we lived among true characters, both in our peer group and among the Gentlemen of the College. Our colleague Henry Askin styled himself on Elvis, complete with leer, brush-back hairdo, purple shirt and stovepipe pants; this was no ordinary guy. Amongst the Senior Men were such characters as Bernie Hughson, of serious demeanour and powerful intellect, the pipe-smoking Vice-Master Clyde Braithwaite, middle-aged since birth and the genial wit, Bob Hearnden. Many an informal discussion group would spring up, especially in the evenings, and often last for hours. Usually in someone’s room, these were known as ‘brothels’, presumably because someone once came upon a smoke-filled room with people draped all around the room and remarked “What a brothel!”. No sexual connotations at all, just a messy-looking conversation group, part of growing up. Kingsmen rode bikes, mopeds, Vespas, and motorbikes of all types, usually without helmets. Fresher Kyte’s hard-to-start moped, Ian Mavor’s stately US Army Harley Davidson and Noel Phelan’s fast BSA Golden Flash come to mind. They drove cars that were a delight to enthusiasts, which some of us were. Who could forget the moustachioed, ramrod-straight Eric Ratcliff in his Ford Model A tourer, Dick Wharton in the amply padded 1934 Dodge or Rodney Chambers’ pram-like Austin Seven?  My own Model A Ford Coupe was sold to the King’s College Students’ Club War Sub-committee for sixpence (I still have the receipt) and became a legendary Brisbane River vessel, the KTPMV Wyvernia, a story for another time.

Social life was simpler then. At a Methodist College there was to be strictly no alcohol, and dancing had never been allowed either. One view was that alcohol was so dangerous it could actually lead to dancing. For all that, things loosened up just a little. One or two of you may have noticed in an edition last year of The Wyvern magazine, my wife Jan’s picture among the Women of Kings. Well, Jan has been a Woman of Kings for a long time.  She and I are proud that we attended the first dance ever held in King’s College, around 1960. This was real progress, as it was more jazz, rock’n’roll and jiving than old-time waltzing – but the sky didn’t fall in. A straight-forward exercise, compared with a College Ball today, I expect.

This was also the era of dogs and monkeys riding rockets into space. Our year group experimented with various propellants ranging from conventional fireworks skyrockets (then freely available) to cordite, obtained by taking apart .303 rifle ammunition (also freely available). Finally, the team of Askin, Stringer, Stockwell and Tulip came up with the fuel combination of zinc dust and sulphur that sent the first rocket ever from King’s (multi-stage, perhaps?) right across the Brisbane River. From a more senior group, inspired by the space-race between the USA and Russia, Messrs Mackenzie, Tooth and Elkins perfected the recovery of an animal in a detaching capsule. Excited Kingsmen gathered one swot-vac on the oval outside Emmanuel to witness the amazing spectacle: a two-stage conventional skyrocket zipped skywards; with perfect timing at the very peak of the trajectory a tom-thumb cracker ignited and out popped a tiny clear plastic cylinder which fell gracefully to earth, dangling from a silk-handkerchief parachute. Cheers all round. Inside, a tiny green frog named Frednik, alive and well.

Although there were plenty of engineering and science students amongst us, we were not simply ‘tech-heads’ and cultural philistines. The diversity of courses and personalities was something to thrive on. Kingsmen came from all over Queensland, from Tasmania and Western Australia, New Zealand and Asia. They included all types, from wowsers to playboys. Many a Kingsman was a fan of classical music. Each year King’s collaborated with Women’s College to stage a play which was well-supported. The system of three academic terms with almost all assessment depending on exams at year’s end made it possible for such endeavours to be attacked with gusto. Inter-college sport was well-established. (As an old front-row forward I am pleased to say that rugby scrums were contested in those days). Daily chapel was available, dinner table place settings mixed up year groups and disciplines to the benefit of all. Matron presided over the house arrangements. Professor Trigge ended a distinguished career as Master and the era of the legendary Dr Ian “Clarrie” Grimmett began. Both these men were of course head of the Theological College as well.

Enough detailed reminiscence – what was it then that made King’s so special as we grew through these formative years? At a basic level, it was such a convenient place to live, with convivial company, beds made, rooms cleaned and food provided only five or ten minutes from lectures. But of course it was so much more than that. The comradeship, the diversity, the shared values, the support and simple good fun all were part of that indefinable spirit of what it means to be a Kingsman. We had traditions too – although that may be an over-used term. (The Master tells me of a recent definition of tradition as anything that has happened more than once!). We were fond of ways or happenings that we spoke of as ‘just a thing’. Tea-O was supper in the common room at 9:30pm, announced on the PA by the fresher on phone duty exactly thus: “Gentlemen and Freshers, Tea-O is served”. That was ‘just a thing’. We pitied Emmanuel, brawled good-naturedly with John’s and so on, secure in the knowledge that ours was clearly the best college and we aimed to keep it that way. The initiation or orientation that the fresher system provided was an important factor here. Time has altered the nature of things perhaps, and it’s more concentrated in today’s “O week” but the purpose is the same: amongst all the diversity, to convey and bed down the values that matter if you are to be known as a Kingsman.

So how does the King’s of today measure up? Only a current Kingsman or Kingswoman can really tell you – I will tell you how it looks to me. I see a College that cares about its people, its performance and its spirit. I see a College that values the making of complete men and women, along with academic achievement. I see an organisation that is orderly and efficient, with emphasis on leadership and governance. Above all, to me, when I am here, King’s always feels just like it used to, and that is a compliment. The CEO, the staff, the Council and the students all deserve our thanks and support in what they do. This is surely one reason you are all here today. So please, keep it up - it’s really worth it!

John Miles (King's 1959 - 1962) 

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