Honouring the fallen and the vision of our founders

Last weekend, in marking Anzac Day and Founders’ Day, our College community paid tribute to those who helped make us who we are today.

Honouring the fallen this Anzac Day, well over 50 students (over half those in residence during the pandemic) woke up early to “light up the dawn” in small groups at different vigil locations around College.

During the day, small groups (also observing social distancing requirements) took walking tours to show their respect at various war memorials around Adelaide city.

Our students also marked around the College pond the names of the 20 Collegians who died in World War II – whose names are forever recorded in a plaque in our War Memorial Building. Students have undertaken research on their lives, which has been posted on the internal student Facebook page.

As in many past years, the RAAF flag flew in the College for Anzac Day, acknowledging our historical connection to the Royal Australian Air Force. During World War II, from late 1940 on, the College was occupied by the RAAF and then the Women’s Auxiliary Australian Air Force.

Anzac Day is also St Mark’s Day. Our founders – many of whom had served in World War I, and all of whom were affected by it – named the College “St Mark’s” after the Saint on whose day the Anzac landings at Gallipoli had taken place in 1915.

Each year the College marks Founders’ Day on the Sunday closest to Anzac Day. The College’s annual observances honour the sacrifices of those who served and died in war and also the sacrifices of those who worked and gave to create and to sustain the College since 1925.

While unable to hold our normal Founders’ Day service and other planned activities under pandemic conditions, we honoured our founders, including these key individuals memorialised in portraits around the College: Sir Archibald Grenfell Price, Sir Henry Newland DSO, Canon Julian Bickersteth MC, Charles Hawker MP, and Dudley Turner.

We are grateful for their labours and generosity, which have created the College from which so many students have benefited and benefit today, and we commit to hand on this inheritance even better for future generations of students, for whom the College will continue to offer life-changing opportunities, as the founders intended.

Image: Nyah Bester, Miah Sherry and Rosie Costigan-Dwyer display student-made poppies in preparation for Anzac Day

Image: Sarah Whyte, Ashlee Nichol and Rosie Costigan-Dwyer display student-made poppies in preparation for Anzac Day

Image: St Mark’s students “light up the dawn” on Pennington Terrace

Image: Student-made Anzac Day tributes displayed in front of College

Image: The RAAF Flag flies at half-mast on the morning of Anzac Day

Image: Students prepared a tribute to fallen Collegians in chalk

Image: The names of fallen Collegians, remembered in chalk

Image: The memorial plaque in Memorial Building. Sir Archibald Grenfell Price wrote that to these names should be added Dr William Delano Walker and Flying Officer Alexander Charles Douglas, who were killed with the Forces before hostilities commenced.