Wellesley College (New Zealand)

For other articles under the same title, visit the disambiguation page.

Wellesley College
Location
11B Main Road, Days Bay Eastbourne, Wellington, New Zealand
Coordinates	41.2781°S 174.9065°E / -41.2781; 174.9065
Information
Type	Independent, Boys, full primary (Years 1-8)
Motto	Amat Victoria Curam "Victory favours those who take pains" Success loves effort
Established	1913
Ministry of Education Institution no.	4149
Principal	Warren Owen
School roll	330
Socio-economic decile	10
Website	wellesley.school.nz

Wellesley College is a boys-only independent primary school in Day's Bay, Eastbourne, New Zealand.

History

Day's Bay and some ferries about 1925

Day's Bay House was built in 1903 for the Wellington Steam Ferry Company Limited which had made the heart of Day's Bay a destination resort and sports complex. The hotel operation met with only moderate success and in 1913 with its immediate surrounds, 4 acres, it was sold to Miss Gladys Sommerville so she might expand her successful Croydon School then at 81 Hill Street Thorndon.

Croydon

With little or no change Day's Bay House became Croydon Preparatory School for Boys. The old croquet-lawn became the sports field and in the 1920s the hotel's bowling-green became the boys' tennis courts. The rugby field remained at the southern side of the driveway but was not part of school grounds. The Pavilion and its amusements like the ferries and their wharf became part of (out-of-bounds) school life.

Upstairs on the northern side two pairs of bedrooms became dorms 1 and 2 and the upstairs guest sitting-room became dorm 3. Ultimately the (lightly) enclosed upstairs central verandah became a dormitory for the bigger boys. A comparatively well-built first-floor room was added on high posts at the north-east corner to form a sick-bay. The main sitting-room was used by the principal but otherwise all accommodation and facilities were used as for the hotel. Boys were not permitted to use the main staircase.

Two corrugated-iron walled additions were soon made, possibly by the Diocesan Board, at the back of the main building; an assembly hall cum gymnasium with a very rarely-used fireplace and a two-storied block of four small classrooms behind it, each with a tiny fireplace. Infant classes remained in the main building.

Miss Sommerville returned to direct the school from her house in Hill Street.

Wellington Diocesan Boys' School (Croydon)

In 1919 the Wellington Diocesan Board took over Croydon (and also Mrs Swainson's school renaming it Marsden). The new name for the school did not 'stick' and soon it reverted to Croydon.

The school flagpole was the mast of the Cobar. The original Cobar was the steam yacht of the General Manager of The Great Cobar Copper Mining Company Limited in NSW Australia. In retirement it became an Eastbourne ferry and the name has since been re-used for successors.

Wellesley

In 1940 Mr William Hutton Stevens, who was lame and known to many as ‘Hoppy’, leased the premises from the Wellington Diocesan Board and moved his school, Wellesley College, which had previously been situated on the Terrace (and was spoken of by some as "not a proper school, a crammer's") to Days Bay and over lasting resistance he declared the two schools merged.

Houses

Wellesley of 2012 will have four houses;Marlborough,Wellington,Selwyn and Croydon.

Welllington Diocesan Board

In 1965 the Diocesan Board regained management of the premises and in the end elected to retain the name Wellesley.

In the 1980s the corrugated-iron additions with the sick-bay annexe and laundry were demolished and new buildings erected there and on the former bowling-green tennis courts.

Principals

• Ellen Gladys Sommerville (1884 – 1958), founder
• Rev Richard Henry Hobday MA BD (1879 – ) 1920-1922
• Claude Henry Thomas Skelley (1880 – 1962), 1922-1940
• William Hutton Stevens (1893 – 1980), 1940-1965

Notable alumni

• Georgina Beyer(1957 – ), World's first transsexual MP
• Lord Cooke of Thorndon (1926 – 2006), Eminent New Zealand judge.
• Marc Ellis (1971 – ), a former New Zealand rugby league and rugby union player, businessman, and television presenter.
• Alan Gibbs (1939 – ), creator of the Aquada amphibious vehicle.
• Peter Harcourt (1923 – 1995), Broadcaster, Actor, playwright. Attended Wellesley 1928 - 1932. Peter prepared and published in 1990 a commissioned history of Croydon School 1907-1940.
• Jock Hobbs (1960 – ), All Black from 1983 to 1986, played 21 tests and 18 matches. Chairman of the New Zealand Rugby Union since 2002, who has led NZs successful bid to host the 2011 World Cup. On 5 June 2006 Mr Hobbs was made a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit. His son Michael will be playing for the Blues rugby Super 15 team in 2012.
• Cobber Kain, Edgar James Kain (1918 – 1940), first RAF air ace of World War II, the first recipient of the Distinguished Flying Cross in World War II 1940.
• Sir John Ormond (1905 – 1995), Chairman of the New Zealand Meat Board
• Selwyn Toogood (1916 – 2001), a New Zealand radio and television personality. He was the originator of game show It's in the Bag.
• Robert Vance (1955 – ), New Zealand Cricketer, called up summer of 1987-88. Played 4 tests and 8 one day internationals.
• Richard Wilkins (1954 – ), an Australian TV Personality who spent two years at Wellesley College and was awarded Runner-up Dux in his final year.

Notable staff

• Jack Lamason) (1905 – 1961), NA Cricket representative 1935/1936 and 1937/1938.
• Arthur Porritt (1900 – 1994), Sole Games Master 1919, New Zealand Olympic representative and Governor-General. A great athlete, like his friend David Cecil he required his name to be changed (to Tom Watson) in the film Chariots of Fire.
• Roger Mexted (1962?-2011)

External links

• Wellesley College School Website
• Wellington Diocese - Wellesley College
• Day's Bay about 1910 click on Link to archived copy
• Day's Bay House about 1910
• The Cobar about 1950