George Metcalfe

George Metcalfe (29 April 1837 – 29 May 1927) was a London-born Australian educationalist, school proprietor and writer. As proprietor and Headmaster of the High School, Goulburn, he was responsible for the pre-university education of two Premiers of New South Wales. Early life Little is known of Metcalfe's life or education in London prior to his arrival in Australia. In January 1858 he commenced teaching as the fourth master at the Flinders School in Geelong, Victoria. With the arrival of George Morrison as Headmaster in 1859 he was promoted to the position of third master. He passed the Victorian matriculation exam in November 1860 and entered the University of Melbourne in March 1862. In April 1866, Metcalfe was awarded a Bachelor of Arts. That year he was appointed to the staff of South Melbourne Grammar School where in advertising he was referred to as G. Metcalfe Esq., B.A., Honourman in Arts and Laws University of Melbourne. Newington College With his newly awarded degree, Metcalfe was appointed Headmaster at Newington College at Newington House in Silverwater, New South Wales, late in 1866. At the time, Newington had a system of dual-control and he served with the Rev. Joseph Horner Fletcher as President. The school had been founded in 1863 as the Wesleyan Collegiate Institute with the Rev. James Egan Moulton as Headmaster awaiting the arrival of Thomas Johnston in that role. Johnston then developed a sound academic program at Silverwater but Fletcher was keen to further this and so Metcalfe with his BA, a notable achievement in the mid-1860s, was deemed a worthy successor. At this time Metcalfe was seen as a "finished classical scholar with an intense appreciation of the great Greek and Latin writers". In 1868 he was awarded a Master of Arts from the University of Sydney. He also introduced an early form of Australian Rules Football at Newington in 1867 as he had been Vice-President of the Geelong Football Club in 1861, which had been founded in 1859. In 1869 Newington was the first school to play Rugby Union in Australia.