THE SCOTS COLLEGE
Founders
Dr Archibald Gilchrist
Munro, May: In Old Aspinall’s Day: The Scots College from 1893-1930.
Wentwort0h Press, Sydney 1961
“If it had not been for Dr Gilchrist’s dogged perseverance and unquenchable zeal, this institution
would never have started. He struggled on when almost every member of the committee appointed
with him had given up in despair. He lived to see his efforts crowned with success and the
establishment of The Scots College is a striking testimony to his indefatigable zeal.”
Dr Dill Macky’s address to the boy at Speech Day 1896.
Dr Gilchrist was only 53 when he died and his death was a great blow to the development of the
College of which Gilchrist was to have been the principal. Arriving in Sydney from Scotland as a
young boy, he attended Fort Street School and the Sydney Grammar School, leaving to become a
Presbyterian catechist, preaching his first sermon at 19. He was ordained in 1868, being one of the
earliest trained candidates for the Ministry. He spent five years at Newtown Church where under the
influence of the fiery Dr Dunmore Lang he was translated to Scots Church. As early as 1890, the
General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church moved for the establishment of a Presbyterian boys’
school in Sydney. A committee was formed but nothing was accomplished until Gilchrist, who
believed ‘that it could be done’ called together a few stalwarts like himself, Reverend William Dill
Mackay and Reverend Arthur Aspinall, who were determined to go ahead and do something. After
Aspinall agreed to be guarantor, premises were found, legal advice sought, documents drawn up and
an agreement entered into and they proceeded with plans for opening a boy’s school. The startled
members of the Assembly who had given up all hope of ever having the boys’ school and were now
confronted with the success of Dr Gilchrist and his committee. A constitution was drawn up and the
school opened at Lady Robinson’s Beach, Rockdale in 1893.
Founders
Reverend William Marcus Dill Macky
Munro, May: In Old Aspinall’s Day: The Scots College from 1893-1930.
Wentwort0h Press, Sydney 1961
“He brought with him much of the fiery zeal which characterized his countrymen, and whenever the
Church was involved in any argument, ‘Fighting Mac’ as he was known, was always to the fore”
From the Founder’s Day Oration 1958.
Dill Macky arrived in Australia from County Derry in Northern Ireland and was inducted to the Scots
Church on 17 May 1887. During his 26 years of ministering in the Scots Church, it is said that he was
one of the most highly-esteemed and most widely known and popular ministers in NSW. His
character is forever epitomised on the memorial tablet erected in the entrance to the Scots Church in
York Street which reads, ‘A champion for righteousness and freedom and one of whom it can be said
he never feared the face of man’.
He joined forces with Gilchrist and Aspinall to investigate the possibility of starting a school and
lent his enthusiasm to the many sub-committees formed by the Assembly. When the school opened
in 1893 he was appointed as one of the trustees and took over the property on behalf of the Church at
Lady Robinson’s Beach in 1893.
He died in October 1913.
Founders
Dr Arthur Aspinall
Munro, May: In Old Aspinall’s Day: The Scots College from 1893-1930.
Wentwort0h Press, Sydney 1961
“He encourages a wonderful spirit of co-operation and citizenship and he taught us to live decently
with other people.”
Born in Yorkshire, England in 1846 he was educated at a private school before entering Sydney
University in 1871. In 1873, at the age of 27, he was ordained as a Presbyterian Minister later
becoming a country parson at Forbes where he met and married Helen Strahorn. The wedding was
solemnised by the Reverend John Dunmore Lang who was a personal friend. They had five children,
one daughter Jessie and four sons, Archie, Eric, Arthur and Robert who was killed 1917 during WW1. In
1887, when he was 40, the family moved to Sydney and in 1888 he became the minister at the Regent
Street Church of St Luke’s Redfern. In 1890 the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church agreed
to investigate the feasibility of establishing a Presbyterian boys College and after forming a
committee nothing more eventuated. A new committee was formed which included the two men who
were to become joint founders of the College with the Rev. Aspinall, the Rev. Archibald Gilchrist and
the Rev. William Dill-Macky. Aspinall accepted the risk and control, finding the funds needed to open
the College. At the first speech day in 1893 Mr Aspinall stated that he would endeavour to carry out
the principles in school training of boys laid down by Dr Arnold of Rugby, namely, moral and religious
principles, gentlemanly conduct and intellectual ability. Opening in 1893 at Lady Robinson’s Beach
in Rockdale, in July 1895 the College moved to St Killians, Bellevue Hill. It was known as ‘School
House’ and there were 55 boys enrolled. ‘School House’ was renamed Aspinall House in 1913.