Raymond Theel

They did not know it then but the students at ‘the Tech’ during those years were to be affected by the events of 1939-1945. Several hundreds passing through their secondary schooling at that time reached their ‘majority’ during the Second World War and were embroiled with a significant number paying a high price.

These school years also comprised the end of the depression years, but the innocence of youth probably meant that most students were unaware of the stresses on their families at that time.

From the twin stone entrance steps from North Terrace up the flights of wooden stairs to the main school on the top floor and then down the outside of the rear of the building on the iron fire escape stairs (in daily use for access however) a school day provided a good deal of climbing that almost obviated the need for physical education lessons.

Lockers were also a pivotal part of the school day as the students moved from classroom to classroom pausing at their lockers in the wide corridors to exchange text books and other impedimenta.

Lunch recess provided the daily pilgrimage to the sports ground down the plane-treed canopy of Frome Road, passing the sheetmetal classroom on the left and the Dental Hospital on the right. At the ground, situated adjacent to the rear of the Botanical Gardens and park and opposite the site of the former University Oval, the students indulged in cricket, tennis, football or, in the case of the males, girl-watching.

Our instructors were dedicated and caring professionals usually known by their first names among students but, to their faces, essentially ‘Sir’. However, when I returned home each day, one of them became ‘Dad’. Apart from some ribbing from school mates, this was not a disadvantage – my home-based tutorials led me to first year successes in that subject (but not repeated in subsequent years!)

Percy E. Theel was physics instructor for the School of Mines from some time prior to his service in the Australian Imperial Forces – 1916 to 1919 – until his retirement about 1960. During that time he also gave instruction in that subject to the many hundreds of ‘technical’ students of ‘the Tech’.¹²

The notable events of the school year included the annual picnic – by steam train to Belair National Park and the examinations in the lofty Brookman Hall on the first floor of the building which, of course, was the South Australian School of Mines.

School days were good days at ‘the Tech’ and the writer cannot recall any aspects of dislike. The highlights were the kindling of boy-girl relationships, encounters on the sports field and finally being the only male student from Adelaide Technical High School to achieve a credit pass in Leaving English in that final year – marginally dimmed by being surpassed by one Naida B. who was the only female from the school to have a similar result. The headmaster, who was the English teacher, probably almost had apoplexy on finding such an unlikely male name in the Advertiser list of results.

In the years that followed many of the ATHS boys and girls made their mark as managers and executives in commerce and industry in the state despite a widely held belief at that time that a public¹³ school background was necessary to find such appointments.

The concept of technical high schools seemed a worthwhile one to the students who were thereby given introduction to a selection of subjects including the ‘hands on’ of woodwork and sheetmetal work for instance. The school also provided a commercial course for both boys and girls so that there was a wide choice of subjects to assist young people in determining the direction of their ultimate vocation.

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