Maxine Spencer (née Cocking)

I started my education at Adelaide Technical High School in 1937, with the knowledge that I was privileged to have been chosen to attend the school. As I had more or less coasted along to that point, to the extent of often ‘wagging it’ and spending the day sitting on my case in Forest Avenue on the way to Black Forest Primary School, reading a book until the baker, spotting me on his rounds, informed my mother where I was, Adelaide Tech was a rather rude awakening.

Although the classes were mixed, the girls weren’t allowed to use the front stairs unless it was raining, which I always thought rather strange, especially as the back stairs were high iron steps which you could see through. I can’t say that I made any long-term friendships there, although I remember many of the girls, and a few of the boys, in class, but we were so busy rushing from one class room to another there didn’t seem ever to be enough time. The only time we had a permanent room was in Leaving, when we were allotted the Tower, so that was quite a step up!

However, we all worked very hard, as it was a competitive atmosphere. Some of the classes I loved. One of them was the shorthand classes conducted by Miss McBride, a dedicated and wonderful teacher who made her lessons humorous and interesting.²¹ The other, geography, was conducted by Miss Topperwein who, interestingly enough, was far from humorous. In fact I was humiliated one day by her calling me out to the front and informing my fellow students that I only got good marks because I learned everything by heart. As at that time I was terribly sensitive and shy, blushing turkey red at the slightest hint, it was an unforgettable moment. Actually she was right that I had a retentive memory, at that time any way, which stood me in good stead in my later years of acting and singing.

My worst scholastic efforts were in the maths class conducted by Mr Cannell, a brilliant man who wrote the text book. He sailed along mostly addressing the boys, who were really ahead of the girls in that regard, and I can honestly say I only understood 25% of anything he ever said.

We were set reams of homework, so that we nearly all managed to get through the Intermediate in two years instead of the normal three. In retrospect a lot must have been expected of the teachers also, which accounted for Miss Clark²² flying into rages some of the time to our great amusement. Mr Sid Moyle was the headmaster, a man who commanded great respect from all and sundry.

The Leaving was 1939 – and World War II, which I can’t recall affecting me at school apart from several of the boys leaving to go into the armed forces. My life continued to be a continual race up and down North Terrace laden with books, and begging to be excused from classes to play tennis in the school team. Begging was the operative word as sport was certainly not meant to interfere with the main business of education.

I sat for the Leaving examinations on my fifteenth birthday, passed, and then found great difficulty getting a job after all that hard work. The constant refrain was that I didn’t have any experience, nor were they prepared to give me a job to gain some. Eventually I went to Muirden’s College to brush up on my typewriting skills which had languished during the Leaving year, as it was not a subject, and was employed by Jacobs’ Ltd, per courtesy of my uncle who was an accountant there.

During this time I was given a scholarship by Madame Delmar Hall to learn singing at the Conservatorium, so resumed my scurrying up and down North Terrace again, working subsequently for SA Railways during the war, and Vacuum Oil before I married. My main love was singing and acting, so work really was the means of continuing my studies. Most of our performances were for charity and I joined the WANS (Women’s Australian National Service) as I could not be released from the South Australian Railways.

My love of shorthand, typing and correct English has stood me in good stead as, during my life, whenever the need arose, I always managed to get a job to help things along. Even when my first husband Norman Leigh Wright, who also went to Adelaide Tech, died at 46, I had no trouble obtaining a good job which I was forced to do. When subsequently visiting my married daughter in England I still managed to find work.

I always continued studying, so maybe the school instilled some very good habits in me, although my preferences have always been in the arts. I was a member of the Royal Queensland Arts Society when I lived and painted there.

I mentioned that my first husband attended Adelaide Tech. He was younger and doing technical studies. He was a brilliant man in the refrigeration engineering field and, in fact, taught for years at the School of Mines in Adelaide. When we lived in Western Australia, he conducted classes in refrigeration mechanics from our home. However, all his life he struggled for recognition, as he didn’t have the magic university degree. He was apprenticed at Kelvinator in fitting and turning and went through every department through to sales, but always when going for top jobs, someone with a degree got the job and literally picked his brains to carry out their duties.

Finally, after many moves seeking better and better positions, he was Australian Sales manager for a group in Queensland which became part of Email. That, and a short stint in the RAAF, put unbearable stress on him and contributed, I’m sure, to his early demise. I hope that more recognition is now being given in business to men who have not been privileged to attend university, but have come to the top of their profession ‘through the ranks’.

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