Page 17 - Southwell School Chronicle July 2018

In each School newsletter to parents
a small section at the end, titled From the Archives, is published. One of
the snippets included recently made reference to John MacDuff who, as it was reported by the Headmaster in the 1962 magazine “insisted every morning on sweeping and dusting the Chapel himself. He had a very high standard
of how the Chapel should look.” John was contacted to share this story
and indeed, he does remember his fastidiousness!
John went on to share more of his story as to why he came to Southwell:
“My Dad commandeered the 22nd Battalion during the Second World War and Paul Sergel was his Padre. We were living in Kenya during the Mau Mau war and Dad was a judge working in the Colonial Service and felt it was too dangerous for my sister and me to stay. So we were both sent back to New Zealand to boarding school (aged 9). After Southwell, I then went
onto St Paul’s, at Paul Sergel’s recommendation, as my father had then been transferred to Fiji as Chief Justice”.
As Head Boy in 1962, John was awarded the Barron Cooper Memorial Prize
JOHN MCDUFF, HEAD BOY 1962
at the 1962 School Prize Giving. The then Headmaster, Paul Sergel, wrote
a personal letter to all boys when they left and in his letter to John he included the story behind the Barron Cooper Memorial Prize which reads:
“Barron Cooper was a boy who attended Southwell in the 1930s and in 1938 I think it was, was appointed Head Prefect by my father rather against the wishes of most of the staff, who were against the sort of heavyweight boxing champion type as Head.
Cooper had no sooner been appointed than I had a ring from his father to
say his mother was taken seriously ill and had been rushed to the Waikato Hospital. I took Barron up there and he was allowed to see his mother for a few minutes, but she was obviously dying. I think the news that he was Head Prefect was about the last thing she understood in this world. Two days later we held the funeral service in the Chapel with the family and the prefects only present. I think this rather upsetting start would have “knocked out” most boys as Head Prefects, but not Cooper. He was one of the best.
The next thing I remember about him was reading a letter from my father when I was with your father in Cassino that Barron Cooper was in the RAF
in Italy in a certain squadron. A few weeks later near Florence I found this squadron and when I enquired about S. Leader Cooper I found he had crashed and been killed a day or two before. So I never met up with him again.
After the war when I had been appointed Headmaster of Southwell
for some months, Mr Cooper called on me. He was then head of the whole
of Dalgety’s Limited, large stock and station agents in NZ and overseas. He wanted to do something for the school as a memorial to his only son Barron.
I suggested that the £100 which he gave me be put in the bank and each year we would draw the interest and whenever the Head Prefect did his job well in the Headmaster’s opinion, then the money by interest should buy him
a prize and his name should be put on the Honour’s Board. So that is the story behind your Barron Cooper Memorial Prize.”
John MacDuff lives in Nelson with his wife Linda.
FEATURE
FROM THE ARCHIVES
Southwell School 1st XV 1962
Back Row: G.B. Given, P. Mandeno, D. Ashmore, J. MacDuff, P. Jonkers, N. Gray, K. Brownlie, P. Stampa Front Row: I. Kennedy, A. Reese, T.Wilcox, J. Auld, J. Worth (Captain), R. Whitelaw, C. Roberts, T.Huata, A. Belcher
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