Melbourne Grammar
 Melbourne Grammar(School)    | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Formation | 7 April 1858 |
| Headquarters |  Melbourne,  Victoria,  Australia |
| Type | • independent • Anglican |
| Melbourne establishment school with influential old boys network that "opens up pathways." | |
Melbourne Grammar School is an Australian independent Anglican day and boarding school. It comprises a co-educational preparatory school from Prep to Year 6 and a middle school and senior school for boys from Years 7 to 12.
Old Melburnians
The school states that its "18,000-member alumni network is an important part of the Melbourne Grammar School community."[1]
Melbourne Grammar has produced four premiers and three prime ministers – Alfred Deakin, Stanley Bruce and Malcolm Fraser. Its main establishment rival, Scotch College, claims five Victorian premiers including Sir Harry Lawson, William Shiels and John MacPherson.[2]
At the 2010 state election both Labor Premier John Brumby and opposition leader Ted Baillieu were Old Melburnians (from Melbourne Grammar) or OMs. In parliament, Premier Jeff Kennett once niggled Brumby and his deputy, John Thwaites as “the two girls from Melbourne Grammar”.[2]
Graeme Samuel AC is both an insider and outsider in Melbourne’s corporate and political worlds. An old Wesley boy, he was an important player in the city’s legal and business scene in the 1980s and 90s, and says there’s “no doubt” Melbourne had a culture of powerful men-only clubs and school ties when it was the “centre of Australian corporate activity”. [2]
The former Liberal MP and Howard-era minister John Ridley also tells of an insider atmosphere. “I was constantly amazed at how often I was asked what school I went to...You would be invited to someone’s house for dinner and you would meet people and they would invariably ask.”[2]
When Ridley started a legal career he was surprised by repeated references to Melbourne Grammar and Scotch College in particular. “It was clear that going to either opened up pathways. There were law firms that exclusively employed graduates from Melbourne Grammar and Scotch,” says Ridley, who was to become chief of staff to then foreign minister Andrew Peacock, a Scotch Old Boy, and, some time later, the Victorian Liberal Party director when another Scotch graduate, Jeff Kennett, led the party.[2]
Related Quotation
| Page | Quote | Author | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scotch College | “When I first received an inquiry about my availability to come and talk at this school, I was naturally reluctant. After all, this school has little to recommend it in the eyes of the wider community. Historically it has been simply a machine for the transmission of inherited privilege. When I think of Scotch College, what comes immediately to mind are the values and actions of its most prominent Old Boys. On the other hand, I thought, 'Well, all this is hardly the fault of the current crop of students.' It is not your fault, after all, that your families decided to institutionalise you. It is not your fault that your mothers and fathers elected to place you in the emotionally distorting and educationally deficient environment of an all-boys school. Right now, you are the victims. Later, of course, society will be your victim, and will suffer from the attitudes with which you are indoctrinated here.” | Shane Maloney | 2001 |
Alumni on Wikispooks
| Person | Born | Died | Nationality | Summary | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Richard Casey | 29 August 1890 | 17 June 1976 | Australia | Spook Deep politician | Australian who founded ASIS |
| Malcolm Fraser | 21 May 1930 | 20 March 2015 | Politician | Prime Minister of Australia from the 1975 coup until 1983. | |
| Jeremy Howard | 13 November 1973 | Australia | Businessperson | Started business working for digitalisation of healthcare. Then at the very start of the COVID-event he organized worldwide campaign for mandatory face masks, making face-to-face health care very difficult. World Economic Forum Young Global Leader. | |
| Rex Leeper | 25 March 1888 | 2 February 1968 | Diplomat Propagandist | ||
| Keith Officer | 2 October 1889 | 21 June 1969 | Australia | Diplomat | One of the founders of the Australian Foreign Service. Single Bilderberg. |
| Roger Wheeler | 16 December 1941 | Soldier Businessperson |
