The Diary of Iris Vaughan The Lamonts of Adelaide and other school friends The long summer school holidays came to an end in January 1902. Cecil Vaughan took up his new position as Assistant Resident Magistrate (this position fell under the Resident Magistrate of Fort Beaufort), and Iris and Charles were enrolled in the Adelaide Public School (picture 1 shows its location in Grey St. The school’s three gables are clearly visible; and the school hall is being built to the right, but this was long after Iris had left the school. Picture 2 shows the school in 2008; not much changed). “This is the first time at this new school. I am in standard 4. The new sums of practice and fractions I cannot do. Why must children have it so hard to learn this strange thing about 20 doz. boxes at 2/6 each and 60 gross at shilling and a half and the mentle makes me giddy in my head to add so fast.” Iris was 11 years old at the time; the right age for Std 4 (Gr 6). Clearly she was a bit behind in Arithmetic, having been home-schooled and tutored by Robert Mateza in Maraisburg. Notice how she dismisses what used to be called ‘story sums’ as mere hardships foisted on children to endure! She goes on: “The man who has the school is Mr Donald. They call him Jonny Bok becos he has a beard like a goat. He has a brother who has a shop which has strange windows with rolling iron shuters on them so that no one can rob. He has many children Simon and Josey and Connie and Mona and Matt and Martin.” As is the case with most of the families in Adelaide, all these names have been changed. The principal of the Adelaide Public School since about 1888 was James ‘Johnny Bok’ Lamont (not Mr Donald). Johnny Lamont was dismissed from his position in 1902 after some disagreement with the District School Committee over the teaching of Dutch. I have never managed to get to the bottom of this. Johnny may have been a bachelor, as I could find no children linked to him. Any lack of junior Lamonts was made up for by his brother Peter Lamont, who kept a General Dealer in Queen St (picture 3). He sold drapery, clothing, iron mongery, guns and ammunition – latter probably accounting for why he need iron rolling shutters on his windows. There were about 11 little Lamonts in all, and although Iris mentions them frequently in her Diary, it is almost never the younger ones with whom she would not have had much to do: William James ‘Willie’(not “Simon”); Jessica ‘Jessie’ (not “Josey”); Daisy ‘Isy’ (not “Connie”); Laura (not “Mona”); Finlay (not “Matt”); Norman (not “Martin”); Alexander ‘Alex’; John; Malcolm; Jeanie and Florence. The Lamonts were one of the pioneering families of Adelaide, but I have almost no information as to where they are now, and I could find none in Adelaide, dead or alive. Near where the Vaughans stayed in the semi-detached house next to the Callaghan sisters were other children that attended the Public School, among them possibly the five daughters of Nurse Davis, but there is also some confusion whether the name was Davis or Davies. “Benny and Pearl” were Jimmy and Ruby Reid, whose father was the tailor, Mr David Reid: “Here lives also the Davis with no father only a mother called Granny Davis becos she is nursing sick people. Benny and Pearl live next to them. Mr Ben is a tailor. He has a long brown beard and walks very slowly to work. Benny is long and thin. All are in our class at school.” And soon the Vaughans would move into the Residency next to the Courthouse in Church St, where they would live for the next three to four years.
Posted on: Sun, 03 Aug 2014 19:00:17 +0000
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