Sydney Grammar School

Fine etching of Sydney Grammar School by Austin Platt signed in pencil lower right and numbered 66 of 100.

Sydney Grammar is Sydney’s oldest school still in use and is also historically significant as the site on which the University of Sydney began.

The Sydney Public Free Grammar School opened in 1825 with Laurence Hynes Halloran, born County Meath, Ireland (1765–1831) as Head Master. Halloran had operated a private school in Exeter, England, but fled England in 1796 due to debts and after being accused of immorality. It subsequently emerged that his degrees were self-awarded. He eventually returned to Britain but was arrested for forgery and transported to the penal colony of New South Wales, arriving in 1819. He was immediately granted a ticket-of-leave.

In 1830, Sydney College was founded and Sir Francis Forbes, Chief Justice of New South Wales, became president of the college and laid the foundation stone of the present building in College Street on 26 January 1830. In 1835, Sydney College opened in this building with W.T. Cape as Head Master. In 1842 he resigned and was succeeded by T.H. Braim. In 1850 Sydney College was closed. In 1854, Sydney Grammar School (SGS) was incorporated by an Act of Parliament and acquired the land and building in College Street which had been temporarily occupied by the newly founded University of Sydney in 1852. It was opened on 3 August 1857, specifically as a feeder school for the university. The preamble of the Sydney Grammar School Act 1854 states that: It is deemed expedient for the better advancement of religion and morality and the promotion of useful knowledge to establish in Sydney a public school for conferring on all classes and denominations of Her Majesty’s subjects resident in the Colony of New South Wales without any distinction whatsoever the advantages of a regular and liberal course of education.

Collections:
National Gallery Australia NGA 86.795