Ashbury College - Ashburian Yearbook (Ottawa, Ontario Canada)

Page 15 text:

HISTORICAL SECTION f ' -:'v4A,,,, iM Ashbury Xlanor House, lfngland The f0I10'1L'ilIg' text of .1 radio address delivered over CKOY on .lldrvb Xtln by fl. D. Brain, Esq., .-1.v.tixra11r Headnmxrer, 711.1-V .rppropriarcllv be reprodured here as .111 L'lL'L'07lIpdlIf7ll6lI1' to it plnotograplnit' record of the p!.nn'e.t .md fares of .-lxhlwzrrjv during the Si.'CZ'y-0716 years of its derrclopmelzf. SHBURY College has just celebrated its sixtieth anniversary. It was founded in 1891 by the late Dr. G. P. lYoollcombe, whose death in the vigour of his age we mourned last summer. lts development has followed a pattern common among the great independent schools of Canada. Mr. VVoollcombe's School, as it was First called, opened as a private enterprise in the Victoria Chambers, on the site of the Victoria Building. Success came rapidly, and in 189-1 premises were acquired at the corner of Wellington Street, where the ofliices of the Metropolitan Life lnsur- ance Company stand. lt was then known as Ashbury House School, after an ancient manor of the XYoollcombe family in Devonshire. The name of Ashbury College was assumed in 1900 after its incorporation as an educational trust, and a move to the property on Argyle Avenue now occupied by the lYindsor Arms. ln 1910 a further expansion transferred the School to the grounds in Rockclilfe Park. The nucleus of the present structure was erected, to be increased by the generosity of friends, until the buildings were completed by the addition of the Memorial lYing, dedicated to the Qld Boys who fell in the first Cireat VVar, and of the Headmastens House in 1926. Growing numbers are

Page 14 text:

12 THE ASHBURIAN lfach one of these has added or subtracted something to or from the structure. and for each there has been justihcation, admiration or condemnation in the eyes of his fellows. U'hat were they truly like? What were their aspirations, and to what degree were they fulfilled? Nhat were their triumphs, problems, frustrations, devious schemes for defeating constituted authority, ambitions, frivolities, joys and griefs? Interesting indeed are these old photographs-even more for what they conceal than for what they reveal. For so often the interesting things, the important things, the things that are tinged with the true glory are the things which are never blazoned or even privily known. llowever, interesting as may be these reflections upon the past, the present and, above all, the future have also their fascinations. Ashbury continues to prosper and to serve the growing and changing requirements for this type of school, and we have every confidence that it will continue to do so for manv, many years to come. CGRRFCTION The HL'i1Li7lli73'TL'l' has pointed out 1111 irliieetllutey in the Editorial of lint -VUi'Il'i.Y issue. IVe stated that .llr. Perry, before eomiizg to Ashbury, had .vetted with the R.C.A.F. in North Africa. 111 this we 'were in error, as Efiglnmi, not North Afrifii, exits the theatre of illr. Perryfs R.C.A.F. sertiee. 'Iiheir lfxeelleneies, l.ord and l.ady i-Xlexander, with Nlr. Rhodes and Xlr. Perry.

Page 16 text:

-V17 Ashbury House y School, Wellington Street 1 'ffafyf ' si Ashbury College, Argyle Avenue a5'1.,4fc4.r7 I 9 ao -' 1' 91 0 . A G49-:Q 651141 Jflfllwla - Q ,, currently underlining the need for a fresh programme of construction, plans for which are now being matured. For over half a century Ashbury has been operated as a non profit foundation, and its grounds, buildings and funds used solely for the beneht of the educational community of Canada, and above all, of Ottawa. For Ashbury is essentially an Ottawa School. Among its hundred boarders and eighty day boys are many from Montreal and from the farthest confines of our country, but its nucleus and its heart have always been in and of Ottawa. As Ottawa has expanded, so has Ashbury, and now, with the growth of Ottawa into a great capital city of world importance, the Roll Book of Ashbury College reflects, in its cosmopolitan aspect and the wide variety of background which it symbolizes, the metropolitan outlook of its native city. The broad View which such an enrolment, with its blend of race, religion and education, at once typifies and inculcates, may be taken