On the lookout for resources for next year’s 150th anniversary both of the College’s Cadet Unit and of rifle shooting as a Newington sport, I came across this photograph in the archives a month or so ago. It shows a Cadet rifle shooting team from the late 19th century. The photograph is a modern copy print — there is no indication of where the original might be — but it has a modern label attached showing the names and ranks of the team members.

The Cadets’ uniforms look very similar to those worn by our Cadets in this period, and I assumed at first that it was a Newington team. The names, however, did not match up with our student records. With a closer look the cap badges seemed to be of a slightly different shape from our surviving examples. So who was this mystery team?

I contacted the Archivists at The King’s School and Sydney Grammar School, being the other schools in Sydney with the earliest Cadet units. The Archivist at Grammar responded that the names corresponded with those of students there, including those in a report in the Sydneian magazine from November 1886. The trophy looks like the Schools Challenge Shield, which Grammar won in 1886. Thus it seems certain that this photograph is of the victorious Sydney Grammar School team of that year.

Grammar did not have this photograph in their archives, but that is a more appropriate home for it than Newington. I offered to transfer it to them, which took place in a small ceremony at the School Archivists’ Professional Development day held at Grammar last week.

David Roberts
College Archivist