The first issue of The Newingtonian was published 130 years ago.

Strictly speaking, The Newingtonian may be said to have started with three hand-written issues that appeared in 1883. None of these are known to have survived, though extracts from the first issue appeared in The Newingtonian in 1888. The first printed issue was dated June 1884.

Today The Newingtonian is our school annual, providing a comprehensive record of life and achievements at the College over the past year. Before 1972, however, it functioned more as a school magazine and for much of this time was prepared by an Editorial Committee of enthusiastic students. Initially four issues were published each year, close to the end of each term. When the College moved to a three-term system in 1919, The Newingtonian changed to three issues per year. Wartime exigencies caused a reduction to two per year in 1941.

Complementing the WW1-era issues described in the last issue of Black & White, the first six years’ issues of The Newingtonian, covering June 1884 to March 1890, are now available on the Archives SPACE.

These earliest issues quickly adopted a pattern that would be followed for decades. A report of Speech Day and prize lists appeared in the first issue of the following year. Cricket was reported in the March and December issues, and rugby in June and September. The prominence of shooting as a school sport is readily apparent from the depth of its coverage. Some reports were specific to their time: the Bicycle Club, with its ‘runs’ to Coogee and Windsor, was well documented from 1885 but had disappeared by the end of 1888. ‘Occasional Notes’ provided a grab-bag of news and gossip, while ‘Correspondence’ aired issues, and occasional disputes, of the day. Sometimes the wider world intruded. The death of General Gordon in Khartoum prompted a long obituary and a poem in the March 1885 issue.

Mr David Roberts
College Archivist