From the Archives

Fort Street’s Headmasters

We continue our series where we look back at some of our principals from the past. In this edition we’ll look at R. J. Burns’ research of Fort Street’s eighth Headmaster.
The success of the first official Fort Street Headmaster’s, William Wilkins, training programme was such that he was able to suggest that some pupil-teachers might be appointed to Fort Street itself, even before completing their apprenticeship. One of the most outstanding of such pupil-teachers was Frederick Bridges who enrolled when the school first opened, and at the age of twelve in 1852 became a pupil-teacher. Such was young Fred’s potential that he was the first male pupil-teacher trained by the Board of National Education in Australia and he eventually became Headmaster of his old Fort Street Model School from 1867-1876.
Frederick Bridges (1840-1904) first appointment as a headmaster was to Balmain in 1861 and later he became headmaster at Mudgee in 1863, Cleveland Street in 1865 and then Fort Street Model School in 1867. He remained at Fort Street until his appointment as a school inspector in 1876. In 1884 he became deputy-chief inspector and in 1889 superintendent of technical education when this branch was transferred to the control of the Department of Public Instruction. In 1894 he became chief inspector of schools and under-secretary in 1903. Besides his educational posts Bridges was a deputy-member of the Public Service Board in 1901. In 1902 he was decorated by the French government for his work in raising funds for the relief of victims of the Martinique volcanic disaster.
Bridges’ career spanned a long and important phase of the history of education in New South Wales. Significant educational developments in that period included the withdrawal of state aid to church schools, the growth of a highly centralized system of educational administration under the control of a cabinet minister, and the extension of state provision for public education into secondary and technical instruction. Bridges was closely linked with the early growth of these new branches but his main contribution was to consolidate and extend the work of his predecessors in public elementary education.
His passing marked the end of the line of educational administrators begun by William Wilkins. Energetic, decisive, a good organizer and an efficient administrator Bridges accepted as an article of faith the perennial virtues of the public education system and saw his main task as the improvement of efficiency.

Iain Wallace
Archivist