|
Was the son of W.
Littlejohn, watchmaker and jeweller He was born at Turriff, Scotland on 19
September 1859, and was educated first at the board schools at Alford and
Peterhead, and then at the Aberdeen grammar school and King's College,
Aberdeen university. He represented his university at Rugby football and
graduated M.A. in 1879. He had partly maintained himself by winning
bursaries and by coaching. His father and brother emigrated to New Zealand
and in 1881 obtained nominated passages for the remainder of the family.
In the interim William had qualified as a teacher, had been living in
Edinburgh with his mother doing university coaching, and on two occasions
had been a resident master at boarding schools.
Littlejohn arrived at
Wellington about Christmas time 1881. He obtained the position of third
master at Nelson College which then had a roll-call of about 150, and
entered on his work early in 1882, a tall, burly, bearded, fair young man
with a strong Aberdeen burr. He immediately began to be an influence in
the school, playing football and cricket with the boys after school hours,
and showing an immense interest in his teaching. His own training had been
a classical one but having undertaken to teach an elementary class
chemistry, he did so by studying it one lesson ahead of his class; and,
finding there was no laboratory, persuaded the headmaster to convert a
box-room into one. He was one of those men who could obtain a reasonable
knowledge of a subject in a short time, and it was said of him in later
years that he was capable of taking a form in any one of the 20 subjects
of the intermediate public examinations. He not only took charge of the
games, he commanded the cadet corps, And with his usual thoroughness gave
up a holiday period, training at a camp for officers. At Christmas 1885 he
was married to Jean Berry with whom he had had an understanding in
Scotland. A change of principals took place at Nelson College, and in his
twenty-eighth year Littlejohn became second master. He also took over the
duties of house-master until the new principal, W. J. Ford, could arrive
from England at the beginning of the second term. When he did arrive he
was amazed at the extra duties carried out by his assistant. When he said
so to Littlejohn the reply was that a man who is not brilliant has to do
something to make up for it. It was about this time that Ernest,
afterwards Lord, Rutherford became Littlejohn's pupil and obtained his
first introduction to physics and chemistry. Littlejohn afterwards gave
him special coaching for a university scholarship in which he was
successful. In 1889 Mr Ford resigned and returned to England to become
principal of Leamington College. An opportunity was lost in not appointing
Littlejohn to the vacant position, and J. W. Joynt, a distinguished
scholar but without teaching experience, was made principal. During his 10
years term New Zealand had a period of depression and the new principal
had not the special qualities necessary to overcome his difficulties. When
he resigned at the end of 1897 Littlejohn became principal, and during the
next six years there was a very large increase in the number of day boys
and the boarders increased from 27 to about 90. Organization and hard work
had much to do with his success, but his realization of the fact that boys
have minds that are better when developed than crammed was an important
factor too. In 1903 he heard that a principal was wanted for Scotch
College, Melbourne, and with some misgivings applied for the position. He
was appointed and took charge of the school at the beginning of 1904.
Scotch College, the oldest
secondary school in Victoria, had always held a leading place, but
Littlejohn felt that the scope of its education must be widened. Boys
should be made fit to accept responsibility so he brought in the prefect
system, and he revived the cadet corps whose officers had to earn their
positions. Sport should have its place in the life of the school, but it
must be kept in its place. He found that there was some jealousy and
ill-feeling among the public schools which manifested itself at school
contests, and his influence with his own boys and with the headmasters of
other schools helped to bring about a better feeling. He encouraged the
founding of the school magazine, the Scotch Collegian, entirely
written by the boys which became possibly the best school paper in
Australia. Other outside interests were fostered, such as the literary,
science and debating clubs, the dramatic society, the Australian student
Christian movement, the school library, museum, natural history club, boy
scouts. All these and other movements too were added gradually, and every
boy had the opportunity of developing his particular interests. The school
roll was getting larger and larger, for some years the increase averaged
100 each year. In 1911 Littlejohn found that he was threatened with
blindness, but a year's rest in Europe and America averted this. The war
period was a period of great sorrow with over 1200 old boys at the front
of whom over 200 were killed. That the school furnished three generals
including the commander-in-chief, General Sir John Monash (q.v.), and
earned 184 distinctions was small comfort.
The school had out-grown
its limits and it was decided that a move must be made. A site of 60 acres
was found at Hawthorn and gradually the whole school was transferred
beginning with the preparatory school. The move was completed in 1925. In
providing the funds for the buildings much help was given by the old boys
organized through the old Scotch Collegians Association. The school
continued to increase and the separation of the preparatory school under a
headmaster gave only a temporary relief. It is a question whether any
principal should be expected to control so many as 900 senior boys.
Littlejohn showed few signs of the strain he was under, but in August 1933
he became ill with bronchial influenza and died on 7 October 1933. He was
survived by his wife, two sons and three daughters.
Littlejohn was a great
organizer and a great schoolmaster. He believed in discipline but his
nickname among the boys, "The Boss", became not only a symbol of authority
but a term of affection. When he died he was mourned by thousands of old
and present boys. He was a religious man but he was more interested in the
sincerity of a man's religion than its particular tenets. He was trained
in the classical tradition and believed in scholarship, but to him the
important thing was that a school should give a training for life. |
