Box Hill Historical Society seeks to honour forgotten philanthropist with memorial plaque
William Gillies loved literature and the beauty of the natural world, and he wanted Victoria’s children and their families to appreciate finer things, too.
When he died in 1925, he left £10,000 in his will to the state education department; this is a sum worth approximately $1 million today.
As his will stated, it was to be used to encourage the growth of school and village bands, to help children in rural areas learn to read books aloud, and to study nature; All of this was for the family’s entertainment, even though he was not married and had no children himself.
By 1933, in the depths of the Great Depression, the Gillies Bequest had funded 11 school orchestras, 38 marching bands, 22 fife and drum bands, and two kindergarten percussion groups.
Circulating libraries were established, enabling 160 rural schools to receive a new selection of books each term. And films encouraging the study of nature were available in public schools in Victoria.
The legacy has improved Victoria’s education system for decades and still exists.
And yet this generous philanthropist lies in an unmarked grave in Box Hill Cemetery, forgotten for almost a century.
The Box Hill Historical Society plans to rectify this situation, says Helen Harris, president of the society, which has researched Gillies’ life extensively.
The association plans to place a plaque in the cemetery in memory of Gillies and his works.
First, he needs to raise $2,400 for the project.
At the beginning of the last century, the name William Gillies was known to thousands of Australian school students, teachers and parents.
Having lost his investments and farm at Box Hill and driven into bankruptcy during the banking crisis of the early 1890s, Gillies began writing on history and nature studies.
As a result, the book series became extremely popular and profitable, being used in schools across Australia.
Gillies saved the money he earned from the sale of textbooks and bequeathed almost all of it to the state of Victoria, to be used in consultation with the director of education.
His will made clear that he wanted the inheritance to strengthen family life.
In his will, he stated that the first aim should be to establish school bands, and he hoped to increase “the number of village bands and orchestras, and most importantly, family orchestras”.
Secondly, he wanted to “translate the art of reading aloud into, it is hoped, the admirable pastime of reading aloud in the family circle.”
Third, he wanted to encourage “any branch of the study of nature.”
The aim of all three was to “make home life more attractive, especially in the countryside.”
Gillies died at his home in Kew in 1925, having outlived his brother and sister who lived with him in the house.
He was born in Irvine, Ayrshire, Scotland, in 1852 and graduated with a master of arts degree from the University of Glasgow in 1877.
He left his first job at a law firm to become head teacher of a charity.
In 1880, suffering from what was described as a “throat ailment”, he set out for Melbourne.
There he took up a teaching position at Toorak College, then a private boys’ school, and also taught literature at several private girls’ schools.
He took an interest in the intellectual life of Melbourne; Here he befriended the future prime minister Alfred Deakin, the future Victorian premier Alexander Peacock, and the schoolteacher Frank Tate, who, as Victoria’s chief education officer from 1902 to 1928, implemented many lasting reforms.
Gillies bought land in Box Hill and ran it as a market garden before the land boom exploded, his savings and investments were lost in the banking crisis and he was declared bankrupt.
But his personal pleasure came at no cost. According to a retrospective published in , it was wandering around the quiet places of Melbourne. Argus It was written by his friend Frank Tate in 1933.
“With a few sandwiches and a few books in his pocket, he would go for a quiet day out along the Maribyrnong River, or at Back Beach at Williamstown, or along the Yarra from Kew to Heidelberg, or down to the bayfront from Black Rock to Mordialloc, or for a relaxing stay at that gem of the city, Fitzroy Gardens,” Tate wrote. “Because he believed in ‘comfortable pleasures and idle thoughts.’”
And so, when this lonely man died, he chose to use his fortune so that children could enjoy their passions, but within the circle of school friends and family.
Box Hill, where William Gillies once grew fruit trees, now wants to give something back: recognition
A link to a plaque fundraising effort is available on the Box Hill Historical Society’s website.
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Tony Wright is associate editor and feature writer for The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via email.
