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Henry TONKIN (1859-1947)

Headmaster, Educational Innovator

Henry Tonkin was born on 15 February 1859, in Creswick, Victoria, the son of Jacob Morrish Tonkin (1824-1889) and Margaret Knowles (1835-1895). Jacob was born in 1824 at St. Agnes in Cornwall, the son of Jacob Tonkin and his wife Jane, nee Morrish. He came to Australia in 1853 and by1858 he was living with Margaret Knowles at Ballarat, Victoria.  Margaret was born in 1835 in Kinsale, Co. Cork, Ireland, the daughter of John Knowles and Mary Tracey. They had two sons - Henry (1859 - 1947) and John William (1862). Jacob and Margaret lived in Eaglehawk, near Bendigo, Victoria where Jacob was a miner and storekeeper. He was choirmaster at the Upper California Gully Methodist Church and Director and Manager of the Unity Company. Jacob Tonkin died on 13 April 1889 at Eaglehawk and was buried in Eaglehawk Cemetery beside his sister Elizabeth. His obituary in the Bendigo Advertiser on 24 April 1889, mentioned his sister, Miss E Tonkin and his sons, John William and Henry ‘of Hillgrove NSW’.

 John William lived in Eaglehawk, became a farmer and died in 1924. He had been gored to death by a Jersey bull which had wandered into his orchard on 11 December,1924.

 In 1869 Margaret Knowles married William Bird. They had two daughters, Sarah Ann (1869-1952) and Agnes Mary(1871-1942). William died in 1886 and Margaret Bird, nee Knowles, died on 31 December, 1895 at St Kilda, Victoria.

Details of Henry Tonkin’s education are not known but he appears in the NSW Public Service Lists 1858-1960, where his first appointment is recorded as 1 May 1883. In the NSW Teachers’ Rolls 1869-1908, his progress is recorded in hand written entries from 1884 to 1898. He was obviously ambitious and in January 1884 was promoted to Class lll B, in 1886 to Class lll A, in 1888 to Class ll B and in August 1898 to Class ll A.  Schools at which he taught between 1883 and 1888 are not known, but in May 1888 he was appointed temporarily ‘in charge’ of Swamp Creek School. In October 1888 he was notified of his appointment to Hillgrove School.

 

On 24 December 1888, at Nemingha House, Tamworth, NSW, Henry Tonkin married Edith Millicent Paul.  Edith was born in Tamworth in 1867, the daughter of Joseph Paul and his wife Millicent. They had five children all born at Hillgrove:

 

 

The town of Hillgrove, 30 km east of Armidale, in the New England district of New South Wales, was established in 1884 and grew rapidly during the 1880s and 1890s due to antimony and gold mining. At its peak in about 1898 the town had a population of about three thousand, similar to Armidale. It was a thriving community and in 1895 became the first town in Australia to be supplied with power by means of hydro-electricity which operated from Gara Gorge to the west. Since mining closed down in 1921 many of the buildings were sold and transported to other towns in the district. Hillgrove became a near ghost town with a population of less than one hundred. The only two original buildings now are the post office and the school which has become a museum with a collection of photographs and memorabilia giving an insight into everyday life in old Hillgrove.

 

Henry Tonkin remained at Hillgrove as ‘teacher in charge’ until he moved to Cronulla in1910, to take charge of the recently established Cronulla Public School. Under the leadership of Tonkin, described as ‘a capable, painstaking, energetic man ….and most enthusiastic in his work’, Hillgrove school became known as the most progressive, demonstration school in the NSW education system. Certain subjects, were taught to university level and enhanced by practical work done in the surrounding area. Tonkin had amassed a collection of minerals, fossils, vegetable products and manufactured artifacts, which he used in object lessons to teach the boys minerology and geology. Music, art, literature and other subjects were not neglected. The school also had a museum of various related articles and an extensive circulating library. Henry Tonkin’s goal was to make education practical and to encourage the people of the town to show an interest in the school and its work. He encouraged visitors, including tourists to the New England district, to come to the school to view the beautiful established gardens, the museum, gymnasium, herbarium and the many fantastic photographs he had taken of the surrounding area and then turned into lantern slides for his school work. The gardens were cared for by the students, each class having a section, and providing an area for nature lessons and practical instruction in agriculture. The school also had a rifle range, a cooking school, photographic department and a fife band. For many years the physical drill shield of the Armidale district was held. Funding for these projects came from exhibitions of school work, public entertainments and Tonkin’s private purse.

 

In June 1908, a public meeting was held in Cronulla Hall following the recent refusal of the Minister of Public Instruction to erect a public school at Cronulla. It called on the local residents to agitate until a school of a fairly high grade, presided over by a competent teacher, as the class of school required, had been approved. Cronulla had progressed in every way and there was the necessity for a public school. Over seventy pupils of residents were eligible to attend and probably a large number of children of visitors would also attend.

 

In 1910 Cronulla finally gained a local public school despite reluctance from the Minister J A Hogue and opposition from Edward Thacker, President of the Miranda Central School Board, who warned that Cronulla could expect to get only a ‘’low class school’. Cronulla was unusually fortunate in attracting the outstanding teacher, Henry Tonkin, who had been advised to move to the coast for his health. The school was situated on land that is now Monro Park, opposite the railway station.

 

The school opened with an enrolment between seventy and eighty but, as the district developed rapidly it was soon realised that the building would not be big enough and that more land was required. The Lands Department refused a request for two adjoining lots stating ’it was unnecessary for the children to have much playground when the beach was so handy for them to play on’. These two lots were finally acquired two years after the school was established. In 1919, Henry Tonkin was still agitating for additional classrooms. In 1922, the present site of Cronulla Public School, fronting Gunnamatta Bay, was purchased for £4,000 but it would be three years before the building could be occupied. The new school was a two storey building, containing eight classrooms to accommodate three hundred and sixty four pupils, large assembly halls on each floor, headmaster’s rooms, staff room, four bathrooms, vestibules, storerooms and staircases. It was finally opened by the Minister for Education (Mr. Mutch) at the end of January 1926 and after Henry Tonkin had retired in 1924.

Henry Tonkin involved himself in the local community as well as educating the local children. He was choirmaster for the Cronulla Methodist Church, Secretary and Librarian of the Cronulla School of Arts for thirty seven years, a member of the Masonic craft for many years, founder of the Cronulla Masonic Lodge and three times Master of his Lodge. He was Secretary of the Cronulla Theatre, Captain of the Cronulla Rifle Club, a life member of Cronulla Surf Life Saving Club and active in the Boy Scouts.

 

Henry Tonkin died on 10 August, 1947 at Cronulla. He was survived by his wife Edith, his children Millicent, Paul, Edmund, John and Josephine and seven grandchildren. He was cremated at Woronora Cemetery. Edith Tonkin died in 1952 and was also cremated at Woronora Cemetery. Henry’s name is remembered by Tonkin Street in Cronulla and the reclaimed area at the head of Gunnamatta Bay now known as ‘The Henry Tonkin Memorial Park’.

 

Two remarkable tributes, by former students, attest to the influence and legacy of Henry Tonkin. The first, on the occasion of his retirement in 1924, was by Karl S White published in the Armidale Chronicle on Saturday, 2 April 1924. He reflected how former students ‘look back with gratitude….recognising that his sole object was their advancement and his reward satisfaction in fitting them for the stern battle with life’. In the Manning River Times on Wednesday, 3 September 1947, M.M.H., a former student, described him as a ’great educationalist who had a remarkable influence upon the children who came under his care… one of the big men of the teaching service…(with) his lofty educationalist outlook and untiring efforts to give the best to his students’.

 

By Colleen Passfield 2018

 

Click on the heading on the name TONKIN, Henry (1859-1947) to view the entry for Henry Tonkin and his family in the database.

 

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