Historical information

This photograph was donated by Mrs Howard whose aunt, Dorothy Christian, attended Lauriston from 1904 to 1908.

Lauriston’s very first sports photograph is in 1905, of our students standing with their hockey sticks to mark their participation in the Girls’ Schools’ Hockey Association.

Hockey was without doubt the “Queen of Games” at Lauriston during the school’s early decades. The school’s founders Miss Margaret and Miss Lilian Irving were firm believers in the character-building nature of team sports and were instrumental in establishing hockey as a competitive sport for girls in Melbourne.

Lauriston’s founders Lilian Irving one of the two sisters who founded Lauriston, saw hockey played in England and brought the game back to Melbourne. Lilian arranged for the first girls inter-school hockey match, between Lauriston and Ruyton in 1903.

Her sister Margaret subsequently joined with Mary Morris of Melbourne Girls’ Grammar to establish the Girls’ Schools’ Hockey Association in 1905. The Association organised regular competitions between schools. Hockey dominated Lauriston’s sporting life until well into the 1950s, with regular class, house, inter-school, and staff-student matches.

Physical description

B & W photo 14 x 18.7 cm, mounted on brown card, with inscription in white ink “Lauriston Hockey Eleven 1905”. Underneath the photograph on the mount are names of the players in three rows according to the arrangement in the photograph.
The students standing in the back row are N. Stewart’ G. Mogg, D. Elder, M. Elliott (Captain), J. Tuthill, C. McWhae and E. Stewart. The students knelling in the middle row are S. Mitchell (emergency), M. Rigby, and J. Mitchell. The two students sitting at the front are D. Christian and R. Stewart.

Inscriptions & markings

Lauriston Hockey Eleven - 1905
N. Stewart, G. Mogg, D. Elder, M. Elliot (capt) J. Tuthill C. McWhae E. Stewart S. Mitchell (emer.) M. Rigby J. Mitchell D. Christian R. Stewart