St Kilda Park School, c. 1970s. Photographer: Laurie Burchell.
State Library of Victoria Image H2006.165/356
Not only is the school itself an elaborate confection of design, but it has a elaborate Great War Honour Board, one of the most glorious school Honour Boards I have seen. It commemorates the 150 past students who served overseas.
St Kilda Park School Honour Board
Image: Isaac Hermann, 2023
Mr Eggleston told the children that if the qualities exhibited by the men whose names appeared on the honor board wore displayed in the civil life of the community, all its problems, social and political, would be solved. He reminded them of the splendid examples of courage and chivalry set by the Australian fighting forces during the war. Messrs Syme Harris, chairman of the school committee; R. Davey, district inspector; R. H. Trembath, headmaster; B. Ramsay, ex-headmaster, and Cr. Burnett Gray also spoke. The new honor board is a handsome piece of work designed by the late Mr George Dancey, the artist. It was executed in opus sectile by Brooks Robinson Pty. Ltd. The composition is tile-like and assembled in mosaic effect, the colored design being burnt in by a special process. The whole is enclosed in a copper frame. From the children's point of view the best part of the ceremony came this afternoon. Every State school child in the St. Kilda district was entertained at the Palais pictures by the Mayor and councillors and presented with a packet of sweets (4).
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Detail of the St Kilda Park School Honour Board, encased in the copper frame, showing George Dancey's signature. Fecit - 'He made'
Image: Isaac Hermann, 2023
The Honour Board was designed by George Henry Dancey. George was born in London on March 26, 1865 to Joseph and Clara (nee Bursill) Dancey (5). He trained as an ecclesiastical artist at Clayton and Bell in London, one of England's most prolific stained glass studios in the Victorian and Edwardian eras (6). Whilst at Clayton and Bell he worked on the stained glass windows for St Paul's Cathedral in Melbourne, which were then installed by Brooks, Robinson Pty Ltd, who made the St Kilda Park Honour Board (7). After his arrival in Victoria, he married Annie Maria Wills (nee Jenkinson) in 1893. She was the widow of John Wills and they had a daughter Ethel, who had been born in South Africa, where her parents were from. In 1903, Ethel married Alek Williams. Williams was an illustrator and cartoonist whose work appeared in the Bulletin, Punch and Smith's Weekly, under the name of Alex Sass. Alex died December 1, 1922 aged 44. George and Annie had the one daughter, Clara, in 1896 and she married Cyril Devenport in 1923. Just three weeks after the death of Alex, another tragedy struck the family when George died at his home at 11 Beaconsfield Parade, St Kilda on December 23, 1922 at the age of 58 years old, so he did not get to see see the Honour Board completed. He is buried at the Brighton Cemetery, with his wife Annie, who died in 1934, aged 78 (8).
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George Dancey, 1908
Photographers: Johnstone, O'Shannessy & Co.
State Library of Victoria Image H28902/17
The Prahran Telegraph printed a very informative and touching obituary -
GEORGE DANCEY'S DEATH. Mural Painter and Cartoonist. Resident of St. Kilda.
Recently there passed away at his home in Beaconsfield parade, St.Kilda, one, George H. Dancey, cartoonist and mural painter. It would be interesting to know what this signifies to the ordinary St. Kilda citizen. It is very certain that he does not realise what a great artist had he had his opportunities and been appreciated as his merits deserved, has been lost to Australia. George Dancey was, unfortunately, a martyr to an art, mural decoration, which is in little demand as yet in this young country, still in the crysalis stage of commercial progress. But it is safe to say that had Mr. Dancey remained in England his fame would have been known throughout the civilised world.
St. Kilda is fortunate in having two very fine examples of his work in war memorials, which are
to be found in Christ Church, Acland street, (9) and Holy Trinity Church, Balaclava (10). It is a great pity that he was not commissioned to decorate in fitting manner the St. Kilda Town Hall. It would then have numbered among its visitors art lovers, who would have been further impressed with this beautiful city, and the city fathers might have had the pleasure of boasting of another reason for their pride in the 'Queen City of the Metropolis.' But, alas, the chance has gone by!
As a cartoonist on Melbourne 'Punch' Mr. Dancey was best known to the public. While his inclination was not towards this work, he persistently applied himself to it, for bread and butter reasons, and succeeded. His best cartoons are on nobles lines, seldom found in other work of this nature. After fifteen years study at the Kensington Art School, London, Mr. Dancey was forced by ill-health to come to Australia, some twenty-five years ago, and finding small demand for mural decoration, he became a cartoonist. In his mural painting Mr. Dancey was deeply influenced by Lord Leighton. Several of Mr. Dancey's original cartoons were shown in London about five years ago, when they attracted much attention.
Among other branches of his art Mr. Dancey devoted himself largely to the designing of stained glass windows, at which he had been engaged for many years. Among his works of a purely decorative nature are two panels, Comedy and Tragedy, which adorn the proscenium slope of Her Majesty's Theatre.
To those who knew him personally the late artist was the most gentle, kindly sympathetic man imaginable, who had a good word for all, especially for those who tried to appreciate his art. For many years he was an invalid, and was attended by a devoted wife, who with a daughter and a stepdaughter, wife of the late Alex. Sass, the cartoonist, he has left behind to mourn his loss. As a result of his long illness and lack of support of his art, the family is not well provided for. The Victorian Artists' Society, it is understood, will hold a gift exhibition, at which the works shown will be presented by the artists and the proceeds will go to the dependents. (11).
This was not the only time the Prahran Telegraph had bemoaned the lack of recognition and respect for George Dancey's art by the Australian public. This was written after the Honour Board was unveiled -
The Honour Board at the St. Kilda Park Central School is a specially fine one, being the conception of that very fine artist, the late George Dancy, whose artistic worth was barely recognised in this country, we being apparently not sufficiently cultured to appreciate what a master he was in mural decorative art. In Europe Dancy would have found the fame and the fortune which lack of appreciative knowledge of this form of a great art failed to give to him in his own country. (12).
The Dancey Memorial Exhibition was held in May 1923 and raised for than £500 for the family (13).
Acknowledgment
Thank you to my research colleague, Isaac Hermann, for telling me about this wonderful Honour Board and allowing me to use his photographs, and thus leading me to George Dancey, whom I had not heard of before.
Trove list - I have compiled a short list of newspaper articles relating to this Honour Board and George Dancey, access it here.
Footnotes
(1) Vision and Realisation: a centenary history of State Education in Victoria edited by Les Blake (Education Department of Victoria, 1973);
(2) Victorian Heritage Database https://vhd.heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au/places/1109
(3) Sir Frederick William Eggleston (1875-1954) see Australian Dictionary of Biography entry here https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/eggleston-sir-frederic-william-344
(4) The Herald, May 23, 1924, see here.
(5) Church of England Births and Baptisms, 1813-1923, London Metropolitan Archives on Ancestry.com
(6) Clayton and Bell - https://www.visitstainedglass.uk/artist-page/clayton-bell and
(7) George's entry in Who’s Who in Australia, 1921-1950, on-line at Ancestry.com, lists his connection to Clayton and Bell.
Brooks, Robinson Pty Ltd - more information https://www.emelbourne.net.au/biogs/EM01420b.htm
Who’s Who in Australia, 1921-1950, on-line at Ancestry.com
(8) Victorian Indexes to the Births, Deaths and Marriages; Family notices notices - see my Trove list; and his obituary, as transcribed above. Alex Sass - obituary in Smith's Weekly, here; and Sydney Evening News, here.
(9) Christ Church, Acland Street - read about George's work here. It was unveiled December 11, 1921.
(10) Holy Trinity Church, Balaclava - read about George's work here. It was unveiled August 6, 1922.
(11) Prahran Telegraph, February 2, 1923, see here.
(12) Prahran Telegraph, May 30 1924, see here.
(13) The Herald, May 26, 1923, see here.
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