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Angus Hordern (OKG80)
Friday, 8 March 2024
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In his annual talk to Year 3 Knox Prep students, Angus Hordern (OKG80) spoke about the role Knox boys have played in Australia's history and the benefits of playing the team sport of rugby. Describing the School's founding Headmaster and WWI veteran, Neil McNeil, Angus said: "He sadly saw the clouds of war descending in the 1930s and to protect his boys and have them best prepared for the forthcoming conflict, he got them all into cadets and rugby." In the documentary, For School and Country, every one of the twelve boys interviewed by the Thistle Productions team said cadets and rugby instilled discipline and teamwork which helped get them through the war. "I believe McNeil did more to save his boys in WWII by toughening them up at Knox with these disciplines and team activities than anything else. We should credit this great man with only losing 68 boys in a war that took 60 million. I feel without his foresight it would have been substantially worse and the Honor Roll at Knox much longer," Angus said. |