Milton High School

Selborne Avenue, Bulawayo

History - Headmasters from 1910

Milton School started life on the 25th July 1910, named after Sir William Milton, however the buildings situated on Borrow Street Bulawayo, are now home to Milton Junior School. Milton and Eveline  first state-maintained high schools in Rhodesia. Milton and Eveline were officially opened on the same day by Sir William Milton, his wife Lady Eveline, Sir Charles Coghlan and the Mayor and Town Council.


The first five headmasters of Milton were:

E.D. DE BEER (1910-1924)
'Dab', as he was known to all, was the founder headmaster and the longest serving of all Milton's twelve headmasters. Throughout that time he also ran the hostel and coached gymnastics which was compulsory for all but intolerably uncoordinated. He left Milton to go to Salisbury as Chief Inspector of Schools and two years later left Rhodesia to take up the position of Headmaster of St. George's, Cape Town, in which city he died in March 1 948.

COLONEL J.B. BRADY (1925-1930)
'Bimbo' Brady certainly had the most varied career of all Milton's headmasters: he came to Africa as a soldier and served throughout the Boer War, remaining in the country to become Headmaster of Grey College, Bloemfontein at the remarkably early age of 27. Two years later he became an Inspector of Schools in the Orange Free State and came to Rhodesia in 1909 as a result of General Hertzog's pro­ Afrikaner policies. He became Inspector of Schools in Rhodesia and, on the advent of war, joined the forces in France. Four years later he was in command of the Fourth Battalion of the King's Royal Rifles, had been wounded twice, mentioned in dispatches four times and received both the D.S.O. and Croix de Guerre. He returned to Rhodesia in 1920 as Senior Inspector of Schools and succeeded Mr. de Beer in 1925. After his retirement from Milton he became Member of Parliament for Bulawayo North and in 1939 was back in the army as liaison officer with the Rhodesian forces in West Africa, subsequently Egypt. He was invalided out of the army in 1942 but his services were recognised with the award of the O.B.E. He died on 13 February 1952 at the age of 76 and, at his semi-military funeral, the Headmaster and Head Boy of Milton were two of the pall-bearers. (Obituary)

H.G. LIVINGSTON (1930-1941)
Col. Brady's successor, H.G. Livingston, was another soldier - he had ended the First World War with the rank of Major and the Military Cross. He was also one of the country's most distinguished scholars and was described as its leading classicist. He came to Milton from Umtali Boys' High, where he had been Headmaster, and stayed for eleven and a half years. The most visible sign of his tenure is the vast number of trees he planted and it was also his decision in 1937 to divide "the school into four houses for games, the object being to put day boys and boarders side by side in the same houses so that the former may take a more active part in the life of the school". He left in 1941 to become Headmaster of Prince Edward since, in those days, it was common policy to appoint comparatively young men as headmasters and transfer them in due course.

L.R. MORGAN (1941-1942)
Mr. Morgan was another experienced headmaster- he had been at Chaplin for 14 years when he was transferred to Milton. He was a Rhodes Scholar and great things were expected of his tenure at Milton but he was destined to be the shortest-serving of the school's headmasters: after a mere four terms he was appointed Assistant Education Officer in Salisbury and went on to become a distinguished Secretary for Education.

W. GEBBIE (1943-1946)
Mr. Gebbie was perhaps the most experienced of all Milton headmasters for he had been in charge of no fewer than four schools before coming to Milton! He had taught at the school back in the twenties and had then become headmaster successively of four junior schools - Gatooma, Sinoia, Prince Edward Junior and David Livingstone. After only three years at Milton he was again transferred, this time to Allan Wilson in Salibsury.