Milton Junior School
The school 1910 - 2017
The combined Junior and Senior school was opened
on 25th July, 1910 by Sir William and Lady Eveline Milton. The
headmaster was Mr. de Beer, and he remained there until 1927 when the
senior part of the school was moved to its present premises. The Borrow
Street building became a paying junior primary school for boys aged 6 to
11 yrs old under Mr. Mac-Donald from 1927 - 1932.
In December 1955 a fire broke out in the east wing of the school
starting in what was then the office. All records were destroyed, the
library was completely gutted and the ceilings through the whole wing
destroyed. School opened in January 1956 using the hostel prep room, the
Greek church hall, and the scout hall in 9th avenue as classrooms.
There are two rooms in the school which are unusual in Junior Schools.
One is the Library which is mainly used by the Standards 4 and 5, the
lower classes having their own class libraries. The other is the
Craftroom designed by Mr. A M Brown. Here every cupboard, every drawer
is designed to hold exactly some book-binding or craft equipment such as
sheets of manila and rolls of linen.
When the school was built there was only one playing field; the one
between the school and hostel. Now the ground adjoining 9th avenue
between the school and the river was been leveled, a pavilion built and
was one of the most attractive junior school cricket grounds in the
country. This was the first school to use a composition wicket and later
go on to turf wickets. Many students have gone on later to play for
their country and Mr.
P.N.F. Mansell for South Africa. Soccer has also produced its great
players, notably Bobby
Chalmers. The field next to 12th Avenue became a fine rugby ground.
Rugby was represented at the highest level by
Des van
Jaarsveldt and Ronnie
Hill as Springboks.
Another addition to the grounds was the swimming bath shared with
Coghlan School and opened by the Mayor, Clr. A. Menashe in 1966.
