Bob HornePrint Page

Memorial fountain dedicated to Bob Horne the groundsman at Scotch College from 1885 to 1929.  The fountain was originally placed outside the sports pavilion at the western end of the Main Oval. When the pavilion was demolished in 1963 to make way for the Art and Biology building, the fountain was relocated to the rear of the scoreboard, where it gradually fell into disrepair. The Class of 2007 decided to recreate and reinstall the drinking fountain back to its original condition and position on the western side of the Main Oval.

Bob Horne was the groundsman at Scotch from 1885 when the school was at East Melbourne. In 1914 Scotch purchased the Glen Estate. It was 60 acres (24 hectares) of rolling farmland, virgin bush and boggy paddocks, dominated by a pine-clad hill rising steeply to a plateau. Bob laid out and developed the grounds at Hawthorn. The first sports ground he produced was the Lower Oval. When he started to form the Main Oval, there were some who declared it an impossibility to make a decent ground there.

The wickets he prepared, the care he gave to the grounds with limited equipment and help, and his capacity as the universal friend, qualify him for the role of schoolboy hero. Many a cricketer from all the public schools hoped for a game on the Scotch grounds, so that he might play on one of Bob Horne’s pitches.

Bob Horne died late one afternoon in 1929 while rolling the wicket. At his funeral, the coffin was draped in the school flag and the boys lined Callantina Road as his funeral passed by. Darkie was the old horse that had pulled the mower and roller at Scotch for Bob Horne, and in accordance with his wishes, Darkie pulled the hearse to the graveside.

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