George Farr, 1854-79 headmaster, raises Adelaide's St Peter's College standards on Thomas Arnold's Rugby

St Peter's College headmaster George Farr was also an Anglican clergyman dissatisfied with the state of the Church of England.
Image courtesy State Library of South Australia

George Henry Farr’s time (1854-79) as headmaster of St Peter’s Collegiate School raised it to the pre-eminent educational institution in South Australia and comparable with any school in England.

With a distinguished academic record, especially in mathematics and Greek, Cambridge degrees and legal training, Farr was also an Anglican clergyman dissatisfied with the state of the Church of England. His wife Julia’s health was another reason for leaving England to take the St Peter’s position in 1854.

Succeeding the Rev. Theodore Percival Wilson, who was addicted to writing pious books for boys, at St Peter's headmaster, Farr found the school suffering falling finances and public esteem. Farr's qualifications were athletic as well as academic: at Cambridge he had stroked a college eight and earned pocket money by reporting prize fights for the press.

He adapted the English school model of Rugby’s Thomas Arnold. Traditional classics and science complemented “practical education”. He was generally popular with his staff and pupils, blending firmness, sympathy and humour.

He effectively worked with Bishop Augustus Short’s plans for the school and among the colonists. He gave evidence at education committees of inquiry and especially opposed state interference in private schools.

When he retired, Farr served as priest at Semaphore, Mitcham and St Luke's, Adelaide. In 1857-96, he was a canon of St Peter's Cathedral. He was warden of the University of Adelaide senate in 1880-82 and vice-chancellor in 1887-93. He was chairman of the public library, museum and art gallery in 1869-86. In 1883, he visited England and his thesis on the law of real property won him a doctorate of laws at Cambridge.