Thomas and Frederick Caterer 1860s grammar schools in Norwood, Glenelg; Ainslie Caterer a St Peter's College head
The Caterers: Thomas (top left, in 1899 portrait by Emily Anson), Frederick (bottom left) and Thomas's son Ainslie, as acting headmaster former cricketer, with the St Peter's College 1916 cricket team to play Prince Alfred College. The players are – Back row (from left): G.B. Addison, R. Hylton, , G.B. Henderson, G. Hardy, J.D. Hayward. Front: G. Gregerson, L.V. Pellew, G.E. Jose, A. Tennard, H.W. Florey.
Images courtesy State Library of South Australia
The Caterers made a strong family contribution to early South Australian education. Thomas Caterer founded a private school for boys in 1862 that became Norwood Grammar School four years later, followed by his Semaphore Collegiate School in 1886.
His brother Frederick founded a similarly influential grammar school at Glenelg. Thomas’s son Ainslie was Adelaide University’s first student awarded a bachelor of arts degree. He taught at St Peter’s College from around 1890 was its successful acting headmaster 1916-19.
Thomas Caterer was born in Tetsworth, Oxfordshire, to Elizabeth and Isaac Caterer a schoolteacher and later Congregational minister. He was educated at Lewisham College and on the staff of Taunton’s School, Somersetshire, before teaching under Professor Newth in Reading. Caterer emigrated to Adelaide in 1854. He had married Marina Mudie, sister of another South Australian early educator W. H. Mudie, and daughter of the Rev. G. D. Mudie, later Congregational minister at Salisbury, north of Adelaide.
Marina, who followed Thomas to Adelaide in 1855, was an educated and accomplished woman who’d been secretary to sociat activist Elihu Burritt. She worked closely with Thomas in teaching and managing schools in Adelaide.
Thomas Caterer taught at J. L. Young’ s Adelaide Educational Institution before becoming headmaster at Port Adelaide (1857-58), Glenelg (1858-59), Auburn (1860-61) and Glen Osmond schools. Caterer founded his own Beaumont Grammar School at his home “Greenhills”, Beaumont, in 1862. It moved to Beulah Road, Norwood, in 1866 and was renamed Norwood Grammar School. Caterer was Kensington and Norwood mayor in the 1880s and, as an accomplished cricketer, and teammate of Edwin Smith at the East Torrens club.
In 1883, Caterer helped Harry P. Macklin at the South Australian Commercial College on Osmond Terrace, Norwood, before they both founded Semaphore Collegiate School in 1886 on Ward Street, Semaphore, where the Rev. James Coglin previously conducted a church school. When Macklin died in 1902, Caterer sold the school to John F. Hills and retired in 1904.
Caterer’s eldest son Ainslie was also a noted cricketer who retired from teaching and being acting headmaster at St Peter’s College where he was remembered by the Caterer memorial scholarship.
Thomas’s caterer’s brother Frederick, born in Peppard, Oxfordshire, arrived in Adelaide around 1866. After working for brother Thomas, he moved to Glenelg and founded Glenelg Grammar School in 1868. Its noted students included F. C. Howard, E. Jones, Thomas McCallum, C. E. Manthorpe, B. Miller, J.H, Cooke, , F. H. Counsell, W. T. Stacy, W.A. Hamilton, H. B. Crosby ana Charles Rischbieth Jury.
Frederick Caterer attended the Glenelg Congregational Church regularly as a close friend of the pastor, the Rev. C. Manthorpe. He ran the Sunday school from 1872 to 1883. He was reported missing in August 1892 and, after a wide search, was found dead four days later, having committed suicide by taking poison.
