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O'Sullivan, Richard George Matthew

Richard O'Sullivan took over from Ray Harris as teacher in charge of Hall Public School in 1937, a position which he held for the next twenty years:

"His successor was Richard O'Sullivan, who like Thompson had been transferred from a nearby school. In his case it was Weetangerra, which was closed in 1937. Like Thompson, he lived in the Ginninderra schoolhouse. Since 1927 there had been a high school in Canberra and for the first time Hall children could get a secondary education near home. O'Sullivan was an inspired actor of the stories that he read to the children and kindled in many of them a lifetime love of literature. The school boasted a number of bursary winners under his tutelage but it was in school sport that O'Sullivan, a keen cricketer and tennis player, left his mark. A tennis court was built at the school and his daughter Margaret and another pupil, Betty Lee, were successful at the territory Open Tennis Championships. Other territory representatives were Nina Southwell and the Moore sisters, Marge and Helen, who played against the visiting English womens' cricket team at Manuka. Gwen and Elva Southwell represented in hockey. The school acquired a radio so that the children could listen to the ABC's School of the Air broadcasts after electricity came to the village in 1948.......O'Sullivan retired in 1957 at the age of 60".

Before Hall O'Sullivan was the teacher at Weetangera School from 1932 until the school closed in 1937.

[Allen Mawer. 2016 The school at Hall. A brief History. Originally compiled by Laurie Copping]

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