Click picture to enlarge it.

Dartmouth Academy crest 

(from cover of fundraising recipe book).

Dartmouth Academy no longer exists except in our memories, in souvenirs, and on Internet pages. It was started in the early 1960s in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. 

My younger brother David and I were among the earliest students. At first we attended classes in the basement of a church, and some of us were in the living room of Mr. Lorimer, the English teacher. An old house near the shore of Banook Lake was used as the headmaster's residence I believe and I can recall serving detention in there sitting at old desks with cast iron frames.  Later a new school was built up the slope. I boarded for awhile and we slept in a new classroom in bunk-beds!

Tie and blazer crest.

The uniform was a blue blazer and a red and blue striped tie. This  was no problem for me as I had worn a more formal English school uniform in Rome, Italy before coming to Dartmouth.

The standards were high and we received a good education. Mr. Roxburough, a former Spitfire pilot from Scotland, was the Headmaster.

Mr. J. D. Lorimer was my English teacher and was acting Headmaster in January 1964.  He was a Scotsman who had fought in North Africa during World War II and had been captured. He told us he later escaped from the prison train by making a hole in the floor and dropping out under the train. He was very dramatic during his English classes, often acting out stories. I remember him reading a scary poem (Edgar Allen Poe?). He closed the window blinds, turned off the lights, and may have lit a candle. He ALWAYS had chalk dust on his tweed jacket. It might have been he who did not like students writing notes while he was talking - and he would throw a piece of chalk across the room and hit your pen hand! We learned to pay attention! His son John was in some of my classes. On Halloween, we had to perform before he would give us a treat at his home. 

Mrs. Vaila Mowat was my Latin teacher. We learned the correct pronunciation - not the poor pronunciation as used by the lawyers and certain churches. What did Julius Caesar (pronounced Yulius Kaisar) say when he first saw Britain and why did the Britons surrender? Because he said "VENI, VIDI, VICI" (pronounced weenie, weedy, weakie). The Brits thought he was calling them weenie, weedy and weakie - and so they gave up. A silly Latin joke (which makes me wonder how many thousands of years old it really is!) but I still remember how to pronounce the words and what Caesar said. 

Mr. James M. Roxburgh (Hon. London, M.A. Cantab) was our Headmaster. He had been a Spitfire pilot during WWII.  I remember him saying that when he got back to Scotland, he bent down and kissed the ground. He was an odd sort, and my report card shows that he did not like me. 

Rick Gallipeau rick@gallipeau.com  remembers  Mr. Roxburgh saying: "Never miss an opportunity." 

Glen Heggie wrote in 2007 July The school crest that you show was originally drawn by my mother (Jean Heggie) in our living-room; I still remember the lengthy conversations and rationale behind each of the crest's component parts. Somehow I managed to hold on to the small book of fighter aces presented to "Roxy" when he completed flight school, indeed the man must have made a significant impression on me as I dedicated my doctoral thesis to him. Then, of course, there was his black Alsatian - Sable - and Mrs Walton, our French teacher Mrs Maxwell, and the gastric challenge of "boarder porridge". Anyway, I just wanted to establish contact and thank you for creating this site. "

Later Mr. T. E. W. Browne became Headmaster (by January 1966). 

As most students had terrible hand-writing, we all had to buy Osmiroid fountain pens ($1.50 each with gold nib that you had to suck before first use) and learn Italic handwriting. Left-handed students such as my brother David, had a special nib with a bend in it. As I recall, spare nibs were 35 cents each. They were gold plated and we had to suck them to remove the wax coating to allow the ink to flow smoothly, and one quickly learned to suck the nib BEFORE one filled the pen! The pens had a lever on the side and one placed the nib of the pen in a bottle of black ink, pulled the lever down, and then up again, all without knocking over the bottle!

Our uniforms consisted of a blue blazer with school crest, a school tie and grey trousers (see class photos below).

Our physical training was very strict. We wore white shorts and T shirt for sports. As we had no proper playing field, we ran several miles through Dartmouth to a large playing field overlooking the harbour where a Holiday Inn was later built I believe). I recall hearing the news of the assassination of US President John F. Kennedy when I dropped in to visit my family en route one day to the sports field, and then racing to catch up to the others and pass the word to my disbelieving classmates.

Larry Peacock, Stewart Churchill, Donald Steele, Patrick Ankatell-Jones  (whose sister Judy went to the girls' school in Halifax) etc.  Where are they all now I wonder? Some such as John Lorimer have surfaced through the means of this web page.

Colin Macgregor Stevens seaforth72 (at) gmail.com

Some of the Students

GIRLS ADMITTED TO DA

D'Arcy  modopup@comcast.net   - "I was one of the first girls admitted to DA - I started in 1968 I believe  (memory getting foggy!).  My mother was with a friend who was signing her son up when the board came out of a meeting where they had just decided to allow girls to attend the school.  A lady asked my mother and her friend if they knew of any girls who would like to come to the academy - where upon my mother told her most definitely yes, and promptly signed me up. I started in L 3 and stayed through graduation in 1977."

NAMES OF SOME OF THE D.A. STUDENTS

Others as of Nov. 2002 

OTHER FAMILY NAMES FROM THE 1960s SCHOOL COOKBOOK

THE OLD "WATERING HOLE"- CRICHTON PARK CONFECTIONERY

STORIES FROM OTHER STUDENTS

Since counter was added on 2001 September 09:

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