Image Group: Graduations From Beginning to End

First graduation parade
Portsea 6 June 1952

Led by CSM WO2 G. Selby-Adams, the first course to graduate from Portsea passes Army Minister Jos Francis on the saluting base on Portsea town oval.

This was the beginning of a line of bi-annual graduations (with the exception of the 1955 transitional year) which saw 3,543 officers commissioned from the School. An injection not only of quantity into the Australian Staff Corps, it has exceeded the expectations of its early sponsors by producing the quality which has brought about today’s strong representation of graduates in the upper echelons of the army.

Photo: G. Selby-Adams

First Course reunion
Portsea 13 December 1985

Not their first reunion, but a special one, they are viewing the final graduation parade at Portsea. 21 of the initial 61 attended, from left to right, rear to front:

G.F.B. Rickards J.C. Harding R.J. Aitkin I.G. Hands
H.J. Spalding C.W. Scorgie G.E. Ball D.G. Robertson I. Throssell G.B. Redding J.B. Roden P.P. Smith J.F. Williams I.L.G. Campbell
L.G. Doyle G. Selby-Adams P.D. Cameron W.J. Pidwell J.J. Merrick P.F. Kent R.G. Lange

Photo: D.G. Robertson

Last Course graduation
Portsea 13 December 1985

The solemnity of the occasion of OCS's last graduation was fairly lost on the graduates, who were exultant that the conclusion of the parade brought their own year to a close.

This was not just the borrowed tradition of cap-throwing from the 1960s, but came down from the first course: the intense relief of surviving a test demanding of the students to the ultimate limits, physically, mentally and spiritually. To have made the grade was indeed an accolade, having passed through the fire they now emerged from the cocoon of the COC into the wide world of leadership in the wider army community.

Photo: I.C. Teague