HALL OF FAME

Alison Very Goleby (1923 - 2015)

Teacher 1961 - 1982

For 21 year, from 1961 to 1982, students at Ipswich Girls’ Grammar School (IGGS) were inspired and enthralled by the teaching of Alison Goleby. She taught history to all forms, but her particular discipline was Modern History, which she taught to senior forms. Alison Goleby had the rare gift of making History come alive mainly because of her enthusiasm and her great love for her subject and she roused the same feelings in many of her pupils, who henceforth took a keen interest in things historical (Kennedy, 1991).

Born in Ipswich where she completed her primary schooling, Alison Goleby attended secondary school at St Hilda’s Anglican School, Southport. After completing a Bachelor of Arts Degree at the University of Queensland in 1944, majoring in History, she taught at the Tamworth Church of England Girls’ School (now Calrossy Anglican School), and at Fairholme College, Toowoomba. In 1948 however, she returned to Ipswich to care for her severely disabled mother. It was following her mother’s death 11 years later that Alison Goleby returned to the profession she so loved and commenced her career at IGGS.

While not a Resident Mistress, Alison Goleby nonetheless took a keen interest in the welfare of all students at the School. In retirement she became an active supporter of the IGGS Old Girls Association, continued regularly to attend events at the School and showed a keen interest in all that her former students did in their subsequent lives. She maintained her connections with the Women’s College and the Alumni Friends of the University of Queensland as well as keeping up with, and having a view on, the political and other events shaping the history of tomorrow.