Lancelot Bavin was a New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

-born Australian educator who was the Founder and Headmaster of Chatswood Preparatory School and Headmaster and Co-Headmaster of Mowbray House School

Mowbray House School

Mowbray House School was an independent, day and boarding school for boys, located in Chatswood, on the North Shore of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.-History:...

. He was the preparatory school headmaster of lawyer and company director Sir Norman Cowper CBE

Norman Lethbridge Cowper

Sir Norman Lethbridge Cowper was an Australian lawyer best known as the Senior Partner of the legal firm of Allen Allen & Hemsley which is now Allens Arthur Robinson. Under Cowper's leadership, Allen Allen & Hemsley became one of Australia's leading law firms working for many of Australia's...

, poet Kenneth Slessor OBE

Kenneth Slessor

Kenneth Adolf Slessor OBE was an Australian poet and journalist. He was one of Australia's leading poets, notable particularly for the absorption of modernist influences into Australian poetry. The Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry is named after him.-Life:Slessor was born Kenneth Adolphe...

 and Prime Minister The Hon. Gough Whitlam AC QC

Gough Whitlam

Edward Gough Whitlam, AC, QC , known as Gough Whitlam , served as the 21st Prime Minister of Australia. Whitlam led the Australian Labor Party to power at the 1972 election and retained government at the 1974 election, before being dismissed by Governor-General Sir John Kerr at the climax of the...

.

Family

Lance Bavin was born in Wellington, New Zealand, the youngest son, and eighth child of nine, to the Rev. Rainsford Bavin, a Methodist minister from Lincolnshire, England, and his New Zealand-born wife Emma, née Buddle. His sibling

Sibling

Siblings are people who share at least one parent. A male sibling is called a brother; and a female sibling is called a sister. In most societies throughout the world, siblings usually grow up together and spend a good deal of their childhood socializing with one another...

s were: Edna (Mrs Charles Lack); Jessie (Mrs Ambrose Fletcher); Sir Thomas Bavin; Gertrude (Mrs William Parker); Major Cyril Bavin OBE; Horace Bavin; Florence Bavin (Mrs Ernest Warren); and Dora Bavin (Mrs Leslie Allen

Leslie Holdsworth Allen

Leslie Holdsworth Allen was an Australian academic and poet. He was Professor of English at the Royal Military College, Duntroon, the senior lecturer of English and Latin at Canberra University College and chairman of the Literature Censorship Board.-Early life:Allen was born in Maryborough,...

).

Education

He was educated at Auckland Grammar School

Auckland Grammar School

Auckland Grammar School is a state secondary school for years 9 to 13 boys in Auckland, New Zealand. It had a roll of 2,483 in 2008, including a number of boarders who live in nearby Tibbs' House, making it one of the largest schools in New Zealand...

 and Newington College

Newington College

Newington College is an independent, Uniting Church, day and boarding school for boys, located in Stanmore, an inner-western suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia....

 after his father's move to Sydney

Sydney

Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...

, Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

, in 1889.

Chatswood Preparatory School

In 1906 Bavin founded the Chatswood Preparatory School. He initially ran the school with his wife, Ida, and his mother, Emma (1845–1931). The main building was constructed for the opening of the school in 1906 and is now heritage listed.

Mowbray House School

In 1914 Sandy Phillips

Sandy Phillips

Frederick George Phillips was the second Australian-born headmaster of Sydney Grammar School. -Early life:Sandy Phillips was born in Tamworth, New South Wales, the son of a Methodist Minister. He attended Newington College where he became known as 'little Sandy' as his brother was 'big Sandy'....

, until then a master at Sydney Grammar School

Sydney Grammar School

Sydney Grammar School is an independent, non-denominational, selective, day school for boys, located in Darlinghurst, Edgecliff and St Ives, all suburbs of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia....

, became co-headmaster with Bavin and Chatswood Prep became known as Mowbray House School. Bavin and Phillips had been students together at Newington College

Newington College

Newington College is an independent, Uniting Church, day and boarding school for boys, located in Stanmore, an inner-western suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia....

. Phillips remained at Mowbray House until his return to Sydney Grammar in 1924, where he ultimately became Headmaster. Bavin continued as Headmaster of Mowbray House until the school closed in 1954 due to his ill-health.

Local government

Bavin served as an alderman and Mayor of Willoughby Council

City of Willoughby

The City of Willoughby is a Local Government Area on the North Shore of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located 6 km north of the Sydney central business district....

.