Dr Elizabeth Jean Prest

23/10/1930 – 17/08/2024

Dr Elizabeth Jean Prest (Wadham), former wife of David Harris Prest, (Principal, Wesley College, 1972-1991), Wesley parent and past Co-Patron of the Sapere Aude Bequest Society, was born in October 1930, the only child of Ernest, footballer, and Gladys (Jolly), artist and homemaker. She grew up in the leafy eastern suburb of Roslyn Park, Adelaide and died peacefully in Carlton aged 93.

After a hiatus of several decades, and when retired, Jean revived her interest in this aspect of Australian history and was ultimately awarded a doctorate from the University of Melbourne in 2005 for her research into the life of Sir John Langdon Bonython, the proprietor of the Adelaide Advertiser. She became a Senior Fellow of the History Department at University of Melbourne.

Although Jean was an accomplished writer, researcher and teacher in her own right, she will be remembered by readers of Lion as ‘the Headmaster’s wife’, an unassuming title that belies her contribution to Wesley College, and indeed, the other schools run by my father throughout his career. In the 1960s, it was not uncommon for Jean to fill in at short notice when teachers were unavailable at Wolaroi College, Orange. In the 1970s, when schoolboys were terrified of being conscripted to the Vietnam war, she took on a pastoral role in the boarding house at Scotch College, Perth. Even after Wesley, Jean continued to support my father in his roles at Goulburn Valley Grammar School and at Melbourne University.

Once my father was established at Wesley College in 1972, Jean quickly supplemented her role on the home front with an academic position at Latrobe University. She tutored in Women’s History and a unique subject then entitled ‘Revolutions’.

After five years at Latrobe University, Jean taught briefly at Lauriston and then MLC, where she was Head of Middle School from 1984 until retirement in 1990. At the same time, Jean made a very significant contribution to Wesley College. She seemed to be forever cooking for dinner parties and staff social events at which she made material contributions to robust discussions on aspects of education. She attended a range of Wesley sporting matches, plays and musicals, boarders’ chapel services, and speech nights. She also provided a sounding board for my father, and for many years, Monday nights were set aside for dinner with Professor John Keeves, principals from other schools and various luminaries of Australian education.

There were some teachers who seemed to follow my parents from school to school, as if part of our family. Dawson Hann knew Jean from childhood in Adelaide; others followed from their first days as graduate teachers. Some favourite school students became teachers themselves and remained friends for life. One student from Wolaroi College, Jacob Zeephongsekul, moved into our home and stayed for ten years!

In 1981, Jean was delighted to have a Wesley rowing boat named after her - and she loved the picnics at Geelong on boat race day - although her passion for sport was mainly focussed on tennis and AFL football. Jean was captain of her high school tennis team and represented University of Adelaide in the inter-varsity competitions while a student. She had great success in her youth, winning the Adelaide hard-court event in 1947 and was runner-up in the English southern counties tournament in 1956. Later in life, she took great pleasure in trouncing teenage girls while teaching at MLC.

Having a father who was a Norwood FC champion and SANFL ‘Hall of Famer’, it was no surprise that Jean was immensely proud of my brother Ian (OW1979) when he played in a Wesley First XVIII that were undefeated APS champions. She was, of course, proud of all of us, and thrilled when her two eldest grand-daughters, Elizabeth and Alexandra, dressed in the purple uniform and attended the St Kilda Road Campus. Grandma was present at their concerts, plays, netball matches and speech nights, and loved helping them with homework.

During her retirement, Jean accepted a role on the Sapere Aude Bequest Society as a pathway for members of the Wesley community to provide enduring benefits for future generations of Wesley Collegians. She thoroughly enjoyed the meetings; partly to enhance the direction of the society, and also for the regular catchups with old friends such as Jean Oldfield, Gordon Newton (OW1950), Helen Drennen and others. Jean was also on the board of St Hilda’s College at Melbourne University, a keen member of the Lyceum Club, and active in various book clubs and regular tennis outings well into her 80s.

We celebrated Jean’s life at the Uniting Church, Toorak, on Friday 30 August. It had been raining all week, but as the service ended, the clouds lifted. The church hosted morning tea in a garden of roses, and many friends stayed for hours recounting various stories of my mother’s life; her amazing academic achievements, her ability to do three things at once (like mark essays, knit and cook dinner), her ability to connect with strangers, and her endearing vagueness, which was encapsulated by Dawson Hann’s poem ‘The Woman Who Missed the Beatles’.

Jean is survived by her three children David Prest (OW1977), Ian Prest (OW1979), Lydia Dowse, their partners Beverley Prest, Kylie Colless and Julian Dowse, and five grandchildren Elizabeth Prest (OW2009), Alexandra Prest (OW2012), Finlay Colless-Prest, Neve Colless-Prest and Konrad Dowse.

Contributed by David Prest (OW1977)