Dorothy Hill and Kathleen Campbell-Brown

Eminent sculptor and Churchill fellow, Rhyl Hinwood, famous Brisbane artist, was commissioned in 1999 by the then-Principal, Mrs Judith Hancock, to celebrate the careers of two of Grammar’s most illustrious students: Dorothy Hill and Kathleen Campbell-Brown. It is the recollection of Mrs Hancock, that she 'thought that the initiative would inspire others to honour major achievements of outstanding former Girls Grammar students' (Hancock, J., 2024, Email 25 April).

Dorothy Hill (1907 – 1997) is one of Girls Grammar’s most distinguished old girls. She was a student at the School from 1920 to 1924, boarding in her final two years. In her final school assembly, Dorothy was awarded the Lady Lilley Gold Medal, the Science Prize, the Phyllis Hobbs Memorial Prize for English and History, and the Sports Brooch: an academic in such diverse fields of endeavour, as well as an athlete.

Dorothy Hill has a long list of accolades for her achievements in Science, her commitment to furthering the status of women, and her contributions to academia and Australia. She was given honorary life membership of the Australian, British, and American Geological Societies, was elected as Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science in 1956, and Fellow of the Royal Society of London in 1965. The Queen conferred on her the Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in 1971 and she was named Queenslander of the Year in 1972. All of these honours culminated in her being granted the highest Australian civil award: Companion of the Order of Australia in 1993. 

Kathleen was enrolled as a student at Girls Grammar in 1916, graduating as one of the top students in the State in 1920. Her name is recorded on the Honour Board in the Annie Mackay Room, having achieved a Queensland University Scholarship which she used to pursue an Arts Degree, graduating with Honours in Classics.

In 1923 she returned to her old school as a part-time teacher of Latin and Ancient Greek and was appointed to a permanent position in 1926. She remained at Girls Grammar until she was awarded an Orient-Free Passage to England in 1929. This award enabled her to pursue her studies abroad and, after a short stay in London, she moved to France where she took up an English language teaching post.  She spent five years in Paris where she included more studies of the Classics at the Sorbonne. This sojourn was the beginning of her life-long love affair with France, its culture, and its language.

On her return to Australia, she returned to teaching and from 1945 until her retirement in 1973 at the age of 70, she worked her way from a tutor in the French Department at the University of Queensland to Senior lecturer and, on occasion, Acting Head of Department.