Lillian M. Pyke (Lillian Maxwell Pyke)

Lillian Maxwell Pyke was born in 1881, the youngest of ten children of Robert Mosely Heath and Susannah Ellen, née Wilson, who emigrated to Australia in 1862 (Heath). Lillian was educated at University High School under the Headship of L. A. Adamson, who later became Headmaster of Wesley College. In 1908 she married Richard Diamond Pyke and the pair moved to Kingaroy where her husband worked as a railway engineer. Lillian used these experiences for her novel, Camp Kiddies (1919) which is illustrated with original family photographs. The couple had three children, two daughters, Joyce Maxwell, and Phyllis Lillian, and a son, Lawrence Richard Diamond (born 1 November 1912). Her husband died in 1917 and Pyke supported her young family by writing children’s stories. She wrote 18 children’s novels, mostly for Ward, Lock & Co., from 1916 to 1927. She also wrote two adult novels under the pen name of Erica Maxwell, as well as a book on Australian Etiquette which was frequently republished. Lillian died on 31 August 1927 whilst in her mid-forties, leaving her children orphans. At the time her fourteen-year-old son was a boarder at Wesley College and he was adopted by L. A. Adamson (Meyer 138). L. R. D. Pyke later completed a BSc at the University of Melbourne and became a Rhodes Scholar. He was Headmaster of Newington College from 1952 to 1960, and had two sons and one daughter. He died in July 1987.

Links
Australian Dictionary of Biography Online Edition: Pyke, Lillian Maxwell (1881 - 1927) by Beverley Kingston.
Heath Family Geneology Website by Clifford Heath.


Max the Sport. London: Ward, Lock & Co., Limited, 1916. 250 pages. Illustrated 'J. Macfarlane', b/w frontis & 7 b/w illus.

Max the Sport details Max Charlton’s schooldays at St. Virgil’s School, the first of three titles Pyke set at the fictional Melbourne public school based on Wesley College. Pyke explores ‘playing the game’ themes in school, sport, study and war in the story. The opening of Max the Sport initially deals with Max’s childhood, in a manner similar to Pyke’s Jack of St. Virgil’s and Bruce’s Diick. It was quite common in early Australian boys’ school stories to detail the hero’s childhood. Max’s parents had wished to send their son to a public school, as they value the public school spirit, and ‘playing the game’ - they want Max to be a sport. When Max’s father dies whilst saving the life of a child, Max must compete for a scholarship to St. Virgil’s and is successful. He is immediately inspired by the Headmaster’s speech, urging school patriotism, unselfishness and playing the game. Max’s trials in striving to be a ‘sport’ include winning football matches against unfair competitors, and almost sacrificing his chances of winning the Senior Championship to allow a rival’s crippled sister some joy. In his last year, Max becomes ill and misses out on a scholarship, facing the prospect of having to leave St. Virgil’s until his mother learns that he is heir to an estate in England. Max returns to St. Virgil’s and wins a scholarship to Melbourne University to study medicine. This moving of the school story to university life is unique in Australian school stories.¹ Max becomes a doctor and is working in a hospital when war is declared. Max enlists, much to the dismay of his mother, until she realises that he is only being a ‘sport’, and to do otherwise would be against his upbringing of playing the game.

Pyke’s war motif touches on the contemporary divisions within Australia regarding enlistment and expands the ‘playing the game’ theme to the battlefields of war. Max is wounded, but is awarded the VC, and despite facing an uncertain future, he is still determined to be a sport. Max the Sport is the strongest of all of Pyke’s boys’ school stories in advocating the ‘playing the game’ ethic and leading an honourable sporting life.

¹Thomas Hughes wrote a sequel to Tom Brown’s Schooldays, Tom Brown at Oxford, which was less popular.








Jack of St. Virgil's. London: Ward, Lock & Co., Limited, 1917. 319 pages. Illus. 'J. Macfarlane', b/w frontis. & 7 b/w illus.

In Jack of St. Virgil's, Jack Brown is a fourteen-year-old boy, who lives in the country, and wins a scholarship to St. Virgil’s. He doesn’t know anything about his parents. The scholarship pupil was a conventional character in British school stories, though Pyke’s sporting hero somewhat fails to match the British stereotype of a ‘swot’; overly academic, weak at games, looked down upon and socially inferior. Jack engages with the typical school tussles, newie’s initiation and trying out for sports teams. The school receives a visit from an Old Boy and war hero, Captain Romaine, who deeply impresses Jack and he decides to try and model his life on the courageous ex-soldier. Jack discovers who his parents are during a holiday stint as a cabin boy. As a baby he was stolen from Captain Romaine and his wife. Jack is unable to tell Captain Romaine because of a promise he made to his aunt. Jack discovers his uncle trying to steal at St. Virgil’s and he is later blackmailed about this by an older boy. When Jack rescues Captain Romaine’s daughter from being trampled by a pack of horses, Captain Romaine discovers the truth and is reunited with his long-lost son. While British and Australian girls’ school stories often incorporated the finding of lost sisters, mothers, fathers, cousins and heirs this motif appears less frequently in boys’ school stories. Pyke still recreates St. Virgil’s atmosphere as a public school through descriptions of sport including the Head of the River, the courageous school captain, owing money, and Jack’s talk with the captain about illicit literature.

A Prince at School. London: Ward, Lock & Co., Limited, 1919. 252 pages. Illustrated J. Macfarlane, b/w frontis. & 7 b/w illus.

Mr Lester, a middle-aged bachelor, is Head Master of Whitfield College, a boarding school, in A Prince at School. His ordered world is turned upside down when he receives news that an old lady friend has died leaving him guardianship of her two children, who currently live on Vilatonga. Mr Lester travels to Vilatonga to collect Arnold, a sixteen-year-old boy, and Lola, a twenty-year-old young woman and take them back to Australia. Their friend, Andi, the son of the deposed Island chief, stows away on the boat. Andi, a ‘prince’, can be seen as an equivalent of the Ruritanian princess motif which appeared in British girls’ school stories.2 Andi is allowed to go to Whitefield College, and though some of the boys are initially hostile to Andi, he soon gains popularity through his good nature. Arnold, Lola and Andi are worried they have been followed by Lola’s unwanted German suitor from Vilatonga, Mr Bernstein. Mr Lester secretly sends them to Queensland to recover from illness but Lola and Andi are kidnapped by Mr Bernstein. Mr Lester thinks they have been killed, as Mr Bernstein makes it look like they were mauled by an escaped lion. Mr Bernstein wants Andi to reveal where his father hid his tribe’s cache of guns and money, and he wants Lola to marry him. War is declared and Mr Lester is approached by the British navy to travel to Vilatonga to help the bases there and he takes Arnold with him. This direct involvement of some of the characters in the First World War is unique amongst Australian boys’ school stories. Bernstein threatens to kill Andi if Lola does not agree to marry him, but Andi manages to escape, and locating his father’s cache, is discovered by Arnold and some tribesmen. They form a party and rescue Lola and destroy the German boat. Lola and Mr Lester marry, while Arnold is to return to school. Andi’s father is restored as chief of Vilatonga.

² See Elinor M. Brent-Dyer A Princess at the Chalet School, Dorothea Moore Guide Gilly, F. O. H. Nash Kattie of the Balkans, etc.

The Best School of All. London: Ward, Lock & Co., Limited, 1921. 256 pages. Illustrated J. Macfarlane, b/w frontis. & 5 b/w illus.

The sequel to Jack of St. Virgil's, The Best School of All, centres on Jack Romaine, who is now seventeen years old and in the Sixth Form, and the ructions caused by two new boys, Theo, Jack’s younger cousin, and the mysterious Sixth Former, Smith, who is thought to have a secret past. Pyke follows a very classic British school story in plot, subject and characterization, focussing on themes of playing the game, school loyalty and schoolboy honour in a level of complexity not seen in her other school stories while for the most part she avoids romantic plots. The story centres on Smith, a strong sportsman who causes antagonism in the school when he refuses to play in any of the school teams. Jack discovers that Smith used to be a crack sportsman at Mervale, a rival school to St. Virgil’s, but had to leave after becoming involved in drinking and gambling. Pyke touches on the treatment that ‘bloods’, leading sportsmen, underwent at school, the idolisation they experienced, and the fierceness of the GPS sporting competitions. The school honour and loyalty motif also appeared in British school stories in which a schoolboy changes schools and faces dilemmas over conflicting loyalties.³ Jack’s friendship with Smith inspires Smith to ‘play the game’, and he agrees to play sport. But in a football match against Mervale, he appears to throw a pass to a Mervale player and is accused of disloyalty. Later he is cleared of any unsporting play. Smith learns that to be faithful to his loyalty to Mervale, he must play his hardest for his new school, and in the end he feels a strong sense of pride in St. Virgil’s traditions and achievements. Jack wins the Wentworth Scholarship, despite almost missing out when he shields his younger cousin. The title of the story is taken from Henry Newbolt’s poem of the same name.

³ See for example, Hylton Cleaver Captain of Two Schools.


Sheila the Prefect. London: Ward, Lock & Co., Limited, 1923. 255 pages. Illustrated 'J. Dewar Mills', b/w frontis. & 3 b/w illus.

Sheila the Prefect continues the schooldays of best friends, Sheila Chester, and Beryl Lindsay, who were introduced in Sheila at Happy Hills (1922) where the death of Sheila’s mother led to an impostor pretending to be a friend of her stepfather in an attempt to obtain her inheritance. In Sheila the Prefect Beryl is now Head Girl of Riverview and Sheila is a Probationer Prefect. It is the end of term and the pair are preparing to attend a Christian Union Camp with other schoolgirls in the school holidays. In British girls’ school stories, guide camps in the holidays were often described, but Christian camps were used more in evangelistic school stories. During the camp the girls discover one of their classmates, Dorothy Grant, had an older sister who died in a train accident, though no body was ever found. Beryl thinks that there may be some mystery behind it and soon the girls have an opportunity to investigate some startling coincidences. They find an older girl, ‘Fairy’, working at a nearby Children’s Home, who has lost her memory. They also learn that one of the Riverview mistresses was meant to be accompanying Dorothy’s sister, but forgot to give her the train ticket. The mystery is solved when one of the Children’s Home workers mistakes Dorothy for Fairy. Beryl and Sheila share their suspicions with Sheila’s guardian, Elizabeth, that Fairy and Dorothy’s sister are one and the same. Elizabeth is a doctor, and operates on Fairy, restoring her memory and she is later reunited with her family. This identity motif and use of lost memory was a favoured device to embellish school story plots. Despite the strong mystery plot, Pyke still describes activities of the Riverview girls, including sports matches, prefect duties, plays and scholarship exams. Pyke uses characters from her other series. One of Sheila’s friends, Lola, is engaged to Andi from A Prince at School, while the Riverview girls play tennis against Theo Cranville from The Best School of All.

Sheila and her schoolmates’ adventures after school are continued in Three Bachelor Girls (1926).

Squirmy and Bubbles: A School Story for Girls. Melbourne: Whitcombe & Tombs Limited, [1924]. 164 pages. Illustrated 'Perce Clark', b/w frontis. & 2 b/w illus.

Squirmy and Bubbles concerns thirteen-year-old twins, Theodora, known as Bubbles, and Dorothea ‘Squirmy’ Bonney, who are being educated on the family property by a series of unsuccessful governesses. Squirmy is a bit of a ‘madcap’, while Bubbles is sweet and quiet. Their Aunt Lizzie decides that she would like to have one twin, the good quiet one, with her as a companion, and send the other twin, the incorrigible one, to Riverside College as a boarder where she will have to learn discipline and restraint. However she mixes up the personalities of the twins, sending Bubbles to school whilst keeping naughty Squirmy as her companion. The use of twins was a popular motif in British school stories, which allowed plots involving mistaken identities, rags, jokes, punishments and other amusing incidents, and Pyke places this in an Australian setting. The girls face plenty of challenges and difficulties in adjusting to their roles. Bubbles must deal with the reputation of being a mischievous and troublesome child and finds herself in many scrapes as a result. Squirmy, on the other hand, has to learn to be a dutiful and considerate companion to her aunt, for whom she gains a real affection in the end. Pyke uses a school house motif. A new house has been established at Riverside, and there are tensions between the modern and up-to-date Raymond House, and Frensham, the original house with its traditions and customs, though this issue is not explored to the level of complexity present in some British school stories.⁴ The mistaken identity is discovered in the end by the aunt, just in time for Bubbles to be able to take her place in the Junior tennis team, which she had forfeited as a punishment for one of Squirmy’s pranks, and Riverside wins the match. Pyke’s girls’ school stories, for the most part, do no match their male counterpart’s enthusiasm and interest in sport and competition, yet Squirmy and Bubbles is an exception. Pyke portrays basketball and tennis house and school matches, and the annual sports days, in great detail.

⁴ See for example, Gunby Hadath The New House at Oldborough.



The Lone Guide of Merfield. London: Ward, Lock & Co., Limited, 1925. 256 pages. Illustrated 'J. Dewar Mills', b/w frontis. & 3 b/w illus.

Despite its title, The Lone Guide of Merfield, bears little resemblance to British girl guiding school stories of the period.⁵ The heroine is fifteen-year-old Mary Gaunt, a pupil teacher at Merfield College, a small private venture school of about 40 boarders and day girls, run by the three Maynard sisters. Mary used to be a boarder but became a pupil teacher when she was abandoned by her relatives, which leaves some of the pupils, including the wealthy Enid Hayfield, to look down on her as a charity pupil. Pupil teachers were a feature in private schools, though this is their only appearance in an Australian school story. Mary becomes a lone guide when there is not enough interest to form a company at Merfield. Pyke moves the story to the school holidays, as the Misses Maynard arrange for Mary to act as a companion to one of the younger pupils, Linda Sterne, when Linda’s family travel to Vilatonga aboard the ‘Palmetto’. Enid and her father are also travelling aboard the ship and Enid is often rude to Mary. The ‘Palmetto’ is caught in a tropical cyclone and sinks. Mr Hayfield, Mary, and one of the Sterne children, Bobby, manage to make it to an island, where they discover Enid. The value of guiding is illustrated through Mary’s use of her training to help the others survive, and gradually Enid overcomes her dislike of Mary. This classic storyline of how a schoolgirl heroine is looked down upon by an enemy, whom she later wins over, is used by Pyke with a guiding and adventure background. The group are rescued by a Natural History professor and his son, and taken back to Vilatonga where they meet Prince Tui Andi and his wife Lala, characters from A Prince at School, and Sheila the Prefect. The story concludes with a romantic identity motif. Mr Hayfield discovers he is Mary’s father, and adopts her. The girls of Merfield are inspired by Mary’s courage, and a company of Guides is established.

⁵Eg. Dorothea Moore: Judy Patrol Leader, Brenda of Beechhouse.