b'F R O M T H E B E G I N N I N GThere may have been a falling out with Mr. McEwan. The fact thatNimmo had a Bachelor of Arts degree which equipped him well for ateaching career, while McEwan had no qualification, became an issue and one with which the boys parents became concerned. In theevent, Bill and Eileen decided to leave and open their own school.Meanwhile, in January, 1914 the Sydney Preparatory Schoolwas moved from Rose Hall to Redbank at 1 Darling Point Road,Edgecliff(onthecornerofNewSouthHeadRoad),which Mr. McEwan had acquired a few months earlier. However, num-bers dwindled, and by 1916, McEwan decided to limit his opera-tions to the Bowral school. But this was not a success and, in 1917,Sydney Preparatory School was closed.4A New Preparatory SchoolT heyearsbeforetheFirstWorldWarwerepropitiousfor educators. The liberalism of the nineteeth century, coupledwith the development of scientific thought, encouraged are-thinking of education. Just as authority, or rather autocracy, hadno place in the new democracies, so it was rejected in the new educationofthetimes.Inthemyriadofnewschoolswhich sprung up, the emphasis was on freedom. Democracies needed citizenstrainedfromchildhoodtothinkforthemselves,whowould contribute to the community and use their liberty responsi-bly. At the same time, more than ever before, education was seenas the key to personal fulfilment and happiness. When Bill Nimmo started the Coogee Boys Preparatory Schoolin 1914, many of the large Secondary Schools had no PreparatorySchools of their own. The Scots College Prep was to open in 1922;but Sydney Grammar, the secondary school of so many Coogee1 8'