b'A H I S T O R Y O F C O O G E E P R E PThe St.Marks Road house was the first of the Nimmos twoboarding schools. The family continued to live there until about1929andduringthattimetheboardingnumbersebbedandflowed.AlwynGoodmanrecallsthatwhenhewastherein192425, he was the only boarder, but not long afterwards the fourShepherd brothers arrived from Beecroft to boost the numbers.AfterWarrawee,theNimmoslivedinGlebeStreet,Randwick for a few years before embarking on another boardingventure in 1939. This time they leased Keira, a beautiful oldhome built by the Foley family who held a long head lease overthe land from the Church of England. By this time, the lease washeld by Mr. Foleys daughters, Millicent and Claire, who were oldfriends of Eileen and with whom the Nimmos made up a bridgefour on winter evenings. Keira, at 128 Carrington Road, becamethehomeformoreboardersincludingTom,JackandMaxRussell who came from Tilpa, west of Cobar!However, the disruption of the War, and an influenza epidem-ic, caused the numbers to dwindle and the boarding school closedat the end of 1941. Bill Nimmo had supervised the last of the boyscold showers.Boys who lived with the family, whether in St.Marks Road orinCarringtonRoad,rememberthosedaysasbeingwarmandhappy, secure and disciplined. In the evening, Mrs.Nimmo wouldput out the clothes which each boy was to wear the following dayand every morning, Nimmo would walk across to the school withthe boarders and with any other boys who lived nearby. In spite of his small size, Nimmo moved so quickly that theboys had to run to keep up. As they walked, he would tell themstoriesorrecitepoetryorofferwisecounselinmuchthesame way that F.V. Pratt had done on their mountain walks manyyears before. These walks to school took place in all weather.Rodney Knock, who was a day boy during the Second WorldWar, writes:The boarders always walked with him from the boarding house up toClovelly Hoyts, then along Frenchmans Road, past the fire station toPeters Corner. I remember them now (as I sat on the Extension2 5'