John Macpherson ('52)

John Lachlan Macpherson, Class of 1952, passed away peacefully in Bowral on 10 March, 2025, aged 89. 

He was born in Rockdale on 28 September, 1935 and went to Penshurst Public School before his love of his love of choral music and singing eventually led him to be enrolled at St Andrew’s Cathedral School, where he became a lead chorister. In those days, St Andrew’s only went to what nowadays would be about Year 9, so he then transferred to Trinity Grammar School. 

At Trinity, his love of Cricket grew, as did his love of Rugby. He progressed to be in the 1st XI as a fast bowler and was a handy middle-order batsman.  

He played in the 1st XV and was regarded as fine winger; in the spring he was known as being a very good hurdler. His family have been told that he was the first to kick a penalty goal from halfway on Hurstville Oval for St George Rugby ... which is no mean feat, with the heavy leather footballs of the day and a toe poke action. 

After school, he chose a career in the Army, which led him to Duntroon then eventually Officer Cadet School, Portsea. In 1954 he graduated as a First Lieutenant with the Governor’s medal, which equated to First in his class. Postings were up and down the east coast of Australia and active service in Vietnam as an artillery officer in Phuoc Tuy province, then a two-year stint in the UK. 

Upon his return to Australia in 1974, his sons Wesley (‘79) and Robert (’80) were enrolled at Trinity and a few years later Fiona (’84) at Meriden. In typical style, his service to Trinity did not end when he left school as he became the president of the Old Trinitarians’ Union for a number of years in the late 70s to the mid 80s. He continued in this way past the time his sons had left school.  

While the boys were at the school, reliance was had on teachers and parents to be referees for the games of Rugby and, while best of intentioned, some refereeing skills were not that flash.  

John and his good mate Cliff Dodds got a Rugby refereeing class introduced to the school via Western Suburbs Rugby and Sydney Rugby to develop our own qualified referees. There are a number of Old Boys who were products of that training. He was well regarded as a very good First Grade referee and officiated at national level when combined Australian forces played touring teams from NZ, Fiji and the UK. 

When he had finished involvement with Trinity he switched his focus to Meriden. There he became Chairman of the School Council and there are many achievements that are as a result of his Chairmanship, including the purchase of a number of properties adjoining the school so future building projects could be enabled, such as the Music Centre. He drove the future-proofing of the school with the introduction of technology infrastructure such as fibre optic internet… not a bad visionary for 1992. 

John retired from the Army in 1981 at the rank of LTCOL and took on other executive posts in private enterprise. 

John was very active with Freemasonry and became a foundation member of Lodge Trinitarian, where he has given over 40 years of service to local charities and their good works.  

When Mum and he moved to Bowral, John became active with the Bradman Museum as a volunteer tour guide. He was active in several international projects with which Rotary is involved, such as eradicating malaria and many other humanitarian projects across the Pacific Island nations. Recently he was involved in re-homing or re-purposing medical equipment such as hospital beds, trays, medical tables and a load of other hospital and medical equipment that had run its use by date, but in no way were they useless. This equipment was shipped by Rotary around the nation to remote indigenous communities and internationally to Pacific Island nations. 

His involvement with the School never ended. His granddaughters Charlotte (‘20, Meriden) and Sophie (’23, Meriden) had leading roles in the TGS/Meriden Cadet Unit. 

At the passing of anyone we ask ourselves: Did this person leave a mark? John Lachlan Macpherson left a lifelong and lasting impression on many. 

Detur gloria soli Deo.