Esther Beanland medal

As an educator and visionary, Miss Sophia Beanland, Girls Grammar’s fourth Lady Principal (1882–1889), implemented significant advances in broadening Brisbane Girls Grammar School’s curriculum. In particular, she developed the Arts Curriculum—Art, Music and Languages—employing accomplished international teachers. It was her commitment to a balanced education that led to the establishment of the Esther Beanland Medal in 1915. Named in honour of her mother, the medal celebrates the creativity and craftsmanship of many remarkable Grammar girls.

Miss Beanland stipulated that the medal should be for ‘a prize for house needlework’, specifying that ‘the choice of the work done to be the pupil’s own choice, and the prize to be awarded for excellence of design and workmanship’ (Beanland, 1915). Miss Beanland commissioned Allan Gairdner Wyon (1882-1962) of Portland Place, London, to make the Founder’s Copy of the medal, paying 50 guineas for two dies (Begley, 2015).

By 1930 the Esther Beanland Medal was being made by die-sinker and engraver, Chas Handford of Mary Street, Brisbane. BGGS has four of the medals in its archives collection: Eleanor Hart’s 1917 medal still in its original Wyon box; Patricia McGregor’s 1924 Wyon medal; Elsie Harwood’s 1930 medal; and Alison Aland’s 1940 medal, both of which were cast by Handford.

Over the years the awarding of the Esther Beanland Medal changed with the shift in education trends. Originally a prize for needlework, the prize’s parameters later extended to sewing and then to 'textile design'.

The most recent Esther Beanland Medal prize winner, Esther McDade (9H), received the award in 2018 for a textile artwork entitled, Coral Fleece. Combining weaving, knitting and crochet, Esther blended textured earthen fibres onto mesh to create a curious and tactile artwork. It was Esther’s ‘Granny’ who taught her the art of knitting and crochet, having come from a rich family history of textile design. Esther’s grandmother’s family were weavers and seamstresses by profession who immigrated from Ayrshire, Scotland to Australia, and worked in a Queen Street shop, sewing women’s clothes. For Esther, the name of her artwork, Coral Fleece, is a play on words, ‘where “fleece” describes the materials used in the artwork but also alludes to the condition of the coral; it is being ‘fleeced’ (McDade, 2020). Esther has generously donated her artwork to the School, and it is the only Esther Beanland Medal-winning piece that the School has in its collection.