Arthur Lawrence Adamson (1860-1932), headmaster, was born on 20 April 1860 at Douglas, Isle of Man, second son of Lawrence William Adamson, LL.D., grand seneschal of the island and later deputy lieutenant of the County of Northumberland, and his first wife Annie Jane, née Flint. At 10 Adamson was sent to a London preparatory school and in 1874 he entered Rugby School, where he did well in classics and enjoyed all forms of sport. He matriculated in 1879 at Oriel College, Oxford (B.A., Charsley Hall, 1884), and was called to the Bar of the Inner Temple in 1885. After a bout of severe pleurisy he decided to practise law in the warmer climate of New South Wales. Finding the Sydney climate too moist, he moved early in 1886 to Melbourne where he applied to join the Bar and was in due course admitted. Meanwhile he did some private coaching, and also accepted a temporary teaching post at Melbourne Church of England Grammar School; he was awarded his B.A. (ad eund.) in May and M.A. in December by the University of Melbourne. In 1887 he became senior resident master at Wesley College and held the post until 1892, teaching English and history and fomenting a new interest in sport. (Source: Australian Dictionary of Biography Online)