The Michael Harvey Colyer Memorial Scholarship

Captain Michael Colyer                                                                             This scholarship commemorates the service to his country of Captain Michael Harvey Colyer who died on November 4, 1942 at El Alamein Egypt during the Second World War. Michael Colyer enlisted with the 2nd AIF on February 25 1941 at Killara, NSW and at the time of his death was posted to the 2/43 Australian Infantry Battalion and was serving as the Resident Medical Officer. 

A graphic insight into Captain Colyer’s war time experience can be found in an account of The Blockhouse, at El Alamein. Reference is made to Captain Colyer’s ‘sympathetic’ manner, serving as a Regimental Medical Officer in a building described as “a kind of international medical post …..it was not a fortification, but a hospital, and to men on both sides it became an oasis of humanity in the midst of carnage……”  (Author: Dr Mark Johnston, Head of History at Scotch College, Melbourne).

www.awm.gov.au/wartime/8/articles/blockhouse.pdf

Michael Colyer was the son of Moreton John Godden Colyer and his wife Aimee Helen nee Gordon.

The Scholarship & Miss Mary Gordon                                                                                    The Captain Colyer Memorial Scholarship was first granted in 1943, after Aimee’s sister, Miss Mary Gordon of Gocup established a scholarship fund to promote and encourage education, in remembrance of her nephew Michael Colyer, who was educated in Tumut.

A scholarship of £50 was to be awarded to a student of Tumut High School for an Intermediate Scholar to continue his studies with a view to entering University. The scholarship was first granted in 1943.  

In 2005 the Community Foundation demonstrated a commitment to administer the scholarship and is planning for the Colyer Scholarship Fund to  grow and make funds available for scholarships and other education programs to help meet one of the Foundation’s aims, ‘to make a difference where we live’.    

Integral to the ‘Captain Colyer Memorial Scholarship for Continuing Studies’ is recognition of the requests of Miss Gordon and the original trustees of the fund to encourage local students to develop their skills and personal ambitions by continuing their education after leaving school.  

Students in Year 10, Year 11 or Year 12 and seeking entry in the following year to an apprenticeship or a course at a University or TAFE College are encouraged to apply for the scholarship. 

Valued at $1000, the scholarship is awarded for the purchase of course related books, course fees and / or contribution towards fees for on-campus accommodation.  

The scholarship was initially established for the sons of ex-servicemen, however, as time has gone by, the award is now available to the descendants (boy or girl) of ex-servicemen/ex-servicewomen or current army, navy or air force personnel or a past/current member of a peace keeping force. Overseas service is not essential.