Educator and Secondary Administrator
Adrian Egginton was born in London in 1938. With the onset of World War II his father joined the Royal Navy and he was later separated from his mother during the German blitz of 1940, when thousands of children were evacuated to the English countryside. His mother retrained as a motor mechanic, working at a bus maintenance depot and this began Adrian’s lifelong passion with buses. Bus journeys also created an interest in timetables, which he showed affinity within school settings. Adrian’s father settled in Perth following his naval service and he was joined by his family.
The family initially lived in South Perth and then settled in Rivervale. Adrian won a scholarship to Perth Modern School, matriculating in 1955 to university. As a school student Adrian used to scrutinise the bus network which at the time was made up of many private companies and used to contribute articles to magazines worldwide about the system and how it could be improved.
After leaving school Adrian gained an arts degree from UWA followed by a diploma in education. He was posted to Narrogin Senior High School in 1960 teaching geography and economics. There he thoroughly embraced the local community, joining the pipe band, amateur drama society, church council, local car club and became commanding officer of the local RAAF Air Training Corp. In 1963 he transferred to Armadale SHS, Margaret River HS in 1966 as acting deputy principal, senior master at Albany SHS in 1968, then Hampton SHS in 1970. He married Diana and started a family with Melissa born in 1969, Andrew in 1970 and Simon in 1974. The family home was built nearby, where he lived for 52 years.
In 1978 Adrian became the deputy principal of Cyril Jackson SHS, the start of his longest tenure where he remained until his retirement in 2007. Noting a change in demographics in the school’s catchment area, leading to a decrease in enrolments and the inability to offer a wide range of subjects, Adrian helped establish CJ as a senior campus with Principal Lorraine Hams in 1991.
During his time at CJ Adrian became an expert in timetabling. Each January, a huge opaque sheet of acrylic would appear in his study which he used to work out the timetable for all the classes, rooms and teachers with a variety of coloured sticky dots. He became quite well known for this, even after computers were well established Following his retirement, Adrian’s expertise was recognised and he assisted a number of schools develop workable timetables. He also enjoyed time with his grandchildren, reading and travel. He also became an active member of the Bus Museum.
Unfortunately Adrian battled dementia in his final years and sadly passed away in March 2025. He always spoke fondly of his time at CJ and kept in touch with former colleagues. He would be very honoured and humbled to be named a Champion of CJ.