Cecil Charles Shinkfield was born on 14 December 1891 in Southampton, England.

Records suggest several generations of Shinkfield’s had been officers stationed in the nearby Royal Navy base. Southampton Docks have had a naval presence since 1194.

As a child of the Navy, like many other Portsmouth locals, Cecil visited Admiral Nelson’s flagship HMS Victory, which played a pivotal role in defeating French and Spanish Naval Forces in 1805 at the Battle of Trafalgar.

On the 28 August 1912, a 20 year old Cecil started shore-based training on HMS Victory II at the Royal Naval Barracks at Portsmouth. In 1915 Cecil married Mercy Beaby and they had their first of their six children the following year. Cecil began studying part time at Cambridge University and worked towards gaining a Master of Arts in Science.

Records suggest Cecil was not involved in the disastrous Dardanelles Campaign on the Gallipoli Peninsula which occurred from February 1915 through to January 1916, however his Commanding Officer Admiral Roger Keyes was responsible for clearing the Dardanelles Strait of Turkish and German mines floating on the ocean surface and underwater. This was important work, ensuring that troops and supplies were able to be safely transported to support the Allied campaign which was moving towards Constantinople (Istanbul), which was the capital of the Ottoman Empire.

While the Strait was never cleared of mines, Keyes became increasingly familiar with how German and Turkish forces used currents to place mine in the water, German U (Undersea) boat (Submarine) tactics, and general German naval procedures when fighting on the sea.
Following the withdrawal of Allied troops from Gallipoli Keyes was moved to support and strengthen the naval force called Dover Patrol to prevent German shipping, primarily U boat submarines from using the English Channel as a short cut to access the North Sea and Atlantic Ocean to disrupt major shipping routes.

Keyes' oversight resulted in the sinking of 5 German U boats in his first month of command compared with the sinking of just 2 German U boats in the previous 2 years. It forced the Imperial German Navy to undertake a much longer sailing route around Scotland.
Keyes trained Cecil who was involved in the work of Dover Patrol throughout World War One. Cecil was deployed on several Navy destroyers in Keyes’ ongoing pattern of attacking German naval bases and fortifications on the Belgium and French coastlines.

Sadly, in the closing months of the war while on the deck of HMS Greenwich at night, Cecil was temporarily blinded when one of ships powerful search lights turned on suddenly. Cecil sustained life altering eye injuries and during a period of recovery returned to his studies at Cambridge which he completed shortly after being invalided out of the Navy after twelve years of service in June 1919.
On the 18 December 1926 Cecil, Mercy and their 4 surviving children left England for a new life in Melbourne after Cecil had been offered a teaching job at Sunshine Technical School. They sailed on the ship the Runic and 6 weeks later they arrived in Melbourne on the 29 January 1927.

HMAT (His Majesty’s Australian Transport) Runic was used to transport Australian soldiers during World War One and then it was used as a passenger ship sailing from England to Australia until 1929.

Sunshine Technical School was established in 1913 after a donation of land and funds by Australian inventor Hugh McKay who invented what the world came to know as the ‘Sunshine Wheat Harvester'. Hugh paid for and built the school to train apprentices who worked at his Sunshine Harvester Works factory. Next to the school and factory, Hugh built a housing estate for factory workers to live.

Cecil left his post at the school after less then 12 months as he felt the Sunshine School ‘wasn’t his cup of tea’ and relocated the family to Geelong where he became an infantry Captain in the Army Reserve and started teaching at Geelong College.

Five years later in 1933 during the severe economic downturn that came to be known as the Great Depression, Cecil decided to spent a year in Tasmania working with unemployed and disadvantaged people by leading the Baptist Church in Sheffield.

In 1934 Cecil was approached by Headmaster Harold Steele to consider a return to Melbourne and to teach at Carey Baptist Grammar School. For the next 11 years Cecil taught Science and Mathematics, was a parent of Carey students Maurice, and twins Desmond and Harold (known as Ralph) and was an active Member of various Baptist Church Communities.

Cecil was active in the formation of the Carey Cadet Unit in 1939, with 65 students first enlisting, including Cecil’s own sons. The Australasian Newspaper run a full-page article on the Carey Cadet Unit on Saturday 23 November 1940 and made mention of the Shinkfield twins with Ralph holding the rank of Sergeant Major and Desmond a Sergeant.

During World War 2 Cecil enlisted in the Royal Australian Navy and brought his previous knowledge and expertise to assist a team of Navy staff at the HMAS Lonsdale Naval Base in Port Melbourne on developing ways to protect Australian shipping from German and Japanese mines. All of the Shinkfield children served in the Navy and Airforce during World War Two.

Sadly a number of their contemporaries paid the ultimate sacrifice in their efforts to protect the freedom of fellow Australians.
On the 19 April 1945 it was announced that Cecil had been appointed the new Head of Kings College Adelaide. Kings College had been founded in the same year as Carey as a joint venture between the Congregational Church and the Baptist Union of South Australia. In 1974 Kings College and Girton Girls School merged to form the Pembroke School. Cecil was also appointed a preacher at the Gawler Baptist Church.
In 1947 Cecil and Mercy were granted 6 months study leave and they sailed back to England arriving in London on the 12 September 1947. Cecil was able to be briefly reunited with his elderly parents Charles aged 81 and Kate aged 78 at the time.

Over the next 5 and a half months Cecil and Mercy visited several schools to research their programs and curriculum. They were particularly involved in one working on treating young people impacted mentally and physically by the London bombings before returning to Adelaide on the 22 January 1948.

The Shinkfields noted upon their return to Adelaide the impact of economic and financial hardships experienced by many in England, and their surprise at being complemented by staff and students at the schools they visited on how well they spoke the English language given they had been living in Australia for so long!

Cecil retired from King's in 1955 due to ongoing eyesight issues and took up a teaching job at Norwood High School in Adelaide’s eastern suburbs.

Mercy passed away on the 12 June 1960 and Cecil continued teaching at Norwood until his retirement in 1962. Cecil then returned to Melbourne and was cared for by Cecil Junior and his wife Ruth, Maurice, Desmond his wife Mary, and by Ralph and his wife Jean especially after he lost his eyesight completely in 1971. Cecil continued to be actively involved in the Baptist Church before he passed away on the 13 August 1973.

Interestingly one of Cecil’s sons Ralph trained to be a teacher and taught for over 25-years at Carey in both the Kew and Donvale campuses. Ralph started in the Junior School in 1959, under the leadership of Ken Lyall and within a year was appointed House Master of Tranter House. Ralph retired in 1984 as Senior Master of the Junior School having been a Housemaster for 23 years, Teacher-in-charge of Mathematics and Quartermaster at Camp Toonallook. Ralph organised family weekends at Toonallook and maintained the school boat Toona Foam and was the school organist for House chapel services. During that time three of Ralph and Jean’s children attended Carey, Murray (1967), Rowan (1969), and Jonathan (1978). Donvale’s Shinkfield Red House, with the emblem of a possum, honours Ralph and the wider family’s connection to the school. Ralph passed away on 18 August 2022 having lived by the advice found in a letter written by Saint Peter – ‘that each one of us should use whatever gifts we receive to serve others.’

Written by Scott Bramley, Middle School Chaplain (April 2025)