Peter Hollingsworth is pictured with his three sons (l-r) Stuart, Simon & Tim

Prior to 1985 the Hollingsworth family was associated with St Patrick’s College in Launceston. However, all that changed when Peter and Geraldine Hollingsworth moved to Hobart in 1985 as Peter continued his career with the Tasmanian Government Supply & Tender Department. Peter would soon become the Director of this division and retired from that role in 1997 after more than forty years of service to the State.

All three of their sons – Tim, Simon, and Stuart attended St Virgil’s and certainly left their mark on its story.

The parents were very supportive of the College, with Peter a member of the Interim Board from 1987-89, a member of the Board from 1990-92 and was its Chairman in 1992. They were highly active within the Parents and Friends Association and supporting the numerous sporting teams the boys participated in.

During their time at SVC three boys excelled at their studies, gained leadership positions, and threw themselves with success into the College’s sporting culture – particularly in athletics.

Tim Hollingsworth (SVC 1985-88) (Started in Year 9)

1988 Captain of Athletics team
1988 Bill Wilding Trophy winner
Prefect 1988
First XVIII in 1987&88
Old Virgilians Athletics involvement 1985 – 1993
Success at State level including State 400m champion in 1990 and 1992
State representation 1988 – 1993

Tertiary studies

Bachelor of Engineering Hons (Mechanical), University of Tasmania.

Professional Career

In 1993 Joined Esso Australia (ExxonMobil) based in Melbourne. Various engineering and management roles, including Offshore operations manager and Australian Planning and Joint Interest Manager.
2008 Moved to Dallas Texas to take up a position at ExxonMobil Corporate headquarters within the Corporate Strategic Planning team.
In 2010 moved to Houston, Texas and since then has held various management roles in the company’s USA operations, international project development and most recently as Technical Manager in Upstream Business Development.

Family

Married Lisa in 2001 and welcomed children Phoebe in 2003 and Oscar in 2007.

Tim will be forever grateful to his younger brother Stuart, who saved his life, by donating a kidney to Tim in 2012. Stu went through all the pre-operation testing in Melbourne, then flew to Houston with his partner Emma, for the final checks, the operation and recovery.

Community

Tim has been involved in various aspects of Houston’s United Way charity and supporting the kids via school volunteer programs.

Simon Hollingsworth (SVC 1985 – 89) (Started in Year 8)

Prefect 1988
Head Prefect 1989
Captain of Athletics 1989
Junior Athletics Trophy 1985
Bill Wilding Trophy 1987 & 1989 (Tim won the trophy in 1988)
First XVIII representative
Still hold SVC records - Open 100, 200 ,400, hurdles and member of 4x100 record relay team
Simon still holds the State U/16 400m and U/15 400m records.

Tertiary Studies

· UTas combined degree of Bachelor of Commerce and Bachelor of Laws, achieving

Honours in Law

· 1997 Tasmanian Rhodes Scholar and did further studies in Philosophy, Politics and

Economics at Exeter College, Oxford, in the UK.

Professional

Simon has held numerous positions included among these:

Department of Premier and Cabinet (Victoria) for eight years, the final two of which he was the Department’s Executive Director.
Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Sports Commission 2011 – 2016
Currently Simon holds the position of CEO of the Magistrates’ Court of Victoria

Family

Simon is married to Nicole and they have three children – Alice, Edward and Tom

Additional Honours

University of Tasmania Foundation Graduate Award 2012
Australian Institute of Sport Scholarship 1992-96
Represented Australia at the 1990 and 1994 Commonwealth Games in 400m hurdles
Represented Australia at the 1992 and 1996 Olympics in 400m hurdles
Simon was one of the first Old Virgilians inducted onto the St Virgil’s College Heritage Roll of Honour in 2006.

Stuart Hollingsworth (SVC 1990-1994) (GYC 1995)

SVC Prefect 1994
First XIII football in 1994 (and at GYC in 1995)
Athletic Boys' Captain at GYC 1995
First XI Cricket GYC
Schools Sports Award (GYC)
Sociology Award (GYC)
State Independent Schools 1995 - first placing 100m, 200m and 400m
Ran for OVA in 1995-1997
State under 20 champion 100m, 200m, 400m (1996)

Tertiary Studies

· Bachelor of Economics, UTAS 1996-99

Professional

Stuart has had filled numerous roles – among these are:

Senior Economist - Victoria Government Department of Treasury and Finance 2009-13.
Assistant Director Department, Premier & Cabinet (Tas) 2014-16
Director Workforce Policy & Strategic Relations – Dept. of State Growth (Tas) 2016-21
Recently appointed as Director of the newly created “Jobs Tasmania in the Dept. State Growth.

Family

· Stuart and his partner Emma Waters have a daughter Enid born in September 2020.

Additional Achievements

Played in Bands in Hobart and Melbourne
Current band (EWAH & the Vision of Paradise) with Charles Donnelly (SVC) and Paul Brooks (SVC) and partner Emma. Won National Live Music Award 2017 – Best Live Act Tasmania, Debut Album Everything Fades to Blue, Long listed for the Australian Music Prize.
Played in ‘Christopher Coleman and the Great Escape’ with the late great Mike Noga (SVC).

In telling the story of these three outstanding Old Virgilians, it would be remiss not to emphasise the amazing support of their parents and Kevin Prendergast. Peter and Geraldine were amazingly supportive of the their three boys and loved spending time with them and their families, especially the grandchildren.

Sadly Geraldine passed away in December 2012 and has not been able to witness the ongoing successes of her sons and their families and sadly she missed meeting the youngest two of her six grandchildren.

All three boys came under the influence of many people during their various athletics careers, but none more so than that of Kevin Prendergast, who gave so much to Athletics Tasmania and the Old Virgilians Athletics Club.

An Interesting Discovery

In doing the research on the Hollingsworth the Archivist came across the following article - Tasmanian All Time Best Performances List as at May 24 2019

Best performances by Tasmanians over 100m:

Old Virgilians and their ranking listed.

Jack Hale 10.19 sec. 2019
Jacob Despard 10.40sec. 2019
Simon Hollingsworth 10.67 sec. 1992

Best performances by Tasmanians over 200m:

Jack Hale 20.93sec. 2019

4. Simon Hollingsworth 21.19 sec. 1993

5. Jacob Despard 21.26 sec. 2019

6 Tristan Thomas 21.32 sec. 2009

7 Tim Hollingsworth 21.34 sec. 1993

Best performances by Tasmanians over 400m:

Tristan Thomas 45.86 sec. 2009
Simon Hollingsworth 45.99 sec. 1992
Tim Hollingsworth 47.06 sec. 1993
Gerard McGee 47.14 sec. 1978

This has got Graeme going an in the next edition he will look at other events and performances by St Virgil's students.

OVAtions

The monthly e-newsletter of the Old Virgilians Association

September Edition · 10 Sep 2021

In this issue