Tormore House

Tormore School was a private boarding and day school for girls in North Adelaide, South Australia.

Tormore House had its origins in a small school for girls set up by Elizabeth McMinn and her two sisters Mabel and Ann on Molesworth Street, North Adelaide in 1876. This may have been their family home, in which their father Joseph died two years earlier. In February 1884 the McMinn sisters moved their school to another property on nearby Buxton Street, which they dubbed "Tormore".

It had been John Whinham's North Adelaide Grammar School, which he relinquished to move to larger premises at the corner of Ward and Jeffcott Streets. The school was taken over by Ann and Caroline Jacob towards the end of 1897, and the McMinn sisters left Adelaide on 15 December, retiring to Ealing Common, England. The school moved to new premises at 211 Childers Street in January 1899, with a house for boarders alongside.

In 1907 Caroline Jacob took over the Unley Park Grammar School and ran the two institutions concurrently. Around this time substantial improvements were made: separate facilities for the younger (8–12 y.o.) students and additional premises for boarders, art studies and a kindergarten. Joseph McMinn père financed the construction of a gymnasium, which also served as a large meeting-hall.

School enrolments declined alarmingly during World War I; negotiations with (Anglican) Bishop Nutter Thomas for incorporation into the Church education system came to nothing, and in 1918 the school moved to smaller premises in Barton Tce. and the Childers Street premises became the "Andover" residential flats; the School closed in 1920. "Andover" later became the site of the Kindergarten Teachers College, then the Kingston College of Advanced Education in 1974.

Joseph McMinn (c. 1794 – 6 April 1874) was married to Martha McMinn, née Hamill, perhaps Hammill, (c. 1805 – 13 December 1861), left Newry, Ireland, arrived in South Australia with eight children aboard Albatoss in September 1850.

An Old Scholars' association, restricted to students of the McMinn era, was formed in 1934 by Mrs. E. Harold Davies and Mrs. H. R. Adamson.

John Jacob (30 July 1816 – 28 August 1910) came to SA via Tasmania in 1838 and settled at "Woodlands", Sevenhill. He was a friend of explorer John Ainsworth Horrocks (1818–1846); his sister Ann Jacob (c. 1824 – 12 January 1874) married Arthur Horrocks (c. 1819 – 7 July 1872), brother of the explorer. John Jacob was Clerk of Court, Mount Gambier for 20 years, retired to North Adelaide. He married Mary Cowles (c. 1819 – 11 May 1894) in 1848. Caroline Jacob (1861–1940) was their sixth child and third daughter. See separate page.

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