People Australia

Anton William Rutherford Vroland (1874-1957) school teacher, trade union official, textbook author

Birth: 12 September 1874 at Ross’s Bridge, Gledefield, near Ararat, Victoria, son of Carl Häkam Ferdinand Vroland (1847-1918), schoolteacher born at Karlskrona, Blekinge, Sweden, and Janet Huntley, nee Scott (1851-1930), born at Geelong, Victoria. Marriages: (1) 3 January 1906 with Methodist forms to native-born Marion Ellen Bryant (1877-1932), school teacher. (2) 11 January 1947 at the Australian Church, Russell Street, Melbourne, to Anna Fellowes, née White (1902-1978), a teacher and activist for Aboriginal rights. Death: 19 August 1957 in his usual residence at Thames Street, Box Hill, Melbourne. Religion: Australian Church. 

• He was a grandson of Anton Vroland, a famous Swedish educationalist. As his family moved from town to town, Anton was educated in various schools.
• In 1892 he began teacher training at Daylesford ‘Associated School’ and then the Teachers Training College, Melbourne. After some years of service in country schools, he was head teacher at Elmore in 1912-1917, Dimboola in 1918-1923 and Elsternwick in 1923-1939.
• From 1913 to 1939 he was a member of the council of the Victorian Teachers’ Union (VTU) — twice vice president and once president. In 1919-1920 he attended the South Australian Teachers’ Union Conference which led to formation of the Australian Teachers’ Federation and subsequently he was Victorian delegate to first three annual conferences of ATF.
• Vroland started The Program, the VTU journal which became the Teachers’ Journal, and was used ‘as weapon to unite all teachers and fight for teacher justice’.
• He was a distinguished writer on educational philosophy and practice. His publications include Education in the Atomic Age.
• Secretary of the Victorian section of the New Education Fellowship, he organised a lecture tour of visiting educationalists in 1946. He was also involved with the Victorian State Schools Horticultural Society and actively supported Aboriginal rights. For forty years he was honorary secretary of the Australian Church.
• A “man of broad human sympathies wherever he thought justice was lacking”.
• Cause of death: myocardial degeneration (months). 

Sources
Teachers’ Journal, April 1968.