The Muirhead Founders’ Friend Award is one of the highest awards of honour, bestowed by the Kingswood College Council, not annually, but when a worthy recipient is presented. The award is given to individuals deserving of special recognition by reason of their life-long labour of love for the cause of the Kingswood College family.
On October 12th , 2026 , Kingswood College Chair of Council, Mr Richard Gaybba presented the Muirhead Founders’ Friend Award to:
Mr Brian Miles (OK 1973).

More than a hundred and thirty years ago, William Codgebrook Muirhead was walking up Signal Hill on a Sunday afternoon. He asked, “Why can’t we have a school for boys on the same lines as the Wesleyan High School for Girls?” That simple question lit a fire, and Kingswood College was born.

In his honour, the Council created the Muirhead Founders Friend Award, the highest recognition it can bestow. It is not given every year, or even very often. It is reserved for those whose generosity and service have been, in the founders’ words, “a labour of love for the cause of the Kingswood family.”

This year, the Council confers that award on Mr Brian Miles.

The Citation in the words of Mr Richard Gaybba, Chair of Council:

Brian arrived at Kingswood in 1966 as a junior boarder in Jacques House, and later moved into Chubb House. He earned tennis and academic colours, and in his matric year he represented South Africa at the International Youth Science Olympiad in London.

After studying Chemical Engineering at Stellenbosch, he completed his national service. Then, in 1983, he chose to go home. He took over Kruisteman Vlei, the family farm outside Adelaide, which his family has worked since 1850. His grandsons, who will join Kingswood next year, will be the seventh generation on that land.

We should pause on what that means, because in this part of the country we know the value of farmers. Farming asks for knowledge that no textbook fully teaches: how to read the land, the weather and the seasons. It asks for skill, hard work and patience through drought and good years alike. Above all, it asks you to think in generations, not in years. A farmer plants trees whose shade he may never sit in, and builds something meant to outlast him.

That is the rarest kind of legacy, and it is exactly what Brian has brought to Kingswood. He has tended this College the way he tends his land: faithfully, patiently, and always with the next generation in mind.

For over forty years, he has done just that. He was President of the Old Kingswoodian Club, and the Official Trustee of the College. He served on this Council for fifteen years, and for all of them he chaired the Estate and Buildings Sub-Committee. He has stayed on that committee ever since, a span of more than thirty years. Much of the campus you walk across each day has passed through his care.

For years he made the long drive from Adelaide to Makhanda, again and again, to attend meetings, oversee projects and offer counsel. Even now, he continues quietly to support the College and his fellow Kingswoodians.

Every school has its quiet builders. They don’t look for recognition. They simply carry responsibility faithfully and make the whole place stronger. Brian Miles has been that builder at Kingswood, in every sense of the word.

We speak often in this school about the values that make someone a Kingswoodian. Brian doesn’t just speak about them; he lives them. He has shown humility in more than forty years of service without once asking for the spotlight. He has shown integrity and responsibility by keeping every promise, attending every meeting and seeing every project through. And he has shown what it means to belong to the Kingswood family: he gave to this school before his sons arrived, long after they left, and still does today.

Many of you will know the words of our School prayer. It has been said that nothing comes nearer to the essence of the Kingswood spirit. For those who may not be aware, our School prayer is that of St Ignatius of Loyola, known as the Prayer for Generosity. It asks us “to give and not to count the cost; to fight and not to heed the wounds; to toil and not to seek for rest; to labour and not to ask for any reward.”

Personally, I have said this prayer my entire life. Until I began preparing for today, I had not given its words much thought beyond the general message. But it dawned on me that Brian has personified them. He has lived them. For more than forty years he has given without counting the cost, toiled without seeking rest, and laboured without asking for any reward. If you want to know what it means to be a Kingswoodian, look at Brian Miles. He is a living, breathing example.

Brian, on behalf of the Council and the whole Kingswood family, it is my great privilege and honour to name you a Muirhead Founders Friend.