By 1960 there were some 1 500 Old Boys on the association's roll and to mobilise this number more effectively, an action committee was formed.
The Central Executive Committee worked extremely hard towards achieving the Queen's College Trust, brainchild originally of the Johannesburg Branch.
The QC Trust continued over the next decade to give a tremendous boost to the OBA generally.
In 1961 Reunion followed the pattern which had been established and become traditional over the years. The dinner, held at the Grand Hotel that year on Friday 27 April, was followed by the AGM and, the following morning, the Commemoration Service was held in the Memorial Hall at 9.30, being addressed on that occasion by Professor Hugh Chapman of Rhodes University.
Games of rugby (usually against Dale or Selborne) were then played on the Victoria Recreation Grounds, after which the annual dance, now held in the Memorial Hall, would be enjoyed by the many couples attending.
By 1965, the QC Trust had received donations exceeding the R100 000 total.
In an exciting development , the well-known building, 19 Oaks, was purchased for the school as a new hostel. This was previously the boyhood home of Leslie Elliott and more recently of AK McPherson of the Queenstown Representative.
There were signs of general malaise in the association as whole in the mid 1960s and vigorous efforts were made to put this right.
Executives of the QCOBA travelled to seven destinations in South Africa and Rhodesia to breathe fresh life into the branches – and with success for, within a short time, the Cape Town Branch was revived and a decision was taken to establish a branch in Salisbury.
TW Higgs was notably active as headmaster in travelling to the various centres in the service of the QCOBA and from 1967 onwards Old Queenian activity reached a higher level than it had for a number of years.
Part of his energy was directed towards the building of the new high school, a plan close to his heart, and which was also occupying the minds of Old Boys. The design seemed to call for the complete demolition of the existing Queen's buildings and, as a consequence, many Old Boys felt the physical aspect of the school they knew and cared for was in jeopardy.
The QCOBA took up the Department of Education's offer that any part of the old school building could be retained although the association would have to be responsible for its maintenance.
The celebrated ‘Quid for the Quad' campaign (undertaken in April 1968) raised money for retaining and maintaining the Quad and the double-storeyed portion of the old school that meant so much to the Old Boys of so many generations.
The heart of the school was in this way retained and the new buildings – designed by Marston and Kingsley-Hall (both Old Boys) began to rise around them, as efficient and practical in their way as the old buildings were gracious and resonant with Queen's history. With this successful exercise in preservation, the Queen's Trust completed its tenth year of existence.
At Reunion in 1968, 25 years on from what had become a famous night meeting on 30 October 1943 at Khatatba in the Western Desert, the occasion was remembered by the Old Queenians present. On the earlier occasion, 103 Old Boys of Queen's had signed their names on a sheet of vellum that was later set in a thronged leather drum embossed with scenes of war. The historic item, fashioned by AD Marais, senior Afrikaans teacher and vice-principal of the school (now in the museum) serves to remind Queenians of the valour of their forbears in time of war.
A new constitution for the QCOBA, drafted and then adopted in October 1968, included in its provisions the new post of national president, a designation to be conferred on those who were judged to have served the association long and faithfully.
A fitting way of welcoming matriculants to the QCOBA fraternity, beginning in these years too, was the presentation to them of their life membership cards and Old Boys badge and tie by the national president at a function held at the school, a personal and warm introduction to the association.
