School Days Recalled 50 Years Later

Press, Volume C, Issue 29466, 18 March 1961, Page 2

School Days Recalled 50 Years Later

What does a pupil remember about school days 50 years later? Flash-back memories given by prominent old girls of St. Margaret's College, published in the school’s golden jubilee history and list, supply answers that might well set panjandrums of education wondering. Past pupils, their daughters and grandchildren of the future will read the reminiscences with glee.

Ngaio Marsh, author of best-selling detective fiction and a London theatrical producer, remembers finding her headmistress (Sister Winifred) "weeping with silent laughter, the tears running down her long nose and falling with little plops on her coif.” Sister Winifred was correcting a general knowledge paper in which a fourthformer had made a particularly choice schoolgirl-howl-er about the Vatican. In gratitude Miss Marsh thinks of Canon Hubert Jones—“pale dark Welshman with black, snapping eyes and formidable jaw”— for teaching her the virtue of economy in writing. And for his description of the death and delayed burial of William the Conqueror—"one of the most horrific pieces of reportage I have ever met and sticks in the mind like a scream in the night.” GREATEST GIFT Of another teacher. Miss N. G. Hughes, she says: “She made me the most valuable present I have ever been given: a passion for the plays of Shakespeare.” To a very little girl, Muriel Wallace (Mrs C. H. Clemens) in 1910, hot dinners at school were most important —the "spotted dog” puddings with vanilla sauce. So were the daily trips to and from Sumner on the top deck of a steam tram, where she did her homework during the hour’s journey. The daughter of a former Dean of Christchurch, Joan Carrington (Mrs B. H. Hulley. United States) remembers primarily the troubles she brought on her own head. The time she climbed the school cherry tree ("the

kind of thing people did in books”) eating cherries till she sickened of them and then answering for her misdeeds. for instance. ROMANCE From the guest house of an Anglican Girls’ High School in Uganda. Stella Purchas (missionary) remembers the Rev. Philip Carrington (later Archbishop of Quebec) bringing "new life to Divinity lessons” and the girls’ intense interest when he became engaged to an dmarried another staff member. Miss G. Smith. These are the lighter touches which give the colour to a most valuable historical record of the school —a publication that involved years of painstaking research by the editorial committee and co-opted members. The school list, which shows that more than 3600 pupils have been enrolled from 1910 to 1960. is an enlightening biographical dictionary. Later-generation old girls may be surprised to read in it the names of many women who have given real service to their church, their community or to their country. MELLOWING YEARS A 1920’s pupil, her irritation mellowed by the years, may feel proud to see that someone who once mercilessly tugged her pigtail at prayers is now an important scientist. St. Margaret’s College began, developed and consolidated in the traditions of the Church of England. The school has a very high academic standard and competes successfully in sports, as the history show’s. But through the pages of the publication the reader is

more aware of the strong emphasis on educating girls in a Christian way of life. Tributes by old girls make it clear that successive headmistresses and their staffs have maintained the ideals, the courage and wisdom of the Kilburn Sisters, who began the school. The St. Margaret’s College history and list from 1910 to 1960 was produced by an editorial committee of three women with long and close associations with the schooL They are Mrs C. L. Young, headmistress from 1931 to 1949; Mrs E. J. Smith, a firstyear pupil and former president and committee member of the St Margaret’s College Old Girls’ Association; and Miss Lila Gardiner. former president and secretary of the association, an honorary vice-president and a former member of the school Board of Governors. They were assisted by more than 30 co-opted members. The history was published under the auspices of the Old Girls’ Association and printed by the Caxton Press. It includes many photographs of personalities and important events associated with the school in 50 years.