Saturday 19th October saw over forty members of SMOGA gather at the Dining Rooms in the National Gallery, Trafalgar Square, to enjoy lunch together and attend the AGM of the Association.  The event had been well organised by Lynne Zwink and we had a reserved area at the end of the restaurant overlooking Trafalgar Square.  We even managed to sing the School Hymn at the end of the afternoon after the close of the meeting.  Those people who were not able to join us due to ill health were sadly missed, but remembered.

There were enquiries about the whereabouts of various old girls, and the possibility of having contact details.   These cannot be passed on directly, but if Sue Young, the Chair of SMOGA, is able to help she will get in touch with the person concerned and ask if they are happy to be contacted.  Please do contact the webmaster who will pass on enquiries.  

And don’t forget that it is never to late to join SMOGA, just £5 for two year’s membership.

The Annual General Meeting of SMOGA was held on Saturday 14th October 2017 at The Bishops' School in Chelmsford.  There were 25 Old Girls in attendance and there had been apologies and good wishes sent from 49 others.  There were also two guests, Mrs, now Chief, Fola Solanke and her daughter Busola.   Mrs Solanke taught Maths and Latin for a year and was remembered by many present.

Following a very pleasant lunch Sue Young welcomed everyone and was sorry to report the very sudden death of Mary Greene in July.   Mary had been our treasurer for many years and was a great supporter of SMOGA and the most marvellous book keeper and fount of knowledge of school happenings.  We were fortunate to have Joy Sang to step in and receive all the replies and subscriptions for this meeting.

The membership had gone up to 157 but there were several subscriptions outstanding so the number is likely to go down and will probably do so each year.  Copies of the Constitution were passed around and it was agreed to put a copy on the website.   The Committee is doing the best it can to uphold the object of the Association which is to enable Old Girls to keep in touch with each other and to maintain the ideals of the school.  The newsletter went out the previous year and will be doing so again in 2018 and there is also the website should people wish to contact us.   Pam Priscott is our webmaster and can be contacted on info@stmonicaoga.co.uk     There was news from Miss Ellis and Janet Gotch was welcomed by all.   It was Janet who was Chairman of SMOGA for many years when Miss Shand was President and did so much to keep the association going.  Mrs Solanke gave a short talk about her life after St Monica's and generously donated two of her books to us.  Everyone who had helped with arrangements for the meeting were thanked and the Treasurer's Report followed.

There was no formal report but the bank balances were given.  There was discussion regarding a sum of money given to the Association by Miss Shand but which should be paid to her nominated charity when the Association folded.  It was agreed that this should be done when the Committee felt it appropriate.  The Bishop Wilson portrait is on permanent loan to Corpus Christi College, Cambridge and may be viewed by appointment.

The Committee was elected en bloc making Sue Young Chairman, Jane Hughes Secretary and Ele McRae Treasurer.  The other members are Joy Sang, Jane Fenn, Chris Andrews, Julia Dimon and Lynne Zwink.  Joy Sang will be editor and co-ordinator of the 2018 newsletter.

The next reunion will take place on Saturday 19th October 2019 and the venue is yet to be announced.  The Committee is working hard to try and find a suitable venue in London but finding somewhere convenient and affordable is not easy. 

The meeting ending with the School Prayer and a rousing rendition of the school hymn. 

St. Monica’s Old Girls’ Association

Reunion Lunch and AGM

Here is a photograph we have come across, although not easy to reproduce from a photocopy, does anyone have any idea of which year’s Speech Day this might be.

And following the Reunion at The Bishop’s School last Saturday, 14^th October 2017, where nearly 30 of us enjoyed lunch together followed by the AGM,   I thought it might be interesting to post this Newsletter from 2003 when there was doubt about the future of SMOGA. (Names have been removed)

Webmaster

Newsletter 2003

At the 2003 AGM the Chairman retired and was thanked very much on our behalf for her sterling work during more than two decades as SMOGA Chairman.  We have relied on her for so long that it was not surprising there were no nominations for her successor, nor is it surprising that we seem now to have a crisis regarding our future.

It was suggested that SMOGA should be wound up soon.

Of course our Association must have a finite lifespan but after a lively discussion and a straw-poll vote (25 for, 15 against 1 abstention) we are continuing at least until the 2005 Reunion when it is hoped many of us will attend with ideas and comments on the future of the OGA and decisions can be made.

There was an offer made to become Chair after September 2004 with another offer to cover the position until then.

Extracts from the retiring Chairman’s Report from AGM of October 2003

The Chairman commented that of the 233 members 70 had sent apologies and more than 40 were present.  Miss Jeacock, now 90, and Miss Hill, particularly wished to be remembered to everyone.  The Bishop’s portrait still hangs in the McCurdy Room at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.  The third recipient of the Bishop H A Wilson Memorial Bursary, Gbolaha Ladipo, had used the bursary to fund his final years at Felsted and having made a massive contribution to the school was moving on to read Law at Cardiff.  The next recipient, Stuart Bradley, is a lower sixth student, who is also keen on rugby and music.  The Chairman concluded by thanking everyone, including the Committee and her husband, for their support and Mrs Sumpton, Headteacher of The Bishop’s School, and her staff and the PTA for their warm welcome.

So – do we continue with SMOGA?? and if so – in what form??  Should be finish ‘on a high’ maybe with a Reunion dinner, continue until we fade away when the AGM is not cost-effective to hold?  Keep a Reunion, but simpler, maybe at a different location?  It is up to all of us who care sufficiently to make our opinions heard.  Please contact friends and see if as many of us as possible can meet to decide our future on Saturday 15^th October 2005.  Any ideas or comments, including those who may wish to be incorporated on the web site on in the AGM notice, can be sent via the website e mail address.  This website has all sorts of potential for SMOGA – hope you have enjoyed the initial foray – comments via the website or at the AGM will be welcome.

February 2011

It was good to hear recently from Rosemary Bryant (nee Chappell), one of three Chappell sisters who were at St Monica’s in the 1960s.  Rosemary was in Keller from May 1964 to July 1968.

Rosemary sent some photos which are shown below.  The first set include two of Patricia Roscoe who was at St Monica’s from 1959-1966 in Keller.  She sadly died in a road accident when only 25. 

The first of the photos is taken outside Washford and the second is of Patricia receiving a prize from Mrs Payton (Miss Parker).

The third is of an occasion when the ‘juniors’ served the ‘seniors’ with tea on the front lawn at Washford.  Anne Weatherly and possibly Rachel Townsend are at the far table and Mary Noble and Sally Sheringham are ‘waitresses’.

The second set of photos show a production of Joan of Arc in St James Church, Clacton.  Rosemary and her twin sister Carol are the ‘soldiers’ standing on the stone steps to the right. 

The next photo was taken in the garden at Washford of Rosemary Hassall (nee Turner) who now lives in Australia, Nicola Farquarson and Elizabeth Swindells, circa 1965.

The other photos in this set are of Speech Day 1965 – watching the gym display with Rosemary’s elder sister Margaret facing towards the camera and Rosemary in front of her looking away.

In the marquee, on the stage are the Governors and Guests of Honour.  The Chappell sister’s father Denis, who was a parent governor, is in the back row at the far end.

We hope that these photographs may stir some more memories.

Anne Lamb has extracted these two accounts of days at SMS from Hildegard Nash and Joyce Manning – they make truly fascinating reading:

MEMORIES OF SCHOOLDAYS IN THE 1940s

When I read Mary Greene’s memories of the 1950s at SMS I suddenly wondered if memories of the 1940s would be of interest as part of the history of SMS. As one of its oldest pupils, and one who did not go to St. Monica’s by her parents’ choice, this is maybe a little different

Probably many do not know that the Bishop of Chelmsford and the Governors had offered two free places to refugees from Hitler, as did many boarding schools and private families. I came to SMS at the end of March 1939. My family had fled from Vienna to Prague in September 1938, but a few months later Hitler invaded there. My father had been trying for months for the Quakers to take his three daughters to safety in England. When the day came, it was literally a question of a few hours’ notice.

Just women and children, we travelled by train across Germany and Holland to catch a ferry to England, then a train to London After one night we were each sent to a different place. I was so lucky to be sent to SMS. I remember arriving on a Sunday evening, I could only speak a few words of English acquired by seeing Shirley Temple films in Vienna, such as “please”, “darling” “thank you”. The first few days are a haze, but years later girls would still say to me: “Do you remember the first day you arrived here? You had THREE helpings of jelly!” (I had never tasted jelly before).

I was lucky that the school had offered another free place the year before to a girl from Germany, Ulla. Although a year older - normally that excludes talking to girls younger! - she was a great help to me in translating what was said to me.  I must say, from the beginning I really loved everything at SMS - the green curtains round my cubicle, the smart peacock blue uniform, the food! I was a very poor eater as a child, but over here I ate everything except rice pudding. If one did not like the pudding, there was always “the other”.

My first headmistress was Mrs Dewar, and I shall be eternally grateful to her for making me do English Grammar during Latin lessons. I confess I said I had forgotten all my Latin, but fate caught up with me later when I had to take Latin for Higher as I wanted to try for University.

In Austria I had always done a lot of swimming, and so, when we were taker to swim in the sea at Clacton in my first Summer Term, I was thrilled. Until I dived into ice-cold water — AND no-one had ever told me that sea water was salty!

Miss Shand arrived, I think after my first two terms. Always elegantly dressed, very efficient, and I dreaded having to sit at her table for lunch as one was not supposed to finish eating before she did. And she did talk rather a lot.

I remember Princess Marina coming for Speech Day - beautiful - and I think we were all secretly surprised when she renewed her lipstick during the meal.

In June 1940 the school was evacuated to Devon.  I think it was around the time of Dunkirk.  We went in several large coaches and each Senior was given a Junior to look after. I had Mary Richey (Luckie) and it was another bit of good fortune for me.  Years later I joined the ATS, and her mother often had me to stay in London when I was on leave.

Holystreet Manor was wonderful despite the very steep hill we had to walk up each day to Ferndale — and sometimes twice on Sundays to church in Chagford!  Ferndale, a former guest house, was where lessons were held, and was also where the Juniors lived, the Seniors being at the Manor.

When we arrived the bedsteads had not yet come, so we had to sleep on the floor on mattresses for a few days, which we really enjoyed. Some of us slept in the outbuildings, such as the Stable Block  and in the Upper Sixth a few of us were above the large coach house, which served as the Gym. This was really nice.

The tennis court was opposite the Manor, but the hockey field below Ferrndale. We played a lot of matches against other schools, being taken there by coach in spite of petrol restrictions. I seem to recall Stover School, Newton Abbot and others. One Christmas we joined with another school for “The Messiah”, which was wonderful.

I also spent many holidays there, as did some of the girls who came from London, to avoid the bombing. We had a lovely time, cycling all over the moors, picking bilberries and blackberries, and having Devon Cream Teas. When, many years later, one of my sisters moved to Plymouth, it was like coming home as soon as I got past Exeter. One year I did drive to Chagford - the Manor had by then been converted into Holiday Lets, the hill was just as steep, but it all looked just as lovely, if smaller.

I remember Miss Wooller, creating excellent meals even with rationing during the war; Matron - Mrs Robinson; Miss Wood, whom I used to chase for extra Latin homework at Ferndale, when I suddenly took a big fancy to the subject at 16!  And many other teachers.

I look back on my time at SMS with pleasure and nostalgia, and I feel it laid a wonderful basis for my future life with the grounding I received there. And I am still in touch, after 70 years, with Joyce Manning, Jean Simpson and Margaret Huzzey –how lucky I am.  I hope I said my  heartfelt thanks when I left in July 1942.     

If you want to hear more about me after I left school?

I did get on the waiting list for St. Hilda’s, Oxford, but as I had no family here I could not wait to see if I got a place. The Governors kindly paid for me to take a 3-month Secretarial Course in London, after which I became a shorthand/typist at a firm in Fulharn, living at the Ada Lewis Hostel for Girls in Barons Court.   I knew I would be called up at 19, so before then I volunteered for the ATS and spent the next 2½ years all over England, starting with Pontefract for training, Portsmouth, Bridgewater and Salisbury Plain, working on supplies for D-Day. I then applied for OCTU and went to Windsor for training, then Chilwell in Notts, and ended up at Welbeck Abbey after a course to become an Education Officer. I really enjoyed it there, in spite of the terrible winter of 1946 — deep snow everywhere and for three months the only vegetables were swedes. After three days I never touched a swede again — to this day!  We were allowed to wear great coats and even blankets indoors!

I met my future husband on this course, but we did not get married until July 1948 That’s 60 years now! WOW!!

Hildegard Nash (Sachs)

Having seen Hildegard’s account on its way to the website, I thought it might be relevant to add another nugget of reminiscence.

I joined SMS in September 1938, perhaps in a more usual way, and I share Hildegard’s happy memories of our time there, especially our years in Chagford.  I too took Oxford Entrance, though a year later than Hildegard, and was delighted to get a letter from Lady Margaret Hall saying I had been given a place. However, the letter continued, since I was due to be called up shortly, I couldn’t take up the place. End of my Oxford ambitions.

It was said that all my age group were to be sent to work in factories — not a very pleasant prospect.   However, the FANY had circulated a number of schools seeking recruits for confidential work as coders or wireless operators. In answer to a question at the subsequent interview I had said that I liked crossword puzzles, so I was pronounced a coder - a far cry from today’s selection techniques, but it worked!

After the initial FANY training, I was told the nature my job. The work of SOE (Special Operations Executive) is now widely known, and I felt lucky to be part of it, however small a cog. Security was intense, and I had the pleasure of being in the second of two taxis taking our group of recruits to indoctrination at SOE HQ and hearing the driver told to “follow that cab”. Life on the outstation was uneventful, walking to work each day or night (we worked round the clock in a cycle of 8-hour shifts) to a building half sunk into the surrounding field in the rural wastes of the Oxon/Bucks border. Many of us came straight from school, and boarding schools are good training for Service life!

I worked in this isolated spot for two years, and then went to Germany, to a small, undamaged town near Rhine Army HQ. The war had just ended in Europe, but not in the Far East.   I stayed in Germany for 18 months, then came home to civilian life and Secretarial Training College.

Joyce Manning (Giltrow)

The Hon. Anne Lamb (Saul) - left SMS 1944 and had a book published in 2007.  

Heads and Hearts - An Inquiry into Integrity.  

Heads and Hearts explores the many dimensions of perception and self-understanding, which arise through our use of language.  It is a world in which everyday words themselves demonstrate ambiguities, nuances and multiple meanings, possibilities which we often hardly even acknowledge.  Heads and Hearts traces a line across a great landscape, ranging from the personal to the abstract, from the individual to the societal, from the existential to the divine.  How do we frame, manage and cultivate our own memory, intelligence, feeling, belief and will?  Why do we frame principles and seek ideals, and how do we expect them to work?

This is a personal odyssey which acknowledges few boundaries or limits, whose points of reference - to literature, history, politics, belief - are many and various.  Heads and Hearts holds within itself a distinctive generosity of vision and an insistence that in every area of life we face realities: inter-relationship, inter-dependence, of integrity, which need to be resolved.  Wondering and believing awaken personal trust: faith, hope and love.

Normally selling at £12.99 + £2.50p&p, Anne is happy to supply OGs at £10.00 + £1.99 p&p.   Purchases may be made via Calder Walker Associates, 2 Umbria Street, London SW15 5DP (tel.no.020 8480 5150 or email alangw@copperstream.co.uk

August 2010

From Jane Hughes:

"I wonder if you can help me.  I have been researching the Military career of Lt.Col. R.W. MacDonald.  It is possible that he was commanding troops that occupied St Monica's School in WW2.

Can you tell me anything about the School's history and what happened to it during the war?  Are there any early photographs of it. The Colonel's daughter was a student for a short time before 1940.

Any information appreciated

Thank you

Bill Ashby"

If any members have information that they feel would be useful to Mr Ashby please forward to the Webmaster who will pass it on to him.

50 years ago

The 22nd birthday celebrations of St Monica's School, Clacton, on Monday included the blessing of a new house and other school accommodation by the former Bishop of Chelmsford, Dr Henry Wilson, founder chairman of St Monica's.

Since the cessation of St Monica's junior school, Washford House has been taken over by senior girls of the new Helen Keller House.

Washford's hall has been changed to a dining room and kitchen for girls of Helen Keller and Cavell houses.

Linkwood, a large house in Arnold Road, has been acquired and, with Vineyard, houses girls of Cavell house.  Linkwood has been attractively decorated and furnished.

Dr. Wilson was accompanied by Miss Shand, headmistress.

June 2008

Mrs A Sumpton, Head Teacher at The Bishops' C of E and R C Primary School, is leaving at the end of the summer term.

Mrs Sumpton has always extended wonderful hospitality and support to us on the occasions that we have held our reunion there.  A greetings card has been sent on behalf of the Association thanking her for her support and wishing her health and happiness for the future.