Memories From Staff
Jane Blackburn
Lecturer, Vice Principal, Principal and Trustee
It is difficult. Over thirty-three years and in three different roles there are so many ill-assorted recollections – serious, trivial, humorous, sad, some irrelevant, some irreverent.
There are recollections from 1 February 1945 when I joined the College in Doncaster as a junior member of the English staff, working under the guidance of Miss Swinburn (kind and helpful) and Miss Leila Davies (inspirational); of the return of the College to Camberwell in September 1945 and the beginning of the new term in October; the hostels in redundant vicarages, Lady Margaret in the Old Kent Road and St Andrew’s in the New Kent Road (what a journey the students living there had to get to the College); and acting as warden of the Dover House flats. I remember the individual butter-pots (rationing still) on the window-ledges of the Dining Hall, and the High Table with its Latin grace ‘Benedictus benedicat’. I remember Dedication Day – hats – and the pervasive and overpowering scent of lilies of the valley; Carol Services and festive Christmas dinners. I recall the kindness to me – indeed, indulgence – of Dr McKie (she seemed to find me incredibly comic). I remember Group Study mornings in the second term of the course (it was a two-year course then), always in January and February, slithering through the slush to Larcorn Street, or John Ruskin School.
I remember working with Joan Enock on marionette plays and becoming fascinated by that miniature
world. Joan Enock and I did a lot of interesting work together.
The three-year course began when Miss Atkinson was Principal; there was the reshaping of the course for this introduction, with time now available for longer periods of work in schools. The amount of practical experience was one of the great features of the course we devised. There are memories of the Suffolk Teaching Practices in the summer term, the Suffolk lanes thick with cow-parsley.
I think the most demanding and most exhilarating role was that of Vice-Principal, with its threefold allegiance to the Principal (Miss Atkinson), to the staff and to the students. There was no prescribed pattern for it – the job was what you made it.
I remember enjoying the candidates’ interview mornings arranged by Norah Bentley, the Registrar, and the pleasure of recognising and remembering them when they came up the following September for their first term as students.
The Principal’s role had more routine and pattern to it; you could only do the best you could to fulfil the engagements arranged for you and to try to respond adequately to necessity.
I remember with gratitude the support and sympathy of members of the College Council, always warm and friendly; interesting and enjoyable Council Meetings when matters of grave importance were considered but always with a light and genial touch and in an atmosphere of harmony.
I remember with great pleasure the weekly evening meetings in the drawing-room with the President of the Students’ Union and her Executive Committee – a very relaxed time. I remember once asking the then President of the Students’ Union what she thought the role of the Principal of the College was. ‘Oh, purely social,’ she said. I was delighted – it was a nice way to be remembered.
