Biographies
in aphabetical order
by maiden name
This was Miss Warren's idea, and she had hoped it would form the basis of a new book. However, only a small proportion of Old Girls have contributed, so the book is unlikely to happen, but this website is a happy alternative.
Ahmed, Nahidah In 1958 Nahidah's mother from Kuwait rented a bungalow on the Sussex coast to acclimatise herself and two daughters. Education at St Margaret's left Nahidah with the ability to get along with others. She worked as partner for a women's clothing manufacturer in London, a legal secretary for various firms of solicitors, a secretary in Iran, events organiser for the Canadian Red Cross, part owner of a restaurant in Ottawa, and medical secretary for a Sexual Health Centre. Her second marriage was in 1994 to a customer at her restaurant, who encouraged her to attend a SMOGS London reunion in the late 90s because he wanted to watch Newcastle play Tottenham!
De Barante, Marie Comtesse de Nadaillac. One of the earliest of the girls, who loved St Margaret's dearly. She sent her children and got her friends to send theirs, so that many French girls were there between the two World Wars.
Bainbridge, Valerie She has lived in Hong Kong, the Philippines and Australia and worked as clerk, secretary, librarian, photographer's assistant. She married an Australian Navy sailor.
Bateman, Jennifer Jennifer left the School in 1951 with eight O-levels. She did not stay on in the 6th form, partly because her parents could not afford it, but also because she wanted to start training at art school to be a dress designer, her ambition from the age of three. Following a private education, the Dover & Folkestone School of Art was a cultural shock, most students being from the state system and staff devoted to knocking out middle class values. However she survived the five years and graduated with a double first class honours: their first student to achieve this. The art school had persuaded her to move on to teacher training, but within three weeks she realised it was not for her. A medical review revealed a heart defect and she was advised against full-time teaching. So she took part-time work: a well-paid one day a week at Margate School of Art, then in Folkestone teaching textile printing and dress design, some freelance designing and private work for friends and relatives. In 1960 an American client sent her European designs to copy, which she found useful experience. Well paid part-time work allowed her to enjoy herself: Scottish country dancing, nice home-made clothes, theatres, advanced driving test and car rallies. In 1965 she fell for a charming man, unfortunately a poor dancer who worked abroad a lot and was not ready to settle down, but he was fond of Jennifer and they kept in touch for ten years. In 1968 she asked Folkestone School of Art to put her on the permanent staff --- a good move, for in 1970 it was replaced with an adult education centre and she kept her job. She became head of Dress and Allied Crafts, and head of the Hythe Centre until 1986 when she took early retirement. After a few years of giving private classes at home she gave up teaching and concentrated on her large garden. Jennifer was a trustee of Sholden (near Deal) Parish Hall until 1998. She gives talks on her collection of clothes, having kept a lot of her own designs from the 1950s onwards which she has left in her will to the Kent Costume Trust. She leads a contented life in her large house and garden which her Mother made over to Jennifer 15 years before her death. She has a large circle of friends and family, a full social life and good health.
Bristow, Jean Jean left the School in 1966, had a year's business training in London and emigrated to Canada, living first in Montreal and working for Canadian Pacific Hotels Ltd. She relocated with them to the Royal York Hotel in Toronto. In 1968 she had three months' travelling from coast to coast in Canada and took a 48-hour bus trip from Vancouver to Whitehorse to see Canada's north for the first time. Returning to live in Ottawa she worked for the National Capital Commission, a crown corporation in charge of Ottawa's landmark buildings and parks. She married in 1971 and worked for a lawyer for two years. When her husband was hired as the regional planner for the Western Arctic they moved to remote Yelloknife NWT and enjoyed living there for 23 years, raising two sons and making many friends. In 1982 she worked for the YMCA for five years. She remarried in 1996 --- out of doors on the shore of a northern lake under a cloudless sky at minus 38 degrees Celsius! They moved to Ontario. Her husband was a university professor in North Bay and Jean worked at the student union, which kept her outlook young. Dave retired in 2000 and they moved to Kimberley BC on the western side of the Rocky Mountains. Again she is a home-based consultant. Kimberley was a mining town and now offers skiing in winter and outdoor attractions in summer. They also own a house in Canmore, Alberta, where the cross-country skiing took place in the 1988 Olympic Winter Games. Eventually they will move there when she retires in a few years. They both love cross-country skiing in winter, and hiking, canoeing and camping in summer.
Bristow, Susan On leaving the School in 1961 Susan worked as a trainee machinist in her father's factory in Deal, sewing collars and cuffs onto Marks & Spencer blouses. She trained at Guy's Hospital in physical and electrical therapy, becoming a physiotherapist in 1965. During this time she met a dashing RAF Air Traffic Control Officer and became engaged at a vital point in her training, with the result that she failed a major exam. Bob left for a year's posting in Brunei while Susan re-took her exam and finals. On his return they married and set up home for three years in Suffolk in a 36ft static caravan. She worked in Ipswich Hospital where their son Guy was born in 1968. They bought their first house in a village near Doncaster and had a daughter Gill in 1971. Susan's GP asked her to set up a domiciliary physiotherapy service for his patients, funded intermittently by donations from Working Men's Clubs. It was a happy and challenging time, breaking new frontiers in community-based physiotherapy. The scheme was described in the Lancet, and she carried it on to Shropshire when they moved there in 1974, eventually covering the whole county and taken up by other health authorities. Bob left the RAF in 1979 and moved into a civilian career in finance. Both children are married; four grandchildren. Guy also joined the RAF and outranked his father! They became heavily involved in amateur dramatics, motor-caravnning, various committees and enjoying the Welsh hills.
Carrick, Anne Born 1922, died 2002. At six months her parents took her to Kenya where they farmed near Nairobi. Anne helped in many ways, including sewing linen bags for Carrick's Yeast, a profitable business which allowed her to attend boarding school. In 1936, aged 14, she and her brother returned to England she joined St Margaret's. She spent her last term, September to December 1939, at Ryton Hall in Shropshire where the School was evacuated. She was Head Girl for that term, and took School Certificate. At 17, with the outbreak of war, she left and began nursing training at Haywards Heath Cottage Hospital in Sussex, and continued at the Royal East Sussex Hospital in Hastings. Service personnel were billeted there and the many bomb victims kept the hospital busy, being also short of doctors and nurses. Anne's first attempt at exams failed because of a long and severe illness, but on her second attempt she became SRN and earned a gold medal for the highest marks in the hospital, though the war prevented it from being actually presented. She moved to St Mary's Hospital in Portsmouth to study midwifery, then the ENT Hospital in Gray's Inn Road, London. Her parents were still in Kenya and she had not seen them for seven years, so she secured a place with the Queen Eliabeth's Overseas Nursing Service and sailed for Mombasa in September 1946. She stood on deck watching the English coast fade away, and said to herself "What on earth am I doing here?" But it was a wonderful journey and she made many life-long friendships. She was posted to the European Hospital in Nairobi, reached by a 12-hour train journey. Working in several African hospitals, sometimes Sister in Charge, was a wonderful experience. In 1950 Anne left the service to marry, in Nairobi Cathedral, Robert Winser, Administrative Officer of the Overseas Civil Service. They had two children. During the Mau Mau uprisings Anne learned how to use a pistol. Returning to England when Kenya became independent in 1963 they made the Newbury area their home, including running an old people's home and supporting charities such as the Berkshire County Blind Society. Anne died in March 2004, and SMOGS was represented at her funeral service.
Estcourt, Phyllis Born 1909, died 2001. During and after World War 2 she kept goats for milk, rabbits and chickens for meat. She designed and made clothes for the local dramatic society. She created a beautiful garden at her home in Selsey, West Sussex, that was open to the public on certain days of the year. A member of the Chichester Arts Society, she loved painting in oils and selling her work for charities.
Field, Zonia Zonia attended the School from 1945 to 1957. She earned a teaching diploma at the Royal Academy of Dancing and spent six years teaching all ages and many types of dance at Elmhurst Ballet School in Camberley. She also worked for a time as a wardrobe mistress and stage manager. She married Colin and had their first son at Elmhurst before moving to Tunbridge Wells. Here she ran her own small dancing school for seventeen years, and became involved in fashion, taking City & Guilds certificates and finally working as a freelance pattern-cutter and maker-up in London. She worked for newspapers and for fabric promotional companties, and finally for Bill Gibb, a designer who died in 1986. She returned to teaching and gave classes in dressmaking and adult ballet at the local adult education centre, finally co-ordinating courses and being on the management staff. Retiring in 1998 she continues to work as an external verifier for City and Guilds, and as a shop assistant in the National Trust's Sissinghurst Castle Gardens, where her husband joined her on retirement in 1995.
Foote, Patricia After I left St. Mags I did A levels in one year (French and English) followed by a secretarial course. My desire was to go work in France - which I did from 67 - 69 as bilingual secretary with the Council of Europe. After a stint in S. Africa before moving back to Geneva, Switzerland and working for International Labour Organization. Then I decided to go back to University and I was accepted at Bulmershe (University of Reading) to do a Teacher's Training degree. However I met my husband to be and only completed one year there. He was American and thus after we married in 1972 I moved to the USA which is where I made my home until his death 5 years ago. A couple of years after that I wanted to return to Europe however not full-time since my daughter lives near my home in California and I have been living there now almost 40 years and I have certainly made a life for myself there. I finished my university degrees in the usa getting a master's degree in Education and an Administrative Credential. For most of my career in CA I worked as a teacher. I retired in 2004. I have been living part-time in France since August 2009.
Marylyn Grange Re-reading her diary for 1955-56 Marylyn (attending 1953-57) realised how fortunate she was to attend St Margaret's and how much the Hassons influenced her life with their kindness and wise advice. As a boarder spending holidays there, she regarded them as her 'parents' since her real ones lived in India. The diaries remind her of many happy memories: visits to London theatres, dinner for the best dormitory, the pantomimes, Granny Hasson's amazing stories of her young life, painful maths and science lessons with Miss Cronin and Miss Kerrigan, suppers in the basement, midnight lessons with Miss Maggs who seemed to know about everything, and tea at her flat. Having had a governess education in India it was not easy to enter the School at 14: most girls already had friends, life was different, no phone calls to the parents. She did not want to worry them with her problems, but confided instead in Mr and Mrs Hasson. She was sad to leave but looked forward to Whitelands College (teacher training) in London where she had an excellent social life, did very little work but passed her exams. She taught in south London for a a year and gained her probationary diploma. She had met her future husband and married him in 1960. First they lived in Caracas, Venezuela before his work took them to Canada, then back to Venezuela for ten happy years and the birth of David and Marisa. While posted in Abu Dhabi, Marylyn opened a school for ten children which expanded to a waiting list of 500. The five youngest children of Emirates' ruler Sheik Fyiad were among her pupils. Sheika Fatima gave her a leaving party and her children presented Marylyn with gifts such as jewels and gold coins. She was also awarded the Order of Abu Dhabi. The next posting was Aberdeen, and finally London where she still lives happily with her husband, and has made SMOGS most welcome for reunions.
Hardy, Caroline
Caroline Hardy joined the Foreign Office in 1965 and was posted to Kenya, Trinidad and Tobago, Fiji and France. On leaving France she moved to Australia and became Private Secretary to the then Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon Malcolm Fraser. For the last three years of his term she was Private Secretary to Mrs Fraser. She joined the Prime Minister's Department in the Public [Civil] Service, and spent over ten years as a 'Visits Officer' escorting official visitors throughout Australia, including many members of the royal family, Pope John Paul II, the Greek Orthodox Patriarch, and luminaries such as Henry Kissinger. The Queen awarded her the Member of the Victorian Order [MVO] in 1992. Following a divorce, she returned to work as Private Secretary to the Australian Minister for Immigration, and finished her career as Private Secretary to the Australian Governor-General for five years. She is now retired and lives in Canberra, although tries to spend as much time in France as she can.
Christine Hemingsley was a boarder, left in July 1962 and spent the next three years at the New College of Speech and Drama in north-west London. Penny Smith was a fellow student and a flat mate. She decided that children were to be her working life, not the theatre --- she left that to Helen Mirren, who was a student in the year below! She enjoyed primary school teaching before returning to her parents in Devon and working in local schools. In 1967 she married a naval officer, Mike. They lived in Dartmouth, Waterlooville, Sydney, Bishop's Waltham, Plymouth, Plymstock, Denbury, Southsea, Oxshott and finally, in 1992, Shalford near Guildford, Surrey, where they live today. In between all those moves, they had two children. Christine continued primary teaching and headship and retired in 2004. She and Mike enjoy travelling. In 2009 she was diagnosed with breast cancer but luckily lives near the excellent St Luke's Cancer Centre. They also enjoy membership of their local church, and she has kept contact with children by leading the Toddler Group and becoming a Governor at the local church school.
Heanley, Joy Joy joined the Royal Navy in 1962 and spent six and a half happy years serving in Ireland, Scotland and all over England. She represented the WRNS in cricket, squash and tennis. She went skiing, gliding, hill-walking, flying, shooting and even dived in a submarine and flew with the Red Arrows. She formed a drama club, took part in six naval drama festivals, and it was through drama that she met her husband Ian. She went to the RN College at Greenwich and took a commission. Ian and Joy married in 1968 and lived in Hong Kong where she had her first two children. Returning to UK they settled in Winchester and had a third child. They have also lived in Gibraltar and Scotland. Ian left the RN and went into publishing, and became the managing director of Pitkin, publishing beautiful guide books in Andover.
Hill, Felicity Air Commodore Dame Felicity Hill, DBE 1966, OBE 1954, born 1915, joined the WAAF in 1939, command 1940, served in UK 1939-40, in Germany 1946-47 and the Far East 1949-51. In 1966 she became Director of the Women's Royal Air Force, and 1966-69 Honorary ADC to the H.M.The Queen. "I still remember St Margaret's with affection. Looking back nearly eighty years I think we were well-educated for the period, not only in academic terms but in sport and the arts. And socially --- for who of my period could forget the Seniors' Christmas dance to which young subalterns from Shorncliffe, in mess kit, were invited by the de la Mares! And my mother always said we were so well fed, and so well cared for domestically. Dear Miss de la Mare, in her pince-nez, and fierce Miss Guilbert, and scholastic, dreamy Miss Kathleen.
Hooper, Jenifer Jenifer learned shorthand, typing and book-keeping but did not use them for several years. She attended l'Alliance Francaise in Paris, then worked for BOAC in London before moving to Plymouth to be near Roger, now her husband. She became a production assistant for Westward Television. She and Roger moved to Cornwall and had two daughters. She learned Cornish and became a Bard of the Cornish Gorsedd. Retraining as a teacher, she taught children aged 8-9 for the next twenty years. Now she enjoys retirement: travelling, walking the beaches of Cornwall, making quilts, surfing, sailing and much more.
Lock, Mary Started a nursing course at the Westminster Hospital but decided after a year it was the wrong career. Then a 4 year teacher-training course in Canterbury and got B.Ed(Hons). In 1973 she married Chris Guiver, had two sons and moved to Salisbury. Chris is in the agricultural world and still works but Mary retired in 2011 after twenty-four years as Head of English at Salisbury Cathedral School. Sadly, the elder son Ben, died in a drowning accident in 2007, three weeks before his 30th birthday. Mary loves reading, gardening and singing with the Salisbury Musical Society.
Lock, Ursula Born on Malta in 1911 into a military and naval family, Ursula married a soldier, Captain Wood and, during his long absences on army duties, began writing poems, stories and radio scripts, and a ballet scenario which she sent to the composer Ralph Vaughan-Williams. They met and became friends. When both spouses died, she (42) married him (81), but five years later, in 1958, he died. She continued writing throughout her long widowhood, and is eminent in this field in her own right. OUP published her biography of the composer in 1964. Her own memoirs 'Paradise Remembered' were published in 2002 by Albion Music.
Loughton, Davena Davena left the School in 1954 after six happy years and was never homesick. She recalls being asked to write for A-level English an essay on the person she most admired, and Mrs Hasson was an easy choice. She seemed to command respect and obedience without ever raising her voice. She always regretted losing touch with friends from school, and it was not until 1997 that her husband read an article on cricket by Marigold Lockhart in the Telegraph. She realised that this was Marigold Bassett and learned that they lived twenty miles apart. This led to many reunions with old friends, and she will always be grateful for the years at St Margaret's and the friends she made. Within a week of leaving the School, Davena met her future husband and now has three daughters and four grandchildren. After her third daughter, she decided to qualify as a teacher and never regretted it. She participated in amateur dramatics, and found the School pantomimes a wonderful source of training. In her retirement she works for the Salvatian Armyh and lots of baby-sitting.
De Nadaillac, Claude Marquise de Roquemaurel. Born 1917 in Paris, daughter of Marie de Barante, Comtesse de Nadaillac. Joined the school in the 1930s. Awarded the Croix de Guerre for resistance work during the second World War. Died 7 October 1990 aged 73.
Merrow, Jane At 14 Jane was the youngest person ever to gain Distinction in the Grade VIII Drama examination. She lived in California and married Dick Bullen, pilot to Robert Kennedy and Bob Hope. She had a son and gave up acting temporarily. Her performances include 'The Lion in Winter' with Peter O'Toole and Katherine Hepburn, 'The Pat Neal Story' on TV with Dirk Bogarde and Glenda Jackson, released later as the film 'Miracle of Love', 'The System' with Oliver Reed, title role in 'Lorna Doone' on BBC TV in 1963.
Morwood, Maureen Secretarial work, manager of a London employment agency, Executive Secretary for Craigmyle & Co. Ltd. (charity fundraising), helping to update their guide book, running courses on taxation. Maureen died in August 1999.
Newman, Jane Married in 1978, lived in Africa to work for Wycliffe Bible Translators and had four children. They moved to Switzerland in 1993. Jane has worked in translations, language teaching, public relations and publicity.
Norris, Pat On leaving the School in 1953 Pat trained in physiotherapy at King's College Hospital. She married Ken Lacey in 1956 and had three children. For five years she ran a Young Wives Group at their Church, and then moved from Epsom to Bishops Stortford, Hertfordshire. She started a playgroup for children aged 3-5, and another two groups during the next ten years. In 1975 they moved to St Albans, where she worked as manager to a sports retailer and became General Manager covering four shops. This continued enjoyably until retirement, when she kept busy playing golf, on Church committees and gardening. She has nine grandchildren.
O'Sullivan, Maureen Maureen spent six happy years at the School and left in 1953. She went to secretarial college in London and worked there until she married Michael, her childhood sweetheart, in 1957. He was a self-made businessman, and they had a wonderful life together until he died on Christmas Day 1999. Jonathan was born in 1964 and Caroline Jane in 1967. They moved to their beautiful home 'Little Pipers' in Monken Hadley near Barnet and spent 33 glorious years there. A highlight was owning a racehorse called OLRO's Rolly, OLRO being the name of their company. They travelled all over the country to races, and he was a winner at Catterick. Maureen's four lovely grandchildren fill her life with joy and love. She has had a happy life with a wonderful family and so many dear friends, especially Saideh Malek, Vida Farhad, Pat Norris and Marigold Bassett from the happy days at St Margaret's School.
Page, Ruth Ruth qualified as a radiographer. She married in 1965 and had two sons. She now has two grandsons, enjoys golf and walking, having done several long-distance routes such as the Pennine Way. She has spent a lot of time on the Isle of Wight and lives in Folkestone not far from the School site.
Pearlman, Natalie Natalie's career began in nursing at the Middlesex Hospital, London, then a ground hostess at Lydd Airport, and secretarial work until she married an Italian in 1967. She has three children all living near her. She enjoys caravan holidays in Spain and Portugal.
Pearson-Wood, Susan Worked as nanny in a school for handicapped children, then in remedial gymnastics, recreational therapy and physiotherapy. Lived in Switzerland, Canada,
Rewell, Sherian Sherrian came to St. Margaret's in the Junior School in 1958 and left in the summer of 1967 after taking her A levels. She took nursing at Carshalton College, but then followed her Mum and Dad out to Melbourne, Australia, where they had emigrates and where she stayed. She became a nursery school teacher, married Brian O'Connor. They had two sons, Simon and Christopher (and 7 grand-children have been arriving to keep Sherrian very busy and very happy) and were enjoying their retirement in Tasmania. Sherian died unexpectedgly 22 October 2015.
Richardson-Bunbury, Margaret When Margaret left School she was briefly at Folkestone Art School before moving to London to learn tailor cutting haute couture dressmaking and theatrical costume, and six months in the factory of the store C&A. In 1956 she joined her brother in Melbourne, Australia, worked as au pair in Sydney and with a family on a sheep station, returning in 1958. She tried hotel work in Dorset but, even aged 32, felt the desire to train as a nurse, and did so at Frenchay Hospital in Bristol from 1963 to 66. She married Wendy Woolliams' brother James and had a son. James was a physics teacher at Kingham School and they both became House Parents. Another spell in Australia was followed by work in a preparatory school near Chichester and some nursing until, in 1988, James's uncle invited them to build an annexe to his house in order to look after their affairs on the 25-acre property. She has now retired to Kent to be near Wendy, and her hobbies include gardening, cooking, village activities, reading and religious studies.
Richmond, Geraldine I left St. Mags in 1962 and went on to S.E. College of Technology. I became private secretary to the pharmaceutical director of Pfizer Sandwich. I then spent some time living in Durban and travelling extensively working for an intour agency.After some 21 years of marital bliss we decided to go our separate ways. I carried on being a "lady of leisure" until I landed a position at Saga as their Long Haul Buyer/Contractor. My education obviously paid off as I was given responsibility for the Carribbean, South Africa and the Far East. My work took me to all these countries on a regular basis. Maybe some of you reading this will have been on some of these holidays. I called time on this vocation as the travel and hanging around in airports was no longer a thrill and I missed my social life! What then? I was still young and up for adventure so I did my pilot's licence and enjoyed the thrill of flying over to France for lunch.That was the first time my Mother said "well done" as Dudley always told them" I could do better". Being foot-loose and fancy-free I decided to sell up in Sandgate and with another friend start a business in La Manga Club Spain. Unforunately this did not work out so I decided to move to Ko Samui Thailand where I am in my element, scuba diving and helping my son Simon in his various businesses out here. There must be some of my "old" school pals in this part of the world and if so would love to hear from you. My life till now has not been particularly notable but I will always be grateful to St.Mags for the wonderful education I received. It gave me great confidence to mix with all peoples from all over the world. I have been very proud to tell all and sundry about what in Caroline's words was "A Remarkable School".
Shahla Sadr Shahla left the School in 1959, and the following year was awarded the Independent Schools' Association Exhbition for 1960, open to the entire country, and given to the pupil in an independent school who achieves the best all-round performance at Ordinary, Advanced and Scholarship levels in GCE, then proceeds to a university. Shahla went to Girton College, Cambridge to read Physics, having acquired 11 O-levels, A-level and S-level Chemistry, both with Distinction, A-level French, A- and S-level Pure Mathematics, A-level Applied Mathetmatics, A- and S-level Physics, both with Distinction. She was under 18 when she passed Girton's entrance examination at the first attempt! She graduated with 1st class honours, then married in Teheran and they moved to the USA. Her husband continued his studies and Shahla took up a junior lectureship at Stanford University, California. In 1963 she was suddenly struck by illness, appeared to recover but succombed again and died, aged 24 in April 1964.
Shepherd, Susan Susan became a nurse and has lived in Singapore, Malta and Portsmouth. In 1976 she settled in the Ashford area, took a job with NHS East Kent and became Senior Recovery Sister at William Harvey Hospital, Ashford. She has three children and a grandson, all living locally. Interests include gardening, riding, crafts, her 1939 Austin 8 and being involved, with her husband, in the annual Sellindge Steam Special show.
Skingsley, Wendy Played hockey in Ireland, lived in Gibraltar, joined the Metropolitan Police, mostly in CID.
Smith, Maureen Spent 1952-56 at the School. Secretarial course at Folkestone Technical College, worked for Pfizer in Folkestone and Sandwich, then for electricity board, World Health Organisation in Geneva, emigrated to Montreal in 1966 and worked for Pfizer again, and Hoffmann-La Roche, with a year in Brussels. Married, moved to Ottawa, work moved her to Calgary and she split with her husband. Now lives in farming and ranching country within sight of the Rocky Mountains, loves riding, tennis, cycling, walking, skiing, snowshoeing, swimming. While at St Margaret's Maureen wanted to become a journalist but was discouraged by Mrs Hasson. She achieved this ambition by working for the High River Times and became a respected columnist. Another ambition had been to gain a degree, and she did this aged 58 in Ontario. She retired in 2003.
Stagg, Susan Susan was born in 1943 in the New Forest, Hampshire and lived in Folkestone from the age of four. She learnt dancing with Moya Kennedy and attended St Margaret's from the age of 5 to 17. When she was 12, he rmother changed her name to Ling on marriage, and Susan took the same by deed poll. Career options were limited, and university was for the exceptional, so she trained as a nurse at Great Ormond Street Hospital. She became engaged at 19 and left nursing in favour of art school, but her parents were not pleased as it was the age of the beatnik, black clothes, white faces and dubious habits. She went into fashion retail, advertising and finally worked for Oluf Nissen, a leading stills photographer for commercials in Chelsea. In the swinging sixties mood Susan wore mini-skirts and went to wild parties. The engagement broke off and she shared a flat in Notting Hill. At 23 she fell in love again and went to Canada, working in PR, game shows, advertising, designing a friend's theme restaurants, administering a ski resort in Alberta, hitchiked in the USA and Mexico, Harvard Business School, ended the affair, worked in travel in Toronto, visited the Bahamas and Florida, and returned to London in 1971. She worked in design and advertising as director. She moved in with an old friend Martin, holidays in Europe, Kenya and Canada doing sailing, skiing and walking. In 1993 they sailed round Britain in their own boat, and in 1995 they crewed a boat to Portugal. Susan was a NHS manager until retirement in 2003, the year she married Martin after 32 years. A life-long interest in art, difficult to pursue when work was demanding, was taken up again in recent years when she joined the committee of the Ad Lib Art Group.
Thomas, Caroline (For full Autobiography website, use link on 'The Society' page.) Born in 1942 in Calcutta, India to a military family, Caroline went to no other school but St Margaret's, and three generations of her family were there. On leaving school at 19 Caroline was offered a job in the travel agency in Bobby's store in Folkestone, spent four summers in the Alps as a Thomas Cook resident representative, using the German that Miss Maggs had taught her, and became a qualified travel agent, gaining the highest examination marks in the country. She worked at Thomas Cook's Head Office for senior management, and was invited to join a newly-formed Organisation & Methods department which took her on missions to Europe and South Africa. When Thomas Cook relocated out of London she was offerred a job at Midland Bank's Head Office and worked in management accountancy, in which she became the first person in the Bank to use a desk-top computer! She transferred to the training department, set up a resources library and ran first aid classes for the staff. At the age of 47 she accepted a handsome redundancy package from Midland Bank, drew their pension at age 50 and was thus able to devote her life to the charities that she had grown interested in: St John Ambulance, in which she is Divisional Superintendent of the City of London Division and a Commander Sister member of the Order of St John, as well as Casualties Union, in which she is London Regional Director, a senior instructor, and for nine years was Honorary General Secretary of the whole organisation, which provides volunteer actors trained in simulated casualty make-up and acting for first aiders, medical and rescue workers to practise on. Music has been an important part of Caroline's life. Miss Rudman had encouraged her to learn the piano-accordion and play for the local international folk-dance group in Folkestone, and in London she joined the Dunav Balkan Group, specialising in the traditional music of south-east Europe, from Romania through to Turkey. She has made recordings, videos, TV performances and concert tours in the Balkan countries. Caroline lived happily with her partner Stephen Ward for 33 years until he died of leukaemia in 2002. She owns two houses in north-east London, with friends as tenants, and two organic gardens full of fruit and vegetables and has never been busier. The greatest influences the School had on her life were foreign languages, piano, stage-craft and the idea that hard study is worthwhile.
Walton, Margaret (Peggy) Born 1910. She went on to finishing school at Chateau de Marnard-Granges in Switzerland. She met a Swiss law student and married him in 1934. He died in a tragic shooting accident and she returned to England with her 2-year-old daughter in 1937. She remarried three years later to Jim Macpherson, a Scottish resident of Folkestone whom she already knew. He served as an RAMC doctor, in charge of hospitals in Hong Kong and Italy, and ended the war as Colonel Macpherson OBE. The family lived in Guildford, Ilkley and Woolacombe, and another daughter was born in Ilfracombe. In 1949 the family moved to London. Col.Macpherson died in 1992 and Peggy managed alone, as active, outgoing and popular as ever, and driving a car a couple of days before her death on 31 May 2002. She had been a regular and well-liked attender at St Saviour's Church, Warwick Avenue, London, and her ashes have been scattered in the beautiful vicarage gardens there.
Warren, Elizabeth Born in 1929 at Lausanne, Switzerland, the daughter of B.C.S.Warren, a butterfly collector whose collection is now in the British Museum (Natural History) in London. As a child she lived in Switzerland and accompanied her parents on butterfly collecting trips in the Alps. Attended the School from 1938 to 1940 and again from 1945 to 1947, Head Girl. For sixteen years she was a form mistress in the Junior School. She writes about Switzerland, flowers and butterflies (on which is is a recognised expert), including 'The Country Diary Book of Creating a Butterfly Garden', and still lives in Folkestone.
Westall, Julie Returned to Canada after schooling, took anthropolty at McMaster University, back to London for a year, then Canada for a year, and joined St Thomas' Hospital London in 1971 to train as a nurse, then midwifery at Northwick Park Hospital in north London. Toronto for a year, then head of a nursing station in the high Arctic. Met her husband in 1979 in Arctic Bay, Baffin Island. Moved to Edmonton, Canada to make home and careers. They spend their holidays visiti8ng family on Baffin Island, Ontario, and England.
Woolliams, Wendy Wendy was born in Folkestone when her father, an RAF officer, was stationed at Hawkinge and her education depended on where he was posted: White Gate School in Harrow Weald, a number of governesses, Dundee High School, St Michael's Convent in Cirencester and finally St Margaret's., Folkestone from 1946. The Misses de la Mare were soon replaced by Mr and Mrs Hasson and many changes took place. They were happy years for Wendy, with games and friendships. She wishes she had worked harder, for she left in 1949 with only a few School Certificate subjects. She trained as a nurse in London but gave up because she kept fainting. In 1952 the Hassons invited her to joing their staff to help with the games and in the Junior School. In 1954 she married Canon Ian White-Thomson, Vicar of Folkestone. The wedding, in Folkestone Parish Church by the Archbishop of Canterbury, was the first time for 179 years that a vicar has been married in his own church. They enjoyed a happy marriage until Ian's death in 1997. His ministry had taken them from Folkestone to Newcastle-upon-Tyne, to Canterbury and then on his retirement to Wye, where she still lives. She has four married children and twelve grandchildren. Her Christianity is important to her and she is part of a lively church and various societies. She spends her time on family visits, theatre and cinema, outings, table tennis, swimming and looking after a dog, donkey and pony. One day Wendy will have the privilege of having her ashes buried with Ian's in the Cloister Garth of Canterbury Cathedral.