1950
The school was now sixty years old and to mark this anniversary a new shield was designed.

Thanks to the careful planning of the de la Mares, very few structural alterations were considered necessary in the main school building, though the Hassons had built a small stage at the front end of the assembly room, used for conducting morning prayers and announcements and staging end-of-term plays.

THE PANTOMIMES
The annual school pantomime was an institution in itself. Each was written, composed and produced by Dudley Hasson, with Mrs Russell helping by writing some of the songs and playing the piano with the little band, and Miss Moya Kennedy creating the beautiful ballets which were such a feature of the shows.

The first pantomime, 'Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves' had been scheduled for December 1947, because Christmas was the traditional time for the de la Mare charity show. However, it took longer than expected to put the performance together and it was postponed to 19 March 1948. In the event, this seemed a more sensible time since many afternoons in February were too cold and wet for sports and could be devoted to rehearsing the show.

The shift to March did not go down too well with some parents because the performance was during Lent, but I suspect they forgave the school for this blunder once they were in their seats at the Pleasure Gardens Theatre.

The pantomimes were of a quite exceptional standard and certainly contributed to the school's prosperity and fame. The praise heaped on to Dudley Hasson and his creative team was well deserved.

For several girls, such as Sally Harris, Merylin Roberts and Jane Merrow, they were a taste of their future acting careers, and excellent training in deportment, stage presentation and confidence for us all.

Our memories of them blend together into a kaleidoscope of glamour,
bright lights, gorgeous costumes, music, bouquets and happy exhaustion
at the end of the show. It was not uncommon for girls to burst into
 tears when the curtain came down, for sheer overflowing of emotion
and excitement. My mother used to make me eat Horlicks tablets
throughout the show in the belief that they would keep my nerves
under control; I loved them but they had no noticeable effect.

Jean Bristow (1953-65) felt the same way: "I wish that we had had video technology in the 1950s and early 1960s for I would dearly love to see one of our pantomimes now and to know if they were as magical, professional and polished as I believed them to be as a child. If I shut my eyes and concentrate, I can recreate in my mind the excitement of rehearsals, the smell of makeup, the echoing backstage labyrinth and the dressing rooms full of young girls in a fever pitch of anticipation and stage fright."

In fact one of the last pantomimes was recorded on video, but the Pleasure Gardens Theatre had been demolished in 1964 and somehow it was not quite the same when staged in the school hall.

The regular critic wrote in the school magazine under the name 'Thespian'. We were never told who Thespian was, though some of us made shrewd guesses. Whoever it was, the words were no exaggeration, though reading every year that the latest show was the best ever became boringly predictable.

The pantomimes were such an important feature of school life under the Hassons that they deserve their own section, and an appendix records some of their most memorable features.


SPEECH DAY AND PRIZE-GIVING
Another highlight of the school year was the Speech Day held towards the end of the summer term in either the Metropole Hotel on the Leas or the Grand Hotel next to it. Mrs Hasson would go to London to buy a new outfit, usually an elegant floral silk suit, and the girls looked forward to seeing what she had chosen. Maureen O'Sullivan remembers that "it was something of an ordeal to earn the Farhad Deportment Cup because everyone stared to see how gracefully the recipient walked down the aisle and on to the platform to receive it. When the Bonniface Popularity prize was announced, the girls cheered madly."

The special guests who presented the prizes were selected from local or national celebrities, parents and old girls. Their names are listed at the end of this chapter.

1952
The school was still growing and needed to overflow into another building. The juniors were therefore relocated to a larger building at 24 Grimston Gardens, and 56 Earl's Avenue became an annexe for the senior school, providing classrooms for some of the forms and specialist rooms such as a drama studio, music room and natural history museum. Many friends donated items for this museum, occupying Miss Warren's previous Form I. The jaw bone of a prehistoric animal was presented by Mr R W C Nickolls, and gifts from Mr Aird were "so numerous we suspect he must have pillaged the British Museum".

The drama studio in the Annexe, Earl's Avenue

Dormitory space was inadequate for the number of boarders. My family's big house in Shorncliffe Road had several spare bedrooms, and we used to provide accommodation for overflow boarders as well as teachers needing somewhere to live. This strange mixture in one household added the spice of danger to the escapades planned by the current girl guest and me. The midnight feast of cold toast in Susan Horton's bedroom brought Miss Merry down from the top floor to investigate the scuffles and giggles. Hearing the stairs squeaking I dived into the wardrobe and held my breath while Miss Merry interrogated Susan. She was just asking why the room smelt of toast when the shelf I was crouching on gave way and the game was up.

1953
Maureen O'Sullivan remembers the preparations for the Coronation Day feast in June: "Mr Hasson decided we must have strawberries for lunch. He took Pat Norris, Vida Farhad, Saideh Malek and me with him in the car and toured all around southern Kent. At last we were successful at Harrietsham and took pounds of gorgeous strawberries back to school."

In October was formed the St Margaret's Old Girls' Society which Maureen was to run for many years until the present time. SMOGS began a series of annual reunions which were to bring pleasure to many post-war school leavers as they set up their careers, homes and families.

1954
Mr George Stone, father of Doreen, presented the school with a piece of land adjoining the junior house on which two hard tennis courts were built a few years later. They were used for netball in the winter.

1955
The under-14 percussion band entered the Folkestone Competitive Music Festival, conducted by Jane Merrow and accompanied on the piano by me. It was a late decision and we only had twelve days to learn our pieces which included a fast piece by Bach that I had difficulty in getting my fingers round. It must have been nerves that made me stop too soon, pick up my music and walk off the stage while the band went on drumming, clashing and tinkling and an astonished Jane Merrow hissed for me to come back. I did so, pink in the face, and carried on playing as best I could with the sheet music upside down and my best busking skills in action. The adjudicator must have been looking down at the marking sheet, for we won first prize and the cup, in spite of my appalling behaviour.

This festival, organised by the Rotary Club, had been a feature of school life for several years. It took place in the early summer at venues such as the Town Hall and the Lady Sassoon Room in the Public Library. There were sections for dancing, piano and other instruments, vocal solo and choir, verse speaking and drama. The school won trophies and awards by the armful each year, a well-deserved reward for the efforts of Mr Hasson, Miss Kennedy and the piano and singing teachers who coached the girls and developed their talents.

1956
The Hassons had been successful beyond their wildest dreams. Mrs Hasson once confided to Elizabeth Warren, Head Girl during the transfer period, that if she had foreseen then how quickly the school would grow, she would have made it exclusively a boarding school. By now there were about 300 girls in total, half of them boarders.

Mrs Hasson had been ill for some time and she died, tragically young at 51, on 5 December 1956, after ten years as Joint Principal and Headmistress. Within an hour of her death Dudley announced it to the staff and girls, who spent the rest of the day in stunned dismay, unable to concentrate on their work.

The school magazine recorded: "She had much illness in her life, but was always cheerful and uncomplaining and during the last two years, when she suffered very severe pain, she never once gave way to depression and her thoughts were always for others. Again and again she attempted to carry on her duties though she was clearly unfit to do so. She gave everything she had to give to the School and, in return, the School gave her a deep affection which she prized." She was greatly mourned.

Miss Adamson, School Secretary and Bursar, was appointed Vice-Principal.

1957
In September, four days into the new term, there occurred the worst epidemic in the school's history. Within six da
s over a hundred girls had influenza, as well as several members of staff including Miss French, the Under-Matron.

A corner of the garden behind the main school building was sacrificed for a brand new building to house the Upper 5th, who valued the seclusion while working towards their O-level examinations.















1960
On 2 Jan Dudley Hasson married Janet Morris, a former sixth-form prefect.

1961
Mr Hasson, who had developed diabetes over the past few years, suffered a heart attack on 2 February. He spent several weeks in hospital and gave up school activities for the Lent term. The pantomime, which the girls had just started to rehearse, was postponed to the following year. He was also obliged to give up his former active involvement in directing the school's sporting activities. In October 1962 Mr Hasson again entered hospital but was back within three weeks.

1962
Mr Hasson wrote to Maureen O'Sullivan on 1 October: "For some time now I have been planning to form St Margaret's School into an Educational Trust. This will have the effect of giving the school a higher standing and of ensuring its continuity. It is also a course approved and commended by the Ministry of Education." He asked Maureen to become a governor and invited her to a preliminary meeting to meet the other proposed governors whom he had chosen, along with Mr A L Chubb, the school's solicitor, the accountant Mr G D Lane FCA, and the lawyer Mr Clive Russell-Vick.

1963
On 1 January the Educational Trust was formed. Registered as a charity, it was exempt from taxes. Mr Hasson continued as Principal but on a salary instead of being the owner. The governing Council consisted of:

        Mr S M Messer, President Dudley Hasson's cousin, parent and stepfather of the Dearing sisters)

        Mr R L Bristow, Chairman (parent)
        Mr E A R Chapman (parent)
        Mr W T Cosham (parent)
        Mr C D Hasson (Colin, Dudley's son)
        Mrs Janet Hasson (Old Girl, Dudley's wife)
        Miss E M Kay (Headmistress of a Folkestone school)
        Mrs Mary Taylor
        Mrs Ruby Thomas (Old Girl, parent)
        Mrs Maureen Olley (Old Girl)
        Mr J W Walker (parent)
        Miss Gladys F M Wright (Principal, Nonnington College)

The Council met once a term and appointed from their number a standing committee of five which met monthly. Ex-officio members of the standing committee were the Headmistress, the Bursar and the accountant, Mr Lane. Mr Hasson retired at the end of the spring term of 1966 and his deputy, Mrs Kathleen Whiteside, took on the responsibility of Acting Headmistress for the summer term while a replacement was being sought. Janet Hasson, Colin Hasson and Mr Messer left the Board of Governors and were replaced, in order to keep the number at twelve, by parents Mr A P Salter, Mrs A Standeven and Mr K Waite.

Mr Hasson died on 24 April 1966, in his mid sixties, during the Easter holidays following his retirement. Miss Freda M Maggs, who had taught many subjects throughout the Hasson era, suggested to the Old Girls' Society that a memorial tablet would be appropriate. Supplemented by donations from old girls, she provided the funds anonymously, and a polished red granite plaque was erected in Bay 6, Position 4 of the cloister wall at Hawkinge Crematorium.

Dudley's mother, known to all the girls as Granny Hasson, was a familiar figure in the school and well loved by all. Her name was Annie, but she preferred to be called Netty. She was greatly missed when she died a few months after her son's death.

Mr Hasson loved cricket and coached the teams from the outset until his retirement. Their extraordinary success earned them the respect not only of other cricket-playing schools around the country but of women's clubs and county teams. Between 1949 and 1953 they won 78 matches in succession. In 1955, Mr Arthur Croft, father of Ann, presented the school with an automatic score-board which he constructed himself. It was the envy of many visiting teams. St Margaret's was the first girls' school team to play overseas (the Netherlands), and the first to play against a men's county side. That was a historic occasion indeed, and took place on 4 May 1957. It had been proposed by Doug Wright, father of Jane: a match between the Kent team, of which he was captain, and St Margaret's School First XI captained by Ann Croft. Kent managed skilfully and generously to ensure that the result was a draw. That evening the match featured on a television sports programme. Susan Goatman, St Margaret's cricket captain in 1962 and 1963, was afterwards to become All England Women's cricket captain.

MISS MAGGS
Later that year Miss Maggs retired after twenty-one years at St Margaret's where she had taught English Language, English Literature, History, Geography, German, Spanish and Italian. Miss Maggs was small and bent but determinedly energetic. Folkestone had many eccentrics among its citizens, and she was one of the most unforgettable ones. Her brain was exceptional and she had a gift for motivating her pupils. Of the subjects she taught, four were to A-level, and only lack of time prevented her from doing more, though she was often coaching till late at night, and would sleep in the staff room if it was too late to go home. In the holidays of examination years I would take essays and translations to her flat to be assessed; she never once complained that I was encroaching on her well-earned holiday.

22 Grimston Gardens, close to the new junior school, was a site which had taken a flying bomb during the war, and here George Stone built the New Hall during the summer of 1958. It was ready for use in the Michaelmas term and officially opened in November by Councillor D H Brown, the Mayor of Folkestone and a school parent. This was a joy to Mr Hasson, who so loved the dramatic arts, for it had a raked auditorium and stage, modern stage lighting and dressing rooms. The front part of the building held two classrooms, the tuck shop and the drama studio transferred from the Annexe.

Maureen O'Sullivan was one of many girls who had to copy out Miss Maggs' home-made history of England from Julius Caesar to modern times which she had scribbled out on assorted sheets of paper, including the type normally used in the lavatory. Some of the text ran round the edges to use up every available scrap. This manuscript was passed from girl to girl, except for the lucky ones who had acquired the copy made by someone who had left the school. The notes were an ordeal to transcribe but taught them a great deal about history.

Miss Maggs had a strange little car which she drove slowly down the middle of busy roads, and the girls she took on excursions argued over who was going in the car and who by train. The winners went by train.

Her own holiday expeditions sounded very exciting, and we heard all about them in the geography lessons at the beginning of term. On her visit to the Soviet Union, the Russians tried to control her movements but she would have nothing of Intourist. As Dr Esmé Pole-Stuart pointed out in Miss Maggs' obituary, "The Russians have always tolerated mad saints, and gave in."

No-one knew her age; she must have been around eighty when she retired. She adored Dudley Hasson, "the dear Principal", and her worshipping of Winifred Hasson was tempered only by the fact that she wore lipstick which Miss Maggs warned us could be interpreted in any lesser mortals as tarty.

Dr Stuart interpreted Miss Maggs philosophy of life as: "The Almighty had made a mistake in creating Man: Woman was quite enough."