Matron

Matron had one thing in common with the memorable character created by Hattie Jacques in the "Carry On" films.

They wore almost the same uniform! That's where the comparison stops.

There was no innuendo of the kind the Hattie Jacques' character exhibited from the Everard sisters: quite the contrary. Most of their values, and indeed the values of the 1950's, were positively Victorian.

The whole set-up at Westleigh College could have come straight out of a Charles Dickens novel, plus a smattering of "Picnic At Hanging Rock".

Matron always wore a belted nurse's dress, the head-gear, the badge and a red nurse's cape: except on Speech Night.

On this occasion she wore a dress suitable for ladies of her age and era, (which seemed to me to be 80 something).
Without the head gear one could see her grey hair parted in the middle, braided and pinned around her head. Unsurprisingly she complemented this "formal" outfit with a fur cape. The first time I saw her like this she was unrecognizable!

Her tasks were varied. Looking after sick pupils was but one of them and that was usually limited to a dab of stinging iodine on a grazed knee or elbow.

Worst-case scenario: she would call the parents of the injured pupil to have them collected and taken to the doctor. This didn't happen very often because most people didn't have the telephone installed then, let alone a car to expedite the whole procedure.

Sadly there were many falls. This was largely due to Matron's obsession with pigeons which were revered by her at a somewhat higher level than her reverence for the pupils.

They were all over the playground and one had to dodge them almost all the time. We were permitted to feed them but they were simply nuisances to be avoided at all costs.
I still dislike pigeons to this day, even though I can appreciate their incredible homing abilities.


                                                                        

If we had known the term "flying rats" back then it would have been used on an hourly basis!
On one occasion one of the girls stepped on one as she was frantically running to get to class on time. The rest of us were relieved that we were not the one who was guilty of fatally injuring the pigeon.

Matron was livid! It was her favourite pigeon, "Cuckoo"!

The poor girl's feelings be damned, but the rest of us empathized with her.
In no time at all Matron found another use for the dreaded, stinging, yellow iodine: she put the dying pigeon out of its misery by feeding it bread dipped in iodine. It worked.

Another of her tasks was making cups of tea for the teachers to be served at morning tea-time, lunchtime and afternoon tea-time. Matron chose girls who she liked, or were conveniently nearby, to deliver the cups of tea which came with one very ordinary biscuit. I did this a few times and always managed to spill the tea onto the biscuit which made it even more inedible.

She was also the housekeeper for the sisters and looked after the garden. She had some exquisite pink camellias and if you had been very,very good, she would deign to give you a bloom.
I was so impressed with these camellias that when I saw the same plant in a nursery many years later I naturally had to have it and I still do.

The house was dark and dingy. There was always a musty odor and no one particularly liked to go into it unless we were allowed to read in the library room. This didn't happen very often.

Her main task in education was teaching useful things like sewing and knitting.

Compared to Miss Clarice and Miss Lillian Everard she was by far the most crotchety and erratic. Going to see Matron if you were unwell was not something you really wanted to do.

She had no empathy for anyone or anything, other than her pigeons!

Westleigh College - 1886 - 1961

According to the Darebin Historical Encyclopedia here is a bit of background that I was not aware of:

"Misses Jessie and Isabel Westgarth opened Westleigh College for the education of young ladies in 1900. Initially based in Clifton Hill, the Westgarth sisters bought the large house in Clarke Street, Northcote as an extension to their Clifton Hill School and moved their junior school there in 1902 and soon afterwards, a kindergarten.
Term fees for day pupils were 1 to 2 guineas and 10 to 15 guineas for boarders.

In 1906 the sisters took over the Northcote College and Kindergarten conducted by Miss Davison at the Wesleyan school room in High Street and occupied William Rucker’s former mansion ‘Sunnyside’, running part of their college in its galvanized-iron ballroom. In 1910 they purchased a large house called ‘Leura’ (demolished in 1964) on Bayview Street close to High Street. The junior school children were moved to North Fitzroy and the senior school moved in to the new house at Northcote.

Westleigh’s advertisements boasted that the school had spacious classrooms, a dormitory for boarders, large grounds, poultry, a cow, a fruit and vegetable garden and a school library. In 1912 the school had an enrolment of 106 students.

By 1917 Westleigh College had been taken over by the sisters Kate and Ada Gresham. However the Inspector noted that pupils rarely proceeded beyond Form III, and so the academic standard was considered not high enough for continued registration as a secondary school. The sisters were given time to bring up the school to the required standard but by June 1919 Ada Gresham conceded that it was impossible to raise the educational standard of the school. She left the school at the end of the year and from that time on it was run as a primary and sub-primary school.

By the 1950s the school was struggling. Student numbers of 180 in 1954 had fallen to between 80 and 90 by 1961. What made things even more difficult was the age of the teachers, Matron was 81 and Miss Clarice was 74. When Miss Clarice had a heart attack, the end of the school was inevitable.

In 1962 an infant school was opened on the site but closed shortly afterwards. A fire in 1962 destroyed many of the school records and memorabelia."[sic]

In subsequent posts this 'blog will attempt to cover my recollections from the years I was there : 1954 until 1960.

During my time there the school was run by the Everard sisters: Miss Clarice, Miss Lillian Everard, and Matron. I am at a loss to explain why Miss (Lillian) Everard is not mentioned in this piece.