Trafalgar School - Echoes Yearbook (Montreal, Quebec Canada)

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Gower-Rees were again oiir visitors, friends and counsellors as in the past and we are grateful to them for their help and interest. This year music has played an important part in our lives due to large extent to the Victrola and Radio which the Old Girls so kindly presented to the School. It is impossible to thank them enough for the enjoyment it has given us, but if they were to see the gatherings in the drawing room on Wednesday afternoons they would be able to realize more fully our appreciation. This gift also seems to have deepened our interest not only in our own school choir practices but in the Quebec Musical Compe- tition in which the whole school successfully competed. The Houses too have had an eventful year, and one in which the plan that the house system was founded on has been realized. With sewing and knitting for a com- mon cause, spelling bees, basketball games, photographic and musical competitions, a real spirit of comradeship has sprung up between the girls throughout the school. Neither did we lag behind in sports. Both our basketball teams won their Cups. The skiing representatives also carried away the honours in a successful day up North, under the kind supervision of the Penguins. We thank all those who have contributed and helped in the putting together of this magazine, not only those of the Editorial Staff and accepted contributors but also those whose offerings may not have been accepted. PREFECTS Janet Hamilton Allana Reid Shirley Walker Theodora Hubbell Nancy McKean Head Prefect: Lyn Berens Norma Osler Betty Curran Mary Stewart Jean Donnelly Mary Pickup Judith O ' Halloran Nancy Taylor Peggy Clarke Grace Wurtele Isabella Wurtele THE GRIER CUP The Grier Cup, awarded to the most public-spirited of the Senior Girls, who at the same time has maintained a high standard of conduct and shown devotion to her work, was won in 1939 by Jane Elliot. THE FORSYTH CUP The Forsyth Cup, awarded to the Senior Girl who has made the most of her oppor- tunities, showing herself friendly and helpful to all, was given last June to Marylin Mechin. INTER-HOUSE TROPHY The Inter-House Shield, presented by Mrs. Wynne Robinson, was awarded last June to Riddell House. [21]

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UitnrUl ALL of us at Trafalgar are keenly aware of the great loss the school will sustain in the retirement of Miss Janet L. Gumming. At the same time we wish her every happiness in the future. For twenty-three years Miss Gumming has devoted herself to Trafalgar teachers and pupils, and with untiring energy has sought to help each one. Her sympathy, encourage- ment, and understanding have been felt by all the girls who have ever come under her care, and none will forget the interest she has taken in them. The pupils of Trafalgar will continue to be influenced by her high ideals and attempt to live up to the standards she set, for the school will never cease to remember her capable but kindly hand. With the commencement of war in September few thought that Trafalgar would register its vibrations in the form of personal, perilous experiences. Unfortunately the torpedoed Athenia carried three of our mistresses. Miss Rushton, Miss Donkersley and Miss Roper. For a few days we waited anxiously for news and were greatly relieved when we heard of their safety, although we regretted to learn that Miss Donkersley and Miss Roper would not be returning to School. We were also disappointed that Miss Turner did not come back. These teachers had in many ways won the respect, admira- tion and love of Trafalgar and we were indeed sorry to lose them. In their places we have welcomed Mrs. Basset, Miss Harvie, an Old Girl who had been studying at Oxford, Miss Jackson and Miss Box who although delayed in crossing from England because of the war, soon took things in hand and was able to present the usual Gym Demonstration. Apart from this war experience School has continued much as usual. Miss Alice Johannsen, an Old Girl, spoke to us on Early Races in Ganada and gave us a new realiza- tion of the interest than can be found in studying the treasures which belonged to Ganada ' s early history and which now lie in museums. The ideals of the Oxford Group movement were brought to us in a moving picture and Bishop Fleming told us of the fine work and present need of the Eskimos in the Arctic. Dr. Donald and Archdeacon [20]

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LORD TWEEDSMUIR CANADA, and the entire British Empire, suffered a severe loss on the eleventh of February 1940 in the death of John Buchan, Lord Tweedsmuir. As a statesman, an author, and a lawyer, he had won wide-spread distinction, but it was as a man that he gained the affection and loyalty of the Dominion of Canada. Wherever he travelled, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from the Great Lakes to the Arctic Ocean, he left behind him an impression of kindliness, courtesy and genuine interest. I think everyone in Canada must have been struck by the amazing versatility of Lord Tweedsmuir. He could address a church court or open a session of parliament: he could chat with fishermen in the far-north, or attend a ball in Montreal with equal ease and equal dignity. Yet he always remained the same man. He had an immense capacity for work, and great reserves of vitality even when in ill-health. When one thinks of his many trips across Canada, his unceasing social duties and his never-flagging interest in the lives of those he met, it seems incredible that dur- ing the four years he spent among us he found time to complete his great biography Augustus , to write his own Memoirs , and to compile material for a book on Canada, which, unfortunately, was never written. Yet with his brilliant reputation in politics and letters, with all his amazing know- ledge and equally amazing industry, it is doubtful if, in such a short time. Lord Tweedsmuir could have won such a large place in the hearts of the people of Canada, had we not felt that, though infinitely above us, he was yet one of us. John Buchan was the son of a Scotch Presbyterian minister and he grew up, in his own words, mixing on terms of comradeship and utter equality with children from every kind of queer environment. His bosom pal was the son of the village ne ' er do well, and together they used to wage war upon the sone of the local gentry . He never attended a public school, but began his education at a Dame School where he was taught to knit and from which he was expelled for upsetting a pot of broth on the kitchen fire. From here he went to high school and thence to the University of Glasgow and later to Oxford. In the winter he was a very diligent student, being chiefly engrossed in Latin and Greek. The summer, he spent on the banks of the Tweed, in blessed idleness . In addi- tion to the classics he was interested in history. His heroes were Caesar, St. Paul, Charlemagne, Henry of Navarre, Cromwell, Montrose, Lincoln, and Robert E. Lee. His aversions were Brutus, Henry VIII, Napoleon, all the 1688 Whigs and the whole tribe of French revolutionaries except Mirabeau. While at Oxford he made a great number of friends. Many of these were killed in the Boer War, still more in the first Great War, but he kept in touch with those who remained until his death. One of them. Professor Archibald Main, wrote John Buchan never forgot a friend, and he never lost one. From Oxford he went to London to study at the Bar. There he came under the spell of London, enjoyed his apprenticeship to its full and made my first real entry into [22]