Trafalgar School - Echoes Yearbook (Montreal, Quebec Canada)

Page 28 text:

French Revolution is purely French has completely failed to understand it . I should however, be doing a great injustice to my school and its staff if I were not to mention its high scholastic standing, and allude to the many girls who have gained major scholar- ships in mathematics, in classics and in English and history at our two famous univer- sities Oxford and Cambridge. Music is another feature of our school and many girls go on to the Royal School of Music; there are eight piano teachers and one violin teacher as well as visiting teachers for other instruments. At school concerts and on other occasions the string orchestra performs as well as the choirs and most accomplished pianists. Since no feminine discourse is ever complete without an allusion to dress I must not now let down my sex — indeed I would not be covering my subject if I were not to mention the uniform. For morning lessons a fawn skirt and blouse complete with house tie is the order of the day; in the afternoon, which, as I have mentioned is spent in the playground, a navy blue serge tunic, buttoning down the front, is worn, and under this a navy blouse, thick or thin according to season; further additions are a white collar and a broad blue strap belt, similar to a stable belt, down the back of which hangs a tail determining your house and standard of play. In the evening the feminine taste is given full license. In closing I take this opportunity to proclaim on behalf of my fellow countrymen who stand amid your ranks, LONG LIVE TRAFALGAR, FOREVER HER AIM! NoRAH Young, Matric. I, Gumming House. [26]

Page 27 text:

it was more intelligent and infinitely better. We would have worked till midnight if we had been asked just to make a girl head of our form. In these wild but stimulating surroundings we learned to like work. Some did not, but it was because they did not want to and not even in the strictest school would they have done so. But most pupils have taken from the Lycee a desire to learn more in general or in some particular subject which will help them in going through these troubled times. And we have been filled with a longing to know more which we will always have and which will make us energetic men and women. Nicole J. Pleven, Form 5b, Fairley House. ST. LEONARDS IN a Scottish east-coast town bearing the name of our patron saint is to be found a well known British school. Partly surrounded by the ancient city wall, it lies among places of antiquity: by the castle where Archbishop Sharp was murdered and his head thrown out to the raging billows; by the old cathedral and St. Regulus Tower under which, legend tells us, lie the bones of Saint Andrew; and also of ancient vintage the Old Course . It is fitting that a school should stand within these ancient walls, for as an old university town, it has long been a seat of learning. While Trafalgar is essentially a day school St. Leonards is essentially a boarding school although it started its life in 1877 as a small day school. There are now nine separate boarding houses, or were before the war, and the day girls form the tenth house. St. Leonards also differs from Trafalgar in that the younger girls, that is girls under thirteen, are not educated at St. Leonards but at St. Catherines also in St. Andrews. St. Leonards has always been renowned for her prowess in games, having many internationals to her name, and every girl takes part in sports every afternoon in winter (including Saturdays) and every evening in summer. There is very great competition among the houses in the field and each day one house, organized under her house captain, takes the field in friendly rivalry. When it comes to matches however the shouts from the houses spurring on their teams would most certainly bring down the roof if played indoors, and as it is the birds are scared away and some reconnaissance bomber which may chance to pass hovers overhead to make sure the Jerrys have not come! The sports are lacrosse and golf in the autumn term, hockey and fives in the winter and cricket, tennis and swimming in the summer. The school shield is awarded each term to the victorious house in lacrosse, hockey and cricket. There is also a second team for each of these three games and cups are awarded to the winners. Lest my readers should now be thinking that they have at last found the school of their dreams where you enjoy a life of peaceful ease, I must assure you that we also have our Virgil and the invincible x and even the statement that whoever thinks the [25]

Page 29 text:

WHEN THE POSTMAN RINGS TODAY Telegraph, don ' t write, they used to say, it would be quicker, or telephone, it might be easier. Thus letter- writing was fast becoming a lost art. It is no longer so; for the war came and with it a revival of letters. The Nazi hordes were on the march. In the once quiet corners of the world tanks and planes were roaring death and destruc- tion. From the peasant villages of Czechoslovakia and Poland; the peaceful towns of Holland and Belgium; the ancient cities of France refugees were streaming along the roads seeking safety from the terror of the invader. Families were broken up; lifelong friends were separated. A most terrible catastrophe had befallen the nations and peoples of Europe. Those who were fortunate enough to escape death were soon inquiring the fate of their scattered families and friends, anxious to give and receive news. Communica- tions were difficult between war-stricken countries. Letters once again became precious things. They told of adventures and hardships. Out of their pages came the burned smel l of bombed cities, the cruelties of internment camps, the panic of evacuations, and the heroism of hope. Children from the old country were sent overseas to be cared for until victory is won and England safe again. Letters come and go from English mothers to American mothers, from parents at home to children scattered in far lands, letters that are often read and reread until they are worn and tattered. There are letters from soldiers and sailors and airmen in training, and on active service in the outposts of the Empire — in Iceland, the West Indies, in Libyan deserts, Chinese cities, and in London where the church spires are tumbling into rubble. They are letters of courage and fortitude, written in a spirit of high adventure. Letters coming from England today may be written during the weary hours in the crowded bomb-shelters, amid the rocking crash of bombs and devastating fires, often in the presence of death. In some distant [27]