Trafalgar School - Echoes Yearbook (Montreal, Quebec Canada)

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} HE days are lengthening, the holidays are approaching, and this our last year at school is I drawing rapidly to a close. That means that the time has come to look back over the V- ' activities of the past terms, and we feel that we can view these with great satisfaction, for in every department of both work and play some progress has been made. There has been the usual unavoidable absence during the middle term, but otherwise excellent work has been done all through the school. In connection with sports perhaps the biggest step forward has been the organization of the hockey. There were several girls among us who had played before, and with the help of these practices were arranged. Many of the girls took part and enjoyed them very much. We hope that next year we will have a team good enough to compete with other schools. The basketball team has had rather bad luck this year. First one and then another member has had to give up playing for some time on account of illness, but in spite of the gaps thus made we have managed to win several games, and we hope that next year the team will be even more successful. At the cup match last June the trophy given by Miss Edgar was presented to Trafalgar, and we congratulate the team which brought such honour to our school. The inter form basketball matches, the tennis tournament, and the competition looming up in the near future, are claiming all our attention for the present. We have been entertained this year by the Upper II and form IIIa, who gave most enjoyable plays. The fifth form also had a very jolly skating party, and the sixth form is now preparing a play which will be given during the summer term. We were fortunate in having Bliss Carman come to speak to us. He read us some of his poems and said a few words about each, making us all feel we wanted to read more of them. Also, Dr. Grenfell gave us an interesting address early this term, and told us in a most entertaining way some of his experiences in Labrador. Now, in turning to the girls who left last year, we, the sixth form of 1925 6, feel we have a very high standard to live up to — too high for our feeble efforts, for it has been many years since a form has left behind it such a record of splendid work as the sixth last year. Sixteen girls got their full matric, and we offer our congratulations to Marjory Doble, to whom the Trafalgar Scholarship was awarded. We who are struggling after them realize the importance of what they have done, and wish that we had followed more closely in their footsteps. Everyone who is leaving Traf. this year will join with us in saying that it is with deep regret we say good ' bye to the dear old school, and our memories of it will always be most precious. However, we will not let it be a real good ' bye, for when we are old girls we will come back as often as we can to renew our old friendships, and to revisit the scene of so much of our happiness. Now, in closing, we wish to thank all those who have helped in any way towards getting out this Magazine, and to wish the committees of the future the best of luck. [ 12]

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JUNE, 1926 VOLUME IX l rafalpr €cl)oes( MAGAZINE STAFF Editor Jean Macalister Sub-Editors Beatrice Howell Doris Johnson Secretary Hazel Ahern Advertising Managers ' Art Representative ' Athletic Representative - House Representative Fifth Form Representative Adviser to Magazine Staff Jean Macalister Doris Johnson Beatrice Howell Elizabeth Tooke Marie Luther Executive Committee Prefects Form Officers Presidents Form Upper VI. — Jean Macalister Lower VL — Margaret Sumner Upper V. — Margaret Bain Lower V. — Jean Lamb IVa. — Carol Ross IVb. — Doris Ahern IIIa. — Betty Vaughan IIIb. — Maida Truax Upper IL — Joan Archibald 11. — Norma Roy Upper L — Peggy Chapman Treasurer Marie Luther Hazel Howard Margaret Sumner Elizabeth Tooke Dorothy Sumner Isabel Elliott Dorothy Ward (temporary) - ' Miss Bryan Gertrude Nieghorn Isabel Elliott Margaret Sumner Dorothy Sumner Vice-Presidents Beatrice Howell Helen Findlay Helen Ritchie Marian Hand Eileen Mitchell Elizabeth Stanway Nancy Stocking Velma Truax Cynthia Bazin Editha Wood Pamela Stead 111]

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I THE LATE MISS MITCHELL By PROFESSOR CARRIE DERICK A Member of the Trafalgar Staff iSgo iSg CT HE history of the first twenty ' five years of Trafalgar Institute centres around two noteworthy women who upheld the highest standards of conduct and attainment. Those who had the privilege of associating either as colleagues or pupils with the one-time Principal, Miss Fairley, and her chief assistant, Miss Mitchell, remember both with love and admiration and think of them together as the founders of the noblest traditions of Trafalgar. Constance Mitchell, a daughter of James Mitchell and Emily Fairbairn, was born in Montreal on September 19, 1858. She, with her lovely sister Emily, was educated first at Bute House, a school which stood opposite the McGill gates on Sherbrooke Street. Later she studied in Dresden, Ger- many, at a well-known school conducted by able Edinburgh women, the Misses Geddes. After her return from Europe, Miss Mitchell became one of a group of women bound together in lifelong friendship by cultivated tastes and broad sympathies. With extraordinary unanimity these old friends speak with tenderness and devotion of that beauty of character which makes even the memory of Constance Mitchell a living force. For a short time Miss Mitchell taught in the school of the Misses Gairdner, but when Trafalgar opened in 1887, she received an appointment to its staff a few months before that of Miss Fairley. There, as a teacher in residence for nine years and a non-residential teacher from 1896 until 191 3, she was a potent influence in the lives of successive generations of girls. Especially in her English classes, even the dullest of her pupils developed some love of books, the more intellectual gained in power of discrimination and all learned to respect higher ideals. Widely read and keenly appreciative of the best in music and art, Miss Mitchell was able to illuminate her lessons by a wealth of illustration and comparison. With simplicity and sincerity she combined a rare sense of humor, which probably was her most effective weapon in maintaining kindly discipline. Though she saw life sanely and as a whole, her spontaneous gaiety brightened the most depressing moments. Her mere entrance into the teachers ' common room at the end of a day dis- pelled dullness and lifted life to a higher level once more. It was not, however, in gayer moods that her power was most felt. She had an understanding nature and gave sympathy wherever needed as generously as she gave herself to each demand made upon her. After her retirement from teaching, she and her sister travelled in Europe and were there on the outbreak of war in 1914. They returned and had a happy home together until the death of Miss Emily Mitchell, in January 1920, ended their sympathetic companionship. But life alone con- tinued to be enriched not only by the memory of past happiness but by present love won through the generous expression of an exquisite character, and strengthened by the faith of a tolerant but deeply religious nature. On September 22, 1925, in the Royal Victoria Hospital, Constance Mitchell, the well-beloved, died after a life of unfailing devotion not only to those who to she owed immediate duty but to all in need. [13]