Trafalgar School - Echoes Yearbook (Montreal, Quebec Canada)

Page 16 text:

TEMPUS FUGIT! — how true this is of the past school year! To the girls who are leaving Trafalgar it has gone very fast — perhaps too fast — and in years to come they will look back with regret, wishing it had been longer. People always say that school ' days are the happiest of one ' s life, but it is to be feared that when one is at school, one does not realise it. Let us look back for a moment at the events of the year. In February the school was shocked to hear of the death of Miss Fairley who was for twenty-six years Principal of Trafalgar. She taught many girls in her time, and it is certain that they all benefitted by her instruction, and by her loving devotion to her school. A memorial service for Miss Fairley was held in Kildonan Hall, at which many Old Girls were present. We must congratulate last year ' s Sixth Form for their brilliant results in the Matriculation Examinations. We are proud of Jean Harvie, who gained first place in the Province and who obtained an average of 87.6, and of Monica Lyman, who made 71.2. The other matriculants did very well too, and those who are at McGill we hope will do just as well, or even better than they did in the Matriculation. When Miss Rae left Trafalgar in January, the school lost in her a very understanding and helpful teacher. All girls who knew Miss Rae agree unanimously that she was a good sport. Mrs. Dichmont has taken her place, and the girls, who already know her, find her a worthy sub ' stitute for Miss Rae. The school was indeed pleased and proud to hear of the honour conferred on one of her Old Girls in January, when Winnifred Kydd was appointed one of the representatives for Canada at the Geneva Conference. She has for some years pa st interested herself in public life, and has made herself keenly felt in its interests. She has not yet returned from abroad, but when she does, it would indeed be interesting if she would come to the school and tell us about the Conference. With regard to sports, we must remark on the splendid play of the Basketball teams — especially the First team. They brought back the Cup into our Gymnasium, where we hope to keep it for good. In the Inter-Form matches IVa were the victors, defeating the Lower and Special VI in the finals. Hockey was taken up more enthusiastically this year, and many girls turned out. However, a team was not formed, so no Inter-School matches were played. The school continues to grow and expand; this year ' s Sixth Form is the largest Trafalgar has ever had — especially the Upper VI, which has an enrollment of twenty-seven girls. Those girls leaving Trafalgar this year hope that they will be a credit to her and will live up to the tradi- tions made by former Trafalgar girls. We think we can rightly say that they will regard their school-days at Trafalgar the happiest of their lives. [ 1 1

Page 15 text:

0 Hje illemorp of Mi (©race Jf airlep Hers was a noble face — so strong and kind; And it was she who built up Trafalgar, And helped to make it what it is to-day — A happy place to all who use it well. For twenty six long years she gave herself. Her talents, not a tew, her time, her thoughts, That she might do her duty to all those Who came within the walls of her domain. She did her duty well — was just, but kind; And all who knew her honoured her, and learned To love her as they grew to know her well. Her girls are scattered far and wide to day, But all learned from her, though all knew it not, That duty done gives strength to dare and do More than one ever dreamed that one could do — And then she left us. Ah ! but it was hard To give up all that she had loved so well — The very place seemed but a part of her. But her work here was done. She left, beloved By each and all who saw her day by day, And went back to her Scottish home again To minister to those who needed her. That work, too, now is done; and she has gone Home to her Father ' s house of joy and love. But all who knew her here will ever feel The influence of that calm and earnest life. February, 1932. Caroline L. Field. 113]

Page 17 text:

jHemonal erbice TO The Late Miss Grace Faiiiey, M.A. {Reproduced from the Montreal Gazette, February 24th, 1932) TRIBUTE from former colleagues and from many friends and erstwhile students was paid yesterday morning at the memorial service held in the Church Hall of St. Andrew and St. Paul for the late Miss Grace Fairley, M.A., former Principal of the Tralfalgar Institute, who died in Edinburgh on February first. The service was conducted by Rev. George H. Donald, D.D., minister of the church, and every seat in the hall was occupied. All the present-day pupils of Trafalgar were there, but these were outnumbered by those who had known Miss Fairley during her outstandingly successful regime of a quarter ot a century. Letters of tribute were read from Miss Martha Brown, who was on the teaching staff of Trafalgar for almost thirty years, and from a former student, Hon. Cairine Wilson of Ottawa. Both the former colleague and the former student united in declaring how deep was the loss sustained by Trafalgar when Miss Fairley resigned in 1913. Her great and unvarying modesty was remembered, as was the occasion on which money was collected for a Grace Fairley Scholar ' ship at McGill University, when Miss Fairley requested that the scholarship should be named after the school rather than herself. Miss Fairley s work in moulding the characters of thousands of girls who passed through her hands from 1887 to iqij was stressed, and her sweet influence and constant thought for others — of no matter what degree — was illustrated by her remembrance even during her last illness of an old pensioner of the serving staff to whom she sent a gift. Miss Fairley was a member of St. Paul ' s Presbyterian Church for twentyfive years and her religion was with her an active motivating force, testified Miss Brown, who spoke of the pleasure which former associates and students felt in seeing her when they went overseas and made a pil- grimage to Edinburgh to renew if only for a day their contact with Miss Fairley. Rev. Dr. Donald read part of a letter which Miss Fairley has written in April, 1918. It was a message fraught with beauty of words and thought, a message typical of her outlook: I do not personally know many of the girls who sit at the desks in the school-house now; but I still know some, and when I read the names of the newer-comers, I feel that I know, by reputation, something of them too. But my memory goes not only to the girls who were in school when I left it, but to the girls who have been there since I knew it, the long procession of Old Girls, who separated from the companionships and interests of schooldays to pass out to their own paths in life. It goes to the girls who, before the middle of their days, went west, as our soldier lads say; these are not many, thank God, for the young should live to work and to enjoy. It goes to the long-familiar place, to the garden, and the house, and the school-house, and the mountain lying behind, where, about the time that this letter reaches Montreal, the glorious sunshine of May will be bringing out the young leaves, and the annual resurrection of life which makes the eternal youth of the world. It goes to the busy routine of the Household, and to the endless side-issues of daily life, plays and fancy-dress dances, tennis on the lawn and sliding on the mountain, which in the retrospect seem to stand out much more than the actual school-work. That too I do not forget; and while I am quite well aware that there were many girls who did no more than