The Madras College Archive
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The Madras College Archive |
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Anne Morris
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Miss Anne Morris Transcript [Any words in an italicised format means that stress has been placed onto the word.]
[Start of Recording] VW:, Anne, would you like to tell me, first of all, your earliest memories of growing up in St. Andrews? AM: Yes, well, I grew up down near the harbour, in fact, on the harbour, really! On the Kinnessburn… Balfour Place. And so, my earliest memories of pre-school years were that was my playground. It was a wonderful, natural playground, although I nearly drowned twice. I decided to step out of a rowing boat because my neighbour had actually gone in to get some biscuits and I thought I was drifting out into the middle of the burn so I actually stepped out of the boat into the water, and it was a chap who was in the yard opposite who managed to save me. A storm can whip up very quickly in St Andrews Bay. Opposite Balfour Place was a stables and we always knew when there was going to be a storm because the horses actually kicked against their wooden stalls! The noise was horrendous but, of course, we then knew [Chuckling] to shut all our windows. Isn’t it strange that animals know… VW: Hmm! It’s a really good warning, yes. They are so sensitive. AM: Yes, and the seagulls as well. That was another thing – the seagulls. Yes, so all these memories of the seagulls and the fish. I used to fish out of the kitchen window until my parents stopped that, and I remember once my father coming in and I was fishing, and he said, “Are you fishing?!” and I said, “No! No!” and I’d pulled the line in, and the actual hook got caught in my thumb, so it was awful, and my father had to, poor soul, take this hook out of my thumb!! [Laughing] But, oh no, it was great fun! I loved my parents dearly and they gave me a tremendous upbringing! I mean, my pre-school years were wonderful because my parents were both great readers and at night, we played lots of word games, so they gave me a great interest in learning and finding out things. We went on picnics, and we went on walks along the Kinkell Braes. Every Sunday, we went to visit my grandparents. Had Sunday lunch with them.! VW: Where did they live? AM: They lived on a farm outside St. Andrews called Kinkell Farm and it’s now, of course, the Castle Course. And so, [Laughing] and so it wasn’t far and we used to just go up there and it was lovely! And my grandfather, I loved dearly, so I really had very pleasant pre-school years. And, as I said, I was introduced to books quite early. So, I was very keen and they made it a joy to think about school! You know, they kept saying, “You’re going to love school!” My parents had decided that they would like me to go to the Madras Kindergarten because they just thought that was the place for me. And I loved it! VW: Were the local schools free education? AM: No. The Madras Kinder was fee-paying but not a large fee. And I think it would be subsidised, you know, by the educational authority, by Fife Council, in those days. VW: Hmm! VW: Do you remember your first day at school? AM: My first day – well, I remember being very excited and my father in those days had a bicycle with a little seat on the bar of his bike and I got to sit on that, and it was lovely because he had his arms around me. I can remember that. And he took me up. There wasn’t terribly much fuss. I mean, nowadays, I think, parents take their child, don’t they, to the first day and stand with them but I mean, it had been talked through so much. VW: Right. AM: In fact I think we had a couple of introductory visits before actually going on the first day, so it wasn’t, sort of, raw and worrying. I mean, I couldn’t wait!! [Laughs] And, of course, I already knew one or two of the children. Remember, St. Andrews was not a large place and it’s very easy to get around and the things like Sunday School, and also, sort of, activities on the beach. So, I had some friends before I even went to school. [Break in recording] VW: And so, what was the catchment area for Madras? So, when you went in to the Kinder, was it just local St. Andreans’ ? AM: As far as I recall, yes. Perhaps places like Kemback, Strathkinness, you know, that sort of immediate area but when we went to the secondary, we took in Tayport, Newport etc. but prior to that, no, so it was really very much of the town. AM: My recollections were all local people. Local children. And so, then that meant our school life and after school life was very much the same. We got to know them very, very well and I’m still friendly with many of them. You made lifelong friends really, which is lovely, even though we all went away and then maybe have come back. It was a very secure and safe childhood and quite a good, sort of basic approach to life, if you like, in that we were taught to be compassionate and, you know, fair-minded which I think is important. VW: Hmm. VW: Did you get two play sessions? One in the morning and one on the afternoon or just one in the morning? AM: No, I just recall the one in the morning and, of course, in those days, there was no way that the children left the school grounds. I mean, even when you got into the secondary, there was no way that you left the school grounds. I believe, I mean, you can see the children now, the pupils are used to be leaving school at breaktime and at lunchtime. VW: I was just going to ask you, what were the school hours? AM: Yes, well, we were nine till four but not in the primary. I think we were nine till three. And we had an hour for lunch. And of course, in those days, you went home for lunch. AM: My mother was a wonderful cook– not that I acquired her skills – but she was a very good cook. And, of course, mothers were at home. I mean, mothers didn’t work, you know and, in fact, any time I did go (if she was at the dentist or something and I went home and she wasn’t there), and, of course, doors were left open back then. Not left open but unlocked! That was another very strange thing that I don’t think anyone would have thought of, locking their door. You know, I mean, it’s, it’s very different, isn’t it? VW: Hmm. Everything has changed! And what about a uniform – did you wear a uniform? AM: Yes. Navy blue and white and a school badge. Pro rege et grege. And I’ve always said For King and Country, but I was corrected recently that it’s For King and People. And so, it was for King in those days, of course. It became Queen after. And then the badge to me, again, as a young child – I’ve always had a visual sense and the badge has always looked to me like a bloodhound. It’s like a [Chuckling] dog’s face and I can’t get that out of my head, you know! And people say, “Oh, that’s rubbish!!” And the uniform was very strict uniform. And we had, definitely, gymslips, you know, they’ve gone. Navy blue knickers, you know. White blouses. VW: Even your knickers had to be school uniform?!! AM: Yes!! Oh, yes, absolutely!! Absolutely! Incredible. Everything! Everything! I think our vests as well, probably! [Laughing] VW: All year round or did you have anything warmer in the winter? AM: In the winter you had an overcoat and a raincoat, and in the summer – but you wore your blazer in the summer. Definitely. And then of course, moving to the secondary school, Irene Bennett (you know, my friend Irene?), she was Head Girl and also a Prefect and they had white binding, white cotton trims round their blazers. And their badges, you know, their Prefect badges. VW: Talking about Irene, you obviously had friends at school, does anybody come to mind in particular? AM: Yes, well, particular friends were Alison Thompson and then, in the primary school, I was very friendly with Dorothy Murray and with, who else now did I like? Margaret McLees very muc,h and then Irene came to the primary school and then quite a lot of the boys. We had a sort of, mixed gang and we played after school, at weekends and things like that. Went away along the Kinkell Braes, played down on the beach and on the rocks. At that time, you could walk, between the pier and the castle, you know, on the rocks. You know there are a couple of caves along there? And we used to go out the pier and go out in rowing boats. So, we had a very active primary, active life! Both at school and… VW: Hmm, outside school. AM: Yes because of course there was no television. So we would read a lot. When you were playing outside, you know, you would imagine things. And it was just wonderful. So, there were these mixed groups of children who would go away along the Kinkell Braes, take maybe a wee lunch with you. And then, later on, perhaps cycle up to Boarhills or… VW: So, were you just free to go anywhere and do anything? AM: Absolutely. We were warned not to speak to strangers [Chuckles] and we were warned about all these kind of things and we stuck to that but we very seldom met any strangers [Chuckling] and so that, really, I would say we had a particularly safe and happy childhood whereas now, I think, it must be quite an anxiety for both parents and children to try to move around freely. I mean, we would go out at the weekends early in the morning and not come back until late afternoon. Seeing that there were no mobile phones or anything like that. VW: Ah ha. So, returning to the actual school classroom and the education, what kind of things do you remember learning there and what teachers, subjects did you have? AM: Well, in some ways it was quite a formal education but in other ways it was, it was quite structured. You knew that you were going to do English at some time, you were going to do Mathematics at some time, you were going to do Geography, you were going to do Nature Study, you know all of these things ran together and you had a timetable that you stuck to. But then the brighter ones, or the ones who were learning more quickly, often had time to read at the end of a particular lesson. And so, within your desk – we had desks with lids – you would perhaps have a book that you wanted to carry on reading, and it could be something educational, but you know, you would do that. Of course, the streams who were taking maybe a longer time to do something, were given that time. And so, there was a sort of, flexibility by the teacher because she was having to teach a group of, say, …seventeen, maybe? Of course, smaller classes in the Kinder. VW: Ah, right. AM: And what else? Oh, yes! One thing now I loved was that we did Art. And we had Music and we had people coming in for that. VW: OK. AM: So, you would have an Art specialist coming in, you would have a Music specialist coming in, you would have a Drama specialist…so, there was PE. There was a lot of PE, and I think that’s very good for young children, you know, between times when they are learning. And I introduced that to the class I had when I was a young teacher. You know, I taught at Donaldson’s and I had a very young class and I used to get them to run round the maypole [Laughing] ever so often! VW: OK! And then we had to buy, of course, with it being a fee-paying primary, all your books etc had to be bought by your parents and so, all the jotters and all this kind of thing. VW: And where were they bought from? AM: From Henderson’s in town. That was the only bookshop in town really and, by the way, our uniforms were bought from Cairds. That’s another thing that, of course, has changed so much – the town was full of individual shops. I mean, there were so many grocers, there were so many butchers, there were so many fishmongers – all of that sort of thing! So, the retailers were there and quite different! Not so many cafes!! [Laughs] VW: But a bun van arrived every morning at school? Tell me about that again! AM: Yes, well, MacArthurs, the baker, they sent a bun van. And Audrey Macarthur, who is now Audrey More and still a member of our FP Girls’ Club, (she was married to Magnus More, who was a Director of Education), so she’s come back to town, and it was her family who had the bakery. So, when she was still a student [Chuckles], she had to drive the van along and it drew up on the grass in front of the school. You know, drove into the school grounds and people queued up, pupils queued up to buy a bun. This was during the morning break. Well, the queues were so big that [Chuckling] sometimes you never got your bun!!! VW: And was this for all pupils or just secondary? AM: I can’t remember ever getting a bun when I was in the primary. I think this was the secondary. Although the secondary pupils, you see, didn’t really go out into the grounds apart from to the bun van because the secondary pupils walked round the Quad. So, the boys walked one way, they walked in a clockwise direction and the girls walked in an anti-clockwise direction. It was a very strange habit. VW: And, what, you just did that for your whole break? AM: Yep! VW: Walked round and round and round? AM: Yes, round and round and chatted away and eyed up whoever you thought was…[Laughing] a handsome young man! Yes, it was a very strange custom, wasn’t it?! VW: So, was there a school tuckshop or was this after school that you got your sweets? AM: Robertsons was a wonderful shop, and it was a bit nearer the school. And it was just a tiny, little, a tiny, little shop and you went down steps to it, I think, and there was this strange, old lady in it, and she had sherbet in a drawer! And she would give you sherbet in a sort of a funnel and then you would pour it onto your palm. [Chuckling] if I did get sherbet when I shouldn’t have, it stained your hand [Laughing] so badly!! VW: What colour?! AM: Sort of orangey-yellow! VW: Telltale sign!! AM: So, can you imagine what it was doing to your insides, you know?!! VW: Hmm! AM: So, the school curriculum in the primary was quite structured but had a certain freedom about it, you know, flexibility about it and we certainly had a lot of artistic pursuits so that was good. There was a very structured, a very lovely school magazine that was produced every year and lots of photographs and things like that, so I’ve got all of the ones from the primary and secondary. And I was looking at the prize winners, class prizes etc, and I see on two occasions, one I got the sewing prize and another one, I got the art prize and another one I was first equal, so it was interesting just to look back and see all the things! First equal with James Cumming! So, [Chuckling] that was interesting! And he’s another friend, another dear friend, because he and I used to cycle up to school together, and Hamish Burns. So, all of these people I know, and I still know Hamish very, very well. VW: Just going into the secondary school, how did things change there? AM: You were given a timetable. You know, suddenly you had this timetable and you moved from classroom to classroom whereas in primary, you didn’t. Now, in our first year, the new build had not taken place. It was in our second year that we moved into the extended Madras. You know, where there was the building at the back. So, when we moved in in S1, we were still within the Quad and so we had science labs there, there was Geography, and oh, we got Religious Instruction as well, you know, a school chaplain came in about once a week, so he came in. And then there was Music. There was a music room. But quite rigid timetables because, of course, we were moving around. Now, there was streaming in those days. So, you had the A stream, which was those who would be taking languages and it was foreseen that they would go on to further education. There was the B stream, which was more technical, and in those days also, there were technical colleges. Of course a lot of these technical colleges have now become part of the universities. And then there was C stream. And they were people who were perhaps going to go away to do an apprenticeship. They actually left school earlier. They would leave in their third year. VW: How old would they be then? AM: They would be fifteen. And, of course, there was the qualifying exam, which meant that even to get into the secondary school, you had to pass this qualifying, which we took at eleven. VW: So, if you passed the qualifying to get into the secondary school, but then you could still be not bright enough to be on the C stream? AM: You could still be streamed, yes. That’s right. And then there was still the Burgh secondary school. So, some children just remained at the Burgh. They would go from the West Infants to the East Infants and then on to the Burgh and then, those who had passed the qualifying exam would be moved up to Madras. But some children, who had been in the Kinder and failed the qualifying, were sent to the Burgh!! VW: Quite a demotion! AM: It was absolutely dreadful! You know that you shouldn’t be judging children at eleven when the learning stages are quite different. And I can remember a particular boy who was sent, demoted, demoted to the Burgh and he was there for about two years, and they realised they had made a terrible gaff because he really was a very bright boy and he was sent back up to Madras in his third year. And he went on to do a PhD. Of course there is the other side of the coin in that I think children who would benefit enormously, and enjoy enormously, a technical education, are being denied that and I think that’s wrong. I think the technical, the lesser scientific etc., you know, that side, is no longer being catered for. And I think that is bad. Because we are not meeting the needs of every pupil at all. VW: So, what about as you got further on in the school, examinations, what did you do then? AM: The Lowers you did in fourth year and the Highers you did in fifth year. And then, if you wanted to add on, you could do some in sixth year. And then, the results, the results were read out in the assembly hall! [Laughing] Now that was frightful!! You know, I mean, everybody…and the assembly hall in those days was above the Quad, it is a library now or something? But anyway, we had to stand up there and our results were read out! And, I mean, some people got really quite…upset! But the qualifying actually, when I think about it now, quite a lot of pressure was put on a lot of children by their parents who thought, ‘Well, if they are not going to get into Madras, you know, what else if going to happen?’ AM: And then, of course, at Madras we had lots of extra-curricular – the debating society, drama society, all of these things were outwith school hours, but they provided some kind of concert or whatever at the end of it. But they were also good fun! And I liked the debating society particularly and so all of these things were great!! VW: Hmm. AM: There were also things like the Guides, I loved Guides because we could go away to Guide camps and that sort of thing. And it was lovely. And then I used to enjoy, out of school activities, I used to go with my parents on holiday up to my great-grandmother’s where my mother had been born, up north of Beauly. And it was absolutely lovely!! We had great holidays up there! VW: That’s Beauly, up on the Black Isle? AM: Yes. And so then, every Christmas, my great-grandmother used to send down a basket, you know, a hamper, with chickens in it. VW: Ah ha. AM: You would have duck, by the way. You would have venison. You would have all this, but chicken was seen to be some kind of…treat! [Laughing] Isn’t it funny?! VW: Oh, my goodness!! Coming back to school. What was discipline like? Well it was quite a different…but then, you see, I don’t know that there is anything particularly disturbing about having a certain degree of discipline in the classroom. VW: No! Not at all! AM: I think that it helps to give an atmosphere of learning. I mean, people can then sit quietly and learn. And it also gives you, I’ve always maintained that children like boundaries because, if nothing else, it is sometimes nice to go over those boundaries, you know, but at least you’ve got these boundaries, you know? Then it makes a sense of learning and, after all, why were we at school? To learn! I mean it’s preparing you for your adult life. VW: Ah ha. AM: And again, the adult life has to have some kind of discipline in it, so that I feel schools have a great responsibility. And I think, unfortunately, that responsibility has been taken away from them and so, society’s ills now are dependent on I don’t know what. But it’s very, very difficult because there are nowadays, adults within the education system who have absolutely no way of setting boundaries. VW: Hmm. And in what way did you think your schooling and Madras in particular prepared you for adult life? AM: Well, I think, again, because it did actually encourage us to think, to think for ourselves. You know, you had the debating society etc, so they did expect you to manage the information that you were being given and they would question you on that. There was quite a lot of recalling of what they had taught you. I mean, that was good. You knew, at the end of whatever, when you were sitting listening, then there would be a time to discuss that and have discourse and between pupils and teachers. VW: Ah ha. I don’t think that went on in every school. But I think it came from the ethos of the staff. I mean, presumably, the Rector etc, during their staff meetings, they must have had quite a lot of, training themselves, you know, sort of staff development meetings etc. And, certainly, the one that came through at Madras was that there was an ethos of encouraging learning and pupils participating in their learning, which, I think, is important. VW: Hmm. AM: know, I think there was a sort of, screening for the teachers who went to Madras, if I was being absolutely honest, you know! I mean, we, sort of, had the best of the best, kind of thing!! VW: And do you think nowadays, looking back and talking to your friends who went to Madras, that most of you do remember it fondly? That Madras was important in your life later on? AM: If you combine the town, living in the town and all the activities out of the town, with the quality of education we got, if you combine that with the very happy childhood, well, I mean, it’s drawn me and many of my schoolmates back. And so, that poem by Andrew Lang suddenly has real meaning, you know?!
Madras College Oral History Interview continued by Ted Brocklebank (TB) and recorded and transcribed by Miss Veronica Whymant (VW) TB: So, Anne, moving, moving on then, because sadly, school days don’t last forever, where did you go to college? AM: I went to college in Edinburgh. I went to Moray House but strangely enough, I studied art at school. I was looking at some old school magazines recently, and I see that in the primary I was awarded the prize for art, I mean, I hadn’t really thought about it at all and then, when we came into secondary, I thought, ‘you know, I would quite like to go to Art College’ but Magnus Dawson, our art teacher, told me that I really didn’t have enough talent and that I would just end up teaching and I wouldn’t like it. He was very off-putting! TB: Ah! Oh. AM: I remember we all went to camp school at Abington in the Scottish borders at easter time. One of the courses was Art. So, anyway, this tutor said to me, “Are you thinking of going to Art College?” And I said, “No, I would have liked to go, but I can’t go because my art teacher said I’d be wasting my time and I’ve already got a place in the Training College.” And he said, “WellI think you should apply!” And I said, “Oh, but I won’t get in!” He said, “You’ll get in all right I’m the Principal!” [Both laugh] It was William Gillies! I often wonder what would have happened if I had actually chosen to even send in an application. In many ways, I would have loved it, you know! But then I enjoyed teaching!, I decided that I was going for more qualifications. I did the Froebel, which is the Infant Mistress and Nursery Endorsement and that’s a sort of different type of educational provision, you know, for young children. So, I enjoyed that very much. And then, I started teaching. I did a year at Parson’s Green and met the celebrated Scottish poet Norman McCaig. He was teaching there at the time. We used to have great chats. My mother contacted me around that time and said, “Look, I’ve just seen an application for teachers interested in teaching deaf children at Donaldson’s School for the Deaf.” And so, I applied there, and they said, “what we do is you are with us for about a year and if you take to it, then we send you for the additional qualification”, which, at that time, you got from Manchester University. Well, I took to it like a duck to water! In those days, deaf children were taught orally. They weren’t allowed to sign. Not allowed to sign! And I used to use my hands quite a bit and so I was told I had to sit on my hands. I wasn’t to do this. But I I enjoyed my time at Donaldson’s! I really did! And then I went to Manchester University and did the training there and again, still, the oral system. TB: How did you teach deaf children… AM: Without signing?! TB: …orally without hand signals… AM: That’s exactly right!! And I, I spent the next part of my career going down to the Scottish Office, fighting on behalf of them and I was so pleased that just recently, the first deaf Professor of deaf education has been appointed! So, I went to Manchester and enjoyed my time in Donaldson’s and then I think they offered me the head of the infant department there but by that time, I wanted to find out a bit more about the fact that children were not allowed to use sign language and this job came up at Oxford University as a Research Assistant to Professor Conrad. He was going to be doing a four-year study looking at the linguistic achievements of profoundly deaf children. In other words, deaf children who didn’t sign. It wasn’t that they couldn’t sign, they weren’t allowed to sign! And so, it was deaf children without speech. I hate the term that was used but anyway I got that post. Loved it. And we travelled all over England and Wales, testing. We had a raft of tests for profoundly deaf children all aged sixteen, to see what they had achieved in their schooling. And, of course, it was appalling. This was under the oral system. And their reading age was under level because they couldn’t get beyond it because their language was so…stultified! Professor Conrad wrote a book called The Deaf Schoolchild and because of that local authorities started to offer education by signing. And so, I took that up to Aberdeen and it was very fortunate. Now, I’m not saying that they weren’t signing already, I mean, the children were signing at home or, especially if they had deaf families. But the other ones weren’t and, of course, it increased their knowledge enormously and they went on then to do Highers. It was interesting doing the study in England and Wales because immediately you walked into school, you knew exactly what was happening. You knew the kind of standard that was going to be there. And the best school of all was somewhere called Boston Spa, which was run by nuns, and they just gave the deaf children everything, you know, round the clock! 24/7! And the the achievements of these children was tremendous! I became the headteacher of Aberdeen School for the Deaf. And then I applied for the job as head of the service for profoundly deaf children and then that became the service for children and young people with sensory impairments, which I did not like. And that included blind children and partially sighted children. It was a big service already and this was post the fact when they were closing all the special schools, and they were bringing children into mainstream education. Which, I have to say, I was never terribly happy about because you cannot really have signing within one classroom with only one person signing. You know, you’ve got to have the whole, sort of, atmosphere of it. And, of course, it was Mary Warnock who had decided that this inclusion, this inclusiveness, you know, was going to take place. Now, that’s all very well if the local authorities and the education department were going to throw money at it, because you need an enormous amount of money to train staff and to keep the standards up. At Fife Council one of the assistant directors for special needs was having a major operation and I got her post for a while. I liked that very much! It let me see other aspects, you know, like education at home and all this kind of thing. TB: Was it at this time you were rewarded for your work with the deaf? VW: Was this the OBE? AM: OBE, yes. And, so, and the person being awarded before me said: “There’s so many rude things said about this award!” and I said, “Oh, yes, I’ve heard them all!” and she said, “I’m taking it On Behalf of Everybody!!” I said, “Oh, that’s fine!” [Both laugh] I said, “I’ll remember that one!!”, you know [Laughing] and so…but anyhow, when I had to step forward, the Queen said, “Oh, children and young people with sensory impairment?” She said, “Is that deaf and blind?” And I said, “Yes.” And she said, “Well, why don’t they just say that?!” And I said, “I think the deaf and the blind might agree with you!” I felt so strongly about the fact that children, deaf children should be allowed to sign and that there should be teachers, deaf teachers of deaf children, and I fought long and hard about that. I also wrote quite a lot of articles and introduced teaching materials and stuff for mainstream schools so that they would realise that there has to be a different approach for children who are signing, it’s not totally different but you have to, you have to be aware that they are acquiring their language in a totally different way. But it’s coming to the same language at the end! [Chuckling] Do you know that, at one time, when I started with the signing, there were only three interpreters! Three!! In the east coast of Scotland. Three!!! So, how were they going to get from Aberdeen down to Edinburgh if there was a court case or something like that?! That was terrible!! I mean, it was absolutely appalling!! And then they had to apply for money because of course the interpreter had to be paid and, it was a dreadful system!! Dreadful system! But it’s all sorted out, I think. Well, it certainly got sorted compared to how it was. TB: When you came back to St. Andrews, obviously you, you’d had a very busy life and very busy career, but you threw yourself into all kinds of organisations when you came back here, didn’t you? AM: Yes, oh yes! Well, I like to be busy! I like to be. It’s more than just keeping busy, it’s keeping interested, you know. I’ve always been interested in things and, of course, I’ve always been passionate about the town! So, joining the Preservation Trust was just…well! That had to be done. I just loved it! I just find the town wonderful. The history of the town is wonderful. My father and I were walking past the square tower one day and he said, “Put your hand on there! On that stone.” And I put my hand on the stone, and he said, “Now, let’s just imagine who’s put their hand there before you.” He said, “Mary Queen of Scots?!” You know, and all this kind of thing! And he went through a whole lot of past people, and I thought, ‘That’s wonderful!’ So, he had lots of little anecdotes so I think he engendered a great interest in the town for me! My mother was from Glasgow. Although she loved StAndrews, she said she always felt that she wasn’t really taken in as a resident, she was always an incomer. TB: What other organisations did you enjoy? I was a Soroptimist for a while. I liked that. And then I was still doing work for the Scottish Education Department. I was doing some assessing, you know, the provision within Scotland in other authorities and I was also an External Examiner. I did that for quite some time, so that kept me busy as well. And then, the FP [Former Pupils] Girls, of course, that was great fun. In fact, we had a committee meeting yesterday and we may have to wind down because we just cannot get people coming forward for the committee. I think it’s maybe now a bit too formal. TB: Did you enjoy sport? I was never sporty! Sportif! I did throw the discus and I think I was first in that in the scores. But that was because there were very few people throwing a discus!! [Both laugh] And I also enjoyed putting. Putting! Now, I’m a very good putter! I have to say that, yes! Because we had a little putting green opposite Balfour Place and my father had set up a putting club with Barbara Scott. And he and Barbara set up this East Bents Putting Club and they had a trophy and so they had clock golf and they had the ordinary putting and so I putted a lot. I was a good putter. Although, I never joined the Himalayas, or whatever they’re called – the StAndrews Ladies’ Putting! But I would go to various competitions, and it was great. Swimming, no. We used to swim – this idea of people now saying, talking about wild swimming! That amuses me!! I mean, we used to call it just swimming!! You know, but…wild swimming! So I kept that up for a while but since this arthritis has bitten me I’ve had to give up my car. I miss it terribly. The car gives you a lot of freedom, doesn’t it, really!! TB: Any final words? AM: One thing I was going to say was, you know the artist Jurek Putter? TB: Yes. AM: I once heard him on the radio and he was talking about how if you stood looking towards the cathedral in the mist, and somebody came back from, say, the fourteenth century, they would know exactly where they were, you know. Very little has changed. And that’s right isn’t it? The silhouette’s exactly the same! (Chuckles) TB: Thanks very much, Anne. VW: OK. I’ll just say that was Anne Morris with Ted Brocklebank and Veronica Whymant on Thursday, 1st February 2024 in Anne Morris’ house, StAndrews.
(End of Recording)
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