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The
Madras College Magazine
for October 1955
reports:
Miss Mary S. Sanderson, M.A.
In these very early days of a new school session we in Madras College
are called upon to bid farewell not only to our Headmaster but also to
the lady who has been Principal Teacher of Modern Languages since 1923
and Lady Superintendent for a period of twenty-eight years, for Miss
Mary Somerville Sanderson is now to lay aside the black gown she has
worn so admirably and to enjoy the leisure she so deserves.
Born in the Scottish Capital, Miss Sanderson graduated
at the University there with First Class Honours in Modern Languages,
and came to Madras College by way of Peterhead, Ayr and London. Though
she proposes to spend her retirement in Edinburgh, she confesses that
her heart will always be with us in our ancient city.
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Among the several distinctions that were hers in her
earlier years Miss Sanderson has always valued most the Travelling
Scholarship awarded to her by the Franco Scottish Society. Her visit to
France that year, followed thereafter by regular visits interrupted only
by the war years, immeasurably enriched her life and experience. Friends
she made then are still numbered among her dearest friends, and many
Madras pupils and other have profited from the contacts she has been
able to provide. For because of her own love of France and things
French, Miss Sanderson has always striven to inspire her pupils with a
like admiration, and not being a product of the present day when venture
abroad is undertaken by crowds massed in buses, who return knowing only
the highways, she has encouraged and helped her pupils to walk forth
alone, living and learning in the homes of France. Her interest in her
German pupils has been equally active and alive, and many have enjoyed a
profitable sojourn in Germany thanks to her advice and guidance. All
through the years she has kept herself in the closest contact with
French and German people and the changing scene in France and Germany.
By her colleagues Miss Sanderson will ever be remembered
for her extreme sense of duty. Never when in her heart was heard its
timely mandate did she defer the task imposed. Never has she allowed
herself to lose sight of her high ideals; never has she forgotten the
dignity of her chosen profession, and not only to her own department but
to the School she has given her heart and soul and mind and strength.
All new members of the Staff will recall her immediate friendliness and
hospitality; all "assistants" and students from Germany her generosity
in her eagerness to welcome them and to introduce them to Scotland ; all
her pupils, her personal interest in them, and those who scaled the
heights her accuracy, her preciseness and her scholarship.
Throughout her long career Miss Sanderson, though slight
of build, has enjoyed and rejoiced in excellent health, and now as she
leaves us, her eye undimmed and her natural force not abated, we would
say with the poet Dunbar:
"God give thee good prosperity,
Fair fortune and felicity ;
Evermore on earth while thou art here,
These gifts be thine from year to year."
The
Madras College Magazine
for 1966
reports:
On Sunday, 8th May, Miss Mary S. Sanderson died in
Edinburgh, where she lived with her sister. For thirty-two years she was
Principal Teacher of Modern Languages in Madras College, and was also
Lady Superintendent. She served under two Rectors, starting in 1923 at
the same time as Mr. J.D. McPetrie, and retiring in 1955, in the same
year as Mr. Norman McLeod.
After graduating M.A. with first class Honours in Edinburgh, Miss
Sanderson held posts in Peterhead, Ayr, and Fulham, London, before
coming to St. Andrews. Ever meticulous in her own scholarship, she
impressed all her pupils in both French and German with the very high
standards she set. But her colleagues knew, if her pupils did not, that
it was the French she loved so much. "France", she confided in us, after
our schooldays were over, "is my spiritual home!" She loved France and
constantly revisited it. Her earliest friends there lived in the
Bordeaux area and in the Franche Comte, but what part of France did she
not know?
I, who knew her, both as pupil and later as colleague, once consulted
her as to which French University she would recommend for a Summer
Course. How often she must have been asked this! Yet this was a real
problem to her, since she knew so many. In this case she chose Besançon
and then proceeded to make arrangements, through her French friends, for
hospitality and introductions in that lovely city, so that her old pupil
would have a really memorable stay. How many could tell the same story.
And she was as ready to do as much for French friends coming to
Scotland. French assistants who came to Madras College were charmed by
her generosity and constant hospitality, and all seemed to cherish her
friendship ever afterwards; they all seemed to keep in touch with her.
She was a member of the French Institute and for years, she attracted
friends and pupils to meetings and dramatic performances of the Société
Francaise in St. Andrews. Within Madras College she was a founder member
of the Centenary Committee and for long was a member of the Games
Committee. After her retiral, she presented, every year, a generous
prize to the Dux in French in the College.
Miss Sanderson will be remembered for her great love of the French
Classics, yet, to the end, she read widely in modern French writers as
well. She will be remembered as a devoted teacher, yet it may be that it
was her moral integrity, her fairness and impartiality and her devoted
sense of duty that has left the most abiding impression upon all who
knew her, and learned to love and appreciate all she stood for.
Charles R. Anderson.
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