Haileyburia

These scans are from the Centenary Number of the Haileyburian, a copy of which was given to me by Humphrey Nye (Staff 61 - 94) when I visited him recently.

1962

Nowadays Haileybury is coeducational and among the teachers (as they are now known) there are as many Mistresses and Masters, and among the families there are as many husbands as wives, if you see what I mean.

1899

Haileyburia

An obituary of Alison Stephens (Aby & Ha 1986) has appeared in the Guardian. A friend who is not a Haileyburian asks whether this is the first obituary in a national newspaper of a female OH.

Haileyburia

Mrs Talbot at Speech day 1926

Some time in the 1920s the boys in the Lawrence House Room entered the flower box competition. They bought lots of good sees and planted up their box. But the flowers did not grow. There was some concern since there was a prize involved and they wanted to win. Their Housemaster investigated and their mistake was recorded in his Random Recollections which I have mentioned before. The problem was not so inattention but undue excitement: each day they dug the poor plants up to see how the roots were doing, with disastrous results for the health of the flowers. The prize was offered by the Master's wife, Mrs Talbot. She was described as 'the perfect Master's wife' and had her own flower border in the Master's Garden which was renowned for its beauty. Haileybury is still a place of many flowers.

Flowers in Quad 2010

Haileyburia

It is ten years since full co-education, and the first girls arrived as pupils in 1973. Women had a significant influence on Haileybury even when, as far as pupils were concerned, it was an all male institution. I shall try and post form time to time about some of these women. In my generation the history of the place and much of its ethos was caught by reading Molly Matthews' Haileybury Since Roman Times. Her daughter Imogen, also an historian of the school and a Housemaster's wife has kindly written what follows. 

Molly Matthews, who died two years ago, just one week short of her hundredth birthday, was an old style Housemaster's wife, who devoted her working life to Haileybury and made a considerable contribution to the school.  Edgar was already Housemaster of Batten when they married in 1932 and held that position until 1953.  Molly visited boys in the san (a frequent activity before the days of antibiotics and when epidemics often swept the school), watched them play games and entertained them to tea and supper. She had trained at R.A.D.A. and in those days, before girls had arrived at Haileybury, she played the female lead in a continual stream of school plays.  She also did the make-up for most school productions and created the Haileybury theatrical wardrobe, designing and making the historically correct period costumes, many of which still survive.  When Edgar retired he was asked to stay on for one year to run the fundraising for the Centenary Appeal.  Her contribution to this was to research and write 'Haileybury Since Roman Times', all the proceeds of which she gave to the Appeal.  She had taken her degree in History and English, specialising in Anglo-Saxon and her research for the Haileybury book led to her writing a series of learned books on surnames, place-names and the origins of our language, published in England, America and Japan. She loved Haileybury and Haileybury should be proud of her.