The Old Greys' Association
Serving all past and present pupils and staff of The Grey Coat Hospital, WestminsterSCHOOL ARCHIVES
The Grey Coat Hospital has a fantastic set of archives. These are on permanent loan to Westminster City Archives in St. Anne’s St. For more information please contact The Foundation Office on 020 7828 3055.
AVERIL DAVIES
Averil Davies will be remembered affectionately by all who knew her for her long and valuable contribution to the life of GCH, first as Head of History and then as Deputy Head.
A natural teacher, Averil combined scholarship with an ability to motivate pupils at all levels. Although a childhood bout of Poliomyelitis left her with a withered arm, this handicap was never obvious to those around her.
Under her leadership the History Department achieved excellent results that made the subject one of the school’s most popular exam choices. For first years, Averil introduced ILEA’s ‘World History’ course covering Africa, India and China. The sharing of family artefacts, stories and experiences by pupils of different nationalities encouraged integration; many later recalled these lessons as the most enjoyable of their school career. Averil’s specialist A Level course, ‘The Tudor Renaissance’ reflected her learning and life-long interest in art, philosophy and architecture.
Following the union with St Michael’s in 1977, Averil slipped easily into the role of Deputy Head. Pupils of all ages came to know and respect her calm approach and preference for reason and logic over a raised voice or threats to enforce discipline. Unobtrusively efficient, she was an unfailing source of advice and encouragement to colleagues and pupils alike.
After retirement in 1985 she continued to lead a full life, following an eclectic range of courses and reading widely. When her health began to fail as the polio returned she never complained, and remained an indefatigable letter writer. She will be greatly missed by all her former colleagues, family and friends.
The Old Greys’ Association was founded in 1899 – and it’s still going strong!
Its aims are:
· To provide fellowship and friendship to its members
· To support the school.
The world-wide membership of circa 600 former pupils and staff communicate by e-mails and blogs these days but we find nothing quite beats getting together with old friends and making new ones at our annual Summer Meeting, at occasional year group reunions and other events or just in normal social ways.
It’s interesting to find that we all have in common a certain feistiness, a sense of identity and a strong code of ethics, which we attribute to GCH. And there’s a fascinating array of careers and life stories amongst our members, younger and older. One of the oldest became a rock star at 99!
If you join the OGA, you’ll receive our magazine, styled The OGA Newsletter, in the spring and another mailing in late summer. The magazine contains booking details for the Summer Meeting in June and the second mailing papers for the Annual General Meeting in October. The Newsletter Editor is always interested in scintillating news of OG activities, gossip, historical items about GCH and anything else relevant.
The 2011 AGM will be from 11.00 a.m. to 1.00 p.m. on Saturday 15th October at the St Andrews building, Greycoat Place, and will include light refreshments.
The 2012 Summer Meeting will be on Saturday, June 23rd with timing likely to be from 12.00 noon to 5.00 p.m.
A booking form will be sent to you in due course by post.
Besides having fun meeting our GCH friends at school or elsewhere, we also help the school by endowing prizes, sponsoring individual pupils for special activities, taking part in school fixtures such as the Spring 2009 Academic Tutorial Day with Year 7 pupils, planting memorial trees and a host of other things. One rather spectacular gift to the school, to mark our 100th Birthday in 1999, was the large tapestry near the angel in the St Michael’s building, Regency Street. It was designed by a member and made by other members all over the country – quite a feat! The design is full of GCH symbolism.
Our endowed prizes are The Edith Hudson Prize for Geography, The Dorothy Waring Prize for Music, The Old Greys’ Centenary Prize for Design & Technology, The Ethel Cox Prize for Business with English and The Elizabeth Rusbridge Prize for English.
We love having new members, especially younger ones. Do join us! Please click here to download the Old Greys' Association membership form.
Contacts – e-mail Mrs Tina Janering, Hon Secretary, at tina.janering@btopenworld.com or write to her at 7 Harford Walk, East Finchley, London N2 0JB or e-mail Mrs Patricia Powell, Committee member, at powell.pa@btopenworld.com or call 01753 852754.
NB - photo above dates from June 1919.
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