Before the summer holidays in 2015 I was contacted in my role as school librarian by David Skidmore, who was doing some research on his family tree. In particular, he was attempting to find some information about his first cousin once removed, Harriet May Skidmore Robinson, whom he knew had been a teacher at WGHS for some time in the 1920s, before relocating to South Africa.

Cue a trip into the school archives!

I was able to find Harriet’s record in the first volume of the Staff Register, and from there we discovered that she taught at the school from April 1919 until June 1924.

Once the staff record had provided us with some dates, I was then able to find several photographs of Harriet which were copied and sent to David. David had already completed extensive research on Harriet, and had decided to write an essay on her life, comprising a timeline and various primary sources detailing her career within the UK and in South Africa. It makes for very interesting reading and, although Harriet was at WGHS for a relatively short time in her career, the materials which were available in our archives helped David to fill in some of the blanks concerning Harriet’s life before her move overseas.

He already had a copy of her reference from WGHS, which was written by Miss De Zouche on December 23rd, 1923:

‘I have known Miss H. M. S. Robinson as one of the staff of this school since September 1921, and I have pleasure in stating that her work has appeared to me to be very good indeed……Her own teaching is clear and effective, and her class management excellent; and both as form mistress and as teacher she has shown that she appreciates the individual powers and requirements of her pupils’….’Miss Robinson takes her full share in the school’s social activities also. She has always shown herself readily adaptable to emergencies and is both broad-minded and independent in judgment; possessing also a sense of humour which will find an easy solution for many problems. I think that she is admirably qualified for the Headship for which she is making an application.

D.E. DE ZOUCHE, M. A., Oxon, Headmistress of Wolverhampton High School for Girls’

Along with her staff record, the archives also contain a botany workbook belonging to a member of ‘Upper V2’. The workbook contains some lovely drawings which we believe have been marked by Harriet herself. Indeed, she was employed as Head of Botany at this time, and David confirmed that the writing is very similar to other examples he has in his possession:

Harriet left WGHS in 1924 and sailed to South Africa, where she had already secured a post as Headmistress, Ladies College, Durban. According to the various sources used by David, Harriet was a strong and inspirational Headmistress with a good sense of humour, though she weathered some adversity during her tenure in Durban due to a case involving a girl with a hearing disability.

Harriet later worked as Headmistress at Herschel Girls’ School in Cape Town, then returned to England from 1945-50.

She then spent seven years in Natal and returned to the UK in around 1959.

Harriet died in hospital in Kidderminster in 1962.

It was a real pleasure helping David to fill in some of the gaps of his extensive research, and the result is his 59 page essay ‘Harriet May Skidmore Robinson’. The essay is as yet unpublished but David has been kind enough to donate a copy to the school archives. School