The Day the King Died…..Life at LHS in 1952
By Dr Fiona Miles, LHS Head:
The first assembly of the new year is always an opportunity to look ahead to the exciting things to come. In January 2020 I spoke about the forthcoming Olympics, the VE Day commemorations, Euro 2020 and the Invictus Games, little knowing that all would be swept away within weeks by Covid-19. Two years on, as we emerge from the dark tunnel of the pandemic, there is a sense of cautious optimism about 2022 and one of the highlights will surely be the Platinum Jubilee celebrations this summer.
The Queen’s long reign provided a starting point for my assembly at the start of this term and I asked students to reflect upon the events that had shaped the world in the last seventy years. When the young Queen Elizabeth came to the throne, the Cold War was in its infancy and man had yet to go into space, let alone land on the moon, and it would be decades before the birth of the internet, the end of apartheid and the fall of the twin towers.
But what was the world like for students at Loughborough High School in 1952? I was keen to find out and went to our archives for inspiration. Over the last year, Ellie Leeson (Classes of 2018) has transformed our archives into a fascinating and meticulously organised resource and it was a genuine pleasure to look through photographs, correspondence and publications. Aerial photographs from 1952 showed a High School quad without Chesterton or the Charles building but with netball courts where there is now asphalt; one of the trees on the lawn was a mere sapling and, on closer inspection, there appears to be a vegetable plot outside the Head’s study.
The school magazines of the 1950s proved to be a particular source of wit, wisdom and insight: clubs and societies were as popular as ever and LHS pupils enjoyed debating, Geography Society and Science Club along with some more unusual interests including folk dancing, toy making and observing caterpillars. All four Houses were striving to win the Gumbrell Shield and the House Captains did not hold back if they felt that the younger pupils were shirking their duties. In the House reports of 1952, the Hastings House Captain notes the number of late and speaking marks, and writes: “If we are to win the Gumbrell Shield, we must strive to work harder and talk less.” Fine advice!
I was keen to know what happened to the pupils of the early 1950s when they left the High School and once again, the school magazine provided useful information. A significant number of leavers followed vocational or practical pathways: about a quarter went on to secretarial college and a similar proportion went into nursing. One leaver reports that there had been 17 engagements in her year group, which is exactly the number going into teaching: as she puts it, marriage is first equal with teaching as a career choice. University was a choice for several students each year and they went on to read Law, modern languages, History, English and social sciences, among others. Employment also beckoned for some and included working at the General Post Office, a hotel in Barcelona, the King’s Head Hotel in Loughborough and in banks or solicitors’ offices.
Although the pathways and opportunities for young women have changed over the last seventy years, what comes across is that the pupils of 1952 had all the energy, passion, and creativity, the commitment to fundraising and charity, the strong sense of community and the zest for life that characterises a High School girl today. I therefore wanted to finish my assembly by emphasising the connection between High School pupils past and present. Turning to our school hymn, I explained that it is our former pupils that we sing about in the fourth verse: they are our “elder comrades” and it is with them that we join together as one family to lift our hearts and voices to the heavens. It is a wonderful image and reminds us that not only do we belong here to LHS in 2022 but we are also part of an incredible heritage and network of brilliant women stretching back almost 175 years.
