Reflections from Dr Miles

The Queen’s 70-year reign was the starting point for my first assembly of the year and it was also an opportunity to offer an insight into life at LHS in 1952. Our school archives, recently refreshed and reorganised by Ellie Leeson, proved to be a great source of inspiration and what became clear was that the pupils of the 1950s had all the energy, passion and zest for life that characterises a High School girl today. Among other gems, I discovered this beautiful poem written by a member of the sixth form on the day that King George VI died in February 1952 and it provided a moment of reflection at the end of my assembly.

FEBRUARY 6^th, 1952

Into the tranquil

Mid-week obscurity

Of Wednesday morning,

Crept Rumour, sad-eyed and pale;

At every step

Checked the incessant turn of the timetable

For a second of stinging dismay.

Around a radio

A group clustered quietly,

Not knowing quite what to say;

A generation that did not remember

The death of a monarch – for life

Was too novel and young.

With sonorous sorrow

London was speaking. The clock on the desk

Ticked more loudly. Somebody coughed

And straightened a red and white tie.

Outside in the grey air

Red, white and blue, half-masted, was drooping its head.

Silence at dinner, silence at twenty past two;

Strange, sorrowful silence governed the long afternoon.

                                                Pamela Srawley, Lower VI