Advertiser and Register (Adelaide, SA : 1931), Wednesday 17 June 1931, page 14


GREAT EDUCATIONIST

Miss Rees George and the Advanced School for Girls

In the days when water color paint-ing, poker work and the use of the globes were considered in many quar-ters the essential parts of feminine edu-cation, a vastly interesting experiment was made in Adelaide in the form of the Advanced School for Girls. Miss

M. Rees George, whose death will be lamented by many hundreds of former pupils, bore in that enterprise a dis-tinguished part. During her time as headmistress, she trained most of the women who after-wards became leaders of their professions in South Australia. For the first time girls were educated as thoroughly as boys.

Miss M. Rees George Great Beginnings As an experiment, the Advanced School was part of that larger move-ment for the effective education of women which was just beginning to stir the older world. The churches had taken the lead by establishing boys' colleges, but for girls there was nothing but the small and often inefficient pri-vate school. The school opened with a Govern-ment grant of £1,200. It was supposed to pay its way, and the fees charged were equal to those of the other girls' schools, about three guineas a term, but there were half a dozen bursaries. The first name on the roll book, which is still in existence, was May Buchanan. Third Headmistress

Mrs. Stains, who afterwards became Mrs. S. Doudy, and published a success-ful novel, "The Magic of Dawn," was the first head mistress. Then came Mrs. S. Hubbe. Miss Rees George, who entered the school as German mistress, was the third headmistress. Well-known Pupils The girls who passed through Miss George's very capable hands have since made their mark on the world. Among those educated at the Advanced School were Dr. Violet Plummer, Dr. Phoebe Chapple, Dr. Helen Mayo, Dr. Rica Hubbe, Dr. Weld, Dr. Cooper (Mrs. Newberry), Miss Vera Ellis (formerly head mistress of Highclere), Miss Mabel J. Baker (head mistress of Walford House), Miss Bessie Davidson, an artist with a European reputation, Miss C. Sells, Miss Maude Puddy, Miss Florence Cooke, and Miss Katherine Cooke. Agnes Storrie, the well-known poet, was another pupil, and so was Mrs. Hinde, the gifted head mistress of Riverside School. Edith Dornwell (Mrs. Raymond) was the first woman to take a science degree at the Adelaide Uni-versity. Ada Lambert, afterwards Mrs. Buckett, of Melbourne, was a brilliant student. She carried on the work of

Professor Sir Baldwin Spencer while he conducted his researches among the aborigines of Central Australia. Miss Dorothea Proud, winner of the first Catherine Helen Spence scholarship, trained at the Advanced School, and so did Dr. E. Allen, now a well-known psychologist. Other successful school mistresses trained there were Miss Ellen Thornber, Miss Caroline Jacob, and Mrs. S. Hubbe.