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Grace Varndell

Former Headteacher of Macaulay School, Grace Varndell, passed away in Eastbourne hospital on 6^th December 2006. Grace reached a staggering 97 years of age after having retired to Eastbourne in 1974.

 

If Grace was your headteacher and you would like to write a short tribute to her, please email it to headteacher@macaulay.lambeth.sch.uk 

and we will post it on the school website.

 

 

 

from:  Hilary Le Clanche (née Lancaster)

 

I left Macaulay in 1968 and have many happy memories of my time at the school - puppet shows, savings books, violin, recorder and handbell lessons, putting on plays in the corridor in the Macaulay Road "Big" school, making elderflower wine!..........  With Miss Varndell as Headmistress, I remember Macaulay as a wonderful school where I enjoyed (nearly) every day!  We kept in touch for many years via Christmas cards and I shall certainly miss receiving them. 

 

Thank you again Miss Varndell.

 

 

 

from:  Mark Ronan

 

Grace Varndell  (4 Jan. 1909 – 6 Dec. 2006)

Grace Varndell — or Miss Varndell, as we called her — was a slim lady whose dark hair, streaked with grey, was tied in a bun at the back. As headmistress of Macaulay School she wanted to see her pupils do their very best in life, and under her leadership the school became the "best in south London" according to the inspector of schools. To those of us who were little children when she first arrived in 1953, she later became like a favourite old aunt, and still in her nineties could remember where we had sat in class. She is remembered with great affection — a wise headmistress who treated us with understanding and respect.

 

 

 

from:  Anne Ingrey (née Holdsworth)

  

Grace was not headmistress when I was at Macaulay School, but I knew her through my connection with the Church and Guides.  She became headmistress whilst my brother and his wife were at the school.

The Memorial / Thanksgiving Service held on 2^nd January 2007 at St. Mary’s Church, Eastbourne was attended by a number of old pupils as listed:

            Sir Nicholas Wall                                      1949 – 1956

            Mark Ronan                                              1952 – 1958

            Robin & Sylvia Holdsworth (Nee’ Allen)      1949 – 1956

            Howard Holdsworth                                  1959 – 1966

            Ray Pritchard                                          1947 – 1954

Mark Ronan gave the address and included in it were his years at the school and his contact since then.  Mark lives in America and every time he was in the UK he would go to see Grace at Eastbourne.

I went to see Grace along with Ray Pritchard on her ninetieth birthday, when we took her an engraved rose bowl and a huge bunch of flowers.