OLD SCHOOL MAGAZINES, 1956-57
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Many of you will have memories of Miss Roper, (pictured, right, in 1913), whether from school, Guiding, or visiting her at King Cole’s Kitchen, in King Cole Road, Colchester.
Miss Maude Elizabeth Roper was born in South Africa in November 1893. Her father was a serving soldier and her siblings were born all over the world but the family settled in Colchester in 1918 and almost immediately she started teaching at CCHS. In the 1939 Register she was recorded as a High School Teacher living with her widowed mother, also Maude, at King Cole’s Kitchen. She was an Air Raid Warden and manned the ARP First Aid Post during the Second World War. Her sister, Muriel, was 16 years younger
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and attended CCHS at Grey Friars and North Hill.
Apparently people started calling Miss Roper, Margaret, after the famous daughter of Sir Thomas Cromwell and, as she had always hated the name Maude, she became known as Margaret. When she retired the following article was included in the School Magazine.
“We have learned, by hard experience, that the battle cry of the Magazine Committee to its contributors has, perforce, for reasons of economy, to be “Condense! Condense! Condense!” - but how can we condense all that should be said in gratitude for and appreciation of Miss Roper’s thirty-eight years’ service to the School? In the Lab, in the form room, as Head of a House (York) she has worked for and with us with power to encourage the enthusiastic, and understanding to help the duffers out of their difficulties. And, outside the school time-table there was much more - the nature expeditions in the holidays, rambles on Saturdays, the exhibitions and lectures she arranged for us - particularly the lectures on bird-watching with their lovely illustrations - and. Most especially, her First Aid whenever anyone felt sick, or fainted, if anyone cut her finger, twisted her ankle, or fell and broke a bone the cry was always the same “Can you find Miss Roper?” and when she came, quiet and unhurried, skill, comfort, and reassurance came with her - and, very often, her car too! - in which she would drive the sufferer for treatment to the hospital, or safely to her own home. But perhaps the nicest memory of all will be - of flowers. Flowers for any kind of School function, flowers in the Hall, in the Staff rooms, and in the Head’s room, more often than not brought, and always arranged so beautifully by Miss Roper - in fact we may say with truth that she expressed much of her affection for the School in flowers. Her interest in those she taught went on with them as Old Girls; indeed, no OGA meeting would feel really complete if Miss Roper were not there. And, though the present School has had regretfully to say goodbye to her, the Old Girls, who so many of them through the years have kept in touch with her, will welcome her, as a member of the Old Staff, with delight, and the OGA will find in her as a member of their Committee and their Magaizne Representative a magnificent link with the School.
"We do thank her very truly for all she has done for us - and send her our love and best wishes for many happy years of retirement.”
Miss Roper died in 1974.
Do you have any memories of Miss Roper? Please send them in so we can share them!
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