The CBB :: View topic - Head Girls of the Saints

through

#1: Head Girls of the Saints Author: Carys, Location: London

Posted: Sat Oct 21, 2006 10:54 am
—
I know that Elaine was the first Head Girl, and Gipsy the second but were there any others apart from them? For instance who was Head Girl when the school's merged? I know there was talk that Hilary Burn would have been a future Head Girl but are we actually told who replaced Gipsy as Head Girl?

Thanks!

#2: Head Girl's of the Saints Author: Fiona Mc, Location: Bendigo, Australia

Posted: Sat Oct 21, 2006 12:46 pm
—
No one did because they had merged. Hilary was going to take over that term

#3: Author: Miriam, Location: Jerusalem, Israel

Posted: Sat Oct 21, 2006 7:03 pm
—
THat still leaves a year or so unaccounted for. Elaine is head-girl during the year of Rivals (assuming she isn't demoted). Gypsy is HG for the next year, which is covered by Exploits, Lintons/Rebel and New House. The next year begins with 'Jo Returns', followed by a term where there is no book. The two schools combine in the summer term of that year.

Nancy Wilmot, Ida REavley, Irene Silksworth and Hilary Burn all seem to have been prefects, and are appointed as such at the Chalet, But none of them seem to have any status beyond that. It wasn't Hilary, since she would have been appoiunted the next year, b ut it couls have been any of the others. It must have een rather hard for whoever it was, to drop down to being a regular prefect again, though giving her any special status might have encouraged division in the school.

#4: Author: JayB, Location: SE England

Posted: Sat Oct 21, 2006 7:34 pm
—
I don't see that Nancy, Ida or Irene could have been Head Girl in the year before New, if they were staying on another year. If the Saints had continued as a separate school whoever it was would just have continued as Head Girl for a second year and there would have been no question of Hilary being appointed. It must have been someone who left at the end of the term before New.

Although I think it's a pity Nancy wasn't head - she would have been excellent.

Jay B.

#5: Author: KB, Location: Melbourne, Australia

Posted: Sun Oct 22, 2006 6:44 am
—
*lol* I have plans for doing just as you ask, Jay - making Nancy Head Girl. I also have a handy-dandy excuse why she is forced to give up her position as Head Girl, but I'm not going to reveal that just yet...

(At least, that's the plan. It could, of course, all change by the time the book is published. Confused

)

#6: Author: Miriam, Location: Jerusalem, Israel

Posted: Sun Oct 22, 2006 9:02 am
—
Looking through 'New' more closely, I've found the comment that, "... a few girls were leaving at Easter, and she didn't have anyone to replace them..."
It's quite reasonable to hypothesize that the old HG was among them.

Madge and Mademoiselle knew what was happening half way through the previous term (even though the girls only found out during the holidays), so Miss Browne probably wasn't doing any recruiting. She may even have encouraged her Upper Sixth to leave, knowing that it would be hardest for them to settle down in a new school when it was only for one term anyway. Neither of the schools did public exams at that time, so they wouldn't have missed out on anything significant. That would also explain why all the girls who came from St Scholastika stayed at least one more year.

Overall, it seems rather inconsiderate of Miss Browne to just abandon the school the way she did. To continue for one more term wouldn't have hurt her, and the transition would have been generally much easier if they had jioned at the start of a new year, rather than than in the summer term. It would also have given the Chalet staff more time to organize things, and the girls more time to adapt to the idea - or choose a different school if the parents preferred. Bying a completely new school uniform unexpectedly in the week or so that they had must have been a nightmare, unless they were allowed to wear out the old one first. Confused

#7: Author: JayB, Location: SE England

Posted: Sun Oct 22, 2006 9:30 am
—
I suppose they would only need summer tunics and blazers immediately, the rest could wait. But yes, I hope they were allowed to wear out their old uniforms first. Are we ever told what colour the Saints wore?

Jay B.

#8: Author: JayB, Location: SE England

Posted: Sun Oct 22, 2006 9:33 am
—

KB wrote:

*lol* I have plans for doing just as you ask, Jay - making Nancy Head Girl.

Oh, good. I would have liked to see more of Nancy as a schoolgirl - though I suppose when EBD was writing that period, she didn't know that Nancy was going to be such a major character twenty or so years in the future!

Though I suppose she must have liked her, to have picked on her to bring back after Slater left.

Jay B.

#9: Author: Lottie, Location: Humphrey's Corner

Posted: Sun Oct 22, 2006 10:08 am
—

JayB wrote:

Are we ever told what colour the Saints wore?

It says in Rivals that they wear Saxe-blue? Whatever shade of blue that might be. I always imagined it as a mid blue, but I don't know where I got that idea from.

#10: Author: JayB, Location: SE England

Posted: Sun Oct 22, 2006 10:53 am
—
Online definitions say light blue with a hint of grey. Sounds pretty, but a bit impractical for tunics and coats, I would have thought.

Jay B.

#11: Author: Kate, Location: Ireland

Posted: Sun Oct 22, 2006 7:21 pm
—
I think Nancy was EBDismed... While I can imagine her being headgirl as she was portrayed as a mistress, I can't imagine her being headgirl as she was portrayed in New - she's constantly described as lazy and liking an easy life (reminding me of Hester Layang, who doesn't even get made a prefect). Although I suppose a CS headgirl and a Saints headgirl are two different things.

#12: Author: Chair, Location: Rochester, Kent

Posted: Sun Oct 22, 2006 8:05 pm
—
The Saints' uniform is on the front cover of the Armada pb version. They wore a white blouse with a blue and white striped tie. There was also a blue coat and there is a black hat in the background. The badge and rim could be yellow.

ETA: I forgot to say that the book I am talking about is 'Rivals'. Embarassed

Last edited by Chair on Mon Oct 23, 2006 10:32 am; edited 1 time in total

#13: Author: Gem, Location: Saltash/Aberystwyth

Posted: Sun Oct 22, 2006 10:25 pm
—
Have to agree with Kate - I could never see schoolgirl Nancy as being a Head Girl, especially not as she was in the same classes as Hilary Burn who was very clearly HG material. I'm looking forward to reading the book when it's published and seeing how you get around that, KB!

#14: Author: jennifer, Location: Taiwan

Posted: Mon Oct 23, 2006 3:40 am
—
I always got the impression that Gipsy had been head girl until the beginning of New, and had been head girl for two years, particularly in the way that they discuss her troubles dealing with Elizabeth and Betty.

Miss Brown strikes me as a bit of an twit. She moves her school to the one other lake in the Tyrol that has an English school, she attempts to poach Joey by making disparaging remarks about the quality of the education and then is upset when they take it badly and she finds out she was talking to the sister and brother of the school owner. She is described both as confiding too much in her headgirl, causing problems when Elaine overinterprets and spreads the confidence, and as not allowing her prefects to do anything more than oversee prep without direct instructions. She is quite disparaging of foreigners, and astonished that these non British girls show more decency and honour than her own British born pupils. She is also pretty rude to Mademoiselle Lepattre over various school conflicts. Then she ditches the school on short notice, both to the students and to the Chalet School, who is asked to buy it.

All together, she looks like someone without a whole lot of common sense or judgement.

#15: Author: Miriam, Location: Jerusalem, Israel

Posted: Mon Oct 23, 2006 8:56 am
—

Kate wrote:

I think Nancy was EBDismed... While I can imagine her being headgirl as she was portrayed as a mistress, I can't imagine her being headgirl as she was portrayed in New - she's constantly described as lazy and liking an easy life (reminding me of Hester Layang, who doesn't even get made a prefect). Although I suppose a CS headgirl and a Saints headgirl are two different things.

Also the fact that she '...considers all maths people the extreme end." sounds a bit strange in conjunction with her later career. And in 'New' she has an older sister, who nevr existed by the time we get to 'Kenya'. About all that really remains consistant is her name, the fact that she was a Saint, and her larger figure. She does remain easy-going as a mistress, but she seems to have woken up quite a bit.

#16: Author: Loryat,

Posted: Mon Oct 23, 2006 12:43 pm
—
Maybe the war did it for her!

#17: Author: JayB, Location: SE England

Posted: Mon Oct 23, 2006 10:25 pm
—

Loryat wrote:

Maybe the war did it for her!

Wasn't she said to be in one of the women's services? In beginning of term announcements in Goes To It, I think.

(Although I think the wartime books are the best, one thing that bugs me is that not one single CS mistress was called up, when in reality nearly all of them would have been.)

Jay B.

#18: Author: Lottie, Location: Humphrey's Corner

Posted: Mon Oct 23, 2006 10:32 pm
—
Wasn't teaching a reserved occupation?

#19: Author: JayB, Location: SE England

Posted: Mon Oct 23, 2006 10:51 pm
—

Lottie wrote:

Wasn't teaching a reserved occupation?

Only those regarded as essential, I think, which would certainly exclude those such as Grizel and Rosalie. And I think it unlikely they'd have been able to employ new young teachers such as Hilary Burn. It would be argued they could get older or married-with-children teachers to replace them.

My mother was a schoolgirl during the war and she says they had no young teachers.

Jay B.

#20: Author: KB, Location: Melbourne, Australia

Posted: Tue Oct 24, 2006 12:25 am
—

Gem wrote:

Have to agree with Kate - I could never see schoolgirl Nancy as being a Head Girl, especially not as she was in the same classes as Hilary Burn who was very clearly HG material. I'm looking forward to reading the book when it's published and seeing how you get around that, KB!

Yes, it will certainly make for an interesting situation. Rolling Eyes

I would actually have liked Maureen Donovan as Head Girl - I thought I had seen a reference to her in Jo Returns - but it's hard to go against the very definitive statement in Rivals that she has left and her sister is going.

#21: Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester

Posted: Tue Oct 24, 2006 6:55 am
—
KB, will you be mentioning Maisie Gomme? It's always really annoyed me that she named her daughter after Joey and went on about Joey being her unofficial godmother when they hardly seemed to know each other in Rivals or any of the other EBD books!

#22: Author: KB, Location: Melbourne, Australia

Posted: Wed Oct 25, 2006 12:35 am
—
I will, but only in the sense that she has just left the school and is either engaged or married (haven't decided yet). As Jo Scott is fourteen in Kenya, she must have been born during the year that Gillian is set (and that is with the three-year gap during which Peace is set, as well as the extra year before Exile). That would mean Maisie was pregnant with Jo at around the time of New. Propriety dictates that Maisie would have been married before she fell pregnant, so she must have left school before the term I am writing about, or else she would have been the perfect Head Girl.

The CBB -> Joey's Trunk

output generated using printer-friendly topic mod. All times are GMT

Page 1 of 1