BASSETERRE St. Kitts - ALTHOUGH their school ceased to exist in 1967 when it merged with the Grammar School to become the Basseterre High School, and the building went up in flames in 1978, yet the school refuses to die and lives on in the memories of its former pupils.
On October 16th, 2011, on its 82nd birthday, past pupils of the Girls High School met as they have been meeting nearly every year on the Sunday nearest to that date, at a Service to give thanks for their Founder, their exemplary education and to pay tribute to past pupils who have blazed a trail in fulfilling the School’s motto – Ready to Serve.
This year they worshiped at the ‘Wesley’ Methodist Church, Basseterre and paid special tribute to two school icons, one who had made history in the annals of the school and was at the Anniversary Service, but for the other, the tribute was posthumous.
Dr. Lenore Harney was the first pupil of the Girls’ High School to be awarded the Leeward Islands scholarship. She went on to become the first female doctor of the country and of the school.
In an era when the male of the species coming from the Grammar School dominated education, the winning of this scholarship went a long way towards validating the existence of the School and proving that females could achieve as much academically as the males did.
She is described in the UWI Cave Hill magazine, CHILL, as “a distinguished medical doctor who has established an international reputation as an authority in Preventive Medicine and Public Health with the United Nations.”
On the 75th anniversary of the founding of the School, Dr. Harney paid tribute to her alma mater when she launched her book entitled “That I May Remember – The History of the St. Kitts-Nevis Girls’ High School”.
According to the Cave Hill magazine,” it chronicles the history of ‘a remarkable school community’ – an institution that served as the crucible that spurred many of her later achievements”.
It was Dr. Harney herself at the book’s launching who reflected that the School refused to die. The publication of the book made it even more so.
This fact was also captured in a poem by a past pupil entitled “Forty Years On – Looking Back”
“Our ‘glimpses of childhood’ will forever live on
For our First Doctor and Regional Scholarship winner
Creates history once more – writing a book in our honour.
So forty and fifty and sixty years on
When possibly some of us might be gone
The book will carve out our School’s place in history
To succeeding generations we will never be a mystery.”
Tribute was also paid at the Anniversary Service to Dame Bernice Lake Q.C who passed away recently. An eminent lawyer, fighter for human rights and former pupil and teacher of the Girls’ High School, Dame Bernice became another school icon.
In paying tribute to her, past pupil Lorna Callender said:
“She experienced the colonial education of the Girls’ High School, the early educational strivings of the University College of the West Indies (before it became a full fledged University); she participated in the birth pains of the West Indies Federation as a diplomatic officer; went on to pursue law and was an integral part of the shaping of the Anguilla and Antigua and Barbuda constitutions.
Throughout her life her oratory and her debating skills drew admiration from all, and as past students of the Girls’ High School, we pay tribute to her today and give thanks for the impression she made on our lives.”
Absent from the service this year was Ms Elaine Osborne, the only one of the nine pupils still alive who was present at the start of the School in 1929. Miss Osborne, who is now in her nineties, sent greetings.
Past pupils of the Girls’ High School have retained a bond emanating from the common school culture they experienced. No part of the students’ life was outside of the schools jurisdiction – decorum, elocution, sports, cooking, art and craft, academic studies, drama, behaviour, competition, clubs and extracurricular interests – all were viewed as important aspects in developing the life of a whole person.
Finally, no student ever forgets the morning ritual described in this poem:
“Every morning at Assembly
You were reminded of what you should be...
A shining light in your community
‘To give of your best’, that was the test
‘Lighted to lighten others’
‘Ready to serve’ sisters and brothers
Always remaining bright
For our work was... ‘to scatter light”
The lessons of Miriam Pickard, the founder of the School lives on in the lives of her pupils and the principles the school taught will continue to live on in the lives of their children. For all these reasons, the School refuses to die.
