So begins the article in the Hendon & Finchley Times of 10 September 1937. Former pupil Cecilia, however, would never have known her grandfather as he died 31 years before she was born!
Cecilia and her siblings – including Juliet who also became a pupil of the Royal Masonic School – were from their father’s second marriage in 1898 but Sir John Goss, father of Walter Goss, died in 1880. He would never have known of the four children from his son’s second marriage.
Sir John (1800-1880) had been a boy chorister of the Chapel Royal, London. He was briefly a chorus member in an opera company and then was appointed organist of a chapel in south London, before moving to more prestigious organ posts at St Luke’s Church, Chelsea and finally St Paul’s Cathedral. Goss was known for his compositions of vocal music, both religious and secular, amongst the most well-known are his hymn tunes Praise, my soul, the King of heaven (as indicated above, composed 1868) and See, Amid the Winter’s Snow (1871).
Cecilia and Juliet’s father was 65 when he married Christina Saunders, formerly an actress, who was 38 years younger than himself. Juliet was born the following year but Cecilia arrived in 1911, making her father 77 when his youngest child was born. By this stage, sister Juliet was already a pupil at the School and had been since before 1909. In this year, in a prescient reflection of current issues, she was late returning to School after the Christmas holidays because she had had scarlet fever.
This tiny little image is taken from a larger group photo in about 1913. (Magnifying it inevitably blurs it but it is the only image the School has.)
Juliet left school in 1916 and obtained a post as junior clerk in Grindley’s Bank. Two years later she had a clerical post in the Aeronautical dept (the School records do not indicate what of) but joined the civil service as a typist in 1919. She maintained her association with the School throughout her life and so we are able to follow her around the world.
In 1928, she married but continued to live in the family home in Copthall Gardens, Hendon.
.In 1936, however, her address in Masonica is given as Trafalgar Ave, Roseville, NSW and, although she is listed in the 1939 register at the Copthall Gardens address, the Australia address is again used in 1946. It is unclear whether the 1939 register records a temporary return to UK or if the couple travelled between the two places, holding residency in both.
By 1973, her address in Masonica is given as Christchurch, Hampshire and, as her probate recording her death on 28 May 1983 gives an address of 24 Lymington Rd, Highcliffe, Christchurch, Dorset one assumes this is possibly where she was in 1973.
Meanwhile, younger sister Cecilia took a different path through life. Interestingly, both girls were pupils at a time when their father was alive and therefore the indigence of the family was not related to his death. At the time both girls became pupils, Walter was described as retired so presumably there was less income than previously on which to support a wife and four children. Walter died in 1926, aged 93, which was after Juliet had left school but before Cecilia had. The different paths they took are likely to reflect the increasing opportunities available to girls. Juliet was twelve years older than her youngest sibling and WW1 had changed much in the expectations of young women. Bertha Dean, the Headmistress from 1915, had been the first pupil to complete a university education although she had done so as an external candidate whilst working full time. Cecilia had the opportunity to actually attend university and read for a degree. A booklet about the School’s history dated 1935 records Cecilia’s school career as ‘1927 School certificate; 1928 honours for same; 1931 passed Intermediate Arts and went to Bedford College for Women in London to read for an honours degree’. She actually left as a pupil in 1928 but was appointed as a pupil teacher in the Upper House whilst she took the Intermediate Arts exam, then a requirement for university entry. She was granted a scholarship of £200 pa to become a student of Bedford College for Women.
Bedford College registers are available online (Ancestry) and this is a copy of her application. Bertha Dean’s name is given as representative of the School and the referee is the Rev Kennedy-Bell who had been the School Chaplain.
Cecilia is shown here from her College records. It is an image she submitted herself as included in her papers is a letter she wrote to the college after she had left when (presumably) it was realised that an image of her was not part of her record.
Cecilia was entered for an Honours degree in Classics.
Her year’s report for her Greek studies describes her as ‘a good plodder’ [!] but, clearly, plodding or not, her standard was deemed to be acceptable. So much so that, when there was a point at which Cecilia may have had to give up her studies because of financial struggles, the College supported her receiving an additional grant.
The College supported her receiving a grant from the Loan Fund to cover the costs of a fourth year of the degree. She had received a Scholarship of £200 pa from RMIG but this had been for a three year course.
Interestingly, although there was an indication in the letter that she would expect to return to the School as a teacher, this is not in fact what happened. A letter from her, undated but clearly post-degree course, is included in her records and in this she indicates that she had taken a post with John Lewis.
Later, she wrote to say she had received some promotion in her job but not long after this, she married and, in all probability, as other married women of the time did, she gave up work.
The newly married couple went to live in Errol Gardens, Hayes and are listed there in the 1939 register. Unlike her sister, Cecilia does not appear to have become a member of the Old Girls’ Association and so it is harder to track her through the rest of her life. The public records show that she died in 2002 in Gloucestershire aged 90. Two centuries after her grandfather was born, his granddaughter died. As she died on 18 July 2002, presumably this was not ‘amidst the winter’s snow’!
From https://www.hymnsandcarolsofchristmas.com/Hymns_and_Carols/Biographies/john_goss.htm
RMSG History Extra 