These are the words of Howard Carter in answer to Lord Carnarvon’s enquiry about what he could see as, in 1922, he applied his eye to the small view hole into the tomb of the Egyptian boy king. The discovery had been the final throw of the dice before they gave up the (very costly) hunt for the lost tomb but the wonderful things Carter could see initially were as nothing to what was later uncovered – and which so enthralled the world.
The tomb robbers may have attempted to remove the ‘wonderful things’ but failed. One could argue that Egyptologists finished their job for them. On the other hand, the pharaohs were carefully preserved for the afterlife and someone whose name is known throughout the educated world, but who was only 18 when he died, has certainly achieved an immortality that would have been lost if his tomb had not been discovered in 1922.
One hundred years on, the thrill has lost none of its lustre so it’s time to go all Egyptian as we search through the School archives. A word of warning that what follows will sometimes stretch the elastic band of Egyptian connection past pinging point!
No pharaohs, male or female, have been discovered so far but there are a surprising number of references to Egypt.
Joan Loy Marvin (b 1922) travelled to Egypt in 1930 with her mother and her brother. The reason for the journey is unclear but Joan’s father had recently died and he was a Lt Commander in the RN so it is possible that he died in the Mediterranean area.
Heather and Patricia Jones were possibly born Egypt in 1930. There are no records to confirm this but their father died there and there are travel documents for Heather & Patricia from Egypt to UK and returning again in 1935. Later their applications to be pupils were given in a 1942 List of patrons as Overseas Girls elected: Egypt & the Sudan.
Florice Allchin was born in Alexandria (Arabic Al-Iskandariyyah), Egypt although her sister Marian, a year older and also a pupil, was not. Florice later became a teacher and was in 1939 a school mistress at Christ’s Hospital, another school like RMS with a long history as a charitable institution. Florice’s name clearly caused problems to indexers as her death record gives her as Florence but the 1921 census records her as Horace!
Dora Cree was known as Rosemary. She was born in Egypt as was her father. Her mother, on the other hand, was French. Clearly keeping up the internationals, Rosemary married a Dane in 1957 and made her home in Denmark. She was fluent in Danish, French and English. There were also strong Masonic connections too as not only did Rosemary became a pupil but her two brothers attended the Boys’ and Rosemary later became a nurse at the Royal Masonic Hospital.
Muriel Haxton married in Egypt in 1928 and lived in China for a while. Although she was back in UK by 1939, she emigrated in 1958 to Australia and thereafter we lose sight of her.
Mary Evelyn Hope also married in Egypt in the 1950s when she wed a West Australian serving out there in the RAF. ‘My late uncle flew with Bomber Command during the war’ said her niece when informing the School of Mary’s death. The couple had later moved to Perth but towards the end of her life Mary had decided to return to family in UK. They were in the process of sorting everything out when, sadly, she died: ‘On Thursday 2nd July in Perth, Western Australia, most beloved wife of Wing Commander J D Kirwan DFC, and dearest aunt, great aunt and godmother to her English and Australian families and friends. … a service of Thanksgiving for her life on Thursday 16th July 2015 at St George’s Cathedral in Perth at 11.00am.’ Donations to the RAF Benevolent Fund were welcomed.
Anthea Page took a diploma in Archaeology and worked at the British Museum in the Department of Egyptology. Later she founded Rubicon Press which published books about Egyptology and other Ancient History. Her sister Juanita illustrated the books with fine line drawings and was a meticulous editor. Rubicon Press was a considerable achievement, publishing over 30 books before it closed upon Anthea’s retirement in 1999.
Betty Harrington’s father was general manager of the Nile Cold Storage company in Cairo (although Betty and her mother stayed at home in Brighton). Betty’s earliest memory, however, was of being taken to Brighton railway station to wave goodbye to her father as he returned to Cairo. Sadly it was the last time they were to see him. Unfortunately one evening in Cairo he ate some crayfish and succumbed to food poisoning. Later Betty wrote her memoir, intriguingly entitled Your sister has broken her leg, and gifted a copy to the Archives. In them she revealed that one of her first memories was a letter from her mother telling of her sister’s contretemps with a car and motorcycle which resulted in a compound fracture of her leg. (Fortunately, she made a full recovery.)
Asenath Bedford (1836-1922) never apparently went near Egypt but her name, pronounced U-sen-ath, is an Egyptian name. Definitely one of the pinging connections!
Mabel Stubbs became a pupil after her father, Herbert Molyneux Stubbs, died on board the Royal Edward when it was torpedoed off Alexandria. The ship had left UK carrying troops bound for Gallipoli and arrived at Alexandria in August 1915. On 13th August, it passed a hospital ship going in the opposite direction, a ship ignored by the U-boat commander precisely because it was a hospital ship. A torpedo hit the Royal Edward which sank within six minutes. The ship managed to send an SOS message and the hospital ship sailed back to the stricken vessel, thus saving 440 men. Sadly the Royal Edward´s death toll was 935, thought to be so high because a boat drill had just been carried out and many of the crew were below decks stowing their equipment when the torpedo struck. Sadly for Mabel one of the dead was her father, an engineer. He is commemorated at Tower Hill Pier 2, course 3, col f.
By one of those amazing coincidences, the Royal Edward was the ship on which, in 1910, former pupil Melora Collins nee Goodridge and her family emigrated to Canada. Her story is told in https://www.rmsforgirls.com/userfiles/rmsmvc/documents/AboutUs/History%20Trails/Melora_Collings.pdf
The School at Rickmansworth had its foundation stone laid in 1930 and it is said that ‘The maul used in the ceremony was originally used by an ancient Egyptian workman in a tomb of Sakkara some 4,000 years ago.’ (Article about the stone laying in the School magazine 1931) That might imply a direct connection with Ancient Egypt and the idea of Egyptian connections is possibly the inspiration for the design of the old front entrance to the School with its resemblance to the entrance to an Egyptian temple. The design would have been created between 1928 and 1929 at a time when ‘Tutmania’ was still strong. There is an excessively tall doorway flanked by two pillars [the traffic cone is not part of the original design!].
But the capitals on the pillars on either side of the entranceway do not fit into any of the classic forms of architecture (Ionic, Doric & Corinthian). It may well be that the architect, Denman, was given free rein to create his own design which draws on Corinthian but with extras. The lower foliage could be stylized lotus leaves with papyrus leaves above. Or possibly not!
The Egyptian image is not dissimilar to the RMS capital but is not quite the same either. So the jury is out about whether there is Egyptian influence or not. Still, it makes an interesting, if contrived, connection to King Tut.
This is the sound of elastic Egyptian connections reaching their limits!
RMSG History Extra 