Margaret Millicent Billinger (1883-1942) was born on 30 June 1883 at 18, Cardiff Street, Aberdare, Glamorgan, daughter of James Fussell Billinger (1858-1928), a newsagent and railway bookstall manager, and Margaret Jane (née Thomas) (1857-1928). By 1891, Margaret and her family were living at 11, Alfred Street, Neath, and by 1901 they were living at 11, … Read more
In 1899, Charlotte and her husband John Kenelm Wingfield Digby founded Sherborne School for Girls. The school opened on 20 September 1899 at Ramsam House on Greenhill with just 14 pupils, including five little boys. Charlotte was also a founder and governor of Headington School for Girls in Oxford, a governor of Foster’s and Lord Digby’s Schools in Sherborne, and … Read more
Emmeline Mary Tanner was born on 28 December 1876 at Locksbrook Place, Weston, Bath, Somerset. The eldest of seven children born to Samuel Thomas Tanner, a coal merchant, and Jeanetta Jane (née Fry). At the age of 13, Emmeline became a student teacher and went on to teach at private schools in Birmingham, Southampton, and … Read more
On 7 June 1891, Reverend Mother Ignace Pollenus, the Superior of the Religious of the Christian Instruction in Ghent, Belgium, arrived in Sherborne with seven nuns to establish a Roman Catholic community in Westbury in a former Sherborne School boarding house. The Order had many English students in Ghent whose parents wanted them to open a … Read more
In 1899, Beatrice Mulliner was appointed the first Headmistress of Sherborne School for Girls, a post she held for thirty years. Beatrice oversaw the growth of the school from 14 pupils when it first opened on 20 September 1899 at Ramsam House to 287 pupils when she left in 1929. From 1929 until her death in 1940, Beatrice … Read more
Ruth Streatfeild was born on 13 August 1894 at Frant in Sussex, daughter of the Rt. Rev. William Champion Streatfeild (1865-1929) and Janet Mary (née Venn) (1872-1952), daughter of Rev. Henry Venn and niece of John Venn the mathematician who invented Venn diagrams. Ruth’s father, who was educated at Marlborough and Pembroke College Cambridge, was … Read more
On 22 May 1686, Lady Jane Noel (1664-1733), daughter of Edward Noel, 1st Earl of Gainsborough (1641-1689) and Lady Elizabeth Wriothesley (d.1680), married William Digby, 5th Baron Digby (1661-1752), commonly called ‘the good Lord Digby’. They had four sons and eight daughters. Lady Jane died at Sherborne on 10 September 1733, aged 69, and was … Read more
Harriet Clarke was born in Cheltenham in 1846, the daughter of Joseph Clarke, a tailor, and Maria Clarke. On 10 March 1885 Harriet was appointed headmistress of Lord Digby’s School in Sherborne. The school was then located at Foundation House in Westbury (now the Britannia Inn), but Harriet’s twenty years as headmistress of Lord Digby’s … Read more
Louisa Barnes was born at 8 Garden Terrace, Harlow, Essex on 16 August 1905, the eldest daughter of John William Barnes (b.1875) and Mary Ann Barnes (née Fielder) (1879-1942). By April 1911 the family were living at Lower Zeals in Wiltshire, where John Barnes was employed as a groom. Their second daughter Olga Mary Barnes … Read more