2025 Speeches

I am delighted to be in the role of Chief Steward this year celebrating one of the most wonderful traditions of Christ's Hospital that brings Old Blues together to commemorate our Foundation.

We are also celebrating our President's 50th year in the role and marking the 40 years since the merger of Hertford with Horsham in 1985.

So firstly, on behalf of the Stewards, I would like to congratulate His Royal Highness on his 50th year as President of the Foundation, continuing the School's venerable and valued connection with the Crown that dates from our Foundation by Edward 6th.

At this dinner we also mark the sad passing of two Old Blues whose contributions as Stewards to the Founders Day Dinner, and to the school more widely, has been immense. Let us all remember Bill Richards and Roger Eades.

The merger of the Hertford school with Horsham in 1985 was a transformational moment for CH girls. I know that there are some who look back with regret on that change and feel forgotten and left behind by the focus around Horsham. We did leave behind some of the cosiness of the small school environment, and some of our ways and traditions. And yes, the merger may well have been driven by financial considerations rather than an altruistic desire for fairness and equality. But the result has been a richer school for all.

For Hertford pupils the very different expectations of women and the career opportunities open to them at that time was reflected in the curriculum and the school culture. Despite those largely societal obstacles there are many Hertford Old Blues who went on to achieve great things in professions and elsewhere, and tonight's Responder will tell us more about them.

The broader curriculum open to CH female pupils since 1985 means none are faced with the very stark choices some of us had at Hertford. For those of us who were considered less academic or science orientated, at 14 we were moved towards softer skills — for example other languages. I swapped Latin for Cookery, and Physics for Needlework. In career terms it didn't help particularly to have an A grade in Needlework on my CV.

When my career moved towards complex science policy issues and science education and training, I was able to play catch up with my knowledge and understanding of science. And there is a plus to the softer skills training: now that I have retired, and have the time to sew, I am grateful to understand the uses for Wigan tape and all the complexities of different placket openings.

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While I had just 5 years of school, I gained a lifetime of wonderful Old Blues connections and friendships.

There are, thankfully, some Hertford traditions that didn't make the transition. For those from Horsham here is something many of you — unless you had sisters — probably won't be able to fathom: the hierarchical status of differently coloured pinnies (blue, black or green) rather than buttons. On many occasions I had my pinnie or apron colour changed for some misdemeanour or other, and consequently there is no pinnie-chucking at the end of the year at Horsham.

Finally, I'd like to share my thoughts on the importance of events like the Founders Day Dinner and all the various networks and associations of Old Blues — the Amicables, Benevolent Society of Blues, Old Blue sports, Facebook Groups or CHOBA-led events.

I believe there is huge value in this diversity, creating different touch points with the school and other Old Blues, whether Hertford or Horsham, or both. We have different backgrounds, different experiences of the school and have different lifestyles, identities, communities, and careers. I had a difficult time at CH, and visiting Horsham has never felt like my school. But I was drawn back through helping with grants and loans at the Benevolent Society of Blues.

I was then to become a BSB nominated Governor, a Steward and finally joining the Council, and along the way becoming a donor too. None of this changes how I look back on school days, but in time my focus has flipped towards a strong commitment to maintaining Old Blues friendships, and to supporting the school in its current, its continuing and, I hope, lasting mission.

I can reflect that while I had just 5 years of school, I gained a lifetime of wonderful Old Blues connections and friendships.

Your Royal Highness, Chief Steward, Fellow Old Blues, Ladies and Gentlemen. And a special welcome to the small band of Hertford Old Girls.

It is a great honour to be able to welcome the Duke of Gloucester tonight and to recognise his fifty years of service to the school as its President. Continuity and tradition are important at CH and he has set us an excellent example.

His Royal Highness will, I am sure, remember the other anniversary we celebrate this year — namely the 40 years since the merger of the girls and boys schools and the closure of Hertford.

This evening I want to go back even further and celebrate the achievements of the Hertford Girls over the 40 years before the merger. This period begins with Jocelyn Ransome, who left the school in 1945, became an ENT surgeon and left a completely unexpected £3.7m to the school on her death in 2022.

And it ends in 1985 when a member of the last cohort to complete their education at Hertford was a certain Miriam McKay.

I get the definite impression that the girls of this period were seen as poor relations or even as second-class citizens and definitely not as "proper" Old Blues. They were not even allowed into this dinner until 1977.

We were a much smaller school of course, only 288 of us, and with fewer facilities — but I put it to you that we were indeed "proper" Christ's Hospital pupils.

We did not wear Tudor uniform and I am told that we had more comfortable beds, but we too marched to dinner every day.

We too had pretty awful food. The girls actually took direct action and held a lunch strike one day. They marched to the hall, were served as usual and refused to eat. The request that pastry be adequately cooked was apparently met.

We too received transformational education. Like my own "school child" who was in the care of social services because both parents had serious learning difficulties. She went on to get a First in English at Oxford.

Most importantly, we too were read "The Charge" and did our best to fulfil it.

Some paid in kind — three of my teachers were Hertford Old Blues.

35 of the cohort have become Donation Governors in their own right and others have been nominated governors for other organisations. We have provided almoners, council members, Board members of the BSB and, of course, two Treasurers.

Overall 49% of us have made donations of some sort to the school — an impressive level of engagement especially considering the gender pay gap.

We have also had a huge range of successful careers.

A very high proportion of girls went on to further and higher education.

Bear in mind that in the first three decades of the period in question there were only 5 women's Oxbridge colleges to 51 male ones, and that apart from the Royal Free all medical schools admitted a strict quota of 10% women.

Yet the school gained 89 Oxbridge places over this period — over 2 a year with a record of 6 places in 1956 — and sent 37 girls to medical school.

We had no formal careers advice that I remember but the emphasis was definitely on jobs that were useful rather than well paid. Success was to be measured by professional achievement and community service, not money.

We also lacked the "old boys' network" and had very much to work out our own career paths.

Our strengths were seen to be the character traits developed in the school. One old girl described us as "feisty". Others have variously said that school taught them "grit", determination, resilience, independence and self-respect.

The default career options, unsurprisingly, were nursing, teaching and secretarial work. No fewer than 146 leavers went initially into nurse training and 58 into other health professions, but these figures do not adequately reflect the nature and diversity of the professional pathways that followed. Many reached senior managerial roles, some started independent businesses and some changed profession altogether.

Teachers rapidly became heads of department and then headteachers. One became headteacher of a boys' grammar school and took it through four changes of identity, intake and curriculum before retiring from the resulting FE college. And you thought going co-ed was difficult enough.

Even "secretary" covered a range of roles. One Old Girl became diary secretary to Robert Maxwell and once accidentally phoned Henry Kissinger at 4am US time.

Of particular interest to me is that six of the 37 doctors aspired to do surgery — a very high proportion. I can only attribute this to the compulsory needlework.

They succeeded to varying degrees. Jocelyn Ransome was clearly remarkable — one of only two women admitted as Fellows of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1958, she became a teaching hospital consultant with a successful private practice and a significant research output.

A decade later Jane Baker — who I am delighted to say is here tonight — qualified in medicine from Westminster Hospital. She did a prestigious medical house job and wanted to go on to do Obstetrics and Gynaecology but failed to get the relevant training post on the basis that "we've already had one woman, we're not having another one!" She settled instead on becoming an anaesthetist, marrying another and emigrating to Australia.

Another decade on I was a little luckier. I was the first woman to get the surgical training rotation at Westminster Hospital under the legendary Professor Harold Ellis. I vividly remember the interview. The consultant urologist, for whom I would also be working, looked over his half-moon glasses at me and said plaintively "I don't suppose you play rugby do you. What do you do?" I shoot for the university, Sir, I said.

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I suggest that we punched above our weight, and I should like us not to be forgotten.

I wanted to do hand surgery but I couldn't face the battle involved so I too went "sideways" — into the then new specialty of Accident and Emergency medicine — becoming one of the first cohort to undertake specialist training and become a consultant in the specialty.

I am delighted to say that Judy Evans, a few years later, did succeed in becoming a plastic surgeon. Not quite the first female consultant, she tells me, but definitely "the first with two kids and a surviving marriage." Surgical careers are not good for family life.

The law was less popular but was the path taken by our most illustrious alumna Ruth Deech — academic, bioethicist and politician, most noted for chairing the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority and as the former Principal of St Anne's College, Oxford. She now sits as a Crossbench peer in the House of Lords and has very kindly invited Old Girls to tea there next month.

We include other academics. Elizabeth Llewellyn-Smith had a distinguished career in the civil service before becoming Principal of St Hilda's College Oxford.

I have also identified a professor of physics, a professor of astrophysics, a professor of geology and university lecturers in agriculture and psychology.

There are an impressive number of other scientists and engineers given that STEM subjects were not a strength of Hertford teaching. These include an analytical chemist, an aerospace engineer, a forensic scientist, a consultant in medical microbiology, and of course our current Chief Steward.

We did not have a cadet corps and cannot compete with the military output of Horsham, but we did produce two army officers.

Few went into politics, though Chantal Greall was twice mayor of Hertford and two of my contemporaries stood for the local council, campaigning with three children apiece in t-shirts reading "vote for my Mum". Sadly not enough did!

Finance was represented by several accountants and senior national and international banking roles.

Careers in the creative arts include a stage manager of the National Theatre, a BBC producer, a theatrical costumier, a sculptor, an educator at the V&A, a curator at the Museum of London, and the production manager of Sky Sports.

Music was a very important part of school life and the school organ started several professional careers — notably that of the late Catherine Ennis who was organist at the Guild Church of St Lawrence Jewry for many years and President of the Royal College of Organists.

We notched up a few "firsts": one of the first cohort of ordained women priests; one of the first women admitted to the Baltic Exchange; the first female engineer to work in Japan; and the first female office holder of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh — Judy Evans again.

And we should not forget that for at least the first half of the period we are considering it was customary for women to give up work on marriage or at least on motherhood, and most of the Hertford girls had two or three children. Many of those who became full-time mothers were however prominent in local organisations and voluntary roles, and many started new careers or obtained degrees in later life.

I hope very much that the girls who have completed their education at Horsham in the forty years since the merger will have equally interesting and varied careers. Hopefully from a slightly more even playing field and facing slightly fewer obstacles.

We wish them well.

I cannot finish without thanking Miriam and Hugo for accessing some of the data I have quoted and, of course, all the old girls who shared their stories with me.

The Old Hertfordians, as someone has christened us, are obviously a diminishing group — but I suggest that we punched above our weight, and I should like us not to be forgotten.

Thank you.