Gryphon Gallery: The Birth of Norfolk House, Part 3

September 21, 2023

Alumni

Stuart Brambley, Archivist Stuart Brambley, Archivist photo

Information suggests that there was also a strong connection with Rt. Rev. A.J. Doull and the Christ Church Cathedral Hall that was used for the Sunday school. At what point is unclear but the 911 Blanshard address used in the (Part 1 mentioned March advertisement) was likely used as a residence for Miss McDermott. It was adjacent to the old Cathedral property—the current and third Cathedral was not finished until 1929. A 1963 letter from Mrs. Gladys “Tid” Guernsey(m. Griffin), provides some well-founded speculation that Miss McDermott had support from Dean Doull, although there is no written conclusive evidence to support this. However, the fact that Miss McDermott lodged at 911 Blanshard, adjacent to where Rt. Rev. Doull preached, and that according to Mrs. Griffin, she taught a group of students in the Sunday School Hall for a period of time in 1913—the use of which may be connected to an unidentified $2 hall rental receipt reported by the Rector’s Warden—and that Mary Doull, the Right Reverend’s daughter was also a student of Miss McDermott, suggests the strong likelihood of a Doull-McDermott connection during 1913.

A further recounting of events comes from Betty Slater (m. Parsons) told to her by Gwyneth Lemon: Gwyneth Lemon and her friend “Kitty” Campbell went to a small school for girls organised by Mrs. Pemberton in her house on Foul Bay Road… Mrs. Pemberton had a wonderful governess who was German. When war was declared in the summer of 1914, she dismissed the governess because of her nationality. The parents of Gwyneth and Kitty were so annoyed that they took their daughters away and sent them to the new small school which had been started by Miss Atkins and Miss McDermott. Gwyneth thinks the school was in the Fairfield district. She was there 1914, 1915, 1916 and it was during the time she was there that the school moved to Granite Street.

So this becomes increasingly confusing! The girls, who had attended NHS during 191319/14, did not leave NHS for Mrs. Pemberton’s until July 1914 (proved by register entry). If the German governess had been dismissed immediately WWI was declared, then she would not have been there for class in September 1914. Maybe that dismissal did not happen until anti-German feelings heightened, but either way, there is no reference in the later registers of NHS of any of the girls ever returning to NHS.

Finally, it was Alice Nash (student 1913/1914) who remembered being taught at both Oscar St. and 1850 Granite St., meaning the latter was likely used from 1914 through the 1920s.

And so, from the time of her leaving Crofton House School through August 1913, Miss McDermott’s early teaching in Victoria continues to remain a bit of a mystery. The best guess is that she was involved in a number of small group tutorials/classes in a variety of locations for a variety of young ladies and with the encouragement of a number of well-to-do families, until she became sure she had enough support to establish a small school. With that in mind, she invited her good friend and past teaching colleague, Dora Atkins to join her in this new enterprise. Dora arrived in early September 1913 and together they started Norfolk House School at either Christ Church Cathedral Hall or 1164 Oscar Street, using the same initials and motto as their old school Norwich High School. But with WWI and Miss McDermott’s marriage in 1917, the early years of NHS (GNS) were not easy and registration remained very low until after the war years.