Vicky Stanton (Class of 1972)

GWLC Memories

I moved to Edinburgh from the north of England in the summer of 1964. My younger sister, Sarah, started at St. Alban’s Road, but at the grand old age of not-quite-ten, my first experience of GWLC was Miss Richardson’s Form 4b at George Square. It was hard finding my feet in a group of girls most of whom had known each other since kindergarten, an experience that wasn’t made easier on my first day by my lack of familiarity with the building or the routine. Since I lived far away before the start of school, I had not had the introductory tour the previous term, so I spent some time sitting disconsolately on the gallery, waiting for someone to tell me where I should go and what I should do. I remember feeling very small and very scared in my brand new school uniform, clutching my brand new satchel. Happily, I acclimated quite quickly, and learned to see George Square as my second home. An athlete and a gymnast I was most definitely not, and I well recall Miss Brown shouting at me, “Come on, Patterson, get on that horse!”

My main memory of Liberton was ending up on the second of the two hockey teams in my year because my legs weren’t as well-built as those of one Anne Benson. I was drawn far more to the literary and drama activities, for instance playing the handsome Roman captain in Miss Littlewood’s production of “Androcles and the Lion.” She told me to sit with my legs apart, hands on my knees, as I had a conversation with Lavinia, played by Gisela Thurston-Smith. I was to turn away from her as I said, “Lavinia, do Christians know how to,” and here I had to swing my head in her direction and look at her intently, “love?” Other productions were of course the annual House Shakespeare competition and also a couple of plays done jointly with GWC at the Music School, which were a lot of fun and kind of exciting to us girls. In our 5 th year, my good friends, Libby Anderson (nee Thomson) and Sheena McDonald and I were delighted to perform in Sheridan’s “The Rivals,” directed by Michael Gill. I had the wonderfully juicy part of Mrs. Malaprop. We were able to borrow costumes and wigs from Scottish Opera, and we felt so professional. The following year, GWC staged Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex, and I played Jocasta to Sandy Flockhart’s Oedipus. That required long hours of rehearsal but it was also a big thrill, and I have never forgotten it.

I was also an enthusiastic member and officer of the Literary and Debating Society. We covered topics such as Scottish Nationalism (frequently!), the requirement for school uniforms and the proposed entry into the European Common Market, as it was then called. These topics required a significant amount of research and I learned a lot of facts and arguments to which I would otherwise not have been exposed. I became a proponent of entry into the Common Market and retaining school uniforms, but I could never really make up my mind about Scottish Nationalism back then! Maybe the fact that I had moved to Edinburgh from England influenced my thinking.

My memories of teachers range between the extremes of great affection and respect (Miss Carnon and Miss Nicol) and abject terror (the diminutive but fearsome Miss Bryden). Miss Carnon’s intense enthusiasm for English and Miss Nicol’s thorough knowledge of history and her insistence on our understanding of it made their subjects come alive for me. On the other hand, just getting through the day without one of Miss Bryden’s withering looks or comments was a triumph I aimed for every day I spent in Form 5c. The most unique experience I recall of my time at GWLC began midway through 6 th year, when we were all deciding which universities appealed to us and what we wanted to study. Miss Fleming called my parents and me into her office for a “discussion.” For a few years at that point a handful of sixth year girls had been selected annually to prepare with a handful of GWC boys for the Oxbridge Entrance Exams, beginning in the spring term. The preparations continued into the following autumn, so it meant postponing university for a year and working very hard to boot. I hesitated, and then Miss Fleming made her point. I remember her looking at me and saying, “Well, you can either be a big fish in a small pond or you could try to do better,” or words to that effect. How could I say no? And so it was that in the spring of 1972, “the two Julias” (Julia Hamilton and Julia Sanderson) and I began attending classes at GWC on Colinton Road with eight of their sixth formers. We were the only three girls in a school of 1,600 boys. Needless to say, before I left for school every morning mascara and lipstick were applied! We were drilled in our selected subjects (mine were English, French and Latin) and every week, we would meet for a period with the redoubtable Headmaster Roger Young, who prepared us for the general discussion exam we would have to take. It was a singular experience I do not regret, even though in the end none of the 11 of us was accepted at either Oxford or Cambridge (to the consternation of the two schools!) but I did miss out on the end of school activities that were part of the wrapping up of 6th year at George Square.

I have lived in California for the past forty years, and while in some ways George Square seems a million miles away, especially since the culture (rules and unspoken expectations) was so very different to what I have now (casual and do-as-you-please), in other ways it feels very recent and I am fortunate to have mostly very warm and happy memories of my time there. The rules and expectations provided a guide and handrail as I left school and were hard to relinquish once I arrived in the US. And my education most definitely prepared me for the future. I continue to feel the benefits of a very well-rounded and in-depth education, and my Latin and Greek classes have often come to my aid when a good vocabulary is required. In fact, those classes helped me pass a very complicated entrance exam I took for my master’s program when I came across some unfamiliar terms! Living as far away as I do, my opportunities for staying in contact with my classmates have been limited, but the friendship I made with Libby and Sheena remains firm and deep, and we are very close friends to this day. Despite the 6,000 miles that separate us, my relationship with them is stronger than it has ever been with any other friend.

Vicky Stanton née Patterson (Class of 1972)