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On returning to Burma in early 1938, Jack and Guli clearly felt the need to provide Sheila (now aged 7½) with some form of schooling in lieu of the English education she had unexpectedly foregone. However this did not prove successful.
I was sent to a small missionary school with about seven pupils up in Kalaw in the northern Shan states. Here we were brought away from the heat of the summer and taught by two middle-aged missionary ladies called Miss Cousins and Miss Bungee, but neither was really a skilled teacher and they did little other than tell us bible stories and our ABC. Not surprisingly I was completely uneducated and could not read until I was eight.
My main memory of my time at this boarding school, if such it can be called, was of extreme homesickness, and the very strict regimen under which we were guided. We had to go to church at least twice on Sundays in a crocodile and sit through the very long and boring sermons. The Miss Cousins, though kind, were completely unused to children and easily shocked, so that if we had any what were regarded as daring or frilly clothes these were quickly put away and very plain, sensible clothes were substituted. I remember one of the American missionary's daughters was made a pretty frilly nightie by her mother, who made an identical one for me, but these were very frowned upon by the Miss Cousins and were said not to be suitable for young girls to wear.
Sheila aged 7 or 8
Sheila at Kalaw Missionary school
I also tried to run away from that school, an abortive attempt in which I was ostensibly supported by the other girls, but when it came to the point I was left to carry the burden on my own. In fact I had only got as far as putting one leg outside the bedroom window when the Miss Cousins came upstairs unexpectedly. It was passed off as my sleepwalking, which was difficult to explain as I had got a bag packed beside me! However I do not believe they ever realised I was trying to run away.
When the school finally folded up we were all mightily relieved. They were not cruel to us, but it was simply that we were all far too young to be left so far from home by our parents, and the two ladies concerned were not used to dealing with young children, and though we were well fed and looked after we suffered from a lack of physical contact and had no cuddles.
Having left the missionary school I was taken back to Rangoon where my mother managed to persuade some friends [Vernon and Ruth Donnison] to allow to me share their excellent governess [Frances Turnbull] with their daughter Annis Donnison. Miss Turnbull as she was known taught me to read in double-quick time and I have never ceased to be grateful to her, for it opened the door to all the books I had been longing to read. My life changed completely. I was in my own home, happy in the warmth of my family and my beloved nanny Milly who was half-Burmese and half-Eurasian. She was married but we saw very little of her husband who merely used to come and visit. She lived with us as a family, and indeed she used to sleep on the same bed in the afternoons with me for the afternoon rest, and read me chapter after chapter of schoolgirl stories which I adored. Eventually I learnt to read myself, and then I think she felt quite deprived as she enjoyed the schoolgirl stories as much as I did.
Robin, Sheila, Guli and Milly (Nanny) at 2 Derdham Park, Bristol 1935
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