Annie Kendall (Headmistress/Early advocate for girls’ education)

 

Prize volume book-plate from The High School Plymouth pasted into a 2 volume edition of The Life of Christ by Frederic William Farrar. The book-plate reads:

The High School Plymouth

Senior English Prize 

Gained by Catherine Square Smids (?) 1875

Annie ? Kendall

Head Mistress

Miss Annie Kendall was the first Head Mistress of the High School for girls in Plymouth (UK). She was an early advocate for modern girls’ education, seeking high standards and broader horizons

She was described as: 'A remarkable woman of great culture and attractive appearance, always well-dressed. Her piercing blue eyes ‘looked straight through you, though sometimes dancing with fun’. They gleamed beneath her thick wavy grey hair covered with the habitual lace cap. She was very progressive and maintained excellent discipline. 

It seems that Annie Kendal was an exception compared to the other teachers of the school: Frances Gray, who went on to become famous and esteemed for being the first, and founding headmistress of the country’s leading girls' school, St Paul’s London, described the teachers in 1878 as: “tired looking mistresses in their thick serge, close-fitting, high-necked bodices, and long, dusty trains sweeping the floor".

Annie Kendall was one of eight founders of the Head Mistress Association. She held a First Class honours Higher Cambridge Local Certificate, with Bevet d’Aptitude from the Hotel de Ville, Paris, and a Brevet de Capacite from the Sorbonne.'

She stepped down as Headmistress in 1886 and opened Plymouth College for Girls on the Hoe. The school remained in existence until the outbreak of World War 2.

Unfortunately no information can be found, as yet, about the recipient of the prize book Catherine Square Smids (?)