Tribute to Miss Marjorie Sawdon

by Mark Hewlett

In Rawlins: The First Three Hundred Years one of Marjorie Sawdon's former pupils wrote; "The greatest influence in my time at Rawlins was undoubtedly the headmistress, Miss Sawdon. She really made the school what it was. She knew every pupil and took a personal interest in everyone's progress. She was always there to support and guide with her absolute integrity, farsightedness and determination that girls should find their rightful place in society."

This judgement is confirmed by other pupils of that era who knew her as an admirable figurehead and, at the same time, someone who was a positive influence at a personal level - someone who imbued in her pupils the sense that she cared for them and thus influenced how they acted and behaved as individuals.

Incisive, determined and acknowledged as a formidable intellect, Miss Sawdon, Headmistress, led the school with distinction and humanity. She represented for many a golden age of education: an age of good order, respect, and politeness. Pictures of her time show groups of girls going about their work in brisk and businesslike fashion, demure in dress, respectful in demeanour, and, we assume, polite in speech, models of what young people should be, Those were the days. They illustrate an age to which many now look back with longing.

But Marjorie would have admonished those beguiled by the superficial image. Rawlins Girls Grammar School did not represent the whole picture of education of that time. Quoting again from Rawlins: The First 300 Years: "For many, the prospect of comprehensive education was horrifying". Miss Sawdon quite properly argued for the interests of the staff and pupils to whom she had devoted so much energy, but she was not wedded to outmoded practice. Beneath the traditional exterior was a radical educator who accepted that things must change for the benefit of the majority. She had the insight and vision to understand what needed to be done, and she managed the potentially problematical transition from girls' grammar to mixed comprehensive with astute judgment.

After Rawlins, Marjorie stayed in Quorn to which she was affectionately attached, and devoted herself energetically to raising funds for enclosing the swimming pool which remains a valued facility for everyone in Quorn. Her interest in the academic did not wane and she joined the Quorn Literary Group which met on a regular basis to discuss literature seriously; her contribution to this group continued energetically into her last year. She was a regular attender at St. Bartholomew's and enjoyed the sense of permanence and repose which the Church gave.

A faultless model of perfection? "Marjorie, it really is time you gave up smoking", as her friends would berate her. With her self-deprecatory humour she would have been amused at being represented as a model of perfection and modestly dismissed the accolade, but she may well not have realised the significance of her life.

Now Marjorie is no longer with us, what is her legacy? Most obviously, abundant public respect: she represented and instilled in those she worked with, values which are as essential today as yesterday: rationality, honesty and discipline. But more important was her personal integrity, her affection and her kindness, which will be missed by her many close friends.