Reflections of Havergal: 1994-2019

A Woman of Rigorous Standards and Genuine Empathy

Trilby Kent, Class of 2001

she delighted in play. Not only was she willing to seat her young ladies in the branches of a tree, but she also had a creative side that revealed itself in her fanciful embellishment of women’s headwear. Overwhelming in her hats, [she] delighted in [the creations] she made from her “box of bits” ... She worked on the principle that if one rose or feather was attractive, then several would be even better—and particularly impressive as she walked up the aisle of St. Paul’s Church, [the girls in two lines] behind her. It was always questionable whether the latest top-heavy creation would stay in place during the walk, or when she bent over to hike up her skirt and retrieve her collection [money] from her petticoat pocket. Not confining her creativity to herself, she took every opportunity to improve her mistresses’ headgear. When Miss Bryan bought a new hat, Miss Knox announced, “It will be very nice when it has been trimmed.” Sending … for her box of bits, she worked on the bonnet until it sported a bird in full flight on the front. 7 Miss Knox did not live to see the school built, but her portrait has pride of place in the library that bears her name. She is remembered with deep gratitude as an inspiring leader, who, for 30 years, devoted herself to tending to the Havergal tree. Havergal’s first century was shaped by the terrible disruptions of two world wars, but also by wide-ranging social reforms, bold innovations in science and astonishing developments in communication technologies. Throughout those years, the Havergal tree was cared for by people deeply committed to the school, by its principals and Board of Governors, faculty and staff, Old Girls and parents, and, of course, its students. A mong the assorted memorabilia of Havergal’s archives are two century-old lace collars—perhaps the most tangible connections we have to the school’s First Principal. For archivist Debra Latcham, however, it is Ellen Knox’s letters and Ludemus editorials that most vividly conjure the woman who helped found the school’s rich history and traditions. “When I started organizing her archives, I just sat and read,” Latcham says. “Her letters are wonderful—you can really sense her personality and what sh expected of the girls, tha somehow they wo d better the world.” Ellen Mary Knox arrived in Toronto on August 25, 1894, with just two w eks to prepare a new sc ool at 350 Jarvis St. for the arrival f seven Boarders and 31 Day girls. The Board of Governors’ search for a “lady principal” had led them to the 36-year-old student teacher at Cheltenham Ladies’ College—a vicar’s daughter who had earned second-class honours in History and first-class honours in English in he Oxford exams. Within days of receiving their offer, she had cabled her r ply: “Knox ccepts.” Contemporary accounts reveal an enlightened and ambitious young educator with a lively s se of humou , an indomita le pirit and an unwavering dedicatio to women’s e ucat on. She doubled Havergal’s enrolment within her first year and soon after appointed a new generation of staff, including Edith Nainby and Marian Wood. The school’s early years were, in Knox’s own words, “a perilous undertaking.” Her first sight of the school was inauspicious: “The one spot of cheerfulness was a loaded crabapple tree under the stairc se window, making a splash of brightness in otherwise dispiriting surroundings.” She adapted that tree into an outdoor classroom, revealing the can-do spirit that would see her through the setback of a devastating fire a few years later. One young male student, embarrassed by being

Knox with Archdeacon Dr. Henry John Cody, Rector of St. Paul’s Anglican Church. Ellen Knox with Ar hdeacon D . Henry J hn Cody, Rector of St. Paul’s Anglican Churc .

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