In 1991, The Glasgow Academy merged with The Westbourne School for Girls and became fully co-educational some 145 years after it was first discussed whether it would be “found advisable to admit girls”.
The school Archive contains records relating to the former Westbourne School from its inception in 1877 until 1991, as well as a large volume of information relating to Academy life. During the course of sifting through the diverse material in the collection, a wonderful scrapbook from Westbourne School has been discovered, which seems to date from between 1933 until around 1939.
During the Jubilee year of 1937, some examples of sewing were displayed at the Scottish Pavilion of the Empire Exhibition under the watchful eye of Miss Wilson, the sewing mistress who taught the girls for 30 years before her retirement in 1937. There was clearly a lot of talent which existed within the school at that time and the curriculum included classes such as nature study, handwork, art, sewing, music and movement, and other creative endeavours.
The scrapbook is a lovely example of monochrome lino prints by the schoolgirls and shows a diverse range of talent at the point just before the start of the second World War. 14 year old Marjorie Kirsteen Borland (known as Kirsteen) was the head girl in 1941 and left the school after 10 years of study having passed her “senior leaving certificate” examination.
She later went on to marry Architect John Charles (Jack) Holmes in 1954 whom she had met whilst studying for her degree in Architecture at Glasgow. Kirsteen also studied town planning in London and during the latter part of the 1960s and early 1970s, worked on development plans for town and county councils, the Highlands and Islands Development Board and the Scottish Office. In 1977, she became the first woman to become part of the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland Committee then was later elected as the Convener of the Environment Committee of the Glasgow Institute of Architects.
The scrapbook has several examples of her work, and that of her classmates.
Comments