21/11/2024
Black and White photo of the Class of 1946. First year after returning from the evacuations of WWII. The girls were approximately 11 or 12, according to Madeleine Mitchell Rishton, who submitted today's photos of her mother, Josephine Wood, at the Convent. Josephine was born in 1934.
Back row L-R: Pauline Wheeler, Sylvia Saville, Anne Marie Cahouet, Pamela Tonkin, Janet King, Monica Young.
Front row L-R: Joyce Halifax, Josephine Wood (Madeleine's mother), Jean Richardson, Pauline Downes and Helen Robinson.
It should be noted that during WWII most children were shipped out of London. Marist Convent and Putney Girls' school students were evacuated to West Byfleet where local schools had been commandeered to host the London refugees. The Marist students and the billeted Sisters were sent initially to a house called the "The Knowle" on Madeira Road. They eventually settled into a larger house called "The Gables", on the Corner of Sheerwater Rd and Old Woking Rd where they stayed for the entire duration of the war.
After the war, the students returned back to London. This photo would likely have been of their first year back home in the city.
Before the Marist Sisters decided to purchase The Gables in 1947, it had been rented by the American High Command and was a base for General Dwight Eisenhower.
The house was torn down after the war. But a new Marist Convent school was later built on the same site. It remains there to this day.
Further information on the evacuations of women and children from South London during the war from 1939-1945 can be found in Iain Wakeford's article at:https://wokinghistory.org/onewebmedia/170106.pdf
Many thanks to Madeleine Mitchell Rishton for submitting today's photos of her mother Josephine Wood, (1934-2004), RIP.
