Class 1A JGHS

I found this photo on a CD disc which I unearthed to help his Lordship with photos for his latest oeuvre.
It is of class 1A at James Gillespie's High School for girls in the time of Methuselah, but at least after the time of Muriel Spark, (of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie fame).

Sadly the school as such is now no longer in existence having been made round about 1976  into a mixed comprehensive, which my own children then attended.

Back when this photo was taken, we were a class of 40 pupils, seated at serried ranks of desks  according to our prowess in the  dreaded weekly test, the best performing at the back and the weakest at the front.
Our education, directed at the whole class, was rigorous -Spelling, arithmetic, tables, and grammar first and foremost. I have never regretted the discipline, (not to mention the tables and the spelling ) that was instilled into us back then. Things have changed so much in the intervening years.

Although I changed schools two years after this photo was taken and I never saw these girls again, I still remember the names of most of them, even though I now easily forget the names of the people I've met last week.

When I look at all the faces, I wonder how they fared in life and if indeed they are still with us. It is possible that the little old lady with white hair and walking stick I pass in the street is a former classmate. How sad would that be as I remember them all those years ago.

If you spot the young Lady Findhorn amongst the 40, well done, but there will be no prizes on offer.