Mary Abraham (OS 1944, Former Member of Staff)
The School was saddened to hear of the death of Miss Abraham on 10th May 2015, aged 96.
Miss Abraham taught at Stockport Grammar School between 1941 and 1944 and remained in contact with the school by letter.
An extract on Mary Abraham from Stuart Helm’s address at the 2014 Remembrance lunch:
I have a story that I would like to share with you.
Over the summer I received a letter from an elderly lady who had begun her teaching career at SGS.
In 1939 she had just begun a degree at Oxford when she decided to contact the Institute of Education in response to the government’s appeal to women to go into teaching and, as a result she found herself journeying up to Stockport for an interview and subsequent appointment to teach History to A level, French and Latin… and games.
The peak of her achievement was to referee a house match. At the five hundredth anniversary of the foundation she was approached by a very well dressed man who said to her, ‘I remember you. You sent me off the cricket pitch for un-gentlemanly behaviour’.
The lady’s name was Miss Mary Abraham and her letter goes on to talk about a boy called Gelsthorpe and another called Peter Firth. She talks about Albert Johnston and W. Payne in glowing terms and by all accounts enjoyed her time At SGS immensely.
I replied and, in due course came back a second letter the contents of which have particular significance for one of our company here today… Joe Barnes was Miss Abraham’s first Form Captain, who, it is alleged, was heard to say ‘Well if we have to have these aliens, (women), at SGS I had better make sure that the one allotted to this form is going to do the job properly’.
Needless to say it would seem that she did the job properly. However she moved on to Manchester High in 1944 Followed by two posts as Headmistress in all girls schools (Belvedere in Liverpool)
She concludes her second letter by saying she will be 95 years old this month.
