Salve Magistra.

Miss David who taught me Latin at Kingswood Grammar School died recently. She was an inspirational teacher and I have happy memories of her Latin class. Unfortunately after a couple of terms, I was moved out of Miss David's class into one taken by Miss Morrison. Latin was Miss Morrison's reserve subject: she usually taught gym and bounced around the school in daps and grey pleated shorts. I have no fond memories of her. She decided she had a cure for my scoliosis (a congenital curvature of the spine) and would repeatedly tell me to "stand up straight" (impossible) and even wrote on my report "bad posture!" 

Miss David was different. When I started at KGS in 1948 we were still recovering from the war and clothes were rationed. In her knitted purple frock with its full swirly skirt Miss David brought a splash of colour into our very drab world. She was glamour personified. "Salvete puellae et pueri" she would say as she entered the room, smiling. "Salve Magistra" the class would chorus dutifully in reply. At the end of the lesson if we were "good" - which we generally were, because her enthusiasm made Latin so interesting,  she would read to us from Victi - "The Conquered" - Naomi Mitchison's story about the Roman occupation of Britain, the adventures of a centurion and his British slave. I never heard the end of the story then because I was moved into purgatario with the aforementioned Fanny Morrison. Many years later I was in Fort William on holiday and came across "the book" in a second hand shop. I immediately bought it and rectified the situation. I have it on my shelves today.

You've probably guessed the outcome too. I failed Latin "O" Level. It has always been my intention to retake it – now that I am retired I may have a try, perhaps in memory of the lovely Miss David. Requiescat in Pace.

Doreen Lindegaard (Pillinger) 1948-53

(A version of this piece was printed in KOSA News, the Journal of KGS old scholars. My thanks to the editor for his kind permission to reprint it. Did you go to KGS or more recently Kingsfield as it now is? If so, do get in touch.)