A Rainbow At Clarendon A heartfelt tribute to Sheila Haughton, Headmistress of Clarendon School 1965-78 Miss Sheila Haughton, Headmistress of Clarendon School 1965-78, died on 18th September 2010, aged 92, in Bridgemead Nursing home (of which she had been a founder trustee) and where she had been living for the past 4 years. This article is a contribution from Margaret Tufnell and Pat Moss and it shares what Old Clarendonians have said and written about Miss Haughton. Each of these snapshots could be enlarged by the hundreds of girls who could add another experience – adding yet a greater depth of focus to the pictures shared by many.
* * * How do you describe a rainbow? All the different colours that make it such a thing of beauty reminds Pat Moss of Sheila and the varied facets of her character that made her what she was: “a really lovely person” as one member of staff at Bedford called her.
Sheila was an only child. She knew disruption in her family life in her early years but by the age of 12 had a genuine Christian faith. She always wanted to obey God, even when the way He led was not what she had intended. If that had not been true she would never have gone to Clarendon! Pat remembers when in August 1960 Sheila and her were both helping at a Girl Crusader Camp at Clarendon in Kinmel Hall. “We talked about Clarendon and agreed that the last thing we would choose to do would be to teach in a boarding school and even if we did they would certainly not choose somewhere as much in the wilds as Clarendon! We decided GOD was having a laugh in Heaven as by the time we met at the GCU Leaders’ conference next May we both knew that that was exactly where we were going to be teaching the next September!” Margaret Tufnell remembers Miss Haughton’s letters after they’d left school. “In one letter she asked me to just call her Sheila. On paper that was OK, but I didn’t feel I could call her that face to face; after all she’d been my Headmistress! I remember visiting her in Combe Down soon after our first son had started at Monkton Combe. I think she had seen me parking, and this diminutive figure came out of the house to greet me. Her arms were spread wide as she reached up to embrace me and to kiss me on both cheeks saying, “I hope you don’t mind, everyone seems to do this these days!” I called her Sheila after that!” Sheila was a very good headmistress and teacher. She was able to see the potential in her pupils. “She had more faith in me than Miss Swain did,” said one. “She believed in my ability to do
26 Monkton Magazine
Science A levels, do a Biology Degree and was pleased when I went on to get a PhD. She treated each of us as an individual and nurtured incipient ability.” One of the valuable things Miss Haughton did for the school was to see how she might involve the girls in things outside of school because they were pretty cut off and protected from the outside world at Clarendon in North Wales. She introduced Rangers and the Duke of Edinburgh Awards scheme. Some asked if they might meet up with Rydal College, and yes, she even accommodated that. Girls started taking part in outside competitions in Elocution, Maths and Music. Sheila was outward looking and realised the need to help us meet people outside the school gates. One word that comes over and over again is the word encouragement. She believed in her pupils and encouraged them to accept a challenge. She was good at assessing the strengths and weaknesses of her staff members and allocating tasks accordingly not necessarily ones they found easy but those which they could find more of trusting the Lord. How often Sheila was sought for her wisdom and deep understanding of people. Whatever the problem whether personal or to do with the House or with academic matters she always made time to share and advise. Two things that possibly increased Sheila’s sensitivity to those in need may have been that she was adopted and also in her first term at Clarendon her best friend died of cancer. She was kind and fair, down-toearth, and had a good sense of humour; but the following stories show her deep understanding