e t u b i r T g n i t s a L A By Ian Robertson Alumni Manager
These beautiful stained glass windows would be a familiar sight to generations of Korovians from the 1940s to today, but what do they represent? The windows were given to the School as a memorial to Helen Felicity Anne Elder by her parents and sister, Marigold (Woodfield, Class of 1952). Felicity (as she was known), died when she was in Remove (Year 7) in August, 1944 following a serious illness. Her father, who was serving in the Australian Imperial Force (AIF), was able to come home from northern Australia to be with her in her final days. Felicity began at Korowa in Kindergarten in 1937. Her friend and fellow Korovian, Helen Hill (Blain, Class of 1950) remembers one lunchtime sitting on the oval with Felicity who exclaimed with great disdain, ‘Oh gosh I’ve got Marigold’s sandwiches’! She also remembers her porcelain complexion, blue eyes and golden red hair. In the 1944 Palm Leaf she was described as a girl with a ‘sweet smile and a confidingly trustful personality’ and being ‘of a gentle disposition’. Just prior to her death, she had been selected to play the part of the Mock Turtle in Alice in Wonderland and her mother had made her costume. Alas, it was never worn by Felicity as she was unable to appear due to her illness. In 1946, the windows were presented as a memorial to the School and were temporarily installed in the Assembly Hall (later known as Knox Hall) until they could be placed in a proposed new Memorial Assembly Hall that subsequently was never built. Therefore, the windows remained in their ‘temporary’ home until the demolition of Knox House in 1974. Following years in storage, the windows were reinstated in the Music Studio in the new Margaret McPherson Centre in 1990 where, as the School history, And, As We Journey states, ‘the light they throw continues to bring tender wonder to all who pass’ – such a fitting tribute to a life that was so tragically cut short.
Felicity Elder (left in the front row) photographed in Kindergarten 1938.
18
