WALK IN THE LIGHT
ant. These inspected the premises, and the only definite remark I heard was that the refrigerating chamber was on the small side. Well - I always knew that Americans loved iced foods. 2
This ability to see the lighter side of an otherwise grim situation must have stood him in good stead through the many difficulties he had to resolve during his period as principal.
Dr Gladys Wade To most of the students and staff the new headmistress, Dr Gladys Wade, seemed to keep whatever sense of humour she possessed hidden behind a stern and frosty exterior. Her extreme reserve and formal manner, stemming perhaps from shyness, meant that she made very few friends at the school and was thought to be unapproachable by many of the students and even the staff. She was a stickler for correct behaviour even to the point of obsession. She once summoned the director of the kindergarten, Mrs Liska Weir, to her office to complain that one of the four-year-olds had passed her in the park and had greeted her with a casual 'Hullo' instead of a formal 'Good afternoon, Dr Wade'. Dr Wade was forty-six when she became headmistress of MLC at the beginning of the 1941 school year. For the previous five years she had been deputy principal of MLC in Melbourne and had also been headmistress of a girls' school in Wales for two years. She was no stranger to Burwood; between 1918 and 1924 she had been a form mistress at the school and was, therefore, well known to Miss Sutton and to several ofthe longer serving members of staff. Her second period at MLC was to last almost twenty years - years during which she was to make a number of lasting changes and innovations to the organisation of the school. An only child and the daughter of parents who were themselves only children - a factor which may help to account for her reserve and aloofness - Gladys Wade was born and educated in Western Australia. She received a convent schooling and was among the first groups of students to attend the newly inaugurated University of Western Australia, from which she graduated with the degree of Master of Arts. She taught for two years in Perth before coming to MLC. On leaving MLC she travelled overseas and returned to teach again in Perth. However she received a scholarship to the University of London where she worked for four years on a thesis for a Ph.D. degree in English literature. Her thesis was on the religious poet, Thomas Trahearne, a subject that enabled her to develop and indulge both her religious and literary interests. Dr Wade, then, brought to her new job impressive qualifications and wide and relevant experience. Writing many years after her retirement, Dr Wade paid generous tribute to the high standards achieved by her predecessor and claimed that her main task was to maintain these standards. This she undoubtedly did; but the new headmistress very soon instituted changes that impressed her 122