Dorothea Beale: Principal of the Cheltenham Ladies' College, 1858-1906Shillito, Elizabeth Helen
History
Dorothea Beale: Principal of the Cheltenham Ladies' College, 1858-1906
Shillito, Elizabeth Helen
Beale, Dorothea, 1831-1906; Cheltenham Ladies' College
On the subject of marriage Dorothea Beale had very high ideals. She
urged girls to become independent by their own efforts, so that they
should never be tempted to a mercenary marriage. She was very scornful
of the type of modern novel that represents men and women as slaves of
their passions, unrestrained by the bonds of marriage or the claims of
morality. Before she finally accepted her vocation Dorothea Beale was
herself for a short time engaged to be married: but the engagement came
to an end, and the work of a great school, instead of a quiet home,
became her part in life.
Her literary activities were considerable. She wrote on a good many
subjects, but chiefly on those connected with her work. Some of her
essays were published in the College Magazine, others in periodicals.
All her work gives one much food for thought.
The Bishop of Stepney, at the memorial service held for Dorothea Beale
in St. Paul’s Cathedral, gave a very true epitome of the things that
Dorothea Beale stood for.
“She gave a proof that the personality of a teacher was the most
indispensable and enduring power in education. The main object of all
her work at Cheltenham and elsewhere was not so much to instruct the
mind as to inspire the character. She held before herself a clear ideal
of what a cultivated woman ought to be, strong and self-controlled,
filling her life with the highest interests, developing herself to the
utmost for the glory of God and the service of man.”
CHAPTER XI.
ANOTHER JOURNEY.
“The King there in His beauty
Without a veil is seen:
It were a well-spent journey
Though seven deaths lay between.”
--“Hymn from the last words of Samuel Rutherford.”
To those whose life is extended to even the lower limit of the
Psalmist, the world becomes rather sad and lonely. Gradually, one by
one, friends and relations of their own generation pass away, and there
are few left with the same memories and the same outlook. Dorothea
Beale enjoyed perhaps one of the greatest blessings life can give,
that of being able to work until the end. Like all energetic souls
she wished to die “in harness,” and that wish was granted. But on the
personal side her life had become very lonely, though it was brightened
by the love of her “children”.
Some months before the end she was haunted by the suspicion of fatal
disease, but of this others knew nothing. In the Guild meeting of 1906
there hovered the feeling that perhaps it was the last over which the
loved Principal, now old and frail, would preside. “Old Girls” linger
affectionately on her last speech; it was full of humorous touches, and
ripples of laughter were continually passing through the audience. In
it she made her appeal for greater earnestness, greater devotion, so
that all the Guild members might be able to say--using the motto of St.
Hilda’s, Oxford--_Non frustra vixi._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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