Enid Mary Essame aka "Emma" Essame (5 December 1906 – 19 December 1999) was a British headmistress whose whole career was teaching at

Queenswood School Queenswood School is a girls-only independent school located near Hatfield, Hertfordshire, twenty miles from London. It offers admission at ages 11, 13 or 16 (for sixth form). The ''Good Schools Guide'' 2013 described Queenswood as "a girls' sc ...

. She led the school from 1944 to 1971.

Life

Essame was born in

Sheffield Sheffield is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is Historic counties o ...

in 1906. Her Anglican parents were Kate and Oliver Essame. She had an elder sister and two younger brothers. Her father was a clerk for the railways and this caused the family to move to Newarke. She had spent nearly all her life in Leicester attending St Barnabas primary school and then becoming a scholarship girl at

Wyggeston Grammar School for Girls Regent College was a sixth form college in Leicester, England. The college was formed in 1976 as the ''Wyggeston Collegiate Sixth Form College'' and was renamed ''Regent College'' in 1996. It was merged into the nearby Wyggeston and Queen Eli ...

and the move to Newarke meant that she had to repeat a year at the Lilley and Stone High School for Girls. Her good school results resumed and she won a scholarship to attend

Newnham College Newnham College is a women's constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1871 by a group organising Lectures for Ladies, members of which included philosopher Henry Sidgwick and suffragist campaigner Millicent ...

in Cambridge in 1925. An additional grant and a year under

King's College, London King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public research university located in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of King George IV and the Duke of Wellington. In 1836, King's ...

and she was a qualified teacher; and unemployed.

Pernel Strachey Pernel Strachey or Joan Pernel Strachey (4 March 1876 – 19 December 1951) was an English scholar of French and Principal of Newnham College. Life Strachey was born in Clapham Common in London in 1876. She came from a large family led by Lieuten ...

at Newnham told her to apply to

after her other applications failed to get her a job. Ethel Trew at Queenswood gave her a job teaching. Trew's school in Hertfordshire was a private boarding school for girls and it had 240 students. By 1934 she had been identified as Trew's replacement as head of the school. The school paid for her to have a sabbatical and to obtain grants so that she could tour schools in the US and conduct research. She wrote up her observations as "A Comparative Study of the Aims and Objectives of American and British Education for Girls". She found that American schools allowed their girls more freedom and gave them less discipline than British schools. The girls were allowed more intellectual freedom and did not have such intensive character training. On the journey home she chanced to meet

Baron Stamp Baron Stamp, of Shortlands in the County of Kent, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1938 for the civil servant, industrialist, economist, statistician and banker, Sir Josiah Stamp. The second Baron, Wilfred Carl ...

who was the chair of the Queenswood governors. They spent many hours together planning the future of the school. Queenswood's original school building and the head's house burnt down in 1936 and they were replaced with a nearly identical building. Her boss Ethel Trew had many successes but she took too many years to retire. Essame turned down other offers of headships as she waited over ten years for Trew to begin to partially retire in 1944. Even then Trew retained parts of the management including the school's estate. She had built herself a retirement home in the school grounds. Trew appointed a manager for the estate and he stole some of the school's money. Trew fully retired in 1948 and died shortly afterwards. Essame was inspiring to the school's supporters and new money was found to support the school. She was in demand to represent the

British Council The British Council is a British organisation specialising in international cultural and educational opportunities. It works in over 100 countries: promoting a wider knowledge of the United Kingdom and the English language (and the Welsh lan ...

and she was sent abroad to India and Pakistan, Nigeria and Russia. In 1957 she went to America again and this was the same year that a new science block and library were added to Queenswood. Three years later she became the President of the Association of Headmistresses of Boarding Schools. She had already been their honorary secretary and she held this post until 1964. Essame served as head until 1971 and she was succeeded by Margaret Ritchie. Essame died in Potters Bar Community Hospital in 1999.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Essame, Enid 1906 births 1999 deaths People from Sheffield British educators