Hilda R. F. Cowie died in Sutton, Surrey in 1965, aged 93. "Miss Cowie" had been a teacher and for 24 years, from its foundation to her retirement in 1943, was head mistress of Durham Girls County School
The carefully saved clip of her obituary, that I found amongst my great aunts' belongings suggested that she had been a significant figure in the lives of Lillian and Nancy Thompson and their elder sister Marjorie who had all attended the school.
Little further information is available about "Miss Cowie" but the history of the Durham Girls County School is an interesting one. It was formed in 1918 when Durham's highly unusual mixed grammar school was split into separate boys and girls schools.
Mixed sex education at this level was very rare at the time as was the school's scientific and technical focus and endeavour to provide as much access as possible to poorer families.
