Through Richard Ellis, Jane's nephew, we are all still in regular contact, and here is a recent photo of the lovely lady who looked after us all back in the late fifties!
Jane now lives in Tasmania - and has lived down-under since the '60s. She married soon after arriving there, had two daughters and now has two great-grandchildren!
What takes me back, are so many memories of her little room opposite the bathroom, where Sister Jane would sit behind the table, possibly with Matron - Miss Reynolds - close by, and there would be neat stacks of boy's records, crepe bandages drying by the fire, verucca plasters, (which she made by cutting a tiny diagonal hole in the middle of a piece the size of a postage stamp), and of course, the 'poo-book'!
Jane remembers so many of us, so we have to be pretty careful on any comments, but when you think that some of us were still only about nine years old or thereabouts, we really needed the kindness and care which was always found in that little room! It was a haven for new boys, and I still have vivid recall of making any excuse to go and say a few words, and receive so much love, care and affection!
Almost everyone will have fond memories of Jane's time at HHS, and she regularly reads all these posts! Of course, she has several mentions in the earlier mags, and her signature is on a couple as well!
6 comments:
Just as an aside, when I said 'almost everyone', I mean that many contacts here will not have been there under her care, as Mary Kay took over as Sister when Jane left!
Mary is in one of the pics somewhere, sitting on the steps by the plunge bath, chatting with Miss Norcock!
We were all so fortunate in having such lovely ladies looking after us all!
Miss Reynolds taught me at H.H.S. pre-prep and then at Glengorse. She was a fantastic teacher, and I kept in touch with her until her death about ten years ago.
She is well-remembered here, too, Edward!
I think she was one of my friends' aunt, and I wish I'd known she was still around after so long!
I think she 'retired', and we had another lovely lady as Matron around 1960, who sadly had a few 'problems' later on - I can't remember her name either! Miss Reynolds then returned, but reminded us that she wasn't in fact Matron still!
That anon comment above is mine - bit of a cock-up on posting...
Mike A.
Well I never thought I would see this! My name is Richard Willis. How I remember Jane Ellis, and Ri hard for that matter. I was at Hydneye 1957 to 1963. We used to visit her family in East Dean I remember. Very nostalgic and so many names from posts on this site that I remember. Some fond, and not so fond of medical room, I recall hot poultice, syrup of figs, gentian violet lotion but a kind and caring atmosphere throughout. Hot rice and football in the yard.
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