THE REPTON HISTORIAN - Repton School

THE
 REPTON
HISTORIAN

About the newsletter…

This month’s edition of The Repton Historian surrounds the theme of women, as the
month of March is dedicated to celebrating women's accomplishments throughout
history. We felt it was important to focus on strong, independent women who each have
remarkable stories to tell, some of which may have been overlooked. We also took this
opportunity to share with you the thoughts from the first girls at Repton, who paved the
way for the co-educational school we have today. We hope you enjoy reading!

From Lijana Cope and Lucy Williamson, Field House U6th

   Contents:                               Book recommendation:

   - The People’s Princess By              Hearts and Minds by
   Francesca Lightfoot, 4G, p2-3           Jane Robinson.
   - This month's film review: A Call
   to Spy, By Izzy Archer, L6M             A fascinating account of
   - Historical Figure of the Month:       one of the lesser known
   Margaret Hamilton, By Ellen             moments in the 1910s
   Clark, 3M                               ‘suffragist’ movement,
   - Have you heard of… Mata               Robinson tells the story of
   Hari, By Ella Anastasiou, L6M, p8-9     the six-week protest march
   - A piece of Repton                     dubbed ‘The Great
   history: Recollections of girls at      Pilgrimage’ as women in
   Repton School, By Ava Marriott,         Britain demanded the right
   4F, p10-11                              to vote. Using primary
                                           sources to bring the event
                                           to life, the story if dramatic
                                           and emotional and a must-
                                           read for anybody
                                           interested in women’s
                                           history in 20th century
                                           Britain.

Themed Article of the
  Month: The People's
  Princess- Princess Diana
  – Article by Francesca
  Lightfoot, 4G

The ‘People’s Princess’, better known as Princess Diana, was the Princess of Wales, and was
married to Prince Charles, the heir to the British throne. In 1996, Princess Diana and Prince
Charles divorced, after having two sons together, Prince William and Prince Harry. Diana
died on August 31 st, 1997, after sustaining injuries after being involved in a car crash.

A prominent philanthropic force, Princess Diana, used her fame to help to create awareness
on many humanitarian issues and worked for many charities. One of the humanitarian
issues she actively worked for was HIV and AIDS. HIV/AIDS was first ‘discovered’ properly in
the early 80s, and patients were disdained and stereotyped because of the disease’s stigma
attached to it. However, Princess Diana was not apprehensive about creating awareness for
HIV/AIDS. One of Princess Diana’s most memorable moments was when she used her
influential platform to send a bold message to the world. When shaking the hand of a HIV
positive patient, without gloves, she proved that the disease could not be transmitted by
touch. This selfless act of kindness to the people suffering from being stigmatised with HIV
or AIDS, widely changed people’s perceptions towards the disease.

Princess Diana had many outstanding qualities, one of them being altruism: “Anywhere I see
suffering, that is where I want to be, doing what I can”. Princess Diana wanted to spread
kindness all around and believed that giving a little gives you more happiness and
fulfilment than taking.

Another one of Princess Diana’s selfless work branches was becoming the patron of
Centrepoint; this helped the young and homeless to stay off the streets. The Princess
frequently visited shelters, taking her two boys with her. Whilst doing this she used her
fame to raise money for the young and homeless. The Princess was passionate about the
mission she set out to do, which was to create a future for young adolescents and end
youth homelessness, poverty, and raise awareness of mental health.

Princess Diana wanted the people to know that she didn’t use her fame in a negative way,
but instead to exhibit problems in the world “Nothing brings me more happiness than trying
to help the most vulnerable people in society. It is a good and essential part of my life, a kind
of destiny.” Diana did this by manifesting her kind-hearted and thoughtfulness on to others;
this key quote proffers a crucial moral to be learnt and a moral which Diana wanted to
share - she wanted the public to be more cautious of other people around them, and how
your actions can have a big effect on others, good and bad.

In 1997, Diana walked through one of `halo’s minefields’, which is an organisation that
helps countries recover after conflict. Princess Diana helped the Angolan landmine issue
evelate to international prominence, which spiralled into the signing of the Ottawa Mine
Ban Treaty, calling for all countries to unite to rid the world of landmines. Similar to the
visit Diana made to the active landmines in Angola, she also visited Sitanala Leprosy
Hospital in Indonesia; this was also highly controversial, just like HIV/AIDS were.
The princess unbothered about the naysayers, proceeded to sit on the beds of patients
with leprosy in the hospital; she would shake their hands, touch the wounds of the
patients. However, by doing this Diana influenced a spark of cognizance around the
world. Princess Diana was the Patron of The Leprosy Mission in England and Wales from
1990 until 1997.

I think her main aim was a non-prejudice society “the greatest problem in the world today
is intolerance. Everyone is so intolerant of each other”.

People, from all backgrounds and classes, respected her all throughout her career and
viewed her as the ‘People’s Princess’ because of her charitable work. She was a majorly
influential woman because she was the embodiment of a person who just wanted to do
good for others; Diana famously said, “carry out some random act of kindness, with no
expectation of reward, safe in the knowledge that one day someone might do the same for
you”. She made people feel welcome, loved, and wanted to portray a normal person to
the public “call me Diana, not Princess Diana”.

Diana was a role-model to children, women, men, parents, and everything in-between.
Her dedication and effort put into her charitable work made her the ‘People’s Princess’
because she cared about equality and wanted to remove stigmatization of all accounts.

Film Review: A Call to Spy
- Article by Izzy Archer, L6M

 ‘Get used to lady spies’- SOE officer to grumbling male intelligence agents.

 A Call to Spy is a propulsive historical drama, inspired by true events, written by
 Sarah Megan Thomas and directed by Lydia Dean Pilche. This film is particularly
 fitting for the theme of this month’s newsletter of Women’s History. The film explores
 the lives of three remarkable women who courageously and effectively served as
 spies for the Allied nations during WWII, and the sheer culture of sexism which
 existed during the second world war, in society’s attitudes to the role and capabilities
 of women.

 With Winston Churchill becoming desperate in the losing fight against the Nazis, in
 1941, he ordered the recruitment and training of women spies into the Special
 Operations Executive – a secret organisation created in 1940 out of necessity after
 the fall of France to the Nazis. Secretary of the Special operations, Vera Atkins,
 manages to successfully persuade her male colleagues to recruit Virginia Hall, an
 American and aspiring diplomat with a prosthetic leg, which fails to define her
 capabilities as a spy, and Noor Inayaat Khan, a Muslim pacifist, talented wireless
 operator and India-born Sufic mystic respectively.

 Hall is first to be sent into action and is located in Vichy France, to contact agents
 and help them escape, and is soon sent to Lyon, where she organises attacks and
 assists agents as they pass through. Whilst Khan soon follows, despite being
 underprepared, her specialism in signals proves absolutely vital to the war effort, and
 she heads to Paris where disaster unfortunately awaits. With forged papers,
 elaborate cover stores, and almost zero organisational support from back home,
 they are truly on their own. Both women are incredibly courageous and in an
 inexplicably dangerous environment, where one in three British spies in France were
 killed, and they prove themselves crucial assets to the French resistance.

The production of the film is particularly impressive in recreating the setting of the time
depicted. With period interiors and ephemera truly allowing the audience to dive deep
into the 1940’s. The film evidently creates a clear feminist statement for the liberation
of women in the arts. With a mostly female cast and production team, A Call to Spy,
effectively focuses on the skills and capabilities of women, in whatever situation they
are in.

It is also important to note that all three central characters had very clear aspirations
and dreams in life, with Hall wishing to be the first diplomat with a prosthetic leg, Khan
a Muslim pacifist children’s book writer, and Atkins to gain British identity as a Jewish-
Romanian in an anti-Semitic Britain. It is clear that these women had aspirations, but
the war ultimately transformed their lives, for the better; these women are now
remembered for helping to change the course of history and undermine the Nazi
regime in France.

The film went on to win the Audience Choice Award in record numbers at Whistler Film
Festival, and it also received an award from the Alliance of Women Film Journalists. As
well as this, the film achieved awards at the Edinburgh International Film Festival, the
Santa Barbara International film festival and the UK Jewish Film Festival respectively. My
favourite quote from the film is definitely, ‘Don’t you know yet? It is your light that lights
the world’. I believe it’s vital that we remember the courageous and dedicated people
who were willing to put their lives at risk to defeat the Nazis, in particular these women,
who defied the stereotypes of spies and demonstrated the sheer impact women could
have in regard to war effort, proving highly inspiration to all women for years to come.
It is a highly captivating and inspiration film, and it is thus no surprise to me that the
film received so much popularity, I would highly recommend A call to Spy to all, and I
believe it’s truly important to watch, to commemorate the immense bravery and
sacrifices these women made.

Historical Figure of the
  Month: Margaret
  Hamilton
  – Article by Ellen Clark, 3M

Margaret Hamilton was an American computer scientist, systems engineer and business
owner. Despite her not being extremely well known she played one of the most significant
roles in ensuring that the July 20th , 1969 moon landing went accordingly to plan. She, as a
woman and a mother, led the team which amounted to 100 software programmers, to
creating the onboard flight software for the Apollo missions.

At the time when Margaret was studying at university, computer software was not taught
and was not seen as an established job to have, especially for women. Therefore, she
studied philosophy and mathematics at Earlham College where she met her husband,
James Hamilton. Whilst James was studying for a law degree at Harvard university,
Margaret took a job at Massachusetts Institute of technology (MIT). Here she began
programming software to predict the weather. Ultimately, this is what kickstarted her
passion for computer science and coding. In the mid 1960’s, just a few years after she
started her job at MIT, she had already created numerous codes for various types of
technology such as the world’s first portable computer. This code was then adapted to
form many of the codes we use for technology nowadays. Her work at MIT influenced the
whole creation of computer science.

As a result of her success working for MIT, she took a job at SAGE. At the time, the Cold
War was in progress so detecting potential Soviet airstrikes was critical for the US’s
triumph in the war. Hamilton worked alongside a team of software geniuses’ who all
played a major role in this effort. After showing her potential in this area of work, she was
faced with one final task before securing her place within the SAGE organisation. Every
newcomer was faced with a program designed to be almost impossible which had
encoded comments in Greek and Latin making it that much harder. No one had yet
managed to get it to run but Hamilton changed this. She managed to decrypt the code
and get the programme running consequently securing her place in the
organisation. After working for just a couple of years here she then saw an announcement
that they were searching for people to programme the space craft which would take 3
astronauts to the moon.

She was the very first woman to be appointed to a job programming for the space
craft. There were already men working on the project, but they were hardware
engineers unlike her who had experience in this specific type of programming. During
the evenings and weekends, Hamilton would work for hours in perfecting the code,
often bringing her 4-year-old daughter along with her. Hamilton did not want the
software to just be regular, she wanted it to be the best that it could be so that it
could be capable of solving unknown problems and switching from one task
to another depending on the urgency. This is what made her one of the best software
creators, she was determined, she loved her job and she put all her energy into
achieving the task at hand.

Throughout the time when Hamilton was leading up to work on the NASA project,
software engineering was not a degree in many universities. In fact, no universities ran
courses for computer science. This was until Purdue university created a computer
science course in 1962 and ran it as a graduate level program. With no lessons to go
to or professors to check material or information with, referring to textbooks was
never a real option for Margaret. She had to come up with new solutions using her
own knowledge from past programs. Following this, Margaret renamed this process
and called it Software Engineering as she believed what they worked on had just as
much importance as a regular engineer’s job and consisted of just as much
engineering.

All of Margaret’s hard work was paid off when Apollo 11 successfully landed on the
moon. This is not to say that it was an easy and stress-free journey to get there
though. Just as Apollo 11 was about to land on the moon multiple alarms started
siring, showing that the computer was overloaded. Margaret had not come across this
situation before meaning that she did not have a solution for it. However, the
software which Hamilton had spent hours on finessing not only alerted every one of
the problem but also fixed it by restarting and re-establishing the highest priority
tasks. Without this, the moon landing could have gone terribly wrong, but
Hamilton’s pioneering programme meant that this did not happen. After the coding
created by Hamilton proved itself in the Apollo 11 moon landing, parts of it were then
used to create Skylab, the first space station, and in various other space shuttle
stations. Margaret also set up Higher Order Software and Hamilton technologies
which are the names of two business she created using her expertise from past
experiences and jobs.

Margaret Hamilton had several achievements throughout her lifetime which led on to
her achieving many high-ranking awards. In 2003 she was honoured with the NASA
Exceptional Space Act Award which acknowledged her massive input into software
development. As part of the award, they granted her with $37,200 which is the biggest
sum of money they have ever awarded. Another achievement of many was the ‘Medal
of Freedom’ awarded to her by Barack Obama in 2017. The workings of Hamilton and
the way in which she lived her life have taught us many things. One being the power
of women. She entered a male dominated industry, knowing that there would
be challenges along the way, but she did not let this stop her. In fact, she used it as
motivation to do even better than everyone else could. By doing this she has opened
so many other doors for women just like her, who have the same interests, so that
they can make more advances in software engineering.

Have you heard of…
Mata Hari
- Article by Ella Anastasiou, L6M

Mata Hari was born as Margaretha Geertruida Zelle she became a Dutch exotic dancer
in Paris who was later convicted of being a German spy during WWI. Her story ended
tragically with her execution by a firing squad despite many people believing her
innocent and used as a scapegoat by the French.

After her tragic childhood culminating with her mother’s death, she went to live with her
godfather, Mr Visser in Sneek. Zelle trained to be a kindergarten teacher until she was
removed from the school by her offended Godfather who had learnt of the headmasters
inappropriate flirting with Zelle, this theme of inappropriate relationships became a
common occurrence in her life. At 18 she decided to get married and answered an
advertisement from Dutch Colonial Army Captain Rudolf MacLeod in the paper whom
she married in Amsterdam in July 1895. This marriage allowed Zelle to move into the
Dutch upper class and have a secure financial footing. She had two children; however,
the marriage was a failure as MacLeod was an alcoholic who frequently beat his wife
and openly kept a concubine, which was acceptable at the time in the Dutch East Indies.
However, Zelle was disillusioned and temporarily moved in with another officer. She
moved back in with Rudolf whose treatment towards his wife never changed until their
children became ill with syphilis which is believed had been contracted from their
parents and one of the children sadly died. There were rumours that they had been
poisoned. The couple officially separated in 1902 after moving back to the Netherlands
and divorced in 1906. Originally, Zelle had custody of their daughter however, after a
visit from Rudolf Jeanne was never returned and Zelle was unable to fight the custody
and accepted it. Jeanne died at 21 possibly to the same cause as her brother.

In 1903, Zelle moved to Paris and became a show woman. By 1904 she had begun to
gain fame as an exotic dancer, she had had some dance training in the Dutch East Indies
where she had first decided on the stage name Mata Hari, which in the local language
translated to ‘sun’. Mata Hari became an overnight success as she flaunted her body as
a model and in her acts. She was flirtatious and became the long-term mistress of the
millionaire industrialist Emile Etienne Guimet, who had founded the Musee. She became
very popular and her most anticipated segment was when she stripped. Hari made up
claims about her life in order to make her seem more exotic and enticing, she claimed
to be a Japanese princess of priestly Hindu birth. Her act was respected and helped
elevate these performances and raise them in esteem and respect in Parisian society
which Paris later became famous for this style of entertainment. Hari’s claims were taken
to be true, and she was seen as exotic this was due to the general ignorance about the
Dutch East Indies.

By about 1910 her career began to decline due to imitators and she began to grow in
disdain by many of the cultural institutions who felt she did not know how to dance.
By 1915 her dancing career was over, but she had become successful as a courtesan,
she was with many powerful men: politicians, officers and her work took her across
borders. However, once WWI broke out many viewed her as a dangerous seductress
as she was an anomaly with her freedom to move about.

Her ability to cross borders and her previous work as a courtesan is what led her to
become a spy for France. The Deuxieme Bureau believed she could seduce and get
answers from the Kaisers son whom she had previously met. The Princes involvement
was minimal, and it was German propaganda that had led them to believe he was
more involved. Zelle’s main contact was Georges Ladoux, who later became one of her
main accusers. Zelle was offered one million francs to spy for France and give them
good intelligence from the Prince however, it is unclear if she ever produced any
information to help the German effort.

In November 1916, she was detained and questioned in Falmouth. But after informing
them that she worked for the French, she was then released. It is still not clear if she
lied to sound more intriguing or if the French refused to acknowledge her due to the
international backlash it would cause. She then met with the German military attaché
to try and get a meeting with the crown price. Zelle then apparently sold French
information to the Germans, although it was nothing worthy just the Paris gossip. The
Germans then sent a code they were aware had been cracked by the French
implicating Zelle as agent H-21 as they had grown tired of her useless information
and gossiping.

In Feb 1917, she was arrested and accused of spying for the Germans and therefore,
causing the death of over 50,000 soldiers. There was no definitive evidence, so they
used her previous lies from when she was a dancer as proof of her immoral and
dubious character. Zelle, under interrogation, admitted she had taken money from the
Germans, but it was unclear if she had actually given them any information. She was
convicted and sentenced to death by a firing squad. Before they fired, she defiantly
blew a kiss at the firing squad. In 2001, MI5 tried to get the French to exonerate her as
she was not the reason over 50,000 soldiers died despite her spying for France.

Repton History:
Recollections of Girls at
Repton School
– Article by Ava Marriott, 4F

In the Michaelmas term of 1970, Repton began admitting girls and by the 1990s, the
school was fully co-educational. One of the first two girls to have joined wrote an article
about her first experiences at Repton. In the article, she wrote how it felt walking to
Repton for the first time and how she experienced an overwhelming “sickly feeling” in her
stomach being surrounded by 500 boys and only her friend for company. However, she
soon discovered that the boys were “shy, docile creatures” – perhaps more shy than they
themselves felt. They soon settled and compared Repton School with a girls’ boarding
school. She valued the fact that personal opinions were appreciated and were more
discussed as well as having free thought, whereas a typical girls’ boarding school would
have dictated lessons and be educated “parrot-fashion.”

She describes the schooling as “not only a more interesting way to learn but encourages
much more initiative and individual development”. The girls noted that as time went on,
the boys began to sing more “jovial songs” on the coaches. And they enjoyed being
involved in “outings, music, debates and lectures or any other form of entertainment.” She
wrote how it can feel easy being segregated from the rest of the school as they “do not
live in and are not attached to a house”. Yet, they had “good communications and
relationships with the houses.” They spoke of “inter-house loyalties and rivalry” as to who
they will support. They hoped that in the future, they “will be able to join in many of the
activities” as there were no events for the girls to do. However, they did not want to not
join in football or hockey as they felt it would be “far safer” to continue to watch.

The boys were said to be bigger gossipers than the girls after a term. But she felt this
would stop when having girls at Repton wouldn’t be such a “new phenomenon”, and The
Times would document it as “more the normal thing!” She expresses that the boys’
“politeness” and their acceptance of girls into Repton was “most admirable.” Girls being
admitted to Repton was an experiment at the time and she reiterates her hope that one
day, girls at Repton “will soon be accepted as a permanent feature of Repton life.” The
successful trial of admitting girls into Repton impacted the role females have in society
today. Girls’ inclusion into schools brought about a positive change and allowed them the
right to a good education at a time when it was looked down upon. Enabling women the
right to an education, resulted in more females graduating and acquiring degrees as well
as achieving high-end and high paying jobs. This allowed women the freedom and self-
sufficiency men have.

On Tuesday, September 29th , 1992, the new girls’ house, The Garden, was officially opened
by Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent. Several weeks before the Royal visit, there
had been a lot of rainfall and a thick fog fell on September 28th . On the morning of Her
Royal Highness’ visit, the village was in a bustle and by 11:45am, the Royal Helicopter
landed on the cricket field. HRH The Duchess of Kent met, on arrival at The Garden, Lady
Pringle, Mrs. Jones and the Bursar before meeting the Housemaster of Garden, Mr.
Wimbush. The Duchess was escorted round the house by Garden’s head of house,
Caroline Wells. After the Duchess was shown around, she visited Repton Primary and left
to complete her tour of Derbyshire. The opening of The Garden highlighted the success of
the admittance of girls at Repton because more and more girls were joining. At the time,
there was only one other girls boarding house, The Abbey, run by Mrs Goodhead. And
The Mitre was still a boys’ house. The addition of Field House was in 1995 and there was a
demand for more girls’ houses at Repton. There were more and more girls beginning to
join and this conveys the extent that women were being able to work in higher authorities
and feel more accepted into society.