Aberdeen School Board Letters Appraisal Project
One of our ongoing volunteer projects is appraising a massive collection of Aberdeen School Board letters (reference CA/25/2/11). These were transferred to us as part of the Aberdeen City Education records and are the correspondence received by the Aberdeen School Board from teachers working in the City.
We don’t need to keep all of these letters - some of the information they contain is duplicated elsewhere or is not considered of value for long term preservation.
The following types of letter are being retained:
- Job applications with detail about the applicant
- Letters about teacher's qualification
- Letters regarding school attendance or absences of children
- Letters concerning unusual use of school rooms
- Letters detailing the accommodation at the school
- Letters about recreation facilities at the school
- Letters about class sizes
- Transfer requests from teachers [as suggestive of unpopular schools?] or applications for promotion
- Letters about pupils at or admitted to Rubislaw Special School [no admission registers survive for this school - these were the only letters seen about school admissions]
- Details of text books or equipment
- Letters about Farquharson Kennedy Prize subjects
- Allocation of children to specific schools
- Issues with specific pupils or teachers esp. if corporal punishment involved
- Letters accompanying enclosures (SED forms, lists of applications, fees etc.)
- Letters about teachers' absences and cover arrangements
- Letters of acknowledgement
- Teachers starting duty
- Delivery of furniture
- Meeting arrangements (where held, who can attend etc.)
- Letters of resignation or acceptance of teaching posts [minuted]
- Application for use of school buildings for meetings
- Leaving certificate administration
- Orders of material or forms
Our volunteer Jane has been appraising, weeding and listing these letters and has come across some very interesting material that provides a great insight into education during the late 19th Century.
For example, the letter below, dated 30th January 1894 from Aberdeen High School's Professor of Music, George Cummings Dawson, caught her eye:
It reads:
I have to acknowledge the receipt of your letter intimating the Boards' desire that I should undertake in future the supervision of the music department of the High School work, and have to express my willingness to do so in conformity with the Boards' wish.
I desire, however, respectfully, to point out that in leaving me at the risk of my pupils fees instead of placing me like the other music teachers in the school on a fixed salary, I feel that the Board is scarcely giving me the standing and recognition which my new position merits. I quite understand that the Board has estimated my income from fees at £156 and I have no doubt that I should succeed in earning that sum even with my time restricted to 25 hours, but on the other hand there seems a little reason in my thinking that the Board should take the risk and not lay it on me. For one thing it should show my fellow teachers that the Board had confidence in me, and the present arrangement, if I may be allowed to say so, leaves me with the feeling that in appearance at least, the confidence is doubtful. Then I should like - seeing that pupils are to be assigned to the different teachers by me - that no appearance of selecting pupils for my own special benefit should ever be thought to appear. In certain events I am inclined to think that such a feeling might exist, and naturally I should wish to be protected against it.
If in view of these considerations the Board could see its way to let me have my emoluments in the shape of a fixed salary I am sure they will have no reason to regret it. I shall do my best in any case to promote the interests of the school but with a fixed salary I should feel both my self respect, and my power of usefulness in the school, greatly increased.
I am, Dear Sir,
Yours Respectfully,
G. C. Dawson
The letter is a fascinating example of a teacher in this period engaging with their employer to alter their salary. This is obviously very pertinent today. Before his appointment as Senior Music Master, Mr Dawson was paid based on the fees of his pupils. He no longer felt this was an adequate or fair way to receive his salary; in a supervisory role there could be more opportunity to ensure an adequate number of pupils are assigned to himself and thus his salary secured or increased. George wanted to ensure that he wasn't seen by other staff to be working unfairly or to his own benefit over theirs.
[Emoluments - a salary, fee, or profit from employment or office].
The School Board have minuted this exchange in their meeting of the 8th February 1894:
With some additional research using local newspapers and Ancestry, we found the following information about George Cummings Dawson, born 1860, Durham, and his family:
1861 England Census – Framwellgate, Durham:
- George Cummings – Head / Widower, aged 59, Cabinet Maker
- William Cummings - son, aged 27, unmarried, Grocers Shopman
- Bartholowmew Atkinson – son-in-law, aged 27, married, Drapers Assistant
- Margaret Dawson – daughter, aged 29, married, no occupation
- John Harry Dawson - grandson, aged 4
- George C Dawson – grandson, aged 1
1871 England Census – Mornington Lane Grocers Shop, Mount Pleasant, Tudhoe, Durham:
- Bartholowmew Dawson, Head, aged 37, Grocer
- Margaret Dawson, wife, aged 34
- John Harry Dawson, son, aged 14, Scholar
- George C Dawson, son, aged 11, Scholar
- Jane Annie Dawson, daughter, aged 6
- Elizabeth Dawson, daughter, aged 2
- Susannah Fary, aged 16, Servant (domestic)
- George Alina (Alma) Rowe, Servant / Apprentice Grocer. *
By the 1881 Scotland Census, George is shown as being aged 21 and an Organist, lodging at 104 King Street (Lodging House, Keeper given as Isabella Sutherland, aged 80). In 1882 he marries Mary Annie Rowe:
 |
| The York Herald (British Newspaper Archive) Thursday 27 July 1892 |
1901 Scotland Census – aged 41, Professor of Music, 64 Bon Accord Street, with Mary Dawson, aged 40. Servant Margaret Brandy, aged 28 is also recorded.
1911 Scotland Census – aged 50/51, Organist and Professor of Music for School Board, 64 Bon Accord Street (10 rooms!!), with wife Mary Annie Dawson, aged 49, and servant Bella Charles, aged 20.
Other letters of note from this bundle (CA/25/2/11/38), which dates between 17 Sept 1893 and 17 Nov 1893, have been:
- Wiliam D McLean, Head Teacher of Albion St Public School stating he is unable to make any recommendation for a free place at the Grammar School:
“There is only one boy in this school who passed St. V, and he is not of the stamp that might be expected to benefit”.
H F Morland Simpson, Aberdeen Grammar School: issue over the top boys being promoted at Christmas, then losing out on prizes awarded at the end of a Session.
A G Winchester, Torry: began work as an Assistant in Grays School of Art, but after an hour was interrupted by Mr Fraser, Headmaster, to say the appointment had gone to someone else and they had to leave!!
The following letters also gave us a chuckle:
'In consequence of my experimental flight through space, Dr MacGregor says that I must not leave bed for a week...'
'I am a compound, right side tip top A1 at Loyds. Left side, battered and weather worn, and the worst of it is, the one side has little sympathy with the other and acts without the reference to the general comfort'.
Sounds like a nasty fall, but one which teacher James Barnett is looking at with humour.
We're looking forward to other interesting stories coming from these letters and really appreciate our volunteer Jane's hard work making these more accessible for our researchers. You can view the material at our Old Aberdeen House site under reference CA/25/2/11.
Kim Smith, Archivist
Comments
Post a Comment