Women’s Education in Wartime Reverend Mother Edith on St. Augustine’s Girls’ School During the Blitz 1940

Girls School Surviving WW II Blitzkrieg Women's Education

Manuscripts & Autographs

Edith, Reverend Mother. Autograph letter signed to William Nourse, December 22, 1940, records wartime conditions at Ascot Priory while its Anglican religious community operated St. Augustine’s School for girls during the Blitz. Written three months into the German bombing campaign, the letter describes bombs falling near the Priory, quieter nights as Christmas approached, and the financial strain affecting the institution’s supporters. Ascot Priory was the mother house of the Society of the Most Holy Trinity, an Anglican women’s religious community whose work included nursing, care of orphans, and education; St. Augustine’s School was among the schools operated by the sisters.

Edith, Reverend Mother. December 22, 1940. Autograph letter signed to William Nourse on Ascot Priory letterhead, Ascot, Berkshire, England. Writing three days before Christmas, Edith acknowledges the continuing support of friends despite wartime hardship: “I appreciate the kindness of our friends more than ever this year, for I know how much financially hit everyone is.” Her Christmas wishes immediately turn to the war: “I do hope you will have as happy a Christmas is possible, Xmas 1941 bring us peace!” She then gives a direct account of the danger experienced at Ascot: “We have had some bombs unpleasantly near, but lately I am glad to say the nights have been much quieter.” The letter was written during the Blitz, when German aerial attacks on Britain had begun in September 1940 and would continue into May 1941.

Ascot Priory had housed the Society of the Most Holy Trinity since the nineteenth century; its sisters maintained religious, medical, charitable, and educational work, including the care of girls at St. Christopher’s Orphanage and instruction at St. Augustine’s School. Edith’s December 1940 letter records how that women-led institution continued during wartime through a concise firsthand account of nearby bombing, strained finances, and hopes for peace. Her remarks are especially immediate because they were written during the first winter of the Blitz rather than retrospectively after the war. No condition defects are specified in the supplied description. A contemporary account of the British home front from the woman responsible for an Anglican community and girls’ school during the aerial campaign of 1940.

Item #16088

Price: $225.00