A wonderful, calm and benign person, Miss Nightingale was an excellent Headmistress. She was tall and elegant and had an imposing presence - we girls were in awe of her. She was a member of 'The Society of Friends ' also known as Quakers and she put into practice their belief in ' respect of every person, regardless of rank or status and in the essential goodness of everyone' No formal punishment was ever handed out to miscreants during her tenure at DWS, we were encouraged to search our consciences and consider if what we had done was wrong, stupid, unkind or spiteful and then to ensure such behaviour would not be repeated.

This is an extract from Gaynor Smith's account ' A Patchwork of Memories' Gaynor was at school in the 1930s. Click on the related story to read more.