1930s & 1940s
1932-1943 June Flewett
June Flewett spent the whole of her primary and secondary schooling at Sacred Heart in Hammersmith and after leaving, went on to train for her life-long career in the theatre.
I first attended school aged 5, in the kindergarten in September 1932. During that year, Reverend Mother paid us a visit, and we performed 'Little Miss Muffet' for her. I was well cast as the spider, being extremely thin with long hairy arms. It is my strongest memory of Kindergarten and perhaps indicates that I was already something of an actress.
When I was nine, the school mounted a production of 'Alice in Wonderland'. We rehearsed for a term during which it took over my life. The Bishop who attended made a speech and was very complementary about my performance. Being praised like that (at a time when it was not customary to praise children) made me feel confident and had more effect on my future than he could possibly have imagined. It was from then on that I knew I wanted to go into the Theatre.
In 1939, I was in the Senior School, and we were evacuated to Oxford. Mother Hutchinson was Head Mistress and Miss Corvesor taught me English. They were the strongest influences on me, in the absence of my parents. We were all very frightened of Mother Hutchison but I came to love and respect her. Miss Corvesor have me a love of poetry which I still have.
We returned to London in 1942 when I was 15, and I took School Certificate. When exams were over, no-one suggested that I should stay on in the sixth form, but Mother Hutchinson had obtained details of all the London Drama schools for me.
I eventually went to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art from where I took a London University Diploma, with two distinctions. I have worked in the theatre for over 60 years, and am still running a company.
I am grateful to the Sacred Heart School for my education and for the opportunities it gave me and I remember my time there will affection.
1935-1945 Evelyn Rush
Evelyn Rush attended Sacred Heart in Hammersmith from 1935 to 1945, both as a junior and as a secondary pupil. Her mother Cissie Cordingley, her aunt and uncle had also attended the school at about the time of the Great War 1914-18 (when boys under the age of 8 were also admitted in the junior school).
Some of the people who were in the Junior School at the same time as I was, were the Kearns sisters, the Flewitts, the Hendersons, Anne Sheridan, Monica Pleschette and June Catliffe with her two brothers. I became, and still am, great friends worth Joan Catliff. I was convinced that she was called June Catholic because she was a Catholic!
The Junior School at that time was not large, about 40–50 pupils and was housed on the first-floor in the corridor to the right on the main staircase.
In 1935 the entrance to the school was a narrow passage between two houses, leading from Bute Gardens. Later the main entrance was enlarged when two of the cottages in Bute Gardens were demolished.
We juniors entered the school under the big arch and down a long passage between the old gym and the main building. The senior girls had their cloakroom close to the arch and used a back staircase. The Junior cloakroom was right at the end of the passage, almost in the Elementary School, and we came back into the main building via the 'Black Hole', a passage under the staircase. The Juniors were allowed to use the main staircase, but not the Seniors!
I cannot remember the first uniform I had, but the little ones wore white pinafores with tiny mauve flowers on them but these soon changed to beige smocked overalls. The uniform I remember wearing was mid to navy blue with a pointed 'v' waist and with beige detachable collars and cuffs which could be washed once a week...the uniforms were cleaned only once a term!
We wore blazers in the summer and quite heavy velour coats in the winter with navy velour hats with a plain navy band with SH at the front. These hats were later replaced with berets. In the summer we wore blue cotton dresses with a feint white check and later changed to cotton dresses with blue and white flowers on. We wore panama hats of course!
I remember learning about the Anglo-Saxons by helping, with the rest of the class, to sew a large green map of England on to a blue blanket and then embroidering names like Angles, Jutes and Saxons onto labels which were attached to the map. We learned about Romans by finding pictures of them in old books and cutting them out to put into our Enterprise Books along with pictures of centurions and other Roman 'things' which we coloured. We had Enterprise once a week.