Old Girls Association
The OGA lapel badge
I was prompted to write some information about the Old Girls Association after acquiring an OGA lapel badge recently, shown opposite. The motto Gwell Dysg Na Golud is the same as that of the school. Translated it reads, Better Learning Than Riches.
The history of the OGA was documented in the jubilee booklet of 1963. It was written by Emma Elizabeth Jones (née Oliver), 1903–97. She was brought up in Oak Street, off Wind St., and took her School Certificate in 1918. In 1935 she married Rees B. Jones, a chief clerk in the Electricity department, and the couple set up home in The Grove, Aberdare. She died in Oxfordshire aged 94. Emma’s account appears further down this page.
The OGA lapel badge showing the
manufacturer to be
Fattorini of Birmingham
The Association has flourished throughout the years and has continued to hold meetings
as well as some annual dinners. Just before the Girls’ School in Plasdraw closed
in 2014, the old girls in conjunction with the staff and headmistress, organised a tea
party when speeches were made, and a large collection of school memorabilia was displayed
in the library. (These school records and memorabilia are now held at the Glamorgan Archives
in Leckwith, Cardiff.)
When the school became comprehensive, the OGA decided to change its name to Aberdare
Girls’ School Past Students’ Association.
The Association hopes to restart its monthly meetings in the post-COVID period. A recent
membership card is shown below.
A recent AGS-PSA membership card
The final Old Girls function in the Plasdraw School Hall
The Old Girls’ Association
IN March 1927, in response to requests from a host of old pupils, a meeting was convened which voted the formation of the Old Girls’ Association, with Miss Cook, the Headmistress, as its first President. It was she who with her immense vitality breathed life into the new O.G.A., doing all in her power to promote its membership, never failing on the last day of each term to encourage school leavers to join the Association.
In that first distant meeting it was decided, in order to bring past students together, that there should be four gatherings each year — a Christmas and an Easter Re-union, a Garden Party, and a Summer Outing.
The Christmas Re-union for many years was modelled on the old School Party, with an entertainment followed by games and dancing, refreshments being provided by a zealous Catering Committee of Old Girls. Sometimes the entertainment took the form of a play, and many old Old Girls will always remember the hilarious evenings when some of their number presented “Suppressed Desires,” and “A World Without Men.” Nor are they likely to forget the rollicking occasion when a Pierrot Troupe was put on complete with highkicking chorus !
By 1947 the O.G.A. felt they might venture to be a little more sophisticated by holding a Christmas Dance to which Old Boys would be invited, and, indeed, almost annually from that date until 1958, very successful dances were held at the School by kind permission of the Governors. On nearly every occasion a Committee of Old Girls undertook the quite formidable task of preparing refreshments for well over a hundred dancers. In 1958, however, it was considered advisable to hold the Dance in a conveniently central position in the town, and as the Boot Hotel met the requirements the Re-union Dance has since been held there. Then in 1960 the O.G.A. Committee relinquished all the Dance arrangements, which were subsequently undertaken by the Old Boys’ Association.
For a long time the Easter Re-union also was run on school party lines and included the Annual General Meeting. Later, it became the General Meeting only. Later still, the General Meeting was moved to other dates.
The Garden Party fought a losing battle with the British climate. On the days when the sun shone, tennis tournaments, croquet, and other games, with outdoor refreshments, made congenial occasions, but rain too often drove the Party indoors where table tennis or Beetle Drives and dancing had to be substituted to fill the bill. There was one lively attempt to defeat the weather when, thanks to Miss Cook, who had laid in a stock of indoor games, the Art Room was turned into a Bowling and Skittle Alley ! Of late years the difficulty of coping with the capricious weather has led to the abandonment of the Garden Party.
The get-together, which has never failed to be enthusiastically supported is the Annual Outing. In the early years of the Association coach trips were run to comparatively nearby places like Porthcawl, Weston-super-Mare, and Rhossili, but for many years now the venue has been over the border in search of English historical monuments; and the Chase Hotel, Ross-on-Wye, for morning coffee is almost as familiar to Old Girls as Mascherpa’s, Aberdare !
As well as having enjoyed several matinee performances of Shakespeare’s plays at Stratford-on-Avon, they have visited the rather sinister Berkeley Castle, being shown round by an unassuming young man who turned out to be the Heir himself!! Wandering in the grounds of Blenheim Palace some of them have been politely moved on from trespassing in the private gardens by no less a personage than the Duke of Marlborough ! They have climbed the dizzy heights of the Abbey tower in Tewkesbury, been conducted round the Oxford Colleges by an Old Boy, fed Peter Scott’s ducks at Slimbridge, dallied in those beauty spots of the Cotswolds, Bourton-on-the-Water and Broadway, admired the glories of Bath and Longleat, and spent one very pleasant afternoon at the delightful Elizabethan Manor — Sudeley Castle. On every excursion not the least part of the enjoyment has been the good company in the coach with all its gaiety and lively chatter.
Theatre trips to Cardiff have also been organised — to see a variety of modem plays. Sometimes a supper party after the show made a fitting end to an entertaining evening.
A new departure in 1960 was a Dinner held in the Plasdraw Dining Hall. This proved so immensely popular that the Dinner is likely to become an annual event, and extremely successful ones have been held since — in 1961 at the Boot Hotel, and in 1962 at the Langland Bay Hotel, Mumbles.
From its inception, the O.G.A. have maintained a keen interest in the life of the school. On the occasion of its Silver Jubilee they presented the school with a reading desk for the Assembly Hall. At a later date they donated £25 to the School Library for the purchase of books, which were chosen by Miss Graham, the Headmistress.
The retirement of Miss Cook in 1942 was a very special event for which the Old Girls’ Association started a Presentation Fund, each past student being asked to donate one shilling. From the proceeds were bought a beautiful silver tea service and tray, which, together with a Presentation Book inscribed in manuscript by Miss May Thomas with the names of all subscribers to the gift, were presented to Miss Cook at a supper given by her to the Old Girls. Speeches and toasts during the evening showed the great esteem in which she was held and the warm regard felt for her by all old students.
A farewell party was also arranged for Miss Prothero when she retired after very long service in the school. During a particularly happy evening she was presented with a cheque and a string of pearls, while her very first Higher Science girls gave her a cut glass bowl and paid tribute to a very fine teacher.
In 1960 Miss Winifred Rees, retiring after forty years in the school, was the guest of honour at the Annual Dinner held at the Boot Hotel. After many congratulatory speeches by Old Girls, Miss Rees was given a very substantial cheque, to which several hundred past students had subscribed as a token of their gratitude and affection. Songs and recitations by talented Old Girls rounded off what was a truly memorable occasion.
Several other members of the staff who had served on the O.G. Committee have been given parting cheques on leaving the school to take up other appointments.
The Association has also tried to remember all old students who have been ill, sending them gifts of flowers and fruit as well as letters of good wishes.
In the wider life outside the school, the O.G.A. have sought to play a small part by contriving to contribute from their modest funds various sums to the Town collections for the Save Europe Fund, the East Coast Relief Fund, and more recently to the Famine Relief Organisation.
The Old Girls’ Association consider their biggest effort was made this year to mark the Jubilee of the school they hold in such high regard — by presenting a play NINE TILL SIX at the Coliseum in April, with Miss Winifred Rees as producer, by compiling and publishing this booklet, and by doing honour to the school’s fifty years of achievement at their annual dinner in September at the Royal Hotel, Cardiff. This they hope will be a really notable affair when the principal guest will be an old member of the staff, Mrs. Dorothy Shaaf.*
Looking back in this Jubilee year and reviewing their activities, the O.G.A. feel that, while their attainments might have been modest, they have remained steadfast to their aims — loyalty to the old School and the fostering and cementing of friendship.
E. E. JONES (née Oliver)
*Mrs Shaaf, (1892–1980), taught French at the school from 1917 to 1945 as Miss D.J.C. Rees. She was the sister of Mrs Florence Rose Davies, CBE.
THE OLD GIRLS’ ASSOCIATION
FOUNDED MARCH 28, 1927
First Officers and Members of Committee 1927
President |
Miss M. S. Cook |
Vice-Presidents |
K. Griffiths, M. George |
Secretary |
K. Lewis |
Treasurer |
M. Thomas |
Staff Representative |
Miss A. J. Prothero |
Committee
I. Rees, A. Lewis, M. Thomas, G. Rees, I. Howells |
Officers and Members of Committee 1963
President |
Dr. D. L. Graham |
Hon. Presidents |
Miss M. S. Cook |
Vice-Presidents |
Mrs. B. Lloyd |
Treasurer |
Mrs. D. Harris |
Auditor |
Mrs. M. Timothy |
Secretaries |
Miss S. J. Thomas |
Staff Representative |
Miss W. A. Sharpe |
Committee
Mrs. R. Rees, Mrs. R. Davies, Mrs. B. Phillips, |
Jubilee Booklet Committee 1963
Editor: Mrs. R. M. Beaman
Committee
Miss S. J. Thomas, Mrs. R. B. Jones, |
CR 01/2023