Dr Dorothy L. Graham
Headmistress, 1942 – 1965
From the Aberdare Intermediate
Schools History, 1946
From the Golden Jubilee booklet, 1963
From Rhian Samuel (AGGS 1956 – 63)
Dorothy Graham was both an eccentric and a quiet intellectual. Her sixth-form ‘citizenship’ classes
were to me a revelation; her opinions, expressed in those classes, about democracy and
the will of the people have remained with me all my life. ‘Common sense is not
so common’ was one of her favourites, but the notion of the positive worth of ‘public
opinion’, which could rein in would-be dictators and overly-powerful politicians,
was another. The topics of her classes were wide-ranging: she talked of assisting in
hospitals in the war where the humble aspirin worked marvels and even touched upon her
adventures with young male students at college in the United States: ‘Miss Sharp
and I have had our moments’, she assured us! She had us consider the outside world:
she took me to the Council Chamber and persuaded me to speak about the money the school
had raised for charity; I was amazed and impressed that those old men would listen to
a mere schoolgirl. Yes, she was an exotic foreigner in Aberdare: she had grown up in
India and was partly educated in America and saw South Walian culture very much from
the outside. Certainly, she could speak no Welsh; and yes, her office was a muddle. But
the unusual aspects of her character should not cloud our judgement about her contribution
to the school. She tried to show us the greater complexities of life and helped us deal
with them.
Dorothy Lucy Graham, born Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh, India, 24/11/06;
died 1973.
Appointed Head 1942
Educated: St Andrews High School, Bangalore; Poona High School, Maharashtra; Wycombe Abbey, Buckinghamshire; Yardley Grammar School, Birmingham.
University of Birmingham, English, (First Class Honours, 1928),
Harvard, M.A., 1930,
Ph.D. 1934 (Birmingham ?), Dip. Ed. Cambridge, 1934.
Previous posts: Wheaton College, Norton, Mass., 1928 – 31
http://www.wheatoncollege.edu/ ;
St. George’s, Bristol 1934-38; South Park High School, Lincoln, 1938 – 1942.