Sanford, Misses Alice and Edith, Brookfield, York Road, Exeter
Alice[1] (1872 – 1922) and Edith (1879 – 1934) were two of the five daughters of George and Elizabeth Sanford. Alice was born on 9 September 1872, and Edith on 28 Jan 1879. George Sanford was a builder, listed in 1881 as employing 25 men. The family lived in the St James’ district of Exeter, moving from Sidwell Street where they were in 1881 to 4 York Road in 1891. George was described in his obituary[2] as ‘the recognised leader of the Trade Union movement’ in Exeter as far back as 1868;m, and as ‘a Liberal and a Reformer’, and having remained a supporter even when he became an employer. George was also a member of the Christ Church, Grosvenor Place (a member of the Free Church of England), and a Freemason and Worshipful Master of his Lodge in 1886.
George and Elizabeth Sanford ensured that their daughters had the opportunity to acquire more than an elementary education. Alice and Edith both attended Branscombe House School in York Road which had been newly founded by sisters Elizabeth Crabb LLA[3] and Kate Crabb when Alice attended at the end of the 1880s. Alice passed the London University Matriculation Examination in 1892, the first Exeter girl to do so[4], and the following year the Intermediate Examination for the London University BA degree.[5] At that point her mother died. and she did not complete her degree. She was, however, taken on as a teacher by the Misses Crabb and always appeared in their advertisements for the school as ‘Miss A. Sanford (Intermediate in Arts, London).[6] Edith was also a student at Branscombe House and was entered for and successful in examinations set by the College of Preceptors, Trinity College (for music theory), the University of Cambridge Local Examining Board and the Exeter Technical and University Extension College.[7] Both girls and their sister Rose, who attended the Exeter Middle Class School,[8] were also Sunday School teachers at Christ Church and were well placed in the Exeter Sunday School Union teachers’ examinations.[9] They also benefited from the University Extension scheme, attending classes and undertaking examinations in the various courses provided at the Exeter Centre.[10] Here they were in classes also attended by other Exeter women later to be involved in the suffrage movement, such as Jessie Montgomery and Clara Andrew (qqv).
After their father’s death at the end of 1894 four of the sisters, Alice, Rose, Edith and Mary moved into a smaller house at 10 Oxford Road. Mary’s education was paid for by the Devon Masonic Fund, after receiving sufficient votes from fund members. She, like Alice and Edith, attended Branscombe House School. The school had proved very successful, and in 1895 changed its name to St Hilda’s and took in more boarders and day pupils. By 1901 the sisters were all listed on the census as teachers. In the 1911 census they are found at Brookfield, one of the houses belonging to St Hilda’s in York Road. Edith pursued a career as a Devon County Council teacher, holding a post as instructress in domestic subjects by 1908.[11] Later that year she was appointed the Headmistress of the Heavitree Parochial Girls’ School.[12] In 1905 Alice was offered a partnership by the Misses Crabb and became a co-Principal of St Hilda’s.[13] Mary, who was described as an elementary school teacher on the 1911 census was probably a teacher at St Sidwell’s school, where a Miss Sanford is mentioned
Both Edith and Alice demonstrated their support for the movement for women’s suffrage. Edith was a member of the Women Teachers’ Franchise Union and in 1912, at the meeting of the Exeter District Association of the NUT, she moved a motion to ask the national NUT Conference to express sympathy with women members of the NUT who were debarred from exercising the Parliamentary Franchise. The motion was lost by one vote.[14] She later became a founder member and first Vice-President of the Exeter City and District Association of the National Federation of Women Teachers.[15]
In 1913 when the National Union of Women Suffrage Societies’ pilgrimage from Land’s End to London passed through Exeter, they assembled for their Monday morning march north in Queen’s Crescent, just opposite St Hilda’s. Alice Sanford presented the pilgrims, on behalf of the pupils of St Hilda’s, with ‘a bouquet tied with red, green and white ribbons, the colours of the Society’.[16]
During the war the Sanfords continued in their teaching roles, actively encouraging their pupils in fund-raising activities for the war effort such as for Belgian Refugees and the St James Soldiers’ Club.[17] After the war the surviving Miss Crabb and Alice Sanford dissolved their partnership, leaving Alice as sole Principal. Alice died on 27 Jun 1922, leaving effects worth about £3900.
Edith resigned her post in Heavitree to take charge of St Hilda’s, which she ran with Mary’s assistance.[18] She and Mary were both described as headmistresses of a private school at no 2 York Road in the 1939 Register. She died on 9 August 1942 leaving effects worth about £225.
Entry created by Julia Neville, November 2018
[1] Family and census information from www.ancestry.co.uk
[2] WT, 13 Dec 1894.
[3] LLA, Lady Literate in Arts, was a qualification awarded by the University of St Andrews to women who had undertaken an approved course of study before women were admitted to the university’s degree courses
[4] WT, 25 Jul 1892.
[5] DEG, 27 Feb 1895.
[6] e.g. DEG, 11 Jan 1894.
[7] WT, 25 Jan 1892; 3 Mar 1893.
[8] DEG, 19 Sep 1890, 23 Dec 1891.
[9] WT, 7 Jun 1890; Flying Post, 4 Jun 1892.
[10] WT, 11 Jan 1890, 15 Feb 1893.
[11] DEG, 17 Jan 1908.
[12] DEG, 3 Jul 1908; WT 24 Dec 1909.
[13] WT, 6 Dec 1905.
[14] WT, 12 Nov 1912.
[15] WT, 21 Mar 1917.
[16] DEG, 8 Jul 1913.
[17] DEG, 4 Nov 1914; WT, 18 Apr 1915;
[18] WT, 28 June 1922.