Anne Doggett (Anne Glendinning)

August 2020. Some memories from Anne sent by email in August 2020, when she sent in some missing names for Form II 1955. Anne also provided a brief update on her life after Malton School - which took her eventually to New Zealand.

As for me, I was the youngest and (arguably) the most mischievous in the class. Mr. Taylor (nicknamed “Pip” by the pupils) once told me I would Come To No Good! This was after, while sitting in his class, I had doodled a caricature of him looking menacing in his mortar board and gown, which he intercepted as it was passed round by giggling classmates. He spluttered and ordered me to stand in the corridor – but afterwards I realised that he was trying not to laugh!

However …. I left school in 1958, went to London in my early twenties and qualified as an accountant (FCCA). I also obtained a MSc in Accounting and Finance from London School of Economics. After holding various posts in commerce and industry, I took up lecturing, writing and examining; the last position I held in England was Principal Lecturer in Accounting and Finance at London Guildhall University. While in London I was married for 14 years to a Chinese banker from Hong Kong, who was seconded to the London office of his family’s merchant bank. We had no children. Then, around 25 years ago I married a New Zealander, retired from the University and left England; we lived in America and Australia, and we are now permanently living in New Zealand.

And some more reminiscing in a further email.

I think poor old Pip was just exasperated! However, he managed to keep us in fear and trembling – he could be quite sarcastic – and it was quite a revelation to realise that this awesome figure could get the giggles as well!

Miss Goldberg was always very stern as well. However … the girls had their lunch separately from the boys … one day Miss Goldberg stood up and announced that some girls had been found wearing “frillies” under their gymslips – and this was not permitted, we had to wear the regulation navy blue knickers. A roar of laughter went through the canteen – and Miss Goldberg went bright red, then dissolved into laughter as well! So maybe our teachers were human after all!

I was a cheeky, precocious kid and couldn’t wait to leave school! One of the girls in our class wanted to become a secretary and had to get Pip’s permission to take evening classes in shorthand and typing. He refused, saying that she was too bright to take a “dead end job” and should carry on, take A-levels and go to University!  I had no intentions of becoming a teacher; I took various clerical jobs in York and did an RSA grouped business course in the evenings at York Technical College.  I topped the national list in commercial English and was awarded the Society’s bronze medal. Pip might have seen the write-up in the Yorkshire Evening Post.

Job prospects in York were not very good, so like Dick Whittington, I went to London. I did all my Certified Accountants’ exams by self-study and evening classes at the South Bank Polytechnic, gaining third place in Level 2 and first place and prize in Level 3 of the ACCA exams. Much later on, I was an ACCA Council member for a few years until the time when I left England; I also represented the ACCA on the Council of the Association of Accounting Technicians, was an external examiner for two polytechnics and sat on various other panels. I mention Dick Whittington because, although I didn’t make Lord Mayor, I did become a Freeman of the City of London – and ended up teaching – so maybe I ended up doing Pip some credit after all! Some of my prowess must surely have resulted from the underpinning provided by Pip and his team!