Beatrice Rennie

Last updated

Beatrice Lilias Rennie
Born21 September 1893
Died4 September 1971
Nationality Australian
Education University of Sydney
Known forco-founder and the headmistress of Queenwood School for Girls
SuccessorViolet Medway
PartnerGrace Lawrence

Beatrice Lilias Rennie (21 September 1893 – 4 September 1971) was an Australian co-founder and the headmistress of Queenwood School for Girls in Sydney.

Contents

Life

Rennie was born in 1893 in Dubbo. Her parents were Lilias (born Millar) and a draughtsman named Charles Edward Rennie. They had both been born in Australia. She was their sixth child and they had two more. In time her family moved to Sydney ending up in the suburb of Mosman. She graduated from the University of Sydney in 1916. [1]

In 1918 she first met Grace Lawrence who was the headmistress of the Glennie Memorial School in Queensland. Rennie was teaching the P.E, and humanities as an assistant headmistress. They got on well and went on a trip together in 1921 to Europe. They went to see leading schools for girls together. Rennie continued to teach at the school, looking after the library and the school magazine. [1]

In 1925 she and Grace Lawrence left the Glennie Memorial School and they bought a large house in Sydney. There they started a school for girls that they called Queenwood. [1] The school was founded on 21 September which was Rennie's birthday [2] and the school's roll listed the names of five girls. In 1928 the other significant figure in the schools history, Violet Medway, was employed. [3]

Rennie shared her leadership role with Violet Medway in 1942. [3] Rennie continued to live at the school after she retired in 1962. [4]

Rennie died in Mosman in 1971. The Queenwood school continued noting Lawrence and Rennie as their founders. The school holds a tradition of "raising the flowers" on the school's and Rennie's birthday. [2] [4]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marie Bashir</span> Australian medical administrator and Governor of New South Wales

Dame Marie Roslyn Bashir is the former and second longest-serving Governor of New South Wales. Born in Narrandera, New South Wales, Bashir graduated from the University of Sydney in 1956 and held various medical positions, with a particular emphasis in psychiatry. In 1993 Bashir was appointed the Clinical Director of Mental Health Services for the Central Sydney Area Health Service, a position she held until appointed governor on 1 March 2001. She has also served as the Chancellor of the University of Sydney (2007–2012). Bashir retired on 1 October 2014 and was succeeded as governor by General David Hurley.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Redlands, Cremorne</span> School in Australia

Redlands, Sydney Church of England Co-educational Grammar School, is a multi-campus independent co-educational early learning, primary, and secondary day Christian school, in the Anglican tradition, located in Cremorne on the Lower North Shore of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Established in 1884, the non-selective school caters for approximately 1,700 students from early learning and on to Kindergarten to Year 12.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abbotsleigh</span> School in Australia

Abbotsleigh is an independent Anglican early learning, primary and secondary day and boarding school for girls, located in Wahroonga, on the Upper North Shore of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ascham School</span> Independent girl school in Edgecliff, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Ascham School is an independent, non-denominational, day and boarding school for girls, located in Edgecliff, an Eastern Suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">MLC School</span> School in Burwood, New South Wales, Australia

MLC School is an independent Uniting Church single-sex early learning, primary, and secondary day school for girls, located in the inner western Sydney suburb of Burwood, New South Wales, Australia. The school enrols students from early learning, through kindergarten to year 12.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Queenwood School for Girls</span> School in Sydney, Australia

Queenwood School for Girls, often abbreviated as Queenwood, is a multi-campus independent non-denominational Christian primary and secondary day school for girls, located in the suburb of Mosman on the Lower North Shore of Sydney, Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wenona School</span> School in North Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Wenona School is an independent, secular, day and boarding school for girls, located in the Sydney suburb of North Sydney, in New South Wales, Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St Catherine's School, Waverley</span> School in Waverley, Sydney, Australia

St Catherine's School is a private Anglican junior and senior day and boarding school, located in Waverley, an eastern suburb of Sydney, Australia.

The Independent Girls' Schools Sporting Association, was established in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, in 1922 with five founding members, all of them independent girls' schools.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sydney Girls High School</span> School in Australia

Sydney Girls High School is a government-funded single-sex academically selective secondary day school located at Moore Park, in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Louise Mack</span> Australian poet, journalist and novelist (1870–1935)

Marie Louise Hamilton Mack was an Australian poet, journalist and novelist. She is most known for her writings and her involvement in World War I in 1914 as the first woman war correspondent in Belgium.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nan McDonald</span> Australian poet and editor

Nancy May McDonald was an Australian poet and editor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Saint Felix School</span> Private, day and boarding school in Southwold, Suffolk, England

Saint Felix School is a 2–18 mixed, private, day and boarding school in Reydon, Southwold, Suffolk, England. The school was founded in 1897 as a school for girls but is now co-educational.

Albert E. Collins was an Australian painter, teacher and actor born in New Zealand. After a successful career in painting and teaching he joined ABC radio, where he gave pleasure to a generation of children as "Joe" of the Children's Session and the main character in the long-running serial "The Wide-awake Bunyip".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mosman High School</span> School in Mosman, New South Wales, Australia

Mosman High School, is a school located in Mosman, a suburb of Sydney, Australia, on Military Road. It is a co-educational high school operated by the New South Wales Department of Education with students from years 7 to 12. The school was established in 1961 and is one of the few state schools in NSW that has no school uniform.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Glennie School</span> Girls school in Queensland, Australia

The Glennie School is a girls' school in Newtown, Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia. It caters for primary and secondary schooling from K–12. It has boarding house facilities and is owned and operated by the Anglican Church.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nancy Jobson</span> Australian teacher and headmistress (1880–1964)

Nancy Jobson was an Australian teacher and headmistress. She attended the Presbyterian Ladies' College, Melbourne and in time became the head of Pymble Ladies' College.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gladys Gordon Everett</span> New Zealand born headmistress

Gladys Gordon Everett MBE known as Miss Gordon Everett was a New Zealand born headmistress. She led the Abbotsleigh private school for over twenty years during a time of expansion and rising attainments.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dorothy Whitehead</span>

Dorothy Eleanor Whitehead was an Australian headmistress. She served during World War II and then led Ascham School in Sydney and Firbank Girls' Grammar School in Melbourne.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Curnow, Jill, "Beatrice Lilias Rennie (1893–1971)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, retrieved 26 March 2024
  2. 1 2 "Queenwood - Spotlight on: Miss Beatrice Lilias Rennie". www.queenwood.nsw.edu.au. Retrieved 26 March 2024.
  3. 1 2 "Queenwood - Our History". www.queenwood.nsw.edu.au. Retrieved 26 March 2024.
  4. 1 2 "Remembering Miss Beatrice Lilias Rennie". issuu. Retrieved 26 March 2024.