A HARRIS GIRL OF THE 'NINETIES

                            By Mrs Elizabeth Bryson, M.A., M.D.                                     

Do the girls at the Harris still get real Gymnastics, or has that given place to the more formal School Drill? I think our class of girls about 1892 or 1893 formed part of the first Gymnastic Squad. We went to the Gymnasium in Ward Road after school on Wednesday afternoons and again on Saturday mornings. And what a riotous time we had! Our Saturday "hour" began at 10 and finished at 1, and then we left reluctantly. Mr Clease ‑ what memories of physical beauty and perfection the name recalls! ‑was our instructor, and under his careful and inspiring guidance we learned to climb ropes, vault the horse, swing Indian clubs, bar‑bells and dumb‑bells, and even to do a few stunts on the parallel and horizontal bars. We loved it. The bitterest disappointment of my school life was that I did not get the Gymnastic Cup. Carrie Robertson got it, and I was runner‑up; and it was hard to keep back the tears. I would willingly have given Carrie all my school prizes in exchange for that coveted trophy.

It was something of a triumph for us in those days to get permission to attend a real gymnastic class. Girls who did that were bold. It wasn't quite decent to be dressed in knickers and tunic! My mother was not very hard to persuade, but other relatives, I remember, thought my boldness and fondness for boys' games was all on a par with my expressed and quite indelicate desire to study Medicine. This intention of mine, which was quite definite before I even entered Secondary School, led to some changes in the curriculum on the Girls' side. My elder sister had gone to University from the Harris, and had been handicapped by the want of adequate preparation in Latin and Mathematics. Girls were not given either Latin or Mathematics in those days, but took instead German and Domestic Economy or some equivalent. This, my mother was determined, would not happen to me. So she got busy whenever I reached Class VIL, and had many interviews with that wonderful teacher and marvellous Rector, Mr Brebner.

She wanted nothing less than that he should change the whole curriculum, to suit me. And she succeeded so well and Mr Brebner was so just and farseeing in his vision of the future educational needs of girls, that the change came very quickly. I was allowed to go over immediately to the boys' side for Latin (and a shy, trembling mortal I was, believe me!), and later on I got enough Mathematics to enable me to matriculate. The very next year a considerable number of my classmates took Latin, and the classes then begun in both these subjects have never, I think, been discontinued.

I left the Harris in 1896, being then fifteen, and began my M.A. Course at St. Andrews. English was then a new Honours Group at St. Andrews, and I was the first to get "Firsts" in that Group; Mr Robb helped me most generously with books, and encouraged me in every way. Thereafter I continued Medicine at St. Andrews‑ and Dundee, and after qualifying was awarded one of the first Carnegie Research Scholarships. This enabled me to put in two years of Research and get my M.D. in 1907, being the first student to take that degree under the New Regulations, i.e., by Examination and Thesis.

After all that, I came to New Zealand, because the Hospitals were not prepared at that time to give women Doctors the practical experience they needed, and here I am in a busy practice of my own in the Capital City of Wellington. These facts about my own career may be of interest to present‑day girls, living, as they do, in times when there are fewer restrictions and possibly fewer difficulties to be overcome.

(Reprinted from 1935 Jubilee Edition).