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St. Michael And All Angels, Maymyo
Recollections of one of the Old Pupils
The following is a brief description of the school by Maisie Cornelius, very kindly typed up by David, her son.
"On Sunday we went to the Kempsey parish church and met two of the sisters from Dondingalong. When they knew that
we had connections with the sisters at Maymyo they invited us to attend the 100th anniversary of their being in Australia.
It was there that I was invited to write my recollections of St Michael’s and All Angels, Maymyo."
Recollections of St. Michael And All Angels, Maymyo 1/4
In 1901 a grant of land was given by the Government of Burma to Sisters Lois and Francina CSC on which to build a school.
The news reached them on St Michael’s Eve, 28 September, so they decided to call the school ‘St Michael’s and All Angels’.
The Foundation Stone was laid in 1902 and the school was blessed by the Bishop on 2 July 1903. 2 July is a Feast of the Blessed Virgin and we always had a holiday.
I had a long connection with the school and the Sisters there. I arrived at St Michael’s in October 1919 and was there until I finished my schooling in 1928. St Michael’s was a boarding school as well as a school for day scholars. In Burma each year was called a Standard. The school started with a kindergarten of three classes, and then went on from Standard 1 to 10, which was the equivalent of the School Leaving Certificate in Australia. The school also taught music and dancing.
We had external exams in Standards 7 and 10. If you didn’t go on to higher studies you could leave school after Std 7 exams.
School was from 10 a.m.-12 noon, an hour break for lunch and it continued till 4 p.m. In the lower classes, Stds. 1-3, we were taught Arithmetic — Tables which we had to learn by heart, and Reading, Writing, Spelling, Dictation, Hygiene, Needlework and Scripture. In Std 4 we were introduced to Algebra and Geometry, English (which included writing essays, learning poetry, Shakespeare and books by Jane Austen, Thomas Hardy etc.), History, Geography and French as the second language. Each year the subjects were more advanced and difficult. At the end of the-year there were examinations and we went on to the next class if we passed.
We also had Physical Education, called ‘Drill’, in the Drill Hall, a large room with a stage at one end and in which we started each school day with Prayers before marching out to our various classrooms. School Plays and the end of year Prize Giving were also held in the Drill Hall and the kindergarten classes used it until a new building was erected some time after I left school.
Recollections of St. Michael And All Angels, Maymyo 2/4
I started school in the 1st Standard as I had been taught at home by a governess since the age of three. My father was a Scotsman who married a Burmese lady and they had two children. She died when we were very young. When my father married again, a Scotswoman this time, she was not keen on taking on his children so my younger sister and I were put in the school as boarders. My father paid the school fees and we were ‘Parlour Boarders’ and the school was our home for the ten years we were there, as well as ‘home’ to come to on holidays when we went to University and then to work. The Sisters were strict but very kind and we loved all of them.
The school was built in an E shape. The dormitories, named St Hilda, St Margaret, St Faith, St Agnes and St Catherine, were upstairs. The Sisters had rooms attached to the dormitories and the live-in teachers had their rooms above the Chapel. Downstairs were the class rooms, a Reception Room in the front, the Drill Hall, the Chapel, and the Sisters’ Community Room.
We got up at 6 a.m., washed, made our beds and then had breakfast. After breakfast we lined up outside the Chapel, put on our white veils and went in for Morning Prayer. The Angelus was rung at 12 noon, when we stood up in our classes and said a silent prayer, and after singing the Doxology dismissed for lunch. Classes started after lunch with Scripture at which a Sister taught us the Old and New Testaments, Bible History, the Catechism and Creeds.
Twice a day, once before school and again at 7 pm. we had ‘Study’, the time to do our homework. After school the day scholars went home, the boarders had afternoon tea and then got ready for organised games. We played Tennis, Hockey, Net-ball and Badminton. We had the House system in the school and the four houses were called St. George, St. David, St. Andrew and St. Patrick. We competed for a shield which was presented at our Prize Giving at the end of the year. On the 2 July holiday the older boarders were taken on a picnic while the younger ones had races and other games with sweets and chocolates as prizes.
To start off with the school had a cart drawn by bullocks as a means of conveyance to bring day scholars who lived far away to school, and it was this conveyance that took the boarders to Church and for the picnics. It wasn’t very comfortable, but we thought it great fun. Later a bus was bought, and the Sisters had a motor car.
The school was built in an E shape. The dormitories, named St Hilda, St Margaret, St Faith, St Agnes and St Catherine, were upstairs. The Sisters had rooms attached to the dormitories and the live-in teachers had their rooms above the Chapel. Downstairs were the class rooms, a Reception Room in the front, the Drill Hall, the Chapel, and the Sisters’ Community Room.
We got up at 6 a.m., washed, made our beds and then had breakfast. After breakfast we lined up outside the Chapel, put on our white veils and went in for Morning Prayer. The Angelus was rung at 12 noon, when we stood up in our classes and said a silent prayer, and after singing the Doxology dismissed for lunch. Classes started after lunch with Scripture at which a Sister taught us the Old and New Testaments, Bible History, the Catechism and Creeds.
Twice a day, once before school and again at 7 pm. we had ‘Study’, the time to do our homework. After school the day scholars went home, the boarders had afternoon tea and then got ready for organised games. We played Tennis, Hockey, Net-ball and Badminton. We had the House system in the school and the four houses were called St. George, St. David, St. Andrew and St. Patrick. We competed for a shield which was presented at our Prize Giving at the end of the year. On the 2 July holiday the older boarders were taken on a picnic while the younger ones had races and other games with sweets and chocolates as prizes.
To start off with the school had a cart drawn by bullocks as a means of conveyance to bring day scholars who lived far away to school, and it was this conveyance that took the boarders to Church and for the picnics. It wasn’t very comfortable, but we thought it great fun. Later a bus was bought, and the Sisters had a motor car.
Recollections of St. Michael And All Angels, Maymyo 3/4
We also had a few days off at Michaelmas. The main holidays were after the exams, about the middle of December until the middle of February, which was winter time.
On Easter Day we got up at 5 am. all excitement, lined up outside the Chapel in our white dresses, and veils. The choir started with the hymn ‘Christ is risen, Christ is risen’, while we went into the Chapel two by two and then had a beautiful uplifting Choral Eucharist.
On Sundays we went to the parish church in Maymyo, called ‘All Saints’, about five miles away from the school. Those that were able walked there and back, the others went in the bus. There was a Communion Service in the morning and Evensong at night. After lunch on Sunday we all had to sit and write letters home or to our friends, which were ‘censored’ and then learn the Collect for the day by heart and repeat it to whoever was on duty.
Once a month the girls who had brothers in the Boys’ School were allowed to have them visit for an hour on Sunday before lunch. They met in the play shed.
We had a school magazine, ‘Loyalty’ and those who wished wrote articles or poems. Our school motto was Ich Dien — I serve.
Every Monday Sister Lois, who was the head sister, would write up a motto on the notice board which was a large blackboard outside the Drill Hall. We would have to learn the motto by heart and repeat it after prayers before we started our lessons.
St Michael’s was my home until 1928, when I left to go to the University in Rangoon. I was there a year when my father died and the money ran out. I joined the Rangoon General Hospital and did a four-year training as a nurse and then a one-year Maternity course at the Dufferin Hospital. I always went ‘home’ for holidays.
I knew of my husband who was a boy from Maymyo, but we only became friends at the University. After I had finished my training we got married. We were married in the parish church at Maymyo, where we had both been confirmed on the same day some years before.
On Easter Day we got up at 5 am. all excitement, lined up outside the Chapel in our white dresses, and veils. The choir started with the hymn ‘Christ is risen, Christ is risen’, while we went into the Chapel two by two and then had a beautiful uplifting Choral Eucharist.
On Sundays we went to the parish church in Maymyo, called ‘All Saints’, about five miles away from the school. Those that were able walked there and back, the others went in the bus. There was a Communion Service in the morning and Evensong at night. After lunch on Sunday we all had to sit and write letters home or to our friends, which were ‘censored’ and then learn the Collect for the day by heart and repeat it to whoever was on duty.
Once a month the girls who had brothers in the Boys’ School were allowed to have them visit for an hour on Sunday before lunch. They met in the play shed.
We had a school magazine, ‘Loyalty’ and those who wished wrote articles or poems. Our school motto was Ich Dien — I serve.
Every Monday Sister Lois, who was the head sister, would write up a motto on the notice board which was a large blackboard outside the Drill Hall. We would have to learn the motto by heart and repeat it after prayers before we started our lessons.
St Michael’s was my home until 1928, when I left to go to the University in Rangoon. I was there a year when my father died and the money ran out. I joined the Rangoon General Hospital and did a four-year training as a nurse and then a one-year Maternity course at the Dufferin Hospital. I always went ‘home’ for holidays.
I knew of my husband who was a boy from Maymyo, but we only became friends at the University. After I had finished my training we got married. We were married in the parish church at Maymyo, where we had both been confirmed on the same day some years before.
Recollections of St. Michael And All Angels, Maymyo 4/4
The morning of the wedding day we had a Nuptial Mass in the school Chapel. I got dressed for the wedding at the school and drove to the Church in the Sisters’ car. The wedding Reception which was an Afternoon Tea was held in the Drill Hall.
The Sisters were always kind and caring. We were sad when we heard that they had to leave the school in 1942 when the Japanese invaded Burma. We were in Calcutta in India at the time, where my husband was doing his Theological Training. What they and the school gave us cannot be measured, It was a deep spiritual and disciplined value. The Sisters I knew have all gone to their rest, but the former pupils who are scattered around the world still keep in touch. The ‘Old Girls' in England and in Perth have a reunion every year and send out a letter giving news of the girls who are living and letting us know of those who have died.
Postscript: In February 1992 my husband — Canon Cecil Cornelius — and I went down to Yessabah, about 16 km from Kempsey, N.S.W., to see the Tropical Fruit Nursery our son Peter and his wife Beverley had bought a few months earlier. On Sunday we went to the Kempsey parish church and met two of the sisters from Dondingalong. When they knew that we had connections with the sisters at Maymyo they invited us to attend the 100th anniversary of their being in Australia. It was there that I was invited to write my recollections of St Michael’s and All Angels, Maymyo.
Maisie Cornelius