“‘Ma Hendy’, ‘Blossom’, ‘Mattie’ and ‘Andy’ were the names we called our favourite teachers,” recalled Margaret Jamieson, former student of James Gillespie’s. When asked if they ever used these names within hearing of the teachers, Miss Jamieson laughingly said, “Oh, no! These were just the names we called them when we were talking about them amongst ourselves.”
Recently interviewed in her hilltop home overlooking Peebles for ‘Living Stories’, Miss Jamieson recalls her years spent at James Gillespie’s with great fondness. A former head girl, she believes the teachers she was privileged to have at Gillespie’s were one of the reasons that she remembers her years at the school, 1925-38, with such fondness.
