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Miss Marian Clarke (1885 - 1913)
An English woman with the equivalent of a degree (women were not awarded degrees in the nineteenth century), Miss Clarke came to Australia in 1883 to teach at her sister Ellen's school Normanhurst at Ashfield. Perceiving a need for "academic" schools for girls she founded Abbotsleigh two years later. Girls were immediately entered for public examinations (they all failed the first attempt but succeeded at the second). Her genius was to see the trend for genuine academic education for girls following the work of the nineteenth century feminists, and to cater for it.
Miss Clarke believed in physical as well as mental education. Her first curriculum offered "gymnastics under capable supervision". It was thanks to her that Abbotsleigh was one of the first girls' schools to have a playing field. "Fields", a two acre paddock on the corner of Lucinda Avenue, was purchased in 1901. She was also keen on French, a proper academic curriculum for girls and discipline. Right from the beginning Abbotsleigh had a reputation as a strict school, in other words a proper school, not a finishing school for young ladies where a girl could pick up a bit of French and music and culture.
Miss Clarke sold the school in June 1913 and went to Paris to study painting and had her work exhibited. She remained in close contact with the school, travelled extensively and did Red Cross work during the First World War.
She died on 2 July 1933. Shortly before she died she said, "I have seen all the things I wished to see and accomplished what I set out to do. I have led a long, happy and interesting life and now I am quite prepared and ready to go."
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