Death of legendary headmistress '˜Garry'

Miss McGarry (pictured), or “Garry” as she was fondly known, was a redoubtable figure in Bexhill between 1946-1971 when she was head of the town’s leading boarding school for girls.

Many Bexhill residents today are “Old Charterians” or taught at the school under her leadership and maintained contact with their old head mistress after she retired to Dorset.

At the time of Miss McGarry’s headship, Charters Towers in Hastings Road was one of the only international schools in England where girls from the UK and around the world received an English education in a uniquely cosmopolitan community.

Daughters of Arab princes, British Generals and everything in between were educated in each other’s cultures, creeds and religions and out of that understanding came lifelong respect.

The highlight of the year at Charters Towers was United Nations Day, when pupils from every continent wore their national dress and performed traditional dances or enacted a ceremony typical of their home culture or religion.

“Garry’s Girls” have gone on to break boundaries around the world in banking, publishing and the arts.

A local resident and former pupil this week paid tribute to Miss McGarry: ‘Occasionally terrifying, sometimes surprisingly kind, always gracious, Garry taught me much that I didn’t understand I needed to know until long after I had left CTS. It is to her that her pupils owe their love of art, classical music, literature – even Greek mythology.

“But more than anything we learned a total lack of discrimination towards any race, colour or creed.

“We lived alongside people from all over the world and we liked or disliked them for who they were – not for where they came from, their religion or the colour of their skin.  That, in those days, was a rare thing indeed.”

• A Memorial Service for Eileen McGarry will be held at All Saints, Tarrant Monkton, Dorset at mid-day on October 1.