Margaret Jessie Steel was born in Scotland in 1883 and attended the prestigious George Watson’s Ladies’ College in Edinburgh. She then enrolled at the University of Edinburgh and completed a Master of Arts. After several tutoring appointments, including Kirkhill Public School and Orford Hall Training College in Warrington, Cheshire, she became tutor at the University College of Southampton. She lectured not only in her primary subjects of education, logic and psychology, but also taught needlework and divinity. Additionally, Margaret gave regular public lectures at Workers’ Educational Associations, Women’s Institutes and Mothers’ Union groups throughout the south of England.
In 1933, Margaret undertook the gruelling study necessary to pass the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Lambeth Diploma in Theology. This Diploma was instituted in 1905, to encourage women to study theology and enable them to teach Religious Education.
Margaret emigrated to Australia in 1938, where she took up the post of Headmistress of the Sydney Church of England Girls’ Grammar School (SCEGGS) in Moss Vale, NSW. She resigned in 1943 due to illness, and moved to Sydney. The following year she was appointed Lecturer in Psychology at Sydney University.
In 1945, Moore Theological College appointed her matriculation coach for the young men preparing for the University Entrance exam, a necessary requirement for admission. Many aspiring clergymen were only as young as 20 when they applied to attend Moore, and Margaret’s role was to prepare these young men for the academic rigours of the Licentiate in Theology program.
After her resignation in 1951, she did some temporary teaching at Trinity Grammar School, and lectured in the Teacher Training Course run by the Teachers’ Guild of NSW, until 1956. Margaret died in 1963.
Margaret’s many friends and colleagues had nothing but the highest praise for her, which can be seen in the many testimonials and personal letters which make up the bulk of her small archival collection. C.W. Rich, who later became Federal Secretary of the Bush Church Aid Society, wrote in 1949: “One tries to do one’s best under all circumstances but to have such things expressed, such as you said … is quite an incentive to aim at higher things. I must lay the credit of that most astonishing A in Geog. at your feet.” Ken Child, who went on to have a well-respected ministry in several Kent parishes and Canterbury Cathedral, also wrote in 1949. “I am sure I could not have achieved this success without your expert tuition. I cannot fully express my gratitude and appreciation for all your help during the past year.”
SCEGGS student Laurel Waters wrote: “I feel that I owe you all in my character that is good – since it was under your influence that I began to form opinions and ideals of my own.”
A fellow lecturer at University College Southampton described her thus: “Her lectures in Logic and Psychology have been of great service to my own work and of lasting benefit to both our men and women students. She keeps a young heart, an open mind and a wise judgement in all things. Immensely popular with students, she makes innumerable friends and no enemies.”
And the Moore College Committee recorded their appreciation in the minutes of November 16th, 1951: “Her unsparing attention to the details of her work and her personal influence on the students have won the regard and esteem of all those acquainted with her work.”
Although her time at Moore College was short, she had a lasting positive impact on all of the students she taught, both academically and personally. Her small collection of personal papers shows her to be a highly intelligent, ambitious woman who used her intellectual powers for good.
References:
The Archbishop’s Examination in Theology (2017) Retrieved from: http://aet-lambeth.org/
Correspondence received. Margaret J. Steel Collection, series 058/2. Samuel Marsden Archives.
