Patrick tells us:

"In the attached Gallery is the collection of excerpts from my grandmother’s diaries, photo albums and Sidcot memorabilia for your interest. There is a booklet titled ‘Sidcot’ which Bertha created in 1914 two years after leaving Sidcot as a tribute to her classmates and friends there. There are also diary entries, an apologetic letter, photos and scrapbook pages, all of which give a snapshot of Sidcot girls in 1910."

Patrick's maternal grandmother was Bertha Gwendoline Baker, 1897 - 1984. Bertha was the only child of Philip Baker and Mabel Main. Philip Baker was part of Baker Engineering (later Baker Perkins), an Englishman and a Quaker. Mabel Main was Australian, whom Philip had met in Australia during company business. Bertha was born in England and later had two half-siblings from Philip’s second marriage.

Pat continues: "Bertha adored Sidcot and was sorry to leave to go on the The Mount, York. This she did to be closer to her beloved classmate Edmund Pierce who went to Bootham. There is a published memoir of Bertha’s colourful life titled ‘Bad Aunt Bertha’, but for the purposes of this brief description it is enough to say that she lived her life to the full. She married into another Quaker family, the Penroses and bore two daughters with Alec Penrose whom she divorced in 1929. During this time she affiliated herself to the Bloomsbury Group and became familiar with Clive Bell, Virginia Woolf’s brother in law. Spending much time living a bohemian existence in Cassis, France she associated with artists and writers eventually settling in Kent to live a second marriage with Ralph Wright with whom she made doll’s houses and doll’s house furniture which sold at up-market shops such as Liberty of London, as well as creating her own artworks. During the World War Two years she and Ralph were an integral part of village life in Marden Kent."

Later in the 1960s Bertha moved to Surrey to be closer Patrick's mother, then finally to France to end her life in the household of of her other daughter. 

Patrick concludes: "I hope that these items will be of interest to the Sidcot community. It has been a great pleasure for me to honour Bertha’s legacy; I owe my Sidcot years (1963-70) to her good advice."

To access page two of the image gallery please use this link: Bertha Baker Images - Page 2