The Meiklejon family and their schools for the blind at St Leonards on Sea

In 1903 Mrs Meiklejon opened a school for blind children at 48 Kenilworth Road. She was born Mary Jane Noonan in Ireland in about 1858, and was elder sister to Robert Noonan (1870-1911), who as Robert Tressell lived in the area from late 1901 on his return from South Africa, and wrote the famous The Ragged-Trousered Philanthrophists. The Historical Hastings page on Robert Tressell states that Robert Noonan and his daughter on their arrival joined the Meiklejons at their flat at Western Road, where the waste water treatment plant is now located. It is probable that the presence of his sister encouraged him to settle in the area.

Mary Jane had married John Bean Meiklejon, a draper, in 1875 at the Anglican church of St John’s, Fitzroy Square, London. They had three sons and three daughters. They were in London in the 1881 and 1891 censuses, but in the 1901 census were at 38 Western Road, St Leonards, where he was a grocer and draper shopkeeper. His wife was named as Jennie but I am quite certain it was the right family. He is presumably the Mr J. Meiklejon who is mentioned as adding a post office function to his shop at Bulverhythe Road as mentioned in the Hastings Observer, 23 May 1896. In March 1900 he, as a grocer of Bulverhythe, had ten shillings stolen from him by Charlotte Pratt; he refused to prosecute, but there were a number of other thefts by her, her modus operandi apparently being to pretend that a farthing had been given to her in change instead of a half sovereign (she was sentenced to three months in prison). His wife appears to have been active in the local temperance movement.

From June 1903, in its street listing of residents, the Hastings and St Leonards Advertiser consistently lists Mrs Meiklejon as the main householder at 48 Kenilworth Road, suggesting a split in the family (there is no entry for Mr Meiklejon elsewhere). The Observer, 12 December 1903, stated that Miss A. Meiklejon, a successful blind student at the local science classes, and a student of the Royal Norman College for the Blind, had established a boarding and day school for the blind. The 1905 Pike’s directory listed both Mrs and Miss Meiklejon as running a school for the blind at no. 48.

The Advertiser, 5 January 1899, wrote admiringly of a student who was ranked equal to the hygiene prize winner at the Science and Art School. Alice Meiklejon was described as totally blind, and had ‘taken notes at the Class lectures by the Braille method, and typed her answers at one of the tables in the examination-room. There were other mentions of her in the newspaper – an unusual surname was a big help – and it is clear that she was very proficient in using a typewriter.

The Observer, 10 May 1902, reported on a meeting of the Women’s P.S.A. at the Wellington Square Baptist Church. Miss Campbell and Miss Meiklejon were both of the Royal Normal College for the Blind at Upper Norwood, and sang songs for the assembly. Miss Meiklejon also read from the Psalms ‘with the ease and fluency of any sight reader, using her fingers for eyes.’ I wondered what P.S.A. stood for, and Helena Wojtczak tells me it stood for ‘Pleasant Sunday Afternoon’, a kind of halfway house between a church service and a public meeting. Miss Campbell was the school’s music teacher, and daughter of the principal.

Alice in both the 1891 and 1901 censuses was a pupil at the college, noted as blind from birth. She graduated in 1903, aged about 24. It is likely that her graduation prompted her mother to open the school, though it is unclear how large a role the mother played.

The Hastings and St Leonards Pictorial Advertiser, 22 October 1908, stated that it there was only one institution which existed solely for the

benefit of blind and mentally deficient children, of whom there are, alas ! quite a number, and that is at St Leonards. The School for the Blind kept by Miss Meiklejon, at 48 and 49, Kenilworth-road, will hold its first annual meeting next Monday.

It had been in existence for five years but it had been decided to extend its scope and had been registered with the Board of Education, ‘and now it receives pupils, or rather patients, sent by Education Authorities from all over the country, as well as the private patients.’ There was a school in London for boys but none for girls. Readers who wished ‘to know more of this novel and wonderful work’ were encouraged to attend the meeting, where the Mayor was to preside.

A more detailed report in the Observer, 31 October 1908, added that the school originated through ‘Mss Meiklejon being given the charge of two mentally deficient children by Dr Campbell, the principal’ of the Royal Normal College. There had been problems running it privately, and when in March 1908 it was decided to register the school many local ladies and gentlemen gathered around to help. The Gardner Trust offered to provide some finance to bring the school up to the required standards if an equal amount was raised locally. £30 was accordingly raised locally, equivalent to about £3,100 today. At one point during the meeting

Four of the children then recited and sang under the direction of Miss Meiklejon. The pitiful appearance of their sightless eyes and expressionless faces aroused much sympathy.

In November 1909 Mrs Meiklejon of 48 Kenilworth Road was noted as receiving a telephone number, 560 in the local exchange. It is unclear exactly what role she had in the school.

For example, she signed the form for 48 and 49 Kenilworth Road in the April 1911 census. This grouped the two addresses together but noted that no. 48, with 13 rooms, was a house for blind boys while no. 49, with 11 rooms, was a house for blind girls. The household head was in fact Alice, age 32, born Stratford, Essex, as the Head Teacher. Her sister Ruby, age 31, was the matron. There was also an assistant teacher and seven servants. There were 20 girls and 10 boys, aged 8 to 19, all listed as patients rather than pupils.

The ‘infirmity’ column on the form lists Alice as blind, and the 16-year-old ward maid, Carrie Lowe, as ‘congenitally totally deaf dumb.’ It is hard to interpret the notes against each patient, but besides all being blind most were also noted as being ‘feeble minded.’

In the same 1911 census Mary Jane, the mother, was at 37 Carisbrooke Road, the next street over. Her husband John was a visitor in Romford, Essex, married, furniture salesman, and so we do not know if they were together as a couple.

No. 37 had 11 rooms and she was the Principal of a residential school for feeble-minded pupils, with the Board of Education mentioned as the employer. 12 girls were patients, and there were four servants, a matron, a head teacher, and an assistant teacher – who was Mary Jane’s niece Kathleen Noonan, 18, born Cape Town, daughter to Robert Noonan, and so of course first cousin to Alice Meiklejon. Kathleen’s father had died a couple of months earlier, at Liverpool, when they were about to emigrate to Canada. We owe the survival and publication of his famous book to her, as she preserved it and mentioned it to a visiting writer, Jessie Pope, who recommended it to her publisher.

The day before Robert Noonan’s death the Advertiser had published, 2 February 1911, three photos relevant to the school. One was a photo of Alice, given below.

The others were tableaux of the children in what appears to be Japanese costumes. Described as a ‘unique and interesting entertainment’, it was to be given at the Christ Church Parish Room. The photos were therefore presumably of rehearsals, and one is given below.

The school for the blind soon moved to 12 Upper Maze Hill. The Advertiser, 6 February 1913, with the heading ‘Helping deficient children’ had two photos of more tableaux, from the New Year’s entertainment. Apparently it had been found necessary to move to larger and more adequate premises. This address was a large house dating to about 1878. The site, where Albany Road meets Upper Maze Hill, is now a modern block of flats. The Observer, 8 February 1913, added that rehearsals had begun a year before, and that the entertainment opened with

Representations of various Nursery Rhymes in character by the children, who were summoned by a trumpeter into the land of the King and Queen of Fairyland, each one arriving with musical introduction, in other words by the corresponding rhymes, which were sung with remarkable sweetness and expression. After the performance the children went through several dances very prettily, after which the Fairy Queen presented the audience with small bouquets.

A Christmas tree was then dismantled by a Mrs Johnson of Clyde Road, with the children, staff and guests each receiving a present. Both the Meiklejon sisters were presented with bouquets of white flowers.

On the 1 April 1915 a planning application, DH/C/6/1/8423, was approved for 12 Upper Maze Hill, ‘Conversion to school.’ Another, in 1920, DH/C/6/1/8706, was for alterations and additions.

The 1921 census had, at 12 Upper Maze Hill, named St Paul’s House, John Bean Meiklejon as head, so if the couple had been separated they seem to have been reconciled. He was 68, a retired draper. Jennie his wife was 61, born Athlone, principal of special school and approved home. Alice was 43, head mistress and principal, special school for the blind. A Mary Louise Osborne, 42, was head mistress of [a] special school, so perhaps there were three schools being run at the premises.

There were seven employees including the matron. There were also nine patients, aged 18 to 43, performing work. Three were performing ‘light house work’, three ‘housework’, two ‘kitchen work’, and one ‘dormitory work’. In all there were 43 persons living in 22 rooms.

It appears that the focus of the school’s work began to change. From March 1922 the Hastings Observer printed short adverts for the school, under Mrs Meiklejon’s name, stating that it was a school for ‘the development of backward or nervous pupils’, with two vacancies for day pupils. Possibly this school was housed together with a school for the blind, as hinted at in the 1921 census.

John Meiklejon died in 1925 at a London hospital but was of St Paul’s House, leaving £762.

On the 20 March 1926 the Observer had an article about the closure of the school. It stated

Owing to a series of tragedies, Miss Meiklejon has been forced to give up her work, and although every possible effort was made to secure some one to take over the school, it was found impossible to do so, and at Christmas it was closed. There is a rumour that Miss Meiklejon disposed of the school for a large sum, and that an appeal for £10,000 recently circulated, but such is not the case. Miss Meiklejon has hat to close her school, and letters of regret have been received by her from the Board of Control, the highest authority on the education of mental defectives, and from the Board of Education.

Mary Jane Meiklejon died on the 29 January 1927 at St Paul’s House after ‘much suffering.’ She had an estate of £28528, equivalent to over one and a half million today, and much more than her husband’s estate. The Observer, 19 March 1927, in an article on the school for the blind, implied it was still in fact operating, as it was ‘still going on, and doing, as it has always done, its quiet, marvellous work.’ It stated that when Alice Meiklejon graduated in 1903 from the Normal College for the Blind its principal felt that she and her mother were so suited that he offered to send them two blind, mentally deficient girls from the College. The London County Council and various county or town councils were sending pupils, as was poor law guardians. It continued:

Mrs Meiklejon’s school is not endowed, but it has never been in debt, owing to the generosity of Mr Meiklejon and her daughters, who, out of their slender means, have always made up deficits, should such have occurred.

Four years ago Mrs Meiklejon’s health began to fail and she had to reduce the work. The article’s author, Mr de Giberne-Sieveking, expressed his ‘most reverend and respectful admiration for the supreme nobility’ of her work.

The Miss Campbell referred to earlier was apparently Amelia Ann Campbell. Her obituary, in the Observer, 3 October 1931, stated that she had died on a visit to Hastings, aged 71,

And had been blind from childhood, was for 59 years an inmate of the Royal Normal College for the Blind at Upper Norwood, first entering that institution as a pupil and subsequently becoming a teacher of singing there.

She was buried at Hastings Borough Cemetery. Alice Meiklejon and the matron of St Paul’s House attended the funeral, indicating that some kind of school or care home was still being run there. Ruby, Alice’s sister, also died in 1931, in London: she was only 49.

Alice Meiklejon in 1948 and 1951 was mentioned as the Honorary Housing Manager of the Christ Church St Leonards House Improvement Society, about whom I recently wrote in this blog. She was also on the Committee of the Hastings and East Sussex Building Society, to which she was re-elected in 1952.

On the 9 April 1962 Alice Meiklejon, of 14d Upper Maze Hill, died at 63 Pevensey Road, aged 84. She was buried at Hollington Cemetery.

I found the story of this remarkable family, and particularly of Alice, both moving and inspiring to research and write.