Its Time Travel Tuesday! Although a little sad, this week we show you a little of what has gone - the Stella Clarke and Mary Stanley-Low Memorial Gardens. Stella Clarke was a boarder from Burekup and started at PLC in September 1923 aged 12. She was a keen gardener and PLC gave her a small plot to develop, herself. Straight after she won the Gardening Prize (awarded since 1917) at Speech Day, she headed home for the holidays. She was 15. On 20 December 1925, the town of Bunbury resolved to establish the Surf Lifesaving Club they’d been talking about for years. The very next day, Stella and her friend Peter Verschuer (also 15) were swimming at Bunbury when Stella got into trouble. Peter ran to get help and found a man with some old rope which he (Peter) tied around himself to try to save her. He and the other man (who jumped in with his boots on) both tried to save her, but although they got her to the beach, she had drowned. The Bunbury Surf Life Saving Club was established almost immediately, their resolve strengthened by the pleas of Mrs Verschuer, who begged the town not to let another child have to face trying to save their friend the way Peter had. In 1926 Stellas garden became the Stella Clarke Memorial Garden, and the Gardening Prize became the Stella Clarke Memorial Prize for Gardening, which was awarded until 1951. Mary Stanley-Low started at PLC in 1930 aged six and was nine when she died on 19 May 1933 from septicaemia from an infected insect bite on her cheek. A small, undeveloped part of Stellas garden was then dedicated to Marys memory. It slowly became a little overgrown, but in 1937 the Prefects took it over and began caring for it once more. From around the early 1960s the gardens seem to have fallen by the wayside. Marys younger half-sister, Judy Monger (Gillespie 1951, deceased), was at PLC from 1945-1948, during which time she helped to look after Marys garden. It used to make her feel close to the half-sister shed never known. (Thanks to Patrick Cornish for the recount of the events of 21 December 1925.)
Posted on: Tue, 26 Aug 2014 02:10:00 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015