In 1930 Miss Dorothy G. Millier, Lit. Dip., joined the staff of Crawley Down School, I suspect as a temporary Head Teacher. Of her background or life after leaving the school I know absolutely nothing (if anyone does, I will be only too delighted to amend this brief account). All I have are some photographs of the children’s sporting achievements during her reign which I regarded as interesting but not remarkable until I came across this cutting from the Daily Mirror of the 18th July 1931.
It appears that Miss Millier was imbued with a dynamism that raised the standard of sporting prowess among the boys in her charge. I suspect that the staff of the school at the time were all female and that social expectations regarding gender and sport were firmly entrenched. So perhaps it was her apparent disregard of those norms that gained Miss Millier the approval of the national press as well as, I hope, that of her pupils and their parents. She was evidently prepared to practise what she preached, as these photographs show. They were presumably posed for the local press to illustrate her team’s successes at cricket and football in county competitions, and her proactive role in them.
Miss Dorothy Millier with her football team posed beside the churchyard railings in the school playground in 1932
The photographs speak for themselves and maybe there will be readers of this whose grandparents or great-grandparents are among those pictured.
