News

Celebrating 70 Years

1948-1959 Presented by Wordsworth

In honour of our 70th Anniversary, the pupils at Redcliffe School will be presenting on Redcliffe School through the decades. Every couple of weeks, a different year group will share facts about the school from that decade, as well as what was happening in the UK, and around the world during that time. We are all very proud of our school, which is one of the oldest prep schools in the area, and can’t wait to share what we have learnt.

The school began life as the Chelsea Froebel and Redcliffe School, with the founding headmistress Lady Daphne Edwards.  She and her family lived at the top of 47 and used the lower floors as a school for local children just after the war. Lady Edwards remained the headmistress until 1975 when she retired. Before she retired, she turned the school into a charitable trust in 1973.

Here are some things that happened from 1948 – 1959 that we thought were interesting!

Clement Attlee was a Labour party politician who served as prime minister from 1945-1951. In the 1951 elections Sir Winston Churchill was elected a second time.  In 1955 Churchill retired and Sir Anthony Eden succeeded him as prime    minister.  Sir Anthony Eden resigned due to his health in 1957 and Harold Macmillan took his place.

It was around this time that many countries were granted independence from the UK. Burma, which is now known as Myanmar, gained independence from the UK in 1948.

The 1948 Olympics were held in London. These were the first Summer Olympics to be held since the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, because no Games were held during World War II. A total of 59 nations sent athletes to compete at the London Games. Germany and Japan were not invited to participate in the games. Great Britain won 3 gold medals, 14 silver medals and 6 bronze medals in these games.

The business type dress became rather popular and was showcased on multiple covers of fashion magazines.

In 1948 women wore “pancake  make-up” this was applied with a damp sponge and scarlet lipstick was normal to wear every day . Also, it seems like everybody smoked!

The Korean War was fought between South Korea and communist North Korea. It was the first major conflict of the Cold War as the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China supported North Korea and the United States, Great Britain and other countries in the United Nations, supported South Korea.

Some of the most popular toys in the 1950’s were the hula hoop and Mr Potato Head.

The coronation of Elizabeth II took place on 2 June 1953 at Westminster Abbey, London.  BBC coverage of the Coronation was a breakthrough for the history of broadcasting. It was the first service to be televised and for most people, it was the first time theyhad watched an event on television.  27 million people in the UK (out of the 36 million population) watched the ceremony on television and 11 million listened on the radio.

We think it’s amazing that whilst the world has changed an incredible amount over 70 years, Redcliffe School has continued to be a wonderful place to learn and grow.

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Our next decade will be 1960-1969 presented by 

Shakespeare.