ABSTRACT
A woman’s skills and intelligence could be made to work through her husband to establish for him a position of distinction and authority, only in the family, but in society. To achieve a reputation as a brilliant hostess, the confidante of politicians and the friend and patroness of writer or artist, has formed the unspoken ambition of many clever girls who perhaps lacked alternative models or a sharp awareness of their own intellectual gifts. Consciously or unconsciously, many young women have secretly hoped to play the role of Mary Anne to a Disraeli, or ‘My darling Clemmie’ to a Winston Churchill - to be the well-loved and supportive wife to a successful man in public life. A corollary to this has been a belief that an ambitious man needed such a woman at his side to ensure his own success. The school was run on the lines of a large upper-middle-class family household of the time.
