PUBLISHED 23 February 2023
We are sad to report the death of Miss Joan Charlton on Sunday 5th February at the grand age of 102. She was Headmistress at QMS from 1970 until she retired in 1981 when she returned to her native Northumberland.
She was from a mining community near Hexham where it was unheard of for anyone to go to university, let alone get offers from Oxford and Cambridge. Her first love had been archaeology and her favourite subject at school Latin, but at Girton College she studied English, which was considered more suitable for later employment.
Her subsequent teaching career spanned Heaton High School in Newcastle (1943-48), Head of English at Redland High School in Bristol (1948-58); she was then appointed Head of the Royal Grammar School for Girls in Clitheroe (1958-64), followed by Head of Carlisle and County High School for Girls (1964-70).
When Miss Charlton took up her post at Queen Mary School in the autumn term of 1970, the school had 835 girls on its roll. She set about creating a ‘proper advanced science course’ resulting in a threefold increase in the number of sixth formers specialising in the sciences. Her keen interest in the development of the Classical Studies courses led to the introduction of the modern Cambridge Latin scheme, and she herself taught Classical Studies without notes to some forms and occasionally related stories, from memory, from the Odyssey, Beowulf, and the Mabinogion to the younger pupils.
Miss Charlton’s own wide academic interests were reflected in her encouragement of a varied range of studies available to the girls at both middle school and sixth-form levels. Sixth Form scientists were able to opt for non-exam history, for example, whilst linguists and other arts students could choose non-exam science subjects.
As well as her progressive initiatives in terms of educational and social opportunities, she was lauded for guiding the school through another challenging period of educational turmoil. Her last year at QMS coincided with the school’s golden jubilee for which she suggested the creation of the unique tapestry ‘Sand, Hills and Sea’, made by the artist Alec Pearson of Cambridge and still displayed in school.
Miss Charlton created her own Jacobean embroideries and for many years made her own clothes, having been taught by her mother, a milliner by training. She was also a keen environmentalist; back in 1988, she spoke on behalf of the Women's Institute at the Royal Albert Hall on CFC pollution and, in 1989, she called for action to counter the greenhouse effect, deforestation, and toxic gases, via the Old Girls' School Magazine.
Throughout her retirement, she served her community at Catton via the Methodist Chapel. She had neither TV nor computer, but maintained an active interest in politics and maintained a phenomenal knowledge of literature which she continued to cultivate until the last few months of her life. Her favourite book? 'The Worst Journey in the World' by Cherry-Garrard. She felt that if the author could survive that ill-fated expedition of 1912 to the South Pole, it might offer us all hope.
In March 2019, some AKS archivists visited Miss Charlton to record her oral history, and said they felt it had been a privilege to get to know her over subsequent years simply as
'Joan', a very astute and cultured woman, always with words of kindness and wisdom to share.
Her funeral will take place on Friday 10th March at 1 pm at Catton Methodist Church, followed by a buffet at Catton Village Hall.