Winifred West

Who was Winifred West?

Winifred Mary West CBE was an English-born Australian educationist.

Born at Frensham in Surrey to schoolmaster Charles William West and Fanny, née Sturt, West spent her early life there and in Farnham, where the family moved in 1891. She attended Queen Anne's School in Caversham, Berkshire, from 1894 to 1900 having received a scholarship, before studying medieval and modern languages at Newnham College, Cambridge, from 1900 to 1903. She was employed from 1903 as a teacher at Guernsey Ladies' College.

In 1906, West became engaged to an Australian and travelled to New South Wales in 1907, but on the voyage she fell in love with an explorer in the British Antarctic Expedition, breaking off the engagement. She taught privately in Sydney and studied painting with Julian Ashton. Playing hockey at Rushcutters Bay she met Phyllis Clubbe, with whom she founded the New South Wales Women's Hockey Association; both represented the state in the sport.

West spent two years from 1910 in England teaching at Harrogate Ladies' College, returning with a belief in a rural educational setting. She and Clubbe opened a school at Mittagong, Frensham School, in July 1913; the school became known for its non-denominational religion and easy attitude. West retired as head of the school in 1938 and taught spinning, weaving and carpentry to the students from 1941 at Sturt School Crafts Centre. She established a pottery in 1954.