Mary E. Cowper was a Jamaican-born Wolmer’s girl, daughter of William Cowper — the 1939 Gleaner funeral names her as his daughter and as sitting headmistress. After preparatory work with Miss Wortley at Half-Way-Tree Rectory she entered Wolmer’s Girls.

The 1929 souvenir records a Junior Cambridge with first-class honours and six distinctions, first among “eight thousand” girls that year; a first-class Senior Cambridge; and the 1914 Jamaica Girls’ Scholarship, “set for the first time by the University of Cambridge.” She went to Girton, read the Modern Language Tripos, and took second-class honours after an illness before finals.

She taught two years in a London high school, trained in social-welfare work, came home in 1919 (first temporarily at Wolmer’s), and was French master at Jamaica College from 1919 to 1922. In England from 1923 she did secretarial work in French and Spanish and handled French correspondence at the War Office. At the end of 1925 she and her sister Florence joined the Wolmer’s staff. When Howson resigned, the old pupil succeeded.

The 1929 staff page says she was appointed 1928. Later Trust History prints 1927–1940. The Gleaner of 24 October 1939 still calls her headmistress.

Sources

Sources: Wolmer’s School Bi-Centennial Booklet, 1929; Daily Gleaner, William Cowper funeral, 24 October 1939.