Elizabeth Wilhelmina Jones (27 October 1869 – 10 December 1959), known professionally as Miss M. E. Jones or Mina E. Jones, was an Irish educator who was the headmistress of Harrogate Ladies' College in Harrogate, North Riding of Yorkshire, England, from 1898 to 1935.
Jones was born in Belfast, Ireland. In collaboration with the school's founder and owner, George Mearns Savery, a fellow Wesleyan, she increased the number of pupils, moved the establishment into a new, purpose-built building, and planned for the development of female education there. After Savery's early death she added a separate preparatory school for girls, rebuilt Harrogate's Old St Mary's Church on the school grounds as a chapel for the staff and pupils, and established Maison Blanche, a French-language school in Paris. The Northern Whig described her as "one of the leading educationists in England".
Background Jones was born into a Wesleyan family background. Her maternal grandfather was William Wilson of Crossan, County Tyrone, Ireland, who married Elizabeth Graham, also from Crossan, and had twelve children. The first of those siblings was Jones' uncle Reverend William Wilson, who emigrated to Australia in 1852 and became a Wesleyan minister. Her mother was Mary Jane Jones (née Wilson) from Irvinestown, County Fermanagh, the sixth of those twelve siblings. Her father was the Wesleyan minister, Reverend John William Jones of Donaghpatrick, County Meath, Ireland, who was born in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, Ireland. He was minister of Sandy Row Methodist Church, Belfast.
Jones was born at 20 Frederick Street, Belfast, County Antrim, Ireland, and was the eldest of eight siblings. She was educated at the Methodist College Belfast. and was a graduate of the Royal Irish University (now the Queen's University Belfast). There she gained her Bachelor of Arts second class degree in Mathematics and Physics at Victoria College in 1891. In her youth, she was a hockey player. As an educator, she was known as Miss M. E. Jones, or Mina E. Jones. In England, Jones had several close friends. While teaching at Bradford, she shared accommodation and a holiday cottage with a "great friend and colleague", Gertrude Clement. Louie Davies, a former pupil at Percy Lodge, later became Jones' confidante and private secretary, and was "her devoted friend and admirer throughout her life".
Although accommodation was provided for Jones at Harrogate Ladies' College, she also maintained her own house and garden at Bewerley, North Yorkshire, and entertained staff and pupils there. She drove her own car, and in her free time toured around the country. During her holidays and following her retirement as a headmistress in 1937, she travelled abroad to the Holy Land, Europe, Egypt, South Africa and South America, learned to skate in Switzerland, then settled in 1956 in a flat facing the sea at Kepplestone, Meads, Eastbourne, Sussex. She died of cerebral thrombosis and arteriosclerosis on 10 December 1959 in Eastbourne, and was buried with her mother at Harlow Hill Cemetery, Harrogate.Gravestone inscription, Harlow Hill Cemetery, Harrogate. "To the honoured and beloved memory of Mary, widow of the late Rev. J.W. Jones of Belfast, who died at Harrogate College on the 12th of November 1918, aged 78 years. I hail the glory dawning from Immanuel's land. Elizabeth Wilhelmina "M.E. Jones". Eldest daughter of the late Reverend J.W. Jones of Belfast. Headmistress of Harrogate College from 1898 to 1935. Died at Eastbourne on the 10th of December 1959 aged 90 years. She ... "being dead, yet speaketh".
Bradford Girls' Grammar School According to Hewlett, "almost immediately" after receiving her university degree in 1891, Jones left Ireland for England, seeking teaching work. Following a temporary illness, she sought experience in several minor schools. Her first recorded teaching appointment occurred three years after her arrival in England. Between January 1894 and 1898, Jones was a form mistress at Bradford Girls' Grammar School for nearly five years. The Methodist Times reported that she left "with the highest testimonials to her capacity and high influence".
Harrogate Ladies' College
Collaboration with George Mearns Savery
Towards the end of her employment at Bradford Girls' Grammar School, Jones applied for headships. She declined three offers, including one from South Africa, then applied for but did not win a position at Keighley Girls' Grammar School. However her application had impressed the Keighley school governor William Clough, who recommended her to his brother-in-law George Mearns Savery. After a few meetings with Savery she was offered a headship at Harrogate, but she hesitated due to the small size of Harrogate Ladies' College, and therefore the small scope for development. Jones often spoke of the moment when the dilemma was resolved. While walking at Grassington, her lifelong close friend Gertrude Clement challenged her to make her decision when they reached a certain gate. Finding a horseshoe shamrock brooch on the ground by the gate influenced her decision and she wrote her letter of acceptance that evening. At 28 years old, she was appointed headmistress at Harrogate Ladies' College, and served from September 1898 to April 1935. She used the shamrock or clover-leaf emblem to decorate pupils' summer uniforms until 1930, and she named the school's headmistress' accommodation "Grassington".
The school was initially known as The Ladies' College or Harrogate Ladies' College, then Harrogate College during Jones' lifetime. It was founded by George Mearns Savery in 1893 in Dirlton Lodge, a rented villa on Ripon Road, which had been built by David Simpson. It was started under the headship of Betsy Field Hall, who ran the school until 1898. By 1895, the school occupied Percy Lodge on the Oval, Harrogate, which the school retained after relocation. In 1901 the census finds Jones living with staff and pupils in various buildings, including Percy Lodge. In the same year Savery planned a new school building in collaboration with Miss M. E. Jones, in response to the expansion of the school, which was occurring under her leadership. Part of a sports field, which was already owned by Savery's Harrogate College for boys, was made available; it was on Clarence Drive, Harrogate.
Ground was broken in 1902, and the building was opened for the school to move in, on 17 May 1904. In this building, according to the Yorkshire Post, Jones and Savery planned "everything for the best ... which would do in the lives of women what public schools for boys [had] done for men". A 1904 advertisement for the newly-housed school quoted a "fine lecture hall and classrooms, studio, laboratory, library, workshop, large gymnasium, pupils' sitting rooms, single bedrooms, 15 sound-proof music rooms, 10 tennis courts, hockey and cricket grounds, cycling path, gravel playgrounds etc." After the school opened, it still required the acquisition of nearby houses to accommodate boarding pupils and staff. The censuses of 1911 and 1921 find Jones accommodated in one of the school's boarding houses, with staff and pupils.
As described by the Yorkshire Post, the ideals of Jones and Savery for the school were "advancement in scholastic matters, the promotion of physical well-being, [and] the infusion of a fine moral and spiritual tone". They rejected historical tendencies towards "domination of ideas for the education of boys", the bluestocking, the hausfrau and the finishing school, in favour of potential female careers, "mental and moral training [and] personal responsibility", public duty, and home-making including "pride in the beauty and order of the home". Those ideals of 1901 would, of course, be superseded in certain respects in later years, but a tradition of "piety, learning and service" was maintained. Although closely supervised by Savery, under Jones' watch various changes occurred. Before Savery died, the school was admired for its solo singing, and its cricket team which played on equal terms against Savery's Harrogate College for boys. The boys' school closed in 1903, and during Jones' headship the girls' school carried the name, Harrogate College.
Independent headship from 1904
From 1904 various long-term associates and teachers joined the school, including Jones' sister Lena Jones who taught drama and games, and Dora Forde, an Irish friend who became one of the housemistresses. At some point Jones' brother, Bertie Jones, became bursar of the school. After Savery's death, according to the Illustrated London News, the school "took its place as one of the leading girls' boarding schools in the North". However, in funding the new school building Savery "had risked all of his resources, and there were periods of financial anxiety and stringency" for those running Harrogate Ladies' College. Nevertheless, his will gave Jones the right to purchase up to half of the shares in the school from Savery's wife, and Jones inherited another quarter of the shares after Mrs Savery died. The will also permitted her to purchase the rest of the shares.
Dame Margery Ellinor, Lady Lawson-Tancred, widow of Sir Thomas Selby Lawson-Tancred, said, "[Jones] was one of the pioneers of her day in woman's education of a modern type, which had not existed for more than three or four decades before she courageously undertook the responsibility of the development of a school on modern lines". She was training pupils in the domestic arts in anticipation of the "era of the servantless house [which was] close at hand". The school's 1914 Prospectus says, "Discipline is maintained by instilling a desire rather than through fear of punishment. As far as possible the girls are encouraged to govern themselves by principles of honour. In the interests of exercise, Jones was apt to organise ad hoc outings involving long walks, for example to Brimham Rocks and Rievaulx Abbey. From 1900 the pupils played tennis, cricket and hockey, soon followed by swimming, athletics and cycling. Horseriding was started in 1912, and became a strong feature of the curriculum from 1922, with sometimes more than 30 pupils attending hacks. During her tenure the pupils had a historical society, a camera club, an art club and a debating society. She also oversaw theatrical performances, organised by her sister Lena, in aid of charity. The school mottoes chosen by Jones were Industria, Fide, Pietate (industry, faith, piety) and Per Ardua ad Alta (through difficulties to greatness). During the Christmas season, Jones organised parties with a Christmas tree, forty uniformed maids bringing food including Christmas pudding, peacock pie and boar's head, and a costumed Father Christmas on a sledge.
There was much rearrangement of the building's interior in the early days, and Jones brought many large reproduction artworks from Italy, including a life-sized reproduction of the Venus de Milo, to decorate the school and inspire the pupils. Most of these were removed, lost or destroyed during the Second World War, while the building was occupied by the Ministry of Aircraft Production. In 1907 or 1910, in the original library over the entrance hall, the Old Girls installed the 1907 overmantel by Frances Darlington entitled, Sir Percival's Vision of the Holy Grail. 26 June 1914, twenty-one years after Savery's foundation, was the school's Coming of Age Day, on which a thousand people attended the celebration, and pupils took part in entertainments. On that day, Jones was presented with a full-length portrait by Ernest Moore, a diamond pendant and an illuminated address. The portrait was subsequently hung in the school dining hall.