Former college pupil’s poem a touching note from past

Ruth Anderson was about 12 and in fourth form at the college in 1918 when she wrote ‘The First Christmas Night’.

When the poem was found the college searched its archives and discovered Ruth was a bright young girl who had been at the school since she was seven. She won a range of academic prizes as she worked through the school. Priaulx Library records showed she was born in Guernsey to UK parents and was the youngest of three sisters and a brother.

However she died on 21 July 1920 from tubercular meningitis, aged just 14 years old.

The college principal at the time of her death, Miss Alice Mellish, was profoundly moved by the untimely death of this young girl, describing her as ‘gentle, unselfish, and unsparing in her ready helpfulness’.

Ruth’s eldest sister, Kathleen, went on to live a long life, including a period working at Queen’s College in Hong Kong between the wars. Kathleen returned to Guernsey and died in 1991, her funeral being held in St Stephen’s Church, as her younger sister’s had been all those decades earlier. Kathleen’s life is commemorated in a window in St Stephen’s, which depicts Miriam looking fondly at her baby brother Moses as he is spirited away in his basket.

Current pupil Molly Robinson, 12, was one of the readers at the service.

‘Finding out about this story behind the poem has been fascinating and also quite sad,’ she said.

‘It touched my heart.’

Genevieve Swainston, 11, added: ‘It’s amazing to think that 100 years ago pupils were preparing for Christmas in the same sort of way we do, but in some ways their lives were really different to ours.’

Pupils lit a candle at the carol service in remembrance of Ruth Anderson.