Gretchen Dechert

Interviewed by Zoe Dobson on 15 August 2005
Subject: School

Gretchen Dechert. After that I went to the St Hilda’s Church of England Grammar School up near the Zoo. That school was started by the four Sisters of Tippy Arnold who started the Boys Preparatory School in Shadforth Street. There was Miss Isabelle Arnold, she was the headmistress. She was plump and her other sister Miss Hetty was plump and they taught in the school, and the two skinny Miss Arnold’s they kept the boarding house school boarding part. We always thought that was wrong, the fat ones should have kept… anyway.

We played tennis in what is now the Mosman Private Hospital. At that stage I think it was called the ‘Ellamatta’, and the car park was where the tennis court used to be. But of course now it is all huge buildings. It had various names, it was ‘All Saints’ and then Mosman Public, and now it’s Mosman Private.