Margaret Bennell

Margaret Bennell (24 December 1893 in London – 23 July 1966 in Curry Mallet, Somerset) was a Steiner school teacher, co-founder of Wynstones School in Gloucestershire and founder of Hawkwood College in Stroud.

Bennell entered the boarding school for girls at Crouch End, London at an early age, for her mother died when she was still a child. The headmistress of the school, Charlotte Cowdroy, a well-known reformer of education for girls, became a substitute for her mother. She studied English Literature in London, obtained her B.A. and began to teach at Charlotte Cowdroy’s school, which in time, she took over. With a heart for social engagement, she taught young factory workers in London’s East End besides her work at the school.

She encountered Waldorf education, most probably through her friend Margaret McMillan, attending the later conferences following the founding of the “New School” in Streatham, London in January 1925, that was to become Michael Hall. In the middle of a Eurythmy lesson, Margaret left the room together with her colleague Cora Nokes. “Cora, we’ve got to found a school!” - “Have we really?” “Yes. Indeed!”

They set about putting the plan into action and in 1935 began looking for colleagues and for a suitable location. They managed to find a large manor house in Brookthorpe, Gloucestershire to begin with. Some pupils from Crouch End decided to go along with their two teachers and soon after the founding in 1937 a number more followed. Bettina Mellinger of the original Waldorf School in Stuttgart, which had just been closed by the Nazi government, joined them for a year as consultant. Norbert and Maria Glas, both doctors, also joined the College of Teachers and they were regularly visited by Walter Johannes Stein and Violetta Plincke. Lily Kolisko moved into the region as well after the death of her husband Eugen Kolisko in November 1939. Amongst a number of other committed pioneers, Rudi Lissau took over the Greek and Latin classes and was later to build up the high school. As the bomb attacks during the war mounted, student numbers rose rapidly in their secluded rural setting, amongst them many immigrant children who had fled Germany.

...
Wikipedia