After leaving MTGS with excellent GCSE and A level results, Gabriela attended Cardiff University to study French with Business Studies.  After one term she changed her course to Accounting as she was not enjoying the French content as much as she had done at Merchants with Madame Mistry.  She made some lasting friendships at University and achieved a first class honours degree in Accounting.  Her first job interview resulted in her moving to Wimbledon SW19 to work at Domestic and General in the International Underwriting team where she subsequently met her now fiancé Robert Kendall after 18 months.  Gabriela continued to study and passed the exams to become an Associate of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants.  Gabriela and Rob started to plan and save for a gap year in Australia and Thailand and, after giving in their notices in the UK, the company asked them to complete an 8 week contract in Melbourne where they had an office and offered accommodation and flights which they gladly fulfilled.  Then their travelling commenced from October 2014 to March 2015 covering Melbourne to Cairns by road plus flying over to Perth, Vietnam, Bangkok and the islands, then back to the UK via a Dubai stay.

After having decided Melbourne was the city they wanted to settle in, they returned to Australia where Gabriela landed excellent employment as a business analyst at a company called Ansvar where she is studying for further professional exams to become an Actuary.  Their permanent visas were issued within four months, so now a cute Cavapoo called Teddy has become a member of their family.

Gabriela still keeps in touch with school friends and has holidayed with Simal Thind, Ciara O’Donnell, Nadine Iskander and Catrin Hobbs as recently as this year in Paris in March.  She is hoping they will come over to Australia for her wedding (not until September 2017).

(Lindar Kivi)

The Stanfield reunion on May 9^th was a great joy to me admiring all the new buildings and sharing memories with many old girls and teachers. Three generations of my family started Merchant Taylors’ in the reception class. My mother, Margery Aizlewood (nee Pattison), started in 1914 when the reception class was on the ground floor of the 1620 building. When I started in 1944 the reception class was in Daisyfield, a large house in Blundellsands Road East.  However, I was to become one of the first pupils at Stanfield. To quote from Sylvia Harrop’s book ‘In May 1945 the Governors took out a ten-year lease on another large house, Stanfield, which was about equidistant from the Boys’ and Girls’ Schools, had large grounds and had previously been used as a private school.’ We moved from Daisyfield into Stanfield at the start of the summer term in 1946. I look back with fond memories of my early school days and the friends I made. Little did I know then that my daughter Ruth Sugden (nee Hollinghurst) would enter Stanfield in 1980, creating more happy memories for me. Maybe her young daughter Anna will one day become a fourth generation Merchant Taylors’ girl. My sons Paul and Mark were also at Merchant Taylors’. I thank all the past and present Headmistresses, Governors and staff of the school for their foresight and wise decisions over so many years, making Merchant Taylors’ the fine school it is today.

Joan Hollinghurst (nee Aizlewood)
MTGS 1944-1957

Lucy Hansen, who left MTGS in 2002, married Connor Grimes, a Canadian Olympic Hockey player, on 28^th August 2015 at St James’ Church in Birkdale, Southport.

Approximately 50 ex Merchant Taylors’ girls and boys attended the wedding along with Lucy’s former Headmistress from Stanfield, Mrs Margaret Mann.  After the marriage ceremony, a reception was held at her parents’ house in Birkdale.

Lucy’s husband is now based in the UK and works in Corporate Finance in Haydock.