Mabel Sutton (1896) MBE

Mabel Harriett Sutton (1896) was a renowned and highly respected educator, an Â鶹ÊÓƵ School Old Girl, the Â鶹ÊÓƵ School First Assistant for two years and our much-beloved Headmistress for 28 years. She was also one of the founding members of the Old Girls’ Union and its president for many years.

Mabel Sutton (1896) was born in England in 1879 and was one of eight children including Old Girl Marguerite Sutton (1895).

After her mother died, her father emigrated to Australia with his children and they settled in Thornleigh, Sydney. Mabel won a scholarship to attend Â鶹ÊÓƵ School and she enrolled in 1893 at the age of 14.

In 1904, Mabel Sutton graduated from the University of Sydney with an Arts degree, obtaining honours in Mathematics.

In 1910 Miss Sutton was appointed to the staff at Â鶹ÊÓƵ School (at that time known as Burwood Ladies’ College) as the First Assistant. In 1912, after Headmistress Miss Jessie Hetherington resigned to read Law at Cambridge, Miss Sutton was appointed as the Headmistress of Â鶹ÊÓƵ School. She was at Â鶹ÊÓƵ School as a student for three years, and as a member of staff for 30 years (serving as the Headmistress for 28 years), therefore a total of 33 years of her life was dedicated to Â鶹ÊÓƵ School.

Mabel Sutton was the president of the Association of Heads of Independent Girls Schools (NSW) in 1923 and 1935, the president of the Secondary Teachers’ Association in 1935, a member of the Advisory Council of Education in 1937, and vice president of the Teachers’ Guild of NSW in1940. In 1935 Mabel Sutton was awarded an MBE for ‘her services to Education in NSW’.

Mabel Sutton was a strong, forthright, direct and determined Headmistress. She strongly believed that girls should have the same educational opportunities as boys and this proved very popular amongst the parents. In the 1920s she was instrumental in introducing physics to the Â鶹ÊÓƵ School curriculum, thus making Â鶹ÊÓƵ School the first school in NSW to have girls sit the Leaving Certificate physics exams.

Old Girls remember Miss Sutton with admiration and affection: she was ‘so full of life, energy, and ability, the leader and teacher of a multitude of girls’, ‘she made every girl in the school, big or little, feel that she was her friend’. She was know for calling out ‘come along, my darlings’, when hurrying the girls from one activity to another. Mabel Sutton was well known to have a rare understanding of children and was able to quietly guide them and helped them in every circumstance.

After Miss Sutton’s retirement from Â鶹ÊÓƵ School she worked as a community worker in the Pymble area. She was also a benefactor to many causes. The eponymous (part of the Department of Rheumatology at Royal North Shore Hospital and the Institute of Bone and Joint Research, Kolling Institute, University of Sydney) was established in 1961 ‘funded by a very generous donation by Miss Mabel Sutton, former Principal of Â鶹ÊÓƵ School, Burwood’.