Margaret Macdonald, MA 1966, PhD 2023
Margaret Macdonald vividly remembers the excitement of studying in the young department of Mediaeval History in the 1960s… and explains why, after a career in school teaching, she decided to come back to do a PhD. These personal reflections originally appeared in The St Andrews Historian (our alumni magazine) in 2019.
“When I was about five years old, an adult asked me what I wanted to do when I great up. I remember replying that I wanted to be a student. For a child brought up in St Andrews, the daughter of a university lecturer, this was an entirely reasonable career ambition. To me at that age, students were wonderful beings who wore red gowns and did exciting things on Raisin Monday, took part in the Charities Procession (now sadly no more) and in the Kate Kennedy Procession. I knew that Patrick Hamilton had been burnt at the stake outside St Salvator’s Chapel and that it was bad luck to step on the PH in the cobbles. It is no surprise that when I came to apply for university I only put down one choice, St Andrews, and only one subject, History.
The History Department was going through a very exciting and innovative period in the early 1960s. Mediaeval History had recently emerged as a separate department [in 1955]. Most of the newly appointed staff were under thirty and even the Professor [Lionel Butler] was only 36 when he was appointed.
It was not possible at that stage to specialise in only Mediaeval History, and I am glad that I was required to do at least two Modern History papers in my final exams. The first-year syllabus covered an outline of European history from the fall of the Roman Empire to the outbreak of the Second World War and the second-year syllabus a similar outline of English history. Scottish history, imperial history and economic history were additional options and there were compulsory papers on English Constitutional documents. In the third year there was a choice of European periods to study in more depth, and in the final year a number of special subjects and a compulsory course in Political Thought from Plato to Marx. For my optional papers I chose Europe in the 14th and 15th centuries and for my special subject 15th Century English Economy and Society. The breadth of the degree was an excellent preparation for a career in school teaching. In those days we also had to do Latin and either Moral Philosophy or Logic and Metaphysics. I am grateful to St Andrews University for making me study Latin at General level. I would not have done so had it not been compulsory, but I have found it surprisingly useful throughout my life to have some knowledge of Latin.
After four years at university my love of history was as strong as ever, and I was faced with the choice of whether to continue as a research student in mediaeval history or do a PGCE and train as a teacher. I chose the latter.
I can strongly recommend school teaching as a career. You have three fundamental responsibilities which have lifelong importance for your students: to inspire them with a genuine interest in history, to give them a chronological framework to which they can attach historical facts and to provide them with the critical tools to question and evaluate what they are told. You also have considerable freedom to choose where you want to work and in what type of school.
My first job was at Haberdashers’ Aske’s Girls’ School in London followed by three years abroad teaching in the newly independent Fiji Islands. On my return, after a brief time at the Wallace High School in Stirlingshire, I took up a post as Head of Department at St Felix School in Suffolk, and it was here that I taught Barbara Woodward [who also studied History at St Andrews, and became a senior diplomat]. Nine years later I returned to St Andrews to teach at St Leonards. My final job was as principal of The Ladies’ College in Guernsey, an early pioneer in the girls’ education movement, founded in 1872.
When I retired in 2008, I spent the next nine years enjoying myself with a lot of travelling and leisure activities, but it was not enough. I still wanted to be a student. It was this urge that has brought me back to St Andrews to study for a PhD. My years in Fiji had aroused my interest in the British Empire, an interest strengthened by subsequent travel in Africa, India and the Far East. Meanwhile, living in Guernsey for the last twenty-five years has made me more aware of the Channel Islands’ unique and interesting history. My life experiences thus pointed me towards my research topic: the relationship of Guernsey with the British Empire. I have found it enormously stimulating to be back at University again, getting to grips with academic study at this level, and I am delighted, through my PhD studies, to be discovering so much that I did not hitherto know about the Island where I live. I am grateful to the University for their acceptance of students of any age. I had decided against undertaking a PhD on graduating in 1966 but fifty-two years later I feel ready for the challenge – though I still take care to avoid stepping on the PH outside College Chapel.”
Margaret completed her PhD in 2023, with a thesis entitled “An exploration of Guernsey’s relationship with the British Empire in the age of imperialism c.1880s-c.1920s“