| Repository | University of Roehampton: Whitelands College |
| Level | File |
| Reference Number | WC/PP/GOUR |
| Title | Agnes Gourlay (1898-90) needlework book |
| Date | 1898 |
| Extent | 1 volume |
| Description | Copy of 'Needlework and Cutting-Out' by Kate Stanley (fifth edition 1893); inscribed on flyleaf 'Agnes Gourlay Whitelands College 1898'. Encloses example of her needlework with label recording a mark of '15 out of 20'. |
| Administrative History | Agnes Gourlay was the 1899 Whitelands May Queen. She, in common with the earliest May Queens, received a gold spray of hawthorn in the form of a cross. In fact hers was the last in this form as John Ruskin, benefactor of the crosses, died in January 1900. Thereafter plainer simpler Latin crosses became the norm.
Agnes was born in 1879 and attended Whitelands from 1898-1900. However, she died soon after: according to family tradition she took up her first teaching post in Guernsey and, travelling home one Christmas by boat, she caught cold and died of pneumonia over the holiday. Records show she died in 1905 at the age of 26. Her recorded occupation was School Mistress. Her cross then passed to her mother, sister, niece (also called Agnes) and then on to distant cousins. |
| Custodial History | Gifted by Marion Will, Brentwood Bay, British Columbia, Canada, November 2025. |
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