Obituary: Isobel Wallis, former deputy head teacher, 91

TRIBUTES have been paid to Isobel Wallis, a former deputy head and house mistress, who died in her early nineties.

She was born in Edinburgh on Hogmanay 1918 and was educated at Roseburn Primary and James Gillespie's, after which she became a typist with the Eagle Star Insurance Company.

When war broke out in 1939, she joined the Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF). She was quickly commissioned as a ciphers officer with the Coastal Command, serving in stations across Britain, including London, during the Blitz.

When the war was over, Isobel, upon demob, was determined to go to university, which she achieved by first attending Skerry's College to obtain entrance qualifications.

She completed her degree at Edinburgh University in 1950, gained her teaching diploma the following year and, after a spell at Falkirk Technical College, arrived at John Watson's School in 1955.

In her time there, she was deputy head, lady superintendent, head of English and housemistress, and was described as a breath of fresh air: young, wearing colourful clothes and playing table tennis.

She was nonetheless a demanding teacher, expecting discipline, endeavour and accuracy.

With the headmaster, William Garlick, Miss Wallis transformed John Watson's from a small boarding school, taking pupils up to the age of 15, into a fully-fledged, all-through school with 450 pupils, the majority attending as fee-paying day pupils.

Her erudition and organisational flair contributed to this, but she was also a very significant influence on the small number of girls in the boarding house for whom she was, for long periods, in loco parentis.

When John Watson's School was required to close in 1975, Miss Wallis continued until her retirement to teach English along the road at Daniel Stewart's College.

In her retirement, she wrote her history of John Watson's, which was published in 1982. A serious car accident when she was in her fifties deprived her of the full use of her left arm, but this did not dull her love of literature, nor her capacity to maintain friendships.

In retirement, she undertook many courses at Edinburgh University and with the Open University, and she continued to travel widely, visiting family and friends, many of which were made during her undergraduate days, and former pupils and staff of John Watson's.

Her impish, oft sardonic, sense of humour was with her to the end. On being accosted last year in Stockbridge by a collector for Help the Aged, she looked up and said firmly: "My dear, I am the aged."

Isobel Wallis died peacefully on October 29, 2010 in the Murrayfield Nursing Home.

She will be sadly missed by a great many people.