Blythswood School Randwick 1906 – 1951 and The Bloomfield Family

While visiting an antique fair late in 2001, several members of Cape Banks Family History Society were intrigued by a motley collection of goods on display for sale by a dealer. Included among the collection were photographs, documents, birth certificates, art works, old programs from Sydney Girls’ High School and some personal letters. Also of interest was the 95 year old register for Blythswood School, Randwick, NSW.

This register, along with some of the other items, was purchased on behalf of the Society. Subsequent investigation revealed that all of this memorabilia was from the deceased estate of a Miss Heather Bloomfield.

Research found that Heather Bloomfield died on 24 January 2001 at the age of ninety-six in a nursing home at Maroubra, NSW and that her estate had been sold on behalf of the Public Trustee.

Heather Bloomfield was born in South Africa in 1904. At the age of six years she was sent to live with her aunts Maud and Ida Bloomfield who ran the small private Blythswood School at Randwick. She completed her higher education at Sydney Girls High School and Sydney Teachers College.

Among the schools she then taught at were Wollongong High (1928), Arncliffe Girls (1943-1945), Brighton-Le-Sands Girls (1946), Maroubra Junction Primary (Deputy Mistress 1950), Gosford Primary (1952) and Paddington Girls Primary (1953-1959) where she completed her teaching career as Mistress.

Thanks to a grant from Randwick City Council, the Blythswood School register has now been repaired, recorded and preserved for the use of future family and social historians.