Clyde Girls’ Grammar School was founded in 1911 by Miss Isabel Thomson Henderson and first located in Alma Rd, East St Kilda. In 1919 it moved to Braemar House on Mount Macedon, near the village of Woodend. Built in 1895, with 50 rooms, a servant bell system, speaking tubes, a dining hall and an octagonal tower, it had been a sanatorium and guesthouse. In the cottage kitchen they had a chemistry bench, there was a pantry for the cooking class and down the mountain there was a golf course. At first PGH was assigned a room on the first floor on the south side facing the croquet lawn. In 1927, the year she arrived, there were 22 staff, including matrons and sub-matrons, a drama teacher, a mathematics and science teacher and a sport teacher. The headmistress was Miss Tucker, who succeeded Miss Henderson in 1924. Though PGH knew it was terribly expensive, she hated hockey and had run-ins with several teachers, she later described the setting as heavenly and appreciated her Clyde education as a means of entry to an elite social circle.

Left: The dining room: A History of Braemar House 1890-1990.