Miss Ramsay Whiteside: the trials of a cookery teacher

 

'Cookery class at the Ladies' High School', Illustrated Sydney News, 19 January 1884, p. 9.

Ramsay Whiteside was the first teacher of cookery in government schools in New South Wales. We do not know what prompted her to come to Sydney but no doubt she had high hopes of a successful career. Unfortunately, despite her excellent qualifications, her good theoretical and practical knowledge, and her pleasant manner, this was not to be. In the end she was thwarted, not by the climate, although she found the heat of the summer months unbearable, but by politics.

 

Miss Whiteside arrived in Sydney in January 1880 bearing a first-class diploma from the Liverpool School of Cookery and glowing testimonials as to her ability as a teacher, from the likes of the president of the Northern Union of Cookery, the Duke of Westminster and the reverend Cannon Wilberforce of Winchester Cathedral.[1] One of her first acts was to write to the Council of Education offering her services as a teacher at the ‘training school’.[2] Her timing could not have been worse. The Council was due to be abolished when the Public Instruction Act came into force on 1 May 1880, and in the political climate her offer was speedily rejected.[3]

 

Having to make her own way Whiteside was fortunate that her credentials and connections earned her vice-regal patronage. Her first cookery demonstration at the Temperance Hall in February, was attended by the governor’s wife, Lady Loftus, the wife of the chief justice, Lady Stephen, and Mrs Barker, wife of the Anglican Bishop of Sydney, among other leading members of local society.[4] The following month she was invited to give a demonstration at Government House.[5] She subsequently ‘placed her services at the disposal of the various clergymen of Sydney’, and planned to give demonstrations in their respective parishes as required.[6]

 

Whiteside was described as ‘the cleanest, tidiest, neatest and most winsome cook’, with a ‘winning way’ (although the illustration above suggests a stern appearance) and ‘eloquent in the advocacy of her mission’.[7] But despite these favourable comments on her appearance, not everyone was impressed. A correspondent to the Sydney Mail deemed her classes ‘not suitable for the bush’ noting that it was ‘all very fine to turn out nice dishes with a gas stove and all sorts of proper saucepans’ but what would Miss Whiteside do ‘with a camp-oven and the big fire in a bush fireplace’.[8] She also found she had some stiff opposition from Mrs Macpherson, who had been trained at the National Training School for Cookery and taught at the Edinburgh School of Cookery, and Miss Fidler, who also had qualifications from the Edinburgh school.[9] Miss Whiteside decided to try her luck elsewhere, travelling first to Goulburn, then Victoria (Geelong and Melbourne), and Tasmania finally returning to Sydney, via Melbourne, in July 1881.[10]

Sydney Morning Herald, 20 March 1880, p. 1.

 

The correspondence is incomplete but it would seem that on her return Whiteside was finally approached by the Department of Public Instruction to give her recommendations regarding cookery classes in public schools. In October 1881 she duly set out her suggestions – demonstrations for 1½ hours followed by a 2-hour practical class, preferably given at a central school, pupils should be from the higher classes, 12 pupils to a class. She also outlined some of the expenses involved, such as the need for the supply of equipment, foodstuffs, water and gas. She stipulated that ‘my return to England for a year after giving 12 months initiation of the cookery teaching is requisite’ in which case she had already written to England for a suitably qualified teacher to act as her assistant who would then carry on the classes in Whiteside’s absence. Finally, she indicated the salary she expected and the remuneration for her assistant, whose first-class passage to Sydney she assumed the Department would pay along with her return passage to England should she wish to leave after two years.[11] What the then Minister for Public Instruction, Sir John Robertson, made of these confidently stated proposals and Whiteside’s conditions is not recorded. Whatever his thoughts, Robertson resigned from the Parkes’ ministry in November 1881 and was replaced by Francis Suttor. 

 

Whiteside wrote again in January 1882 asking to be informed as to ‘what steps have been taken towards the scheme for teaching cookery in the public schools’ as she only awaited definite instruction to begin work at once. She reiterated that she required leave to return home for twelve months at the end of the year, and requested that there should be no lessons in January and February, the hottest months when ‘cooking lessons would be equally trying for teachers and pupils’.[12]

 

What terms Suttor agreed with Miss Whiteside can only be surmised from subsequent events but by March she was busy acquiring the necessary equipment to begin her classes and was eventually officially appointed as Teacher of Cookery effective from 1 May until 31 December 1882 on a salary of £300 per annum.[13] Classes commenced at 127 Macquarie Street, in rooms renovated for the purpose in the building occupied by the Department of Public Instruction, in the week commencing 5 June 1882.[14]

 

Miss Whiteside’s most pressing problem for the remainder of the year was making arrangements for the disposal of the food prepared in the classes.[15] The intention was that it should be sent to the Hyde Park Asylum, but Mr. King, the manager, was unenthusiastic from the beginning. The back and forth about the quality of the food and how it could be conveyed to the asylum continued until Mr King’s suggestion that it be sent to the soup kitchen ‘where it would doubtless be acceptable’ was implemented.[16]

 

Come October Whiteside was anxious for confirmation that the school would be closed throughout January, February and March, presumably in accordance with the agreement she had made earlier in the year.[17] There was no mention of her taking leave of absence and returning to England for the next year nor any mention in the extant correspondence of any highly qualified teacher having been imported as her assistant. She was also concerned to know what arrangements were in hand for the following year.[18]

 

When the classes were originally mooted at the beginning of 1882 it was anticipated that 146 girls would attend and there would be 12 pupils in each class.[19] In the event the numbers of girls attending had been much less, down to only 75 in the final term, so that Miss Whiteside was only teaching classes of, at most, nine girls at a time and there was uneasiness about the expense. The Chief Inspector, Edwin Johnson, looked at ways to increase the cost effectiveness of the teaching but in the end the status quo was maintained for 1883, largely thanks to a change in government.[20] The Chief Inspector did however make his personal feelings known:

 I do not think practical cookery should be taught in connection with Public Schools or that it can be taught without involving an expenditure altogether disproportionate to the value of the results likely to be achieved.[21]

In September 1883 the cooking school moved to a purpose-built building in the grounds of the new Sydney High School, the former St. James Denominational School, on Elizabeth Street.[22] Before Whiteside took her annual break, from the end of December until the first Monday in April 1884, she sent the Minister her recommendations for the extension of ‘the cookery scheme’.[23] These included establishing a training school for teachers and her giving up the work of teaching Public School students, to be resumed once she had trained enough teachers. She also offered her services to teach one day a week at the Hurlstone training college for female teachers.[24] She insisted that it was essential gas stoves be available at all schools where cookery was to be taught: ‘Ordinary stoves will not do for demonstrations as the teacher must face the pupil and they must see the whole of the operation’. Her final cryptic comment: ‘It seems a pity to begin a new system of teaching with a stranger, and one who will only be associated with the work for two months, nor is the height of the Sydney summer a very suitable time for recommencing with great energy such a warm branch of instruction as Cookery’ suggests that thought had been given to the employment of someone to at least cover for Whiteside in her absence if not take on some of the role she was intending for herself.

 

It is not clear what, if any, changes were made to ‘the cookery scheme’ in 1884. The Minister, George Reid, was replaced by William Trickett in May. In the same month the Technical College advertised for a teacher of cookery and Annie Fawcett Story was appointed to the position.[25] By the end of the year there were more rumblings about the expense associated with cookery school. The chief inspector, Johnson, requested District Inspectors Morris and Bridges to report on the cookery school, in particular the number of students attending and ‘whether the usefulness of the classes warrants the expenditure incurred’, and to make their recommendations.[26]

 

They reported favourably on the teacher: 

Miss Whiteside has evidently a good theoretical and practical knowledge of cookery, she has a pleasing manner, exercises good control over the pupils and is very painstaking and earnest. There are many points of excellence in her teaching, the pupils are taught to be clean, methodical, and exact and to understand the principles underlying the various processes.[27]

but noted that, since Whiteside only worked for nine months of the year, this must ‘seriously interfere with the effectiveness of her teaching’. They also observed that the appliances in the model kitchen were ‘too good’. The inspectors were of the opinion the equipment was far better than that found in the homes of the pupils consequently ‘much of the instruction given is to a great extent inappropriate and consequently of little practical value.’ Of the 263 pupils who had attended in 1884 many had only been to one or two lessons, only the girls from the Sydney High School attending regularly. As a result, they concluded the influence of the classes was very limited. Overall, they considered the results did not warrant the expenditure:

The appliances are so perfect and the work of cooking so minutely subdivided that a girl might pass through the entire course and yet be unable to light a fire or to prepare an ordinary meal when the fire was lighted.

Their final recommendation was that the classes should be discontinued but in the event that the classes were to be ongoing the gas stoves should be removed and ‘the pupils be instructed to cook by the aid of common fires’.

The advice to the Minister, that Miss Whiteside be informed that her services would not be required after 31 December 1884, came from John Maynard, who had replaced Johnson as Chief Inspector.[28] Despite these negative submissions Trickett remained wedded to the provision of cooking classes and Miss Whiteside remained in the employ of the Department throughout 1885, but her duties are not specified in extant documents.[29] At the end of that year she applied for leave of absence and at last returned to England.[30] While absent she was informed that ‘the cookery scheme was at an end’. [31]

 

When Ramsay Whiteside returned to Sydney early in 1887 the cookery scene had become more competitive. Annie Fawcett Story was teaching at the Technical College and training teachers at the Hurlstone college and Harriett Wicken had been giving lessons and demonstrations since her arrival in 1886. During 1887 and 1888 Whiteside was giving cookery demonstrations at various locations including the Women’s Exhibition in October where she would have come into contact with both Story and Wicken. The following year she also tried her hand at running a registry office for the placement of domestic servants and governesses, but she appears to have failed to find permanent employment and a steady income.[32]

Annie Fawcett Story resigned from her position at the Technical College in 1888 and Whiteside applied for the post but was unsuccessful. She believed she had been passed over because her diploma from the Northern Union was not as highly regarded as one from the National Training School in London, but it is also possible that the earlier report of the effectiveness of her classes counted against her.[33]

 

In July 1890 she made a personal appeal to George Reid, although he no longer had any direct involvement with cookery education. She explained that since her return her life had been ‘one of constant struggle and anxiety’ and hoped that Reid would put in a good word for her and help her obtain a position with the Department. Reid duly passed her letter on to the Minister, Joseph Carruthers, but the decision to appoint Annie Fawcett Story as Instructress of Cookery responsible for teaching in the public school system and in country technical colleges had already been made.[34]

 

Throughout the 1890s Ramsay Whiteside continued to give demonstrations on her own account and briefly teamed up with Mr Raleigh to promote his ‘Paragon’ gas stoves. Whether she ever applied to teach in the public school system again is not known. In 1895 she returned to England.[35]

 

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[1] For arrival see Australian Town and Country Journal, 17 January 1880, p. 35 ‘Shipping arrivals.’ For testimonials see Museums of History NSW State Archives (hereafter MHNSW-St. Ac.) NRS 3830 Education Department Files, 20/12602 Cookery 1882–1892; Sydney Morning Herald(SMH), 6 February 1880 p. 5 ‘News of the Day.’

[2] It is not clear which school Whiteside was referring to, Fort Street Model School? Hurlstone Training College was not open until 1882/3. Jean Peacock, A history of home economics in New South Wales (Home Economics Association of New South Wales: Sydney, 1982) p. 27 cookery ‘had been part of the training course for all female teachers since 1869.’

[3] MHNSW-St. Ac., NRS 3830, 20/12602 Cookery 1882–1892, letter from Whiteside dated 29 January 1880; Council Minute no. 80-2483, dated 16 February 1880.

[4] SMH, 14 February 1880, p. 2. ‘advertising’; ‘Practical cookery’, Australian Town and Country Journal (Sydney) 28 February 1880, p 28.

[5] ‘Miss Whiteside's Cookery,’ Evening News (Sydney, NSW), Saturday 13 March 1880, p 3. At a later demonstration given in Government House the cooking apparatus was ‘furnished with supply from two of the gas brackets, conveyed by rubber tubing’

[6] Australian Town and Country Journal, 1 May 1880, p. 8.

[7] ‘Demonstrations in Cookery’, Evening News (Sydney), 19 February 1880, p 3.

 

[8] ‘Cookery. To the editor of the Sydney Mail’, The Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW), 27 March 1880, p 589.

[9] Mrs Macpherson had been giving demonstrations in Melbourne from late 1879 (The Argus, 18 October 1879, p. 12 ‘Advertising’) and she and Miss Fidler were in Sydney from March 1880 (SMH, 20 March 1880, p. 1 ‘Advertising’), subsequently travelled to Brisbane (May), back to Victoria (September, October) and finally Tasmania (November, December). For more on Macpherson see John Webster, ‘Rachel V. Macpherson’, The Aristologist, No. 7 (2016), pp. 55–61. For Fidler see The Sydney Daily Telegraph, 24 March 1880, P. 3 ‘School of cookery’; 16 April 1880, p. 9 ‘Miss Fidler’s cookery class’. Fidler then went on to teach in Adelaide from July South Australian Register, 26 July 1880, p. 6 ‘Miss Fidler’s cookery lessons’. For Whiteside see also ‘Notes on current events’, Evening News (Sydney) 29 March 1880, p. 2; ‘Advertising’, Sydney Morning Herald, 10 April, 1880, p. 2.

[10] Whiteside was giving demonstrations in Goulburn from 9^th to 19^th August 1880 (The Goulburn Herald and Chronicle, 12 July 1880, p. 2; 9 August 1880, p. 2); in Geelong from 28 September until 12 October (Geelong Advertiser 28 September 1880, p. 3 ‘Practical cookery’; 12 October 1880, p. 2); in Tasmania from 10 November 1880 until 14 March 1881 (Mercury, 11 November 1880, p. 2; 14 March 1881, p. 2); in Melbourne Argus, 20 April 1881, p. 4; returning to Sydney SMH, 18 June 1881, p. 2 and giving demonstrations Evening News 11 August 1881, p. 3 ‘Miss Whiteside’s cookery’; 20 September 1881, p. 1. 

[11] MHNSW-St. Ac., NRS 3830, 20/12605, Whiteside to Sir John Robertson, Minister for Public Instruction, 3 October 1881.

[12] MHNSW-St. Ac., NRS 3830, 20/12605, Whiteside to Wilkins, Under Secretary, 31 January 1882.

[13] MHNSW-St. Ac., NRS 3830, 20/12605 Whiteside to Suttor, 16 March 1882; Wilkins to Whiteside, 14 May 1882.

[14] SMH, 8 June 1882, p. 3 ‘Cookery in public schools’; Sydney Daily Telegraph, 8 June 1882, p. 3, ‘Lessons on cookery in public schools.’ MHNSW-St. Ac., NRS 3830, 20/12605 Note from Wilkins dated 26 April 1882.

[15] MHNSW-St. Ac., NRS 3830, 20/12605, letter from Whiteside dated 6 June 1882.

[16] MHNSW-St. Ac., NRS 3830, 20/12605, Lucy Hicks to King, 3 October 1882; King to C. Walker, 5 October 1882; letter from Whiteside, 10 October 1882; Whiteside to Wilkins, 28 March 1883; Miller to matron of Hyde Park Asylum, 5 April 1883; King to Under-secretary, 9 April 1883.

[17] MHNSW-St. Ac., NRS 3830, 20/12605, letter from Whiteside, 10 October 1882.

[18] MHNSW-St. Ac., NRS 3830, 20/12605, Whiteside to Wilkins, 23 October 1882.

[19] MHNSW-St. Ac., NRS 3830, 20/12605, memo from Wilkins, 26 April 1882.

[20] See MHNSW-St. Ac., NRS 3830, 20/12605, Chief Inspector, Johnson, to Undersecretary, 17 October 1882; note on Whiteside to Wilkins, 23 October 1882; Chief Inspector, Johnson, to Wilkins 6 March 1883. There was also a change in government in January 1883, Henry Parkes was replaced as premier by Alexander Stuart, and Suttor was replaced as Minister for Public Instruction by George Reid.

[21] MHNSW-St. Ac., NRS 3830, 20/12605, Chief Inspector, Johnson, to Wilkins, 6 March 1883.

[22] MHNSW-St. Ac., NRS 3830, 20/12605, Whiteside to Edwin Johnson, Chief Inspector, 17 September 1883. SMH, 3 September 1883, p. 5 ‘News of the day’. SMH, 13 December 1883, p. 7 ‘Visit to the High School cookery class’; Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser, 15 December 1883, p. 1110.

[23] It is unclear to whom this letter was addressed. It begins ‘As you kindly said that I might write to you an informal letter on the subject in which we are both so much interested viz the extension of the cookery scheme I gladly avail myself of your permission to do so’, suggesting that the addressee may well be G. H. Reid, the then Minister. Reid only served as Minster of Public Instruction until 6 March 1884. 

[24] Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser, 3 February 1883, p. 209 ‘Hurlstone College, Ashfield’.

[25] SMH, 9 May 1884, p. 10.

[26] MHNSW-St. Ac., NRS 3830, 20/12605, Johnson, Chief Inspector, to Bridges, District Inspector, 26 October 1884.

[27] MHNSW-St. Ac., NRS 3830, 20/12605, Morris and Bridges, Memorandum to Chief Inspector, 1 December 1884.

[28] MHNSW-St. Ac., NRS 3830, 20/12605, Note signed by Maynard, 5 December 1884.

[29] In a letter she wrote later she claims to have been employed from ‘May or June 1882 till Xmas 1885’, MHNSW-St. Ac., NRS 3830, 20/12605, Whiteside to Reid, 7 July 1890..

[30] MHNSW-St. Ac., NRS 3830, 20/12605, Whiteside to Under-secretary (Johnson), 23 October 1885.

[31] MHNSW-St. Ac., NRS 3830, 20/12605, Whiteside to Reid, 7 July 1890.

[32] Daily Telegraph, 23 March 1889, p. 9 (the Globe Registry Office); Australian Town and Country Journal, 22 June 1889, p. 45 (an office at the Globe news rooms).

[33] MHNSW-St. Ac., NRS 3830, 20/12605, Letter from Whiteside 1 July 1890, Whiteside to Reid, 7 July 1890. When Annie Fawcett Story resigned from the Technical College in 1888 Miss Mary Stewart Gill, graduate of the NTSC, took over the position. Gill’s tenure was short lived, she married in December 1888. The position was readvertised, and Harriet Wicken took over the post in January 1889. A position for a teacher of domestic economy was advertised in April 1888, SMH 30 April 1888, p. 14, ‘Advertising’. Marriage of Gill, SMH, 15 January 1889, p. 1, ‘Family Notices’. Position advertised Daily Telegraph, 7 November 1888, p. 8, ‘Advertising’; Mrs Wicken to conduct classes Australian Star, 15 December 1888, p. 7, ‘Board of Technical Education’

[34] For account of appointment see Report of the Minister of Public Instruction 1890, Appendix XVI, pp. 266-7. Also SMH, 6 June 1889, p. 7; MHNSW-St.Ac, NRS 3830, 20/12605, Story to Johnson, 7 July 1890.

[35] Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser, 19 October 1895, p. 828, Miss R. Whiteside is listed as a passenger on RMS Arcadia to London.