The Bishop Strachan School (BSS), a day and boarding school for girls, and its graduates volunteered in the Red Cross, working hard for the World War II (1939–1945) effort. Some 160 BSS Old Girls joined the women’s divisions of the three services, holding positions in such fields as intelligence, censorship, and radio operation. Some became members of the auxiliaries. Overall, BSS graduates served in Canada, the United States, England, Italy, Germany, Egypt, Algeria, and India.
1939 Sept 3: Three BSS teachers were returning from Britain aboard a civilian ship, SS Athenia. World War II was just 10 hours old when the ship became the first British casualty of a submarine attack. Dorothy Hutchings, aged 39, a popular teacher, died.
