Documenting certificates - Ina Moodie Philips

The oldest certificate for Nanny Ina, 1908.

My grandmother.

I am looking at a Trinity College of Music, London certificate. Elementary Pianoforte Playing. Umtata. October 1908.

She is 10 years old and she is the pupil of Miss Tooke.

This is the oldest certificate among the documents Mom has in her Wedderburn Book.

I can track Nanny Ina's movements through this wonderful collection of old certificates.

She does a second year of music with Miss Tooke in Umtata and passes the Junior Division.

From 1911, Nanny Ina in is Leicester at the Stoneygate College, doing Music; English; French; Algebra; Freehand, Model and Memory Drawing.

And at age 16, in 1914, she has received her final certificate from the College.

She spends time at the Eastgate College in Northampton, which is not far from Leicester, refining her drawing skills through the Royal Drawing Society and has three certificates dated June 1915.

To round off her education she has Pitman's Shorthand too, there are certificates from 1914 and 1917.

A beautiful sepia photo that we have now makes sense to me.

It is Nanny Ina with her Aunt Flo Phillips, which would be her father, William Phillips relative, they are beautifully outfitted for winter, fur hats, coats, fur mitten, leather boots. Aunt Flo looks sternly to camera while the young demure Ina has a lovely smile.

The black and white photograph of Aunt Flo's Drawing Room in Leicester is a period piece classic. A late Victorian drawing room, it is quirky, eclectic, cluttered, but charming.

I assume Nanny Ina stayed with Aunt Flo during these years of learning in the United Kingdom, before heading back to South Africa and the looming First World War.

Nanny Ina with her Aunt Flo Phillips, in Leicester, Britain, early 1900's

Aunt Flo Phillips Drawing Room, Leicester