Beatrice Ensor

Beatrice Ensor (11 August 1885 – 1974¹), birth name Beatrice Nina Frederica de Normann, was an English theosophical educationist and pedagogue. She was co-founder of the New Education Fellowship (later World Education Fellowship) and editor of the journal Education for the New Era.

Beatrice Ensor (11 August 1885 – 1974), birth name Beatrice Nina Frederica de Normann, was an English theosophical educationist and pedagogue. She was co-founder of the New Education Fellowship (later World Education Fellowship) and editor of the journal Education for the New Era.

Early years

Born in Marseille on 11 August 1885, Beatrice de Normann was the eldest child of Albert Edward de Normann and Irene Matilda (née Wood). Her father was in the shipping business and her early years were spent in Marseille and Genoa, hence her fluency in Italian and French. She was greatly influenced by a theosophical book that a visitor to her home had left. This led in 1908 to her joining the Theosophical Society, which came to play an important part in her life. She had two brothers: Sir Eric de Normann (1893–1982), and Albert Wilfred Noel de Normann ("Bill"). Coming to England to complete her education, she trained as a domestic science teacher and for a short while taught the subject at a college in Sheffield. This led to her being appointed Inspector of women's and girls' education by Glamorgan County Council. She became disenchanted with the regimented and passive teaching she saw but when she inspected a Montessori school in Cheltenham, she became very interested in the ideas of Maria Montessori whom she met and corresponded with. She attended a conference in East Runton in 1914 organised by the New Ideals in Education group; the topic of the conference was 'The Montessori Method in Education'. She was a vegetarian and anti vivisectionist.

Family and later life

In 1917 Beatrice de Normann married Robert Weld Ensor (died 1934¹), born in Loughgall, a younger son of Charles Ensor of Ardress and his wife Elizabeth Caroline Howard. He had served in the Canadian North West Mounted Police and was then a captain in the Canadian Army coming to England, fighting in France and then going on the Murmansk Expedition. It was theosophy that brought them together. They had one son, Michael, born in 1919¹. Annie Besant, Curuppumullage Jinarajadasa and Harold Baillie-Weaver were his godparents. Robert Ensor moved to Louterwater in South Africa, where he acquired a large farm in a little developed valley, recently found to be suitable for the growing of deciduous fruit. The orchards he planted were just beginning to bear by 1933 when he died. This meant that Beatrice had to move to South Africa and take over the farm. This greatly restricted her educational work. She was one of a group invited to lecture in Australia in 1937, where she was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Western Australia, Perth. She helped the South African section of the N.E.F. and financed and had built on her farm a school for mixed race children, for whom no provision existed in the area. When it became clear that her son would be pursuing a civil service career, just as her brothers had done, and did not want to take on the farm she sold it and moved to a house on the coast at Keurboomstrand near Plettenberg Bay. But when her family were settled in England she moved there to be with her grandchildren, living first at Blackheath, then in London, at Dolphin Square, where she died in 1974. , date 1927?]]

Notes

References

An Investigation into the Origins of UNESCO (The Genesis of UNESCO, the New Education Fellowship and the Theosophical Fraternity in Education) – by Hiroshi Iwama – Orion Printing Company, Tokyo 20 December 1998 St Christopher School 1915–1975¹ Letchworth, Aldine Press by Reginald Snell – first published in 1975 A New Education for a New Era: Creating International Fellowship Through Conferences 1921–1938. Paedogogica Historica Volume 40, Numbers 5-6/October 2004, pp. 733–755(23) by Kevin J. Brehony de Normann, B. and G. Colmore (1918). Ethics of Education. London, Theosophical Publishing House de Normann, B. (1917). The educational aspect of infant welfare work. in Report of the Conference of Education Associations. London: 210–215 de Normann, B. (1917). "Educational Reconstruction (1) The Present Position of Education in Great Britain – Beatrice." The Herald of the Star 6(March): 121 de Normann, B. (1917). Brotherhood and education. London, Theosophical Educational Trust.

External links

UNESCO UNESCO UNESCO Institute of Education, University of London (abstract) University of Geneva Association Montessori Internationale The World Education Fellowship International The New Era in Education Margaret White Frensham Heights School Paedagogica Historica Naruto University of Education, Japan ERIC (Education Resource Information Center German section: Weltbund für Erneuerung in der Erziehung The Archives of the World Education Fellowship are held by the Institute of Education Archives: The full catalogue can be found on the archives' on-line catalogue.

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