Frances Coldicott (1881-1960) - Headmistress of Somercotes Infants School 1919-1942
by Judith Fitzhugh on
Wednesday 30 January 2019
Frances Nellie Coldicott was born in Stratford-on-Avon, Warwickshire on November 24 th 1881. She was the youngest of seven children and had five brothers and one sister. Her father, Charles Coldicott, was a carpenter as was Harold, one of her brothers. Another of her brothers, Lewis Charles, was a Boot Maker. Frances was an able pupil and followed the Pupil Teacher route to become a teacher. In 1901 she lived in Stratford-on-Avon with her parents and three brothers and was employed as a teacher in an elementary school there. After her father died in 1902, she moved to New Sawley in Derbyshire accompanied by her mother, Frances (n. Stiles). In 1911 they lived at 38, Victoria Street, New Sawley, Derbyshire. The house had four rooms. It is not known which school Miss Coldicott taught at while living there.
Little is known about Frances Coldicott except that she became the headmistress of Somercotes Infants School in 1919 just after the end of World War 1. She was thirty-eight years old. It seems that having five older brothers and living through World War 1 with so many men away from home made her independent. She was thought to be quite eccentric in Somercotes as she drove a motor bike which she kept in a building at the bottom of the gravel playground. This was at the time when the Infants School was on Sleetmoor Lane. She wrote regularly about all aspects of the school in the Infants School Log Book and recounted how difficult life was for the children and their families. In 1939 she lived with her maid, Mary Timmins, at “Lynton”, a large detached house on Nottingham Road, Somercotes and she was still working as the headmistress of Somercotes Infants School. Like many female teachers, she never married. Sometime after her retirement in 1942 she moved away from Somercotes. She died in “Tresleigh Nursing Home” in Handsworth, Birmingham in 1960 aged 78, leaving her effects which totalled £3661 2s 8d to William George Hamilton, a Speed Lace Manufacturer.
There is currently no photograph of Frances Coldicott which is available