DESPITE inclement weather on Monday morning July 25, family members, friends, members of the Jewish community and Wolmerians — Alumnae and Staff across generations, turned out at the Jewish Cemetery on Orange Street to pay last respects to the revered Audrey Pinto, former Headmistress of Wolmer’s High School for Girls.

The brief funeral service held at the Matah House chapel on the grounds, was conducted by Spiritual Leader of the community Stephen Henriques, who told the gathering that the proceedings would be in keeping with standard Jewish practice, as Pinto would have wished.

Himself a Wolmerian, he knew Audrey Pinto well both as a young man and later as her spiritual leader. In a post-funeral discussion, he described her as having “very definite ideas which came across not only in teaching but also her religious life”.

Henriques said Miss Pinto attended synagogue as often as she could on Saturdays except when Wimbledon was on but she would most certainly call him up to tell him not to expect her, as she would be “watching tennis”.

She was understood in the community he said, as he laughingly described how Miss Pinto for her own comfort, had bought and placed a very special seat in the synagogue, and he opined….”it is quite likely that it will not be removed”.

Patricia Pinto — wife of Miss Pinto’s cousin Geoffrey, of Montego Bay, St James — spoke of the close relationship they had with her, visits in earlier years and later when travelling was not possible, conversations by telephone. She said the cousins were related paternally and that the family bears the name de Sola Pinto as it maintains the history and distinction of their heritage, of having arrived in Britain through Portugal.

Pauline Findlay, chair of the Wolmer’s Board of Management, delivered a tribute at the funeral service on behalf of Wolmer’s Girls’ Alumnae, WOGA, as well as chairman of the Trust Milton Samuda & principals of Wolmer’s Boys’ and Girls’ Dr Walton Small and Colleen Montague. Miss Findlay read excerpts from In the Light of The Sun.

People responded very differently to Audrey de Sola Pinto’s leadership style and methods of getting things done during her long tenure as principal of Wolmer’s Girls’ School.

Born in the Canal Zone, Panama, of an English father and a Jamaican mother, she was educated at St Andrew High School, Kingston and later graduated from Birmingham University with a BA Honours degree. She taught at St Hugh’s and St Andrew High Schools before taking up a position at the Kingshurst High School for Girls in Warwickshire, England.

Miss Pinto’s appointment at Wolmer’s Girls’ School took effect in April 1962 on the eve of Jamaica’s Independence, notwithstanding the concern reportedly expressed by one of the school’s trustees that as a Jewess, her conducting prayers with the girls might present a difficulty.

Miss Pinto did conduct prayers, maintaining a mildly ecumenical approach to worship which incorporated both the general acceptance of the stately Kingston Parish Church as the school’s spiritual home, and an occasional visit to Wolmer’s by the very popular head of the Jamaican Jewish community, Rabbi Bernard Hooker. Until her retirement in December 1984, Miss Pinto was a vocal and visible figure in the rapidly changing educational landscape of Jamaica.

Her view of herself as a revolutionary and disciplinarian created the perception of Wolmer’s girls’ being under strict supervision in a period that was dynamic and controversial both nationally and globally.

Audrey Pinto stated that her philosophy of education had always been: “To aim for excellence within your capabilities and to educate the children to face the realities of life.”

Her main achievement at Wolmer’s was “the broadening of the curriculum, excellent performance and the increased capacity of the school”.

She stated her belief, “long before it became popular to say so, that girls receiving an academic education should also know how to do things.”

Wolmer’s maintained the academic strength that had come to be associated with the school although Alumnae argue variously as to whether there was a bias toward the Arts or the Sciences.

Wolmer’s girls of the Pinto era engaged with the issues of the day with lively discourse on local and international developments. For some, second-form exposure to comparative religion opened up stimulating discussions on other cultures, values and personal beliefs. Submissions to the school magazine, demonstrated lively interest in the dawn of the space age.

The large number of clubs and societies providing co-curricular activities, and the support of these by members of staff demonstrated the importance of this aspect of school life in the educational process at Wolmer’s Girls’ School.

Despite Audrey Pinto’s stern, protective demeanour and rules prohibiting students fraternising at the fence dividing the two schools, Wolmer’s boys also joined the girls for several co-curricular activities.

In the classroom, integration of the boys’ and girls’ Sixth forms in the 1960s and 1970s was lauded by students: “We are happy to say that gone are the days when we felt that our only common bond was the fact that John Wolmer was our founder.”

Sports enjoyed something of a renaissance at Wolmer’s Girls’ School during this period with options being expanded beyond the old favourites of netball and tennis.

The principal emphasised the role of sports at Wolmer’s Girls’ in “disciplining of the mind and body”, if at all possible to win, but she also insisted that “her girls learn how to lose”.

The arts flourished at Wolmer’s Girls’ School during the 1960s and ’70s. For a number of years in the mid to late 1960s there was a combined school choir under the joint direction of outstanding musician, Hazel Lawson-Street of the girls’ school and Mr Sydney Morris, of the boys’ school.

Audrey Pinto was invested with the Order of Distinction for services to education in 1982 and retired in the summer of 1984. Unceremonious and forthright, she had represented the school with the strength of her convictions for over twenty years. She often stated that much of what she had acquired regarding school administration had been by “osmosis”. She bowed out, she said, with a feeling of optimism regarding the future of education in Jamaica.