DR GLADYS MODWYN CICELY HARDING - FORMER SLGS TEACHER, LECTURER AND FIRST FEMALE VICE PRINCIPAL OF FBC GONE (AGE 96)

MADAM GLASYS MODYN CICELY HARDING (nee VINCENT) PhD, passed away peaceful  at her residence  in Croydon , Surrey, UK. (Aged 96)

 Dr Gladys Harding was a former  teacher at the Sierra Leone  Grammar School in the early 1960s. Students who were in school at Fourahbay Road  and Murray Town between 1961 to 1964 may remember her. She was our English and Latin teacher, a replacement for Mrs Yarnold who taught Classical Latin and Greek and English. Mr Yarnold retired from Milton Margai Teachers College and Mrs Yarnold also had to go. However, Mrs Harding soon left to do her Masters in the USA shortly after and on her return to Sierra Leone, became a Lecturer and later, the First Female Vice Principal at FBC. But she kept a link with the Grammar School and supervised Oral English at the then Jiont School Certificate/GCSE Examinations when Sierra Leone started assessing the GCE West African School Certificate Exams under Dr Davidson Nicol’s headship. Dr Harding then became a Lawyer and obtained her PhD when she was 80 years old. She lived in Croydon Surrey in the UK. She was the elder sister of the late Dr Christian Vincent and late Mr Arthur Vincent and their sister Adela Johnson (née Vincent). She was an AWOGAN having entered the Annie Walsh in 1932. She was a great inspiration to many; one particular mentee being Dr. Nemata Majex Walker (nee Kai Kumba) of 50/50 womens’ equality group, author of “From  Valley to Hilltop”. https://commonwealthwomensvoices.wordpress.com/2009/12/07/nemata-majeks-walker/

My deepest condolences to her daughters and family. Funeral arrangements later.  May she Rest In Peace.

P.S: In the 1968 book Freetown: A Symposium, edited by the Historian Professor Christopher Fyfe and Dr Eldred Jones, Dr Harding wrote Chapter TEN (10) “Education in Freetown” Tracing Education all the way back to 1791 when the Sierra Leone Company supervised the Colony, even before colonisation by the British Government and the Church Mission: ‘The Society for Missions to Africa and the East’ later known as the Church Missionary Society. A very informative and educational piece. Other contributors include Justice COE Cole, S A J Pratt etc.