Nancy Tingey (nee Howarth) BGS story

I was at BGS for 13 years, from September 1947 until July 1960. As my grandfather Percy Stanley Howarth was Vice - Chairman of the Governors for most of that time - he died in 1955 - and all my close relatives had been pupils at the school I always felt watched. I remember the relief when in the lower 6th we had a new class teacher, Miss Batty, who knew nothing about me. So imagine my mortification when I forgot my bible when lining up to go into morning assembly and had to ask Miss Batty for permission to go back to the class room to collect it. She, of course, asked me my name and my cover was blown.

Although I never really enjoyed school - perhaps I was too much of a free spirit to feel at one with institutions - I feel grateful for my BGS education. In particular, throughout my years of teaching art in Australia I have too often met women who were told either by parents or their schools that art was not an option to be taken seriously. On the contrary BGS included art as an O and A and scholarship level subject  and unlike anyone I have met in Australia I was able to study Latin - even though I was the bottom of the class - alongside art. I found science challenging but had huge respect for Miss Taylor (she had taught my mother) - for saying, in 1957, that if we went on burning fossil fuels at the present rate the world be in a mess, also teaching us about diet and vitamins - which have remained a life-long interest. (I am now 83 years old.) Miss Taylor said that we would be more interested in studies relating to ourselves than rats! True.

Being a poor language student  I remember my parents telling me that at a parent teacher night Miss Orme told them she didn’t want me to study latin for ‘o’level as she had never had a failure...and it looked as if I might be the exception! I passed on the lowest mark, only because scansion accounted for 20 marks and I could do that standing on my head - it was about rhythm. And being quite musical I was naturally proficient in that department.

Miss Clyne - Mrs Carter - really understood the measure of me and I still have the art history notes she provided in my last year at BGS. Throughout my schooling I collected all the art prizes. I also benefitted  from BGS’s dedication to teaching all pupils to swim and encouraging me to train for the Royal Life Saving Society’s award of Distinction. I still swim laps a couple of times a week.

AFTER LEAVING BGS

I studied for a Fine Art degree with honours at King’s College, then Durham University, now Newcastle University, and on qualifying was appointed the Assistant to the Director of the Ferens Art Gallery in Hull. From there I became Keeper of Art at Bolton Museum and Art Gallery and the Art Curator at Abbot Hall Art Gallery in Kendal. I also taught at art schools in Bolton, Lancaster and Morecambe until, in 1971, I married an old boyfriend from university days and began a new life in Australia. Bob Tingey was a geologist, passionate about Antarctica. We made our home in Canberra and had 3 sons. Then, in 1987, Bob was diagnosed with Parkinson’s, which we lived with for 30 years. Helped by a 1996 Churchill Fellowship to study art as a therapy for Parkinson’s I ran art groups for people with Parkinson’s based in Canberra for 30 years, worked with Parkinson’s UK and ran workshops in several world conferences. In 2019 I was awarded an OAM (Order of Australia Medal) and the World Parkinson Coalition, based in New York, rated the ‘Tingey Painting with Parkinsons  program’ the most outstanding non-medical program for Parkinson’s in the world.

In 2014 I drew my own art practice to a close with a retrospective exhibition ‘Over Time’ representing my art work over sixty years. There had been 30 solo shows and participation in 65 group exhibitions in that time.

I have had a fortunate life; parents who believed in me and a school which believed women could do anything given the right training and encouragement.

Thank you BGS