Description:Making use of her prominent social position, Duchess Millicent became renowned for her campaigning for reform in education. In 1903 she assisted in the foundation of the Sutherland Technical School in Golspie, Sutherland. Differing in its curriculum from traditional schools, the boarding school delivered education and training in both academic and vocational subjects, providing facilities for over fifty boys from this remote region.
In 1912 the school was inspected by Sir John Struthers, Secretary of the Scottish Education Department. In a letter to Millicent dated 20th June 1912 Struthers commends the school as ‘one of the most interesting educational experiments of recent times in Scotland’. He writes of ‘the merit of the work and the value of the school as a factor in the education provision for the Highland Counties’.
Providing an overview of the school’s work, the letter signifies the importance of Millicent’s work in the development of the educational curriculum. Struthers suggests that the school’s combination of ‘culture studies’ with ‘vocational training for wide groups of skilled industries’ provided boys with ’an intelligence trained to practical ends’.
The importance of the Sutherland Technical School in educational development is apparent in Struthers’ observation that ’boys leaving the school are being more and more sought after by employers’. His letter also advocates the provision of ‘a stable and permanent endowment fund’ of £25,000 for the school, reflecting its educational importance.