E.M. Jago (c1884-
The grand-daughter of George Jago, one of the great figures in Plymouth education, Miss Jago also was a significant figure – focusing on education and training for girls. After training in domestic science in London, she started work in Plymouth in 1906, rising to become head of Plymouth’s Technical School of Housecraft, based in Portland Square in 1927. On her retirement in July 1946, she had a record of forty years of service in the city, 199 of them as headmistress of the Technical School. As she retired, up to 800 adults attended the School, which was based on offering adult morning classes as well as school-age education, making it the largest domestic science school in England, offering a range of practical skills (dressmaking, to sanitary inspection) alongside the other classes. As she retired, the school also offered the Pre-Nursing course she had established there in 1944, with Royal College of Nursing recognition, for girls who were too young (under 18) to enter nursing training. The women who had attended classes there had also been the backbone of Plymouth’s wartime British Restaurants, with the meals offered in them being prepared in the school’s kitchens and served by pupils. The School, under Miss Jago’s leadership, had offered classes that could act as a conduit for Plymouth women to do creative and useful work, to help themselves and the wider community. A measure of her impact is that all of Plymouth’s occupational therapists in the immediate post-war years had attended the School. The Western Morning News paid tribute by concluding that the story of the success of the School was the story of Miss Jago’s determined efforts and was a huge achievement – indeed, the school itself was commonly referred to locally as Miss Jago’s School.