We were delighted to receive a submission from Ann Edmunds (Class of ’64) for the ‘An Update From…’ section of this year’s To Read & So Magazine. Below, you can read the full-length version from Ann, celebrating the Class of 1964 and their enduring friendships that began at JAGS and have lasted a lifetime. 

“Of course, all JAGS classes probably think they are special. But we feel very special, the Class of 1964, as this year we celebrate our 80th birthdays. But additionally special, because we are a particularly large group, still in touch with each other, apparently unusual for this vintage.  

Younger class groups will have no difficulty in keeping up with each other after leaving JAGS, in these days of social media, and active alumnae departments. But we were of the generation which had a life before email and the Internet. Most of the Class of 1964 after leaving school lost touch with each other, despite the good efforts of the JAGS Old Girls’ Association which predated alumnae relations departments. I, for instance, was only really in contact after leaving JAGS with about five others and that was largely on Christmas card terms since we weren’t particularly near each other geographically. That seems to have been true of all of us. And in one’s twenties and thirties, one is too busy concentrating on one’s own career and personal and social life to be much concerned.  

So, what changed to bring about the large group we know today? Well, in our forties, I had found myself idle at home for a few weeks, after an unexpected and difficult hysterectomy, following an ovarian cyst, (which happily turned out benign but caused upheaval). Thoughts of mortality had crept in. Rocked on my heels, I wondered whether similar was happening to my classmates.  And so, the search started, more difficult in those days, without email, and rather slow and laborious. I had some old parental home addresses of course, and the handful of friends I was already in touch with. The School was contacted and kindly forwarded some letters from me to whatever old contacts they still had. There was some information on record about where girls had gone on to further training or university. I wrote to those institutions too.  When successful, one contact sometimes led to another, and so the search began.  

Today, on our current email address list there are 37 names. We were an even larger group, but in the last few years particularly we have sadly said goodbye to half a dozen or so, all I’m glad to say amongst those who embraced getting to know each other again.  Tragically, we lost one classmate in the Sixth Form, a death which we now know had a bigger effect on some of us than we realised.  

I know I don’t just speak for myself when I say the pleasure the group has given has been beyond measure. We are scattered around the world, New Zealand, Australia, Israel, the east and west coasts of America, France, and all around the UK, from Cornwall to Scotland. We are not family, (though I like to think of them as sisters) nor one’s partner’s friends or family. We all knew, and remember, each other at the age of 11 (much earlier for some) so no one can pull rank or wool over eyes. It’s a wonderful thing, to be recommended. I nearly said, in old age, but we have now been together again as a group since our forties, and have emerged through thick and thin, particularly through Covid when we Zoomed (the positive from that era?). More than a few have travelled across the world to reunite with their classmates. The life experience of a group of (now) 37 very different people has been amazing to discover and enjoy, and I think we can say we have supported each other too in difficult times. We wonder whether there are other such large groups of classmates doing the same...? 

We aim to go on meeting in small or large groups, in person or online, as we enter our ninth decade. Who’d have thought one would ever write ‘our ninth decade’?  Not the Class of 1964!”  

Inspired by the lasting friendships of the Class of 1964? We would love to hear about your own connections with former classmates. Please share your stories and updates with the JAGS Alumnae Relations Team via alumnae@jags.org.uk.