Miss Juliann M Calder
BSc (Hons), MEd, FEIS, FAHE, MHCIMA, FSA Scot

Principal of The Glasgow and West of Scotland College of Domestic Science 1963-1976 

Miss Juliann McKinnon Calder (also known as Sheila Calder to close friends), was born in 1914 however little is known about her early life, apart from the fact that she was brought up in the Woodlands district of Glasgow.  In later life she said -

“As a girl, I remember seeing the new building at Park Drive for The Glasgow and West of Scotland College of Domestic Science.  Little did I imagine that I would one day be the Principal”.

She wrote the following to Mrs Helen Cowles in June 1975 (a student from the old days who started her training in 1918), and has repeated it since -

“I was just a toddler during the first World War, but my father took me fairly regularly into Kelvingrove Park on a Saturday afternoon.  I knew this building [Park Drive] as the “Soldiers’ Hospital” and therefore felt a very intimate connection with it throughout the whole of my life. 

The letter also goes on to point out (the original letter is kept in GCU Institutional Archive) -

“I notice that you used to come to the hospital to assist with the entertainment of the “boys” and you may probably know that several of them remained in the College service after the building was re-occupied by us.  In particular, I remember Gorman who was one of the janitors and Peter Murray who was our boilerman until the early 1950’s.  Why are boilermen always such characters?  I often wonder.””

In 1936 she graduated with a Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Chemistry from the University of Glasgow and the following year, 1937, she gained a double qualification in primary and secondary teaching from Jordanhill College of Education. She then went on to teach in primary schools in Kinross and Glasgow, entering The Glasgow and West of Scotland College of Domestic Science as a science lecturer in January 1940.  The subjects she taught in this position included inorganic chemistry, organic chemistry, physiology and hygiene and she also developed studies in textiles and plastic materials.  Miss Calder qualified with a Masters in Education from Glasgow University in 1948.

Her services both as a lecturer and a scientist were much in demand.

"When Miss Janet Murdoch decided to leave us to get married, she brought along a friend of hers who might like to apply for her post.  We liked the friend and the friend approved of us and ultimately joined the science staff.  Little did we think that day that we were welcoming the future Principal of the College.  Anyhow, that's who it was, Miss Juliann Calder, BSc, EdB, FEIS. She entered College with an Hons Degree in Chemistry (Glasgow), with a bias towards organic chemistry.  This has been of great use to her in studying plastics and the new synthetic materials, on which subjects she has contributed much information to Laundry, Housewifery and Sewing staff.  Few people appreciate the hours she spent going round departments in factories and other laboratories ferreting out such information. Shortly after she came to College, she decided to take an EdB.  This she did in record time and scored very well in the examinations despite holding down a fairly comprehensive post.  I believe she was second in a large class of teachers and could easily have taken a doctorate had there been time.  Never, at any time, did her college work suffer with regard to her outside activities.  She has always been interested in the Women Science Teachers' Association and is a past President.  She is a member of the Committee of the Society of the Chemical Industry [SCI].  She has also taken a great deal to do with the Glasgow Branch of the Educational Institute of Scotland.  She did all she could for the Domestic Science Section. Ultimately she had the honour of being appointed President of the Glasgow Branch.  Two well-known Glasgow headmasters have said how well she filled this post and how impressed they were with how she conducted her committees and the sanity of her decisions.  When her term in office was finished, The Education Institute of Scotland awarded her a Fellowship, which is a much coveted honour. In those troublous times when so many Scots are worried about our proud heritage of education being undermined, is it not lucky that College has acquired a principal so well qualified in this particular subject.  We all wish her the very best of luck in her new post and may she go forward to acquire further honours for herself and the College.  She is a dedicated person.  I am certain she is one of those lucky people whose work is something she wants to do."  (Written by Miss Mary Andross, Head of Science Department, for The Glasgow and West of Scotland College of Domestic Science Former Students Magazine, 1963)

The following article appeared in The Times Educational Supplement on Friday the 20th October 1967 -

"Domestic Science Gets Ready For The 1990s -  Glasgow College Has Record Entry

The 137 students who had enrolled for the teacher training course at the Glasgow and West of Scotland College of Domestic Science was a record first-year intake for any Scottish college of domestic science, said Miss Juliann Calder, the Principal, at the college's diploma ceremony last week. Miss Calder reviewed developments in the past year and outlined new courses designed to have relevance in the 1990s.  Those who started training in Glasgow this year would study five major subjects - food and nutrition, dress and design, home management, applied science and social science.  In the three-year training these would all carry equal weight - students who wished to specialise could spend a third year studying either food and nutrition or dress and design.The three Scottish colleges would award the same diploma but the internal organisation of courses would vary.These new courses replaced a pattern of training established in the 1930s - when, as Miss Calder pointed out, no one could foresee the advances in technology or the social changes which would revolutionize everyday life in the next 30 years.Now the colleges were training and educating the women who would be carrying responsibility for family and community in 1997. "What can we do for them?" Miss Calder asked.  "If we teach them only the traditional skills we will do them an ill service.  If skill is to be intelligently applied one must know how to do it, but why it is done and with what it is done is equally important." In shaping the courses the college had also considered the new demands made upon teachers by the changing pattern of secondary education, and particularly the unprecedented opportunities in the comprehensive schools to contribute to the general education of girls.The girls receiving diplomas wore for the first time the hood designed for the Scottish colleges of domestic science.  In deep blue, lined with gold, faced with lilac and edged with silver cord, it incorporates the colours of the three colleges.  The address was given by Sir Charles Wilson, principal of Glasgow University, and Lady Wilson presented the diplomas and prizes.The new hoods were also on show in Aberdeen on Saturday when Dr M E Foss, of Lancaster College of Technology, Coventry, addressed final-year students at the college of domestic science, Robert Gordon's Institute of Technology, at their diploma ceremony.Dr Foss stressed the importance of education of young women "who may by their greater influence on society and by their instinctive desire for creativity, reverse the present trend towards destruction of all that is basically good in mankind."  He said in reference to the importance of training for domesticity: "I believe that happy, purposeful family life is the greatest force for good in the community”.”

Again like Miss Melvin and Miss Gibson before her, Miss Calder was honoured for her work when part of the College building was named after her.  The new extension which was formally opened in September 1975, was called the Calder Wing and this new wing primarily catered for the sciences.  While writing to a friend in May 1975 she mentioned -

“With the new building programme my old lab has at long last disappeared.  In some ways the passing of the ancient monument is to be regretted.  It now serves as a storage area and passage-way through to the new block which houses laboratories and Institutional Management class rooms.”  (Taken from the Centenary Celebrations Box, File 4, Letter from Miss Calder to Mrs J Rushworth, 8 May 1975)

Dr John Phillips, one time Principal of The Queen’s College, commented on Miss Calder’s work in the field of hard sciences and the establishment of the science wing.  He went on to say that in many ways she brought the College forward twenty years academically. (Taken from interview with Professor John C Phillips, 10 November 1995 - tapes held in GCU Archive)

The following comes from the College’s Annual Report for Session 1975/76 -

“Miss J M Calder retired as Principal on 31st August, 1976.  It is fitting that the Governors and the Association should record their deep appreciation of her long and outstanding service to the College as Lecturer and Principal. Her care for people manifested itself in her concern for the welfare of students and staff in her unflagging efforts to secure the provision on new and improved accommodation for tutorial purposes, for student recreation and for staff work rooms.  The ongoing academic development of the College evidenced her strength of leadership through which the talents of all concerned were harnesses to “The Common Weal”.  It was fitting that as a mark of her efforts students were enrolled for the first College degree course in Dietetics in September 1976.” 
(Taken from The Queen’s College, Glasgow. Report by the Governors to the General Meeting of the College: Session 1975-76, p4)

Miss Calder passed away on 28 December 2008, aged 94. To this day the University still uses the motto penned by her during her period in office "For the Common Weal".

Last Updated: 16 January, 2006
Edited by: webteam@gcal.ac.uk