Margaret Hutchinson
| Margaret M Hutchinson | |
|---|---|
| Born |
18 December 1904 Haslemere, Surrey, England |
| Died | 30 June 1997 (aged 92) Haslemere, Surrey, England |
| Nationality | British |
| Occupation | Teacher and writer |
| Known for | Nature study |
Margaret Massey Hutchinson (1904–1997) was an English educator, naturalist and author. Hutchinson was closely involved with Haslemere Educational Museum which was founded by her grandfather Sir Jonathan Hutchinson and she established and ran a Froebel school in West Sussex for 25 years.
She was a lifelong observer of nature, including a specialist study of plant galls, and had a particular interest in the education of children in the context of the natural world.
Margaret Hutchinson was born on 18 December 1904 into a large Quaker family in Haslemere, Surrey, the fifth of nine children of Herbert Hutchinson and Elizabeth (Ella) Woods. Herbert's father was Sir Jonathan Hutchinson FRS, the eminent surgeon, to whom Margaret was also related on her mother's side.
Her early years were spent in an extremely rural environment where she developed a deep understanding of, and love for the natural world, something that would be a feature of her writing and teaching life. She described these first years in detail in her biography A Childhood in Edwardian Sussex: The making of a naturalist.
In 1931 Froebel-trained Hutchinson opened Yafflesmead School at the family home in Kingsley Green, near Haslemere, in which for 25 years she provided a Froebel Kindergarten education for boys and girls between 1931 and 1955. Close friend and editor Penny Hollow wrote:
David Kynaston quoted a parent in his book Austerity Britain:
A serious naturalist but with a keen sense of fun Margaret Hutchinson included the study of nature in all her teaching. Her first book Children as Naturalists was published in 1947 and gained her a wider reputation; the book sold for over 30 years and was favourably reviewed in Nature, the scientific journal.
Dr Evelyn Lawrence, Director of the National Froebel Foundation, said in her foreword to Children as Naturalists:
Yafflesmead School closed in 1955 so that Hutchinson could care for her aged parents and was sold in 1957; subsequently she dedicated herself to writing and study.
She was active at Haslemere Educational Museum as committee member, Honorary Librarian and trustee, where she often enthused parties of local school children about nature. Penny Hollow, in a postscript to the centenary edition of Margaret Hutchinson's memoirs remembered:
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