Initially I approached the task with only luke-warm enthusiasm. I was already busy enough at work and this was one more job to add to the list - and not one in which I had any special interest. However, over the following months, to my surprise, I began to warm to the task. I obtained the names of several elderly ladies who had been on the staff in earlier times - Miss Macdona, Mrs Donaldson, Miss Segal, Miss Ife - and there followed a to and fro of letters, phone calls and visits. A fascinating picture began to emerge of a remarkable little dame-school that, for various reasons, had just grown and grown and grown. I sent out dozens of questionnaires to ex-pupils asking for their reminiscences and any photos or other items suitable for inclusion in an archive. And I began pestering colleagues and students still at the school. The school secretaries, I discovered, were more than happy to offload quite a bit of 'old junk' that was taking up valuable space in their cramped quarters. I was given a room up on the D floor and gradually the shelves began to fill.

Occasionally there have been exhibitions to organise - something which can be great fun but which takes many months of hard work. And then there are regular enquiries from past pupils or employers who need information or confirmation of certain facts from the ( sometimes quite distant) past. The ones I like least are those asking for details of all examinations sat by a certain student years ago. That can take an age. In an extreme case, for example, they may have sat Cambridge Proficiency, Certificaat Nederlands als Vreemde Taal, some O&C O.Levels, some London O.Levels, some SEAG G.C.S.E.s , some MEG G.C.S.E.s and some LEAG G.C.S.E.s, plus A.Levels and A/S Levels, all over a period of several years, repeating some exams at winter and summer sessions. For several months now I have gradually been feeding all that sort of information into the computer, but it will be a long time yet before the job is done and a couple of mouse-clicks reveal all. From time to time there have been quite entertaining and even bizarre inquiries. On one occasion I had some remarkable cloak-and-dagger dealings with a national secret service who were 'vetting' an ex-student as a possible agent. Or there was the middle-aged lady who had been a rather mischievous pupil many years before and who wrote to say she wanted all traces of that period of her life erased and would I please send her all her files and any other information I had about her. She shall remain nameless.