Harford Secondary School for Girls

Harford Secondary School for Girls is a secondary school for girls in Moyamba, Sierra Leone.[1]

History

The roots of the school lie in the Mary Sowers School for Girls, founded by United Brethren in Christ (UBC) missionaries at Rotifunk. The school was closed during the Hut Tax War of 1898, but was reopened as the Moyamba Girls School. In 1903 the school was merged with the UBC's girls' boarding school at Shenge, and buildings were completed and occupied at Rotifunk in 1908.[1] Julius Gulama taught at the school before he became a paramount chief in 1928.[2] In 1921 the school was renamed the Lilian Harford School for Girls, after the American missionary Lillian Resler Keister Harford, and in 1944 the school became a secondary school.[3]

The American missionary Esther L. Megill taught biology at Harford for a year in 1957, and later published her reminiscences of the school.[4] From 1961 to 1965 William Henry Fitzjohn and his wife Alice served as Principal and Vice-Principal of Harford School.[5] John K. Yambasu, later Bishop, was a senior teacher and school chaplain from 1982 to 1990.[6]

During the Sierra Leone Civil War the school's buildings were badly damaged, and the school has needed to rebuild itself since then.[1]

Alumni
  • Lucy Sharon-Mae Anthony, first woman bishop in Sierra Leone.[7]
  • Ella Koblo Gulama (1921-2006), Sierra Leone's first female Member of Parliament
  • Umu Hawa Tejan-Jalloh (born 1949), Chief Justice of Sierra Leone

References
  1. Magbaily C. Fyle (2006). "Harford School for Girls". Historical Dictionary of Sierra Leone. Scarecrow Press. pp. 65–6. ISBN 978-0-8108-6504-4.
  2. Magbaily C. Fyle (2006). "Gulama, Julius". Historical Dictionary of Sierra Leone. Scarecrow Press. p. 63. ISBN 978-0-8108-6504-4.
  3. Fouday S Kamara (2008). Economic and Social Crises in Sierra Leone:: The Role of Small-Scale Entrepreneurs in Petty Trading as a Strategy for Survival 1960-1996. Author House. p. 64. ISBN 978-1-4670-1830-2.
  4. Esther L. Megill (2004). "Chapter X. Harford School". Sierra Leone Remembered. Author House. pp. 92–. ISBN 978-1-4184-5549-1.
  5. Abdul Rashid Thomas, Jonathan Fitzjohn remembered – gone too soon, Sierra Leone Telegraph, 23 March 2019. Accessed 10 January 2021.
  6. Jusu, Phileas (December 22, 2008). "United Methodists elect bishop for Sierra Leone". United Methodist Church. Archived from the original on June 17, 2011. Retrieved 2010-12-14.
  7. First Ordained Sierra Leonean Bishop, The Patriotic Vanguard, 10 March 2010. Accessed 10 January 2021.
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