By Nadia Tobia, Architect
November 2025

In 2025, Baghdad High School is celebrating its centennial anniversary. To mark this occasion, Part 3 of the article “Golden School Days” which is about the school, is being republished. The complete article originally appeared in 2021 on the FEEFAA org website.

.

Part 3:  Baghdad High School in Al Mansour 1966 – 1969

The school was opened in 1925 by Mrs. Mary De Thomas, when the United Mission of Mesopotamia was organized. It was officially licensed in 1945 by the Ministry of Education, first was called the American School for Girls in Baghdad, and later became Baghdad High School in Al-Mansour.

It moved several times until it reached its final location in Al Mansour area off Al-Amirat Street in Al-Karkh side of the river. In 1925 it was in Ras El-Quriah; in 1927 near King Faisal Bridge ( Al-Ahrar Bridge); then in a location in Bab El-Sheik.  Around 1946 it was located in a rented building in Al-Bataween closer to Bab Al-Sharji in what used to be the Egyptian Embassy.(2) Land was purchased in Al-Mansour and construction started in 1951, and the new school opened in 1953, while some construction was still in progress.

The school location was far from our house, I was bussed to the school. This time the path from Al Sadoon Park took us through Karada Dakhel, and we crossed the river over the Suspended Bridge in Al-Jaderiya. We drove through Al-Harthiya, to Al-Mansour Street until we reached the school. The journey took at least one hour each way.

The building was designed by architect Ellen Jawdet (1921 India – 2020 US), an American Harvard University graduate and wife of architect Nizar Jawdet. It was not the typical school design of courtyard layouts, but rather an entirely different concept, which was fresh and uplifting. The design was responsive to the weather, introducing new but simple approaches. The classrooms strip was designed in a T-shaped plan, with a grand stair case at the junction of the T.  One classroom wing was elevated on columns providing large shaded outdoor gathering spaces. Cross-ventilation was provided by high windows on one side and full windows on the other side. Classes were oriented to south and east, with shaded open corridors to the west. New uses of materials were incorporated for the school, such as exposed concrete brick in the interior of the classrooms. The gardens were well maintained with simple landscaping and grass fields.

We had a good-sized multipurpose hall for gatherings and performances, many sport courts, a home economics lab, an English language lab, and a science lab. There was a cozy library, and my first borrowed book was “Little Women” by American author Louisa May Alcott (1832–1888), which was originally published in two volumes in 1868 and 1869.

When I started at the school in 1966, Ms. Mary Ingle was the principal. She, with her executive assistant Ms. Matilda Lamy, ran the school efficiently and smoothly with a low-key approach. They led an excellent team of Iraqi and American teachers.

Ms. Lynda Carver (1903-1994) was the principal from 1962 to 1965. Ms. Purchase and Ms. Tylor acted as interim principals a couple of times in the late fifties and early sixties while Ms. Carver was away. Ms. Margret Purchase (1926-2009) was in Iraq from 1956 to1969.

Ms. Carver joined the school as a principal in 1946 until approximatly1958, when she had to take some time off, due to her mother’s health, (according to her interview in 1980) (2). She had been instrumental in arranging the purchase of the new land in Al-Mansour. It is said that she negotiated well with Al-Mansour Company owners of the land, to reach a good deal. She left the school and Iraq for the last time in 1967.

Ms. Ingle was British and was the last foreign principal of the school. The 1968 Iraqi revolution forced Ms. Ingle and the American teachers to leave in 1969 in a dramatic way during the school year. The School was made Iraqi -“Iraqization” – by the teachers’ union in collaboration with the Iraqi Ministry of Education. The school resumed in September 1969 with Ghania Al-Gatt’a as principal.  While I moved that September to another high school most, if not all, of my class continued at the school, graduating in 1972.

Baghdad High School, principal , assistant principal and some of the teachers  1967/1968

Back Row

Ms. Matilda Lami – Assistant Principal, Ms. Carol Guerin, Ms. Mary Ingle – Principal, Ms. Richards, Ms. Jean Al alman, Ms. Rabah Al-Rikabi

Middle Row

Ms. Nahida Talabani Ms. Najiba Ishak, Ms. Amal Askar, Ms. Samia Shammas, Ms. Muna Louca, Ms Joanne Skeen, Ms. Grace Salman, Ms Hind Al Mansur, Ms. Samira Nazo,

Front Row

Mr. George Haddo, Mr. Kyle, Mr Richards, Ms. Margaret Purchase, Ms. Alice Yukhanna.

We had eight classes a day, 45 minutes each, and we moved from one class to the other, which was a new system for us and probably the only one in Iraq.  After every two classes we had a recess for 15 minutes with a long lunch recess for one hour. The last two classes were usually spent on extra-curriculum subjects.   We had home economics classes where we sewed pajamas and learned to crochet. My favorite class was baking Christmas cake, which we wrapped  in aluminum foil and preserved for a couple of months until it was sold for charity just before Christmas. It was a very tasty cake and we adopted the recipe at home.

The school had many traditions established in the 1940s during Ms. Carver’s time. There were school colours; a school motto “you can if you think you can”; a school hymn, “Joyful, joyful. We adore thee.” (Beethoven, “Ode to Joy.”); an alma mater song and a student council with an elected president. A choir named Troubadour accepted interested students after an audition. We met regularly in the school hall to sing along with the choir, following the school song book. During Christmas we sang Christmas hymns. We had a year book called “Echo” which was assembled and published by a group of students and teachers.

There were clubs such as stamp collecting, gardening, knitting, camping, travel, folk dancing, tennis, fashion, drama, arts…etc.  There were societies such as welfare, Arabic language and a girls’ athletic association. There were sports teams for baseball, basketball,  volley ball and  badminton. We even studied the rules and regulations for these sports and sat for an exam.

Food at the canteen was ordinary. We could buy lunch and snacks and the most notable item was the tuna sandwich.

We had a uniform which was updated during our time to a light blue or pink V neck twinset with a white shirt with a round collar underneath, and it had to be round ! – and gray skirt or trousers. We also had a small shoulder purse with the school name on it and a calendar to plan and organize our time. The teachers, especially the Americans wore a blue – greyish robe.

Ms. Ingle rented a small house (mushtamal) about a four minutes walk away from the school while, Ms. Purchase and our English teacher Ms. Catherine Sheidy shared a house on the south – east corner of the school. Ms. Sheidy would occasionally invite students and other teachers for tea, and I attended one of the tea gatherings. It was a very nice gesture. Ms. Sheidy always wore the teachers robe at class, with a brooch pinned on the top corner at her shoulder or on her sleeves close to her hand.

Next Steps

We sat for the baccalaureate exams, at the end of three years and we had to go to another school for the exams.  I was not fond of these exams but again managed nicely. After many years since the Baghdad High School days, some of us from the same class have crossed paths and have remained close friends with continuous communication and support, especially Ghada Al-Madfai and Yasmin Gabriel and Sahar Rassam.

After completing the third grade in 1969, I transferred to another school, Al-Sharqiya High School for Girls, where I completed my high school education. Most of my classmates, however, remained at Baghdad High School. In 1972, I was accepted into the Department of Architecture at the College of Engineering, University of Baghdad, where I was reunited with several friends from Baghdad High School, including Ghada Al-Madfai, Sahar Rassam, Maha Al-Bustani, Nadia Al-Hakim, Jwan Baba Ali, and Nesoum Al-Khudhairy. We spent another five years together, graduating in 1977.

Sources:

Cover image by Ms. Margaret Purchase, Courtesy Presbyterian Historic Society.

1. Hayder Farouq Salman, “Pages from the History of the Iraqi Societies and Clubs- Iraqi Engineering Society” , 2016
2. Lynda Carver, Baghdad High School Principal, interview by Alfred Hinn, May 19 1980 – Presbyterian Historic Society.
3. Margaret Purchase Baghdad High School teacher, Papers, Presbyterian Historic Society, bulk dates 1940 – 2009.
4. Baghdad High School annual book Echo, various years

Interview, notes and memory:

• Nada Sulayman, student at Al Mansour Private School and Baghdad High School
• Hussain Al Rikabi, son of Ms. Al Rikabi, teacher at Baghdad High School.
• Amal Asker, teacher at Baghdad High School.

Images that are not attributed have been sourced from the internet and are of unknown origin.

Cheryl Morris and Gillian Campbell, English language review and editing.

About Nadia Tobia:

Nadia Tobia, an Architect was born in Baghdad and has been Canadian since the 1990s. She is a graduate of Baghdad University, Iraq and University College Dublin, Ireland. She was the principal and founder of Tobia Architects Inc. She has worked extensively as a lead designer on large scale complex projects in Iraq, Canada, Ireland, UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and China and with the UN HABITAT for Iraq in Jordan.