The Chalet School Staff

No 1 - Madge Bettany (Later Russell)

This is the first article in a series describing the mistresses, the three masters (Anserl, Laubach and Denny) and Domestic Staff who, with the girls, make up the world of the Chalet School.  The first and most important member of Staff is, of course, the founder of the School, Margaret Daphne Bettany, later Mrs, then, Lady Russell. Madge not only begins the School but lays the foundations of the tolerant and caring atmosphere which makes the School such a special place.

Madge is 24 when she conceives the idea of beginning a school in the Tirol, as a means of supporting herself and Joey, who should not spend another winter in England.  Madge and Dick had visited the Tirnsee some five years earlier, and as she knows the area and the cost of living is much cheaper it seems the obvious choice.  It will give her certain advantages as well: a healthy climate, an exotic location, which it was in the 1920s when few people travelled abroad, and a place to offer an English education.

Madge, although lacking a formal academic degree, is not only a gifted teacher of English literature but an excellent administrator.   She shares her sister's charm and her Staff (except for the horrible Matron in Princess),  pupils, and their parents soon come to love as well as to respect her. Madge is grateful in the early days for the advice and support of  such good friends as Herr Mensch and Herr Braun.

In an age where tolerance is rare Madge creates a community where nationality and denomination do not matter.  In a class conscious society, snobbery has no place at the Chalet School, as Thekla learns.

Madge is both kind and compassionate.  She makes Juliet, despite her earlier bad behaviour,  part of her family when her parents abandon her.  Grizel is not the only girl to whom she gives a second chance.  She is, however, a strict disciplinarian and expects unquestioning obedience from her pupils as was customary at that time. Her dignity and strength of character is never more evident than when she dismisses Matron Webb after her cruel treatment of the Robin in Princess.

When Madge first marries and moves to the Sonnalpe she continues to give English literature lectures on her visits to the School and is actively involved in the important  administrative decisions, such as the appointing of Staff in agreement with Mdlle. However, as the years go by, a growing family, including her nieces and nephews and Robin and Stacie mean that she can spend little time at the School but she is always aware of what is going on in some detail.  This remains the case until a few years after the War when she accompanies Sir Jem to Canada for two years.

Nonetheless, to the Chalet School she will always be 'our beloved Madame'.

Ann Mackie Hunter