Teacher Feature: Ray Carlier

A tribute to a

remarkable woman

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As we reflect on Women’s Day in Livingstone High School’s centenary year, it is fitting to honour Ray Carlier, whose legacy at Livingstone lives on in the lyrics she wrote for the school song, and to acknowledge her tremendous contribution to non-racial sport and her selfless devotion to her duties as teacher and former principal.

Ray Carlier was born on 11 October 1910 in Rudolph Street, Newlands, and grew up in a home that instilled in her a strong attitude towards social injustice, gender inequality, and the value of an education grounded in ethics and principles. She matriculated from Trafalgar High School and graduated from the University of Cape Town with an Arts degree and teaching qualifications. She joined the Livingstone staff in 1934. 

The late Richard Dudley, in his eulogy for Ray Carlier, recalled the key role she played in building up the school by offering a variety of subjects, such as English, History, Geography, Afrikaans, Bookkeeping and Commercial Arithmetic, and by assisting wherever she saw a need. She was an enthusiastic supporter of the arts and introduced various stage productions, such as The Mikado, to the school. Ray was also a keen supporter of school sports and was instrumental in raising the sports profile at Livingstone.

She was called upon to lead the school as acting principal from 1955 until the end of 1962, at a time when senior colleagues around her were subject to banning orders under the Apartheid regime. She was the first woman to lead a coeducational high school, and it is a testament to her strength of character that she upheld the ethical standards and educational values of the school despite all the challenges of that period. Richard Buttress states that her appointment in the ‘male-dominated domain’ of ‘senior secondary school administration’ is ‘historically significant’ as ‘an early instance of female authority within the state-aided disenfranchised education system’. She is remembered as a strict disciplinarian who prioritised the welfare of her students and the school. Her determination to provide a safe, stable environment that promoted education was evident when the Education Department and the Apartheid State did all in their power to destabilise Livingstone. She was not intimidated by anyone and maintained school stability while acting as a buffer for colleagues harassed by security forces. 

Ray Carlier retired at the end of 1962, having led Livingstone through a most turbulent time, but was later called upon to resume teaching at Livingstone.

Equally significant was Ray Carlier’s role in promoting non-racial sport. She encouraged students to become more competitive in tennis by founding the Livingstone Tennis Club. Because the tennis court at the school was unavailable over weekends, she offered an adjacent plot to her home in Warbreck Road, Lansdowne (where she was forced to move because of the Group Areas Act under previous Apartheid legislation) for the construction of tennis courts. She converted her garage for table tennis and offered her home for fundraising and meetings, not only for tennis, but also to promote table tennis and netball. 

She was elected as the national convener of the newly established Western Province School Sports Board in 1946, while also being the Western Province Tennis Board doubles champion. The following year, she was elected convener of the newly established Western Province Netball Board, at the time as serving as vice-president of the South African Table Tennis Board. 

Ray Carlier was a remarkable woman who passed away on 20 July 1998, aged 87.

Richard Dudley, in his eulogy, expresses it best: ‘Ray Carlier lives on in the lives of numberless men and women to whom she dedicated all those years of selfless duty to her fellow human beings.’ 

The final words go to Richard Buttress: ‘In the centenary year, Ray Carlier’s legacy endures not only in policy and infrastructure, but in song. The [school] anthem she wrote continues to be performed, ensuring that her voice remains part of Livingstone’s institutional memory.’

Acknowledgments

With thanks to Jocelyn Parsotam, Rhoda Hendricks and Ingrid Jennifer Kiki Maurice for their contributions to this article. We also thank Richard Buttress for permission to quote from Essay Memoirs and Poems from Newlands. 

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Sources

1. Cleophas, F.J. (2022). Reclaiming school athletics in Cape Town’s underclass, 1933–1955. Historia, 67(1). 

2. Wieder, A. (2008). Teacher and Comrade: Richard Dudley and the fight for democracy. State University of New York Press