Agatha Lacy fcJ (1854 - 1914) A PIONEER IN EDUCATION
Agatha Lacy fcJ, Provincial of the British Province was known for her ‘unbounded charity’ and the
care that she took for the welfare of the children in the Somers Town area of London. For her ‘no
labour was too great’ and much of that ‘labour’ was in the field of education. When she died in
Somers Town in 1914 she was hailed by the Chairman of the Education Committee of the London
County Council as
a pioneer in the cause of Catholic education in London
1
.
It was Agatha Lacy fcJ who was first to present Catholic girls for London County Council
scholarships in 1895. This enabled them to achieve secondary education and put them on the first
step of the ladder for higher education. It was she who managed to secure scholarships and in some
cases financial aid for more able students so that they could go to University. She also initiated the
movement for the recognition of Catholic secondary schools by the Board of Education and by the
London County Council, thus putting them on par with non-Catholic schools and making them
eligible for the support of the Local Education Authority. She was very much aware of the
importance of teacher training for Catholic schools and it was mainly through her instrumentality
that named Catholic secondary schools were recognised by Whitehall as centres of excellence
suitable for the training of teachers
2
.
In June 1914 Sir William Henry Dunn MP, in supporting the setting up of an Agatha
Lacy Memorial, refers to ‘the magnificent work done by one who had been so aptly styled
the pioneer of Catholic secondary education in London.
Her contribution to Catholic education
was acknowledged by Cardinal Bourne and by
many prominent laymen
of the time
3
.
FCJ education had truly taken root in English soil!
1
Obituary:
The Tablet,
9 May 1914
2
Ibid
3 Alderman Sir William Henry Dunn, 20 June 1914
23
Mère Victorine writes: Although Notre Mère was so hard on herself, nothing could equal her tenderness
for others; to each one of us she was like a mother with her only child, who fears to lose it... Yet this
is the woman of whom it was said that in her the Bishop of Nantes ‘who is very clever, has met
his match’; the woman of whom Père de Ravignan said: ‘What audacity in a woman– she knows
we are all against her and she is as calm as if this opposition was nothing.’
(Mère Marie de Bussy)
And
after the visit to Rome a Jesuit said to Mère Marie de Bussy ‘Madame d’Houët has so strong a will
that if she wished to be made Pope she would succeed .’ And a doctor in Geneva said
she had the head of fourteen generals.
