Headmistress Miss Baker mentioned to OBs in 1935 that ex-pupil Eileen Russell-Gregg was performing in London and had been touring with a company staging one-act plays by Noel Coward, under her stage-name of Everley Gregg. Further research has revealed that Everley enjoyed some success as a film star in the 1930s and 40s. She was cast as Catherine Parr in Charles Laughton’s “The Private Life of Henry VIII” and will be familiar to many as Dolly, the well-meaning friend who unknowingly ruins the final precious moments shared by tragic lovers Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard in Noel Coward’s “Brief Encounter.” BMB was clearly proud of Everley: we found these carefully preserved newspaper cuttings in the Archives. Sadly she passed away in 1959, aged 59.