Headmistresses
Mrs Foulger was a founder and benefactor of the school in 1838.
Mrs Pye-Smith was succeeded by her own daughter and niece who also gave much of their lives to the care and responsibility of the girls ensuring the continuity and high standards of Mrs Foulger's vision.
Miss Unwin's strict Victorian formality gave way to a more natural and spontaneous style under Miss Millar as Principal for two years until Miss Hare took over.
Miss Hare as Headmistress in 1901 and remained for 21 years. She reorganised the timetable and made more time for exercise and after school activities. Lessons were confined to the mornings and girls' health greatly improved.
Miss Ramsey became headmistress in 1922 until 1946.
Miss Emmeline Blackburn
Miss Davies came as Headmistress in 1970 after five years as Principal of a Government College in Nigeria for which she received an MBE. She stayed for thirteen years and oversaw some major changes both to the status of the school but also its physical development.
In 1984 Mrs Lang became Headmistress. An Old Girl of the school and a graduate of St Anne's College, Oxford, she was the first Headmistress to be married and to have daughters. In February 1988 the school celebrated its 150th year. There was a Service of Thanksgiving in Westminster Chapel attended by 2,000 people, many of them Old Girls. A Celebration School Concert took place in May that year with choirs, orchestras and individual performances. There were plays performed and the whole school celebrated with a carnival day. In October the same year there was an exhibition sponsored by Liberty. It was open to the public for three days and many of the earliest records of the school were put on show. These records form part of the on-going history of one of the oldest girls' schools in the country, and the oldest in Kent, held in high esteem by students, parents and staff.
The current Headmistress, Mrs Jill Milner who took over from Mrs Lang in 2002 is by coincidence also a graduate of St Anne's, Oxford. She is one of the youngest of all the school's headmistresses and the first to be the parent of a Walthamstow Hall pupil. Before joining Walthamstow Hall, Mrs Milner held senior posts at Tonbridge Grammar School for Girls and before that worked at Headington (GSA) and St Helen's in Northwood.
All of the headmistress's pictures are placed in the school dining hall.
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