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Miss Grace Towers (later Mrs A H Claessen)
Miss Grace Towers was the first Principal of the Anglo-Chinese Girls School, Ipoh which opened, thanks to her, in the dining room of the Missionary’s residence (The Reverend Edward Horley), which was also a church on Sundays and the Anglo-Chinese Boys School, Ipoh. The latter’s classroom was on the ground floor in a room some 20 feet x 20 feet. The building was rented from Datoh Panglima Kinta.
In 1895, Miss Towers had just left the Raffles Girls’ School, Singapore and at a loose end decided she ought to do some work, although, as she records, “…….in those good old days, girls did not have to earn a living”. Consequently, knowing that some of the English-speaking girls would like to go to school, she contacted the Reverend Horley, who had recently founded the boys school, and asked if he could let her have a room in the Mission House, which, as she put it :….. like myself had been converted’. He gave her the use of his dining room.
Initially, the school was independent of the Episcopal Mission organization, but soon it was taken into the fold and Miss Towers started to draw a salary. Following the boys’ school as they moved from building to building. At age 18 she had a school of 23 girls in 5 different standards to manage. She recorded that she felt that that the hand of her ‘boss’ (Horley) “….. was heavy on the delinquents, not the girls, but the little boys”.
In 1901 she married Austin Claessen and became Mrs A E Claessen. Their daughter Norma then took up the story of her mother, which can be summarised as follows:
Gracie, as she was known, was a small blonde with a pleasant face, green eyes and a lovely complexion. She was an amateur poet, musician, artist and writer with a fiery temper who loved children. And they loved her. As young ladies of the period were not encouraged to go out to work, her first primary school ran from her own home. However, one fortunate evening the dedicated Methodist missionary, Edward Horley, dined at the home of Mr William Cowan, Assistant protector of Chinese in Ipoh and brother-in law to Gracie. They met and very soon after that meeting she asked if she could have the room in the Mission House for her school. He agreed and started to persuaded her that she should make her school part of the Methodist ministry and also give up her worldly ways and devote her life to the service of God. This she did in due course and remained devoted to the church until she passed away in Malacca in 1945.
One day Reverend Horley heard Gracie sing and although she was an Anglican by religion, he persuaded her to join the Wesley Church, play the organ and form a choir and every Sunday she filled the church with a glorious melody, for she had a fine voice. Her daughter joined the school in 1914 in Primary One and left in 1920. To her it was not just a school “….. but her mother’s school”.
Ipoh Remembered confirms that:
"Yes, Cowan's first wife, Gracie's sister, died young in Ipoh. Cowan got married again, also in Ipoh. Some of his younger children were born in Edinburgh, where he eventually retired and died.
Yes Gracie did marry one of Ipoh's Claessen brothers, A. H."Claessen.
Incidentally, the Claessens were "Dutch Burghers" from Ceylon. That is to say, from the British point of view, they were dark-skinned Eurasians.
To read more about The Reverend William Edward Horley, click here.
To read about William Cowan, ‘Protector of the Chinese’ Ipoh, click here.
To read more about Datoh Panglima Kinta Muhammad Yusuff, click here.
To read more about Anglo-Chinese Girls School, Ipoh, click here.
To read more about Anglo-Chinese School, Ipoh, click here.