Dates

• Existence: 1811 - 1881

Biography

Anne Urquhart was the only daughter of John Urquhart and his wife Ann Mill, who came from Forfar in Angus. John Urquhart was a lapidary and watchmaker and had a jeweller's shop in Perth at 54 George Street. The family lived in Barossa Place, Perth.

Until she was sixteen, Anne attended a private school run by a Miss McOmish. She later became a teacher: in 1834, the Andersons opened a school for young women in Gayfield Square, Edinburgh and it had been in existence for four years when they invited Miss Urquhart to join the staff, and she accepted. She was twenty-seven years of age.

Anne Urquhart's first charge at the school was to take a class of fifteen little girls for religious instruction, and she quickly gained their confidence for they all liked her. She also had a geography class and helped her co-worker and friend Euphemia Cargill Anderson with music, for which she had a natural talent.

As time went on, Anne Urquhart had to go home to Perth because of an illness, and then to take care of her father and help her mother, so Euphemia engaged a Miss Robertson as assistant teacher and Robert Anderson took the singing class, which had been Anne's responsibility.

In Perth, Anne Urquhart attended to her late father’s business, and opened a school. To help Anne, the Andersons ordered maps and music books in Edinburgh and sent them to Perth for use in her school. Anne had seven pupils at first.

Around 1845, Anne came back to Edinburgh to help Euphemia run the school at Gayfield Square. On August 3rd 1846, she married Charles William Anderson. She was then thirty-five years old, one year younger than her new husband. She died in 1881, aged seventy.

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