SIX friends met up together for the first time since they completed their college studies 50 years ago.

Sue Brown, Penny Peat, Julie Miles, Angela Stevenson, Jane Jewell and Paula Chaffey held a special anniversary celebration in Weymouth on July 6 to mark half a century since they finished their courses.

The friends studied at the former South Dorset Technical College, now Weymouth College, in the early 1970s.

The main site was based in Newstead Road but secretarial and business studies students were based at Connaught House in Cross Road, which has since been demolished.

The department was headed by Mr Heath and the tutors included Mrs Jean Memory and Mrs Dorothy Wilde-Edwards.

Several in the group were taking a two-year bilingual secretarial course which was intended to prepare girls for the commercial opportunities that were expected to arise following the UK’s recent entry into the European Common Market.

As well as traditional secretarial and business studies, the students were taught French shorthand, visited French companies and gained qualifications as secretarial linguists.

Most of the group left Weymouth after finishing their course and have followed a variety of careers since then and for some, the qualifications proved invaluable.

Ms Stevenson’s first job was personal secretary to the French owner of a Southampton shipping and haulage company, whilst Ms Brown spent time in France before taking up a post at Bridport Gundry where she was involved with translating technical documents.

Others went on to run their own businesses or worked in banking. 

Two left England altogether and emigrated to Canada where Ms Miles worked for a French oil company in Calgary, Alberta.

She now makes regular trips back to Dorset to visit family in the Poole area.

Some of the group have met up with her annually in various UK venues, but this was the first time they had all been back together in Weymouth since leaving college.

They celebrated their 50th anniversary with lunch in the town and then a walk around some of the places they remembered from college days, including a visit to their old student accommodation.