| Lucy Garvin | |
| Birth Name: | Lucy Arabella Wheatley-Walker |
| Birth Date: | 1851 1, df=y |
| Birth Place: | England |
| Death Place: | Meols, Cheshire, England |
| Known For: | founding head of Sydney Girls High School |
| Employer: | Department of Public Instruction |
| Occupation: | headmistress |
| Spouse: | William Charles Garvin |
| Children: | three? |
| Nationality: | Australian |
Lucy Arabella Stocks Garvin born Lucy Arabella Wheatley-Walker (28 January 1851 – 20 January 1938) was a British-Australian headmistress. She was the founding head of Sydney Girls High School.
Garvin was born in England. Her parents were Catherine (born Stocks) and Frederick Wheatley-Walker. Her father's career was recorded as "gentleman" and she emigrated to Australia (it is said) as a governess to the Reverend Charles Badham.[1]
In 1883 Sydney High School opened in a two storey building in Elizabeth Street in Sydney. The building had been the St James Denominational School. The upper floor of the new school was reserved for the first 39 girls, while the boys were on the ground floor.[2] The head of the "High School for Girls" was Garvin. Her salary was £400 per annum and she had been picked from over twenty applicants by Badham. She started in October and by January the next year the school's role had more than doubled to 87.
She had a natural authority and was known for wearing rings.
She endeavoured to improve the school building and she was able to get an additional ten pounds from the department to found a library by organising a "cake and apron" event that raised the initial ten pounds.
Headmistress "Miss Wheatley-Walker" became "Mrs Garvin" at St Jude's Church, Randwick when she married William Charles Garvin. She did not resign[1] and the school gave her leave so that she and William could have children in 1892, 1895 and 1897. She became a widow with children in 1898.
During the first world war she encouraged the girls to raise money for war related causes. She was an enthusiastic advocate for the British Empire. She left the school in 1919, having led the school for 35 years. She was replaced by the Australian born Florence Campbell.[3]
Garvin became the head of St Chad's Church of England Girls' School in the Sydney suburb of Cremorne until 1922.[1] That school has since closed.[4] She returned to England in 1923.[1]
Garvin died in Meols, Cheshire in 1938.