Last week's announcement of the new girls' house, Lodge House, was a truly historic one; it is especially significant because it coincides with International Women's Day. Lodge House was named after Bow School Headmistress Millie Lodge, a woman without whose dynamism, industry, and teaching skill the DCSF would look very different. 

Miss Lodge was born in 1880 to the Reverend J.A. Lodge at Haverton Hill. She was educated at Middlesbrough High School and Bedford College in London, the first further education institution in the UK to admit women. She graduated with a B.A. pass degree in 1901, and took to teaching at both Middlesbrough High School and Banbury Municipal School. 

She joined Durham School as Assistant Master in 1918, becoming the first woman to serve on the staff of Durham School. W.L. Burn, who was a student in 1919, recalled that "a woman teacher in a boys' public school was a rarity then. But even the youngest and most irreverent of us recognised that Miss Lodge could teach us what we would be the better for knowing". M.R. Le Fleming, who worked alongside Miss Lodge during her time at Durham School, wrote in a 1922 letter to his wife that she was:

"A very good teacher & disciplinarian. Has a house of small boys who are so carefully mothered as to bear the stamp for years afterwards... Gets v. worked up about house-matches etc., and about her nephew the Oxford fullback! [She is] a glutton for work." 

In January 1922 she took charge of a newly established boarding house at No. 38 South Street, which instilled within her a love of school management. Durham School in the 1920s was struggling, with fewer and fewer students coming to the School. In 1922 there were 90 students attending the school; by 1932 that number had decreased to 23. Miss Lodge, ever the entrepreneur, was to launch her own independent school. This was called Dunelm School, and opened on the 22nd September 1931 with six day boys and two boarders. There was still a connection with Durham School; the intention was that the younger boys would head on to the School while older children would be coached privately for university exams. 

It was in 1932 that the headmaster of the local Bailey School retired, and Miss Lodge took the opportunity to take over the school. Initially, boarders were at 38 South Street while classes were at the Bailey; then Miss Lodge made use of the science laboratories, gymnasium, and art room at Durham School. In January 1933 Lodge closed down the Bailey School and took 37 South Street, hosting all pupils in the two neighbouring buildings. Dunelm School quickly became successful, with numbers rising to 30 boys in 1935- identical to the number of students entering Durham School. Bow School, meanwhile, was undergoing financial difficulties, and in 1937 passed up the opportunity to merge with the Chorister School in favour of merging with Dunelm School. Bow reopened in January 1938, twice as large and under the control of Miss Lodge.

During the War, Miss Lodge was able to keep the school together despite a shortage of staff, books, and food. Cricket balls were also difficult to come by; the whole school had one which Miss Lodge was determined would last them the war. She kept it in a chest of drawers in her bedroom, and would only take it out for matches. Growing admissions meant that in 1942 the intake was restricted to ages 8-11, while in 1943-1944 she bought several boarding houses at Quarry Heads and 11 Church Street. 

1945 saw Miss Lodge invite her nephew, Charlie Adamson, to join the staff of the School after a brief stint between 1928 and 1930. In September 1948 he partnered with her to help run the school, becoming Joint Principals. She still taught English and classics to the senior boys, providing additional Latin tuition to small groups of boys during one week of the Spring holidays in her home at Saltburn. "The purpose of our stay was extra coaching in Latin, and yet we enjoyed ourselves," recalled Old Bowite J.A. Dodds. "This in itself is a telling tribute to Miss Lodge's powers as a tutor of young boys." 

Miss Lodge came from a sporting family; her brother, Lewis Vaughan Lodge, played in the England national football team, while her nephew, Charlie Adamson, was a noted cricketer. She was able to instill this sporting passion in her students. She encouraged an interest in world affairs; according to one Old Bowite I have spoken to, in the 1950s she would sit with boarders and listen to the news on the radio, providing her opinions on politics and the intricacies of the Cold War. "Her own deep love of classical music she tried to impart to any who appeared interested, in an unobtrusive yet effective and lasting manner", wrote Dodds.

"Her primary purpose in prep school teaching, and perhaps the centre of her success, was to give her pupils a sound and far-reaching foundation, and this she did without allowing her lessons to lose the essential living interest of the humanities, and become cold routine. The standards which she set, moreover, demanded the best of every pupil." 

 Miss Millie Lodge was an industrious pioneer, succeeding at a time when many women were not able to advance in education. These values continue within the recently-created Lodge House; it is for this reason that, on the new crest, the symbol of the hard-working bee can be seen. She continued teaching until her death in March 1961, aged eighty-one. Mrs Helen Adamson recalled that "Her mind was still as clear as a bell until two days before she died. I went to see her in hospital shortly before her death and she told me, 'When I leave here I think I will just teach part time.'"