Scotland women’s hockey team, 1939. Ella Vlandy is back row far right.

06.02.1914 – 14.07.2021

The Hockey Museum is saddened to report the recent passing of Ella Vlandy. At 107, she was thought to be the eldest surviving Scottish international hockey player. Ella was still living independently in North Berwick and in February this year, celebrated her 107th birthday. She received many messages from friends and neighbours but sadly, due to Covid restrictions these all had to be by card or telephone.

Born in 1914, before the start of WW1, Ella was brought up in North Berwick. Her father, Maurice, came from Greece and married a Scottish girl, Mary, before taking on the running of a hotel called Redcroft in North Berwick, just south of Edinburgh. She was sent to a boarding school in Edinburgh called St Bride’s. When interviewed in 2014 on her 100th birthday, she remembered that it very unusual in North Berwick for girls to attend boarding school, but she thought it was because her parents were busy with the hotel.

In 1932 she went to Dartford College of Physical Education (PE) in Kent where she played hockey, lacrosse, netball, cricket, tennis, and rounders. She would also have trained in gymnastics as Dartford at that time was the leading college in training the Bergman Osterberg Swedish drill.

When she qualified as a teacher in 1935, her first post was at St Columba’s School, Kilmacolm, Glasgow. By now Ella was excelling at hockey and a year later, she was first selected for the Scottish team. She played hockey for Scotland as a forward both before and after World War 2. Her first game in 1936 was against England when Scotland lost 0-1. She then went on to play against South Africa. Ella played up until the start of the war in 1939 and then when international sport started up again in 1946, she played for a further three years until 1948, gaining 8 caps in total.

Ella joined the staff at Dunfermline PE College in 1938 as a part-time ‘officer’ but, when the college moved to Aberdeen in 1939, she took on a larger role at the Teacher Training Centre in Aberdeen where she majored in outdoor games. In later life, she moved to Dundee Teacher Training College and remained there until she retired. In recent years she returned to her home in North Berwick.

Ella was not only a talented hockey player but also played county tennis and was a keen golfer. She joined the North Berwick Golf Club in 1946 and went on to be Captain. In later years she was made an Honorary Member. Ella did not marry and had no children but led a very active and sociable life for over 10 decades.

By Katie Dodd

This obituary has been written with help from Scottish historian, Jane Claydon.

Further Commemoration

Further information can be found courtesy of articles from the East Lothian Courier. Click here and here.

An obituary from The Scotsman newspaper can be downloaded by clicking the PDF icon.