It is signed by the author, Jean B. Lumsden, dated 1955.
According to the book jacket,
Miss Lumsden is a teacher of domestic science and has had plenty of experience in the practical field of stitchery. The result is an excellent handbook on all varieties of sewing which every housewife will want to have in the house. It should also be of considerable use in Training Colleges and Secondary Modern Schools. The book includes chapters on embroidery, the pricking out of a design and drawn thread work, and the use of sewing machines, but the greater part of it is devoted to all aspects of dressmaking, including a section on the choosing of materials and coloursAll for 12s 6d net or, in today's used bookstore pricing, £4.50.
The book was presented as a prize for First Place in Form I to Veronica Pierce-Butler.
It could be that Veronica Pierce-Butler is a member of the English Peerage, where both a Charlotte Veronica Pierce-Butler and a Nora Veronica Pierce-Butler are listed: C. Veronica P-B was born in 1942 and would have been about the right age to have topped the First Form in Easter Term 1955.
I find all of this enchanting. I even like Headmistress Dorothy R. Thompson's penmanship. Also included in the book was an old pattern piece for a belt, with no printing on it, just little holes.
