Elizabeth Moir

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Elizabeth Moir

Elizabeth Moir MA, Dip Ed (Oxon) is a British educationalist who pioneered international schools in Sri Lanka.

[edit] Biography

Born in Simla to British parents, Elizabeth spent her first few years in India, her father a regional representative for General Electric.

After attending St Mary's School, Calne, Elizabeth graduated in Mathematics from Oxford University where she captained the tennis team to victory in the 1963 tie against Cambridge University.

Soon after graduating, she joined the Diocesan Girls School in Hong Kong where she established the Advanced Level Mathematics department. After four years in Asia, Elizabeth returned to England where she worked as an IBM systems analyst in London's financial district. It was in London where she met her husband, Kesang Tenduf-La, a Tibetan whose parents owned the famous Windamere Hotel in Darjeeling.

After working in Hong Kong for a further four years as Head of Mathematics at the Diocesan Girls School, Mrs Moir was Governor of the British School in New Delhi.^[1]

Elizabeth Moir came to Sri Lanka in 1982 with Mr Tenduf-La and their three children. With the only international school at the time restricted to expatriates, Elizabeth was keen to establish an educational environment that could be enjoyed by all nationalities. She soon founded the Colombo International School and was its principal until 1994. In the same year, she started the British School in Colombo and, two years later, opened Elizabeth Moir School.