Former secretary, 89, leaves astonishing £2.1m bequest to her old boarding school after it supported her through father's death Jessie Flower kept in touch with Gosden House after she left in the 1930s She was grateful for the care it provided to her and her sister Elsie The £2.1million bequest is the biggest in the boarding school's history Money to fund education of 50 children who have lost at least one parent Jessie Flower, left, never forgot the support the Gosden House gave her and sister Elsie, right, when their father died A former secretary has left £2.1million to her old boarding school after it supported her through the death of her father when she was a child. Jessie Flower's bequest will be used to fund the education of 50 pupils who have lost at least one of their parents at her old boarding school. Mrs Flower, who died in 2011 aged 89, always remembered the help she and sister Elsie received from Gosden House in the 1930s when their father died. The charity foundation even paid for Mrs Flower to train as a secretary when she left the school in Bramley, Hampshire, aged 16. The young sisters were sent to Gosden House, the girls' school of Lord Wandsworth College (LWC) by their widowed mother who was struggling to support them. Mrs Flower never forgot the support she received and stayed in touch with the school until she died. LWC headmaster Fergus Livingstone said the bequest is the biggest they have ever received. He said: 'Mrs Flower's bequest is a very significant gift for our foundation. 'Mrs Flower was not only grateful for her own education, but could see the value of a boarding school education for children in a similar situation in today's environment. Her decision to support our charity in this way is a huge endorsement of the work that we continue to do here and will bring significant progress to our programme to refinance the foundation as it enters its second century. 'We have a lot of records from the girls' time here - their mother obviously needed a lot of help bringing them up alone and expressed her gratitude very frequently. Times were very different then and there was not a lot of support for bereaved families left without a source of income. 'Mr and Mrs Flower's gift from their assets and savings is a massive one and we have never had a donation of this size before. The pupils who will benefit from it are absolutely amazed and so grateful. Gosden House, girls' school of Lord Wandsworth College, said it the bequest is the biggest in their history Headmaster Fergus Livingstone said the money will educate children for 20 years A year after she left the school Jessie married William Flower, who worked in insurance, and they settled in Minehead, Somerset. The childless couple lived modestly and Mr Flower died before his wife, who stayed in touch with the school all her life. Shortly before her death, she was in contact and identifying herself and school friends in old photographs. The trustees of the foundation charity of LWC will invest the sum into the William and Jessie Fund. It will pay school fees for the 50 foundation pupils who currently attend the college and is expected to last around 20 years. The school site was originally bought using a £1.2million bequest by Lord Wandsworth, who wanted to help children who had lost parents through agricultural accidents. Since it opened in 1922, more than 2,500 pupils have received support from the foundation including England rugby player Ugo Monye, who left in 2001. The bequest brings the total given to the foundation in the past five years to more than £3.3million.