Introduction .uk



Somerville Commemoration 2020IntroductionSomerville’s alumni are of huge importance to the College. They represent Somerville’s enduring values, and in their lifetimes they extended its liberal ideals, its intellectual vigour and its tradition of public service across the wider world. In most cases they remembered their student days with affection and gratitude, stayed in touch and supported the College of today. It is they who make us so proud to be Somervillians.Now we remember with gratitude, respect, admiration and affection those alumnae who have died since April last year and who were recorded in our short online Commemoration earlier this year. Their names appear below and the obituaries which follow show the rich variety of their lives. These women have been the life blood of this College. May they now rest in peace, but they will live on in the memory and history of Somerville.Baroness Jan Royall, Principal of SomervilleJane Elizabeth Kister née Bridge (1963; Mary Somerville Research Fellow, 1969; Fellow & Tutor in Mathematics 1972-77) on 1 December 2019 Aged 75 Chrystal Heather Ashton née Champion (1947) on 15 September 2019 Aged 90 Irena Dorota Backus née Kostarska (1968) on 14 July 2019 Aged 69 Victoria Anne Braithwaite (1985) on 30 September 2019 Aged 52 Audrey Butler née Clark (1946) on 12 May 2020 Aged 91 Nina Valerie Cartwright née Bearman (1961) on 7 July 2019 Aged 81 Paulla Bolingbroke Catmur née Johnson (1949) on 21 August 2019 Aged 89 Gabrielle (Gaby) Eve Charing (1962) on 24 May 2020 Aged 76Rosemary de Courcy Jones née Eldridge (1948) on 11 May 2019 Aged 91 Claire Marie Donovan née Baker (1971) on 5 June 2019 Aged 71 Anne Driver née Browne (1942) on 15 June 2019 Aged 94 Audrey Faber née Thompson (1944) on 2 July 2019 Aged 93 Elizabeth Lear Falconer (1948) on 25 March 2020 Aged 89 Barbara Evelyn Forrai née Lockwood (1946) on 4 March 2020 Aged 93 Elizabeth Patricia Goulding (1960) on 29 October 2019 Aged 81 Leonora Helen Goulty (1944) on 26 January 2020 Aged 93 Antonia Gransden née Morland (1947) on 18 January 2020 Aged 91 Florence Helen Grellier née Brindle (1949) on 26 April 2020 Aged 89 Dorothy Mary Grodecki née Vernon (1943) on 19 April 2019 Aged 93 Patricia Jean Hall (1943) on 25 April 2019 Aged 93 Rosemary Daphne Harvey née Hawke (1954) on 29 January 2020 Aged 84 Ruth Eleanor van Heyningen née Treverton (1948) on 24 October 2019 Aged 101 Judith Mary Hockaday (1973) on 24 May 2019 Aged 89 Heather Joan Hooton née Shelley (1951) on 5 November 2019 Aged 90 Hannah Elizabeth Houghton-Berry née Sunderland (1980) on 24 July 2019 Aged 57 Jane Mary Howard née Waldegrave (1952) on 6 May 2019 Aged 85 Madeline Ruth Huxstep née Bishop (1939) on 22 October 2019 Aged 90 Ann Penelope (Penny) Iles née Hornblower (1954) on 9 January 2020 Aged 84Caroline Anne Florence Kenny née Arthur (1956) on 17 November 2019 Aged 82 Jean Brown King née Davidson (1954) on 7 May 2019 Aged 84 Anne Marie Prom Krassowska née Olesen(1961) on 26 June 2019 Aged 80Audrey Littlewood née Charnley (1950) on 29 December 2018 Aged 86 Rosemary Evelyn Millard née Troughton (1950) on 14 December 2019 Aged 89 Kathleen Elizabeth Moore (1946) on 1 January 2020 Aged 92 Joan (Joanie) Emilie Philpott née Huckett (1943) on 11 November 2019 Aged 94 Frances Vera Playfer (Tindall, 1951) on 21 July 2019 Aged 87 Mary Ann Poulter née Smallbone (1965) on 26 March 2020 Aged 74 Joan Mary Richards (1951) on 6 April 2019 Aged 86Sara (Sally) Margaret Helen Roberts née Hyder (1955) on22 April 2019 Aged 83 Jane Salusbury née Terry (1953) on 14 April 2019 Aged 85 Susan Deborah (Debbie) Sander (1970) on 16 May 2019 Aged 67 Celia Scully née Shopland (1954) on 20 Jnauary 2019 Aged 83Jennifer Rosemary Patricia Semark née Bullen (1956) in March 2019 Aged 81 Felicity Ann Olga Howard Sieghart née Baer (1944) on 28 May 2019 Aged 91 Anne Simpson (1955) on 6 January 2020 Aged 84 Jennifer (Jenny) Jane Skidmore née Sargent (1969) on 1 October 2019 Aged 69 Maureen Mary Bridget Sleeman née Rough (1980) on 30 April 2019 Aged 58 Jennifer Mary Taylor née Everest (1954) on15 November 2019 Aged 84 Janet Quintrell Treloar (1958) on 30 October 2019 Aged 79 Mary Amity Williamson née Mallinson (1942) on 16 April 2019 Aged 94 Victoria Avril Jean Wotherspoon née Edwards (1946) on 25 July 2019 Aged 92 Susan Wright née Leys (1960) on 7 November 2019 Aged 78 Jane Elizabeth Kister (Bridge, 1963) 09144003937000Jane Bridge was known and loved by several generations of Somervillians – first as an undergraduate, then as a graduate and Research Fellow and finally as a Tutorial Fellow. But after 15 years of association with the college she met and married Jim Kister and spent the rest of her life in the United States. Jane Bridge, born 18 October 1944, came up to Somerville as a scholar in mathematics from St Paul’s Girls’ School in 1963. She had just been diagnosed with Lupus and she missed much of her first year through illness. She restarted her degree in 1964 and thereafter was never held back by her health although she lived with the disease for the rest of her life. In spite of this uncertain start Jane made many good friends in college and was socially always part of her matriculation year. Jane was a warm and empathetic listener, always interested in her friends' lives and problems while making light of her own health concerns. The friendships she made in her first year at Somerville remained strong for the rest of her life. She made sure to get in touch whenever she and Jim came over to England and she managed to attend several gaudies as well as many social occasions with her group of friends, most recently in May 2019.It was clear from the start that Jane was a very talented mathematician and this was recognised by her tutor Anne Cobbe, who gave her inspiration and support throughout her undergraduate career . Jane had the ability to get straight to the heart of a problem and then to explain it with utter clarity; her written work was always beautifully presented in her italic handwriting. She was particularly interested in mathematical logic and always regretted that the Mathematics and Philosophy course was not available for her generation. After obtaining a first and being awarded a Junior Mathematical Prize, Jane stayed on to work for a doctorate completing it under the supervision of Robin Gandy in 1972. She quickly became a key member of the very lively mathematical logic group showing particular talent in managing the notably eccentric Gandy. Dana Scott arrived in 1972 as Oxford’s first Professor in Mathematical Logic and Jane worked closely with Dana to enhance the group’s reputation as a world leader. Jane was a wonderful mentor and big sister to all the students and research fellows.Jane held the Mary Somerville Research Fellowship at Somerville from 1969 and, after Anne Cobbe’s retirement and subsequent death in 1971, she became the Fellow and Tutor in Pure Mathematics. By this time she had already proved herself a very successful and popular tutor and she slipped easily into her new role in college as well as taking on new duties as a lecturer. After she had completed her D.Phil, Dana Scott persuaded her to write the book ‘Beginning Model Theory’ (OUP, 1977) as the first volume in the prestigious Oxford Logic Guides. This is a very lucidly written text, accessible to both undergraduates and beginning postgraduates with a background in either mathematics or philosophy. In 1977, Jim Kister, a topologist from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, came to spend a sabbatical year in Oxford. Jane and Jim were married in July 1978 and settled in the United States. Jane soon became an editor at Mathematical Reviews where she remained for the rest of her career, rising to be Executive Editor in 1998 and retiring in 2004. Mathematical Reviews has traditionally provided short reviews of selected research papers and was a vital tool for academic mathematicians in the pre-electronic age. Jane’s mathematical ability and supreme administrative skills were perfectly suited to this work and she was heavily involved in the launch of the electronic version MathSciNet in 1996.Jim died in 2018 after a long illness and Jane suffered a heart attack a year later, dying on Dec 1 2019.Hilary OckendonChrystal Heather Ashton (Champion, 1947)02222500When Heather Champion first arrived at Somerville at the start of Michaelmas Term 1947 she had recently returned from six years as a child evacuee in Pennsylvania. The transition from land of plenty to postwar austerity cannot have been easy. In Oxford, food, fuel, books and clothes were all in short supply. But in those years of renewal, anything must have seemed possible. She wanted to be a doctor, and she had come to the right place. Oxford was already her new home. Her father, Sir Harry Champion, was Professor of Forestry, her elder brother Jimmy an undergraduate at New College, and the family lived on Boars Hill.She excelled at her studies. She played squash for the university. She fell in love, with John Ashton, lately a naval airman now reading agricultural economics at Brasenose. Soon after she graduated in 1951 with first class honours in physiology, they married at Sunningwell. Heather was born on 11 July 1929 in Dehradun, India (where her father was then Silviculturist at the Forest Research Institute). Thanks to her Indian ayah, she spoke Hindi before English. If the sun shone over her first six years, the next five, boarding far from home at Oldfeld School in Swanage, left mixed memories. She just survived the evacuation convoy to New York in 1940, watching as a U-boat torpedo narrowly missed her ship, and looked back on her American adolescence as golden years. Her hosts the Marshalls became her second family. After Oxford she and John moved to London. She finished clinical training at the Middlesex Hospital, qualifying in 1954. She stayed at the Middlesex as a junior doctor. Drawn increasingly towards research, she published early papers on cardiology and blood circulation.In 1965 she moved to Newcastle, on John’s recruitment to set up a new Department of Agricultural Economics. Here, as researcher, clinician and teacher for over half a century, she made a home, raised a family of four and established herself among the leading clinical pharmacologists of her generation. Working from the Department of Pharmacology and at the Royal Victoria Infirmary, initially with her friend and mentor John Thompson, she did significant work on pain management, nicotine, and cannabis. She was among the first to use electroencephalography to investigate changes in neural activity. She saw teaching as a privilege not a chore, and became a popular lecturer in the Medical School.Her later work, on benzodiazepine tranquilizers, touched countless lives. She was among the first to reveal the dangers of dependency on these potent drugs. In 1982 she established the world’s only dedicated clinic for benzodiazepine withdrawal.There she showed that most people could withdraw safely, and devised the only reliable protocol for doing so. She could have profited from it, but made her method freely available online. For patients and clinicians alike, the “Ashton Manual” soon became an indispensable resource (now in eleven languages: ). She left her mark with her character as much as her accomplishments.She treated her patients as people not symptoms; saw no contradiction between compassion and objectivity; and turned nobody away who sought her help. She was guided by curiosity and rigour, not convention or the approval of peers. She was passionate about the integrity of her calling, never accepted industry funding, and was proud to be among the founding generation of NHS clinicians.She saw the career ladder as a distraction; but was gratified in 1975 when elected a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, and by the later award of a personal Chair in Clinical Psychopharmacology. In 1994 she made her final move, to the Department of Psychiatry. Long beyond her formal retirement and well into her eighties she continued, mostly unremunerated, to teach, publish, advise patients and contribute to dependency support activities, including for 20 years as Vice Chair of the Northeast Council on Addictions (NECA).She was always grateful to Oxford and Somerville, especially to Janet Vaughan and Dorothy Hodgkin for their wise tutelage. She cherished her many Somerville friends, including Ros Maskell (Rewcastle), and Jean Hunter (Hopkins). John died in 1986. Heather threw herself into her work, but missed him constantly, as she did the beloved family dog, Rex. She died peacefully at home after a long illness, aged 90, on 15 September 2019. She is herself missed by her children John, Caroline, Jim and Andrew; six grandchildren; numerous friends from all walks of life especially in the northeast; and generations of patients, colleagues, and students.Irena Dorota Backus (Kostarska, 1968)Originally from Poland, Irena was born on 10 April 1950 and came up to read English at Somerville in 1968. She went on to take a D.Phil in Theology with a thesis on Theodore Beza’s influence on the English New Testament, published in 1980 as The Reformed Roots of the English New Testament : The Influence of Theodore Beza. She was engaged in 1982 by the Institute for Reformation History, University of Geneva, successively as a research officer, as master assistant, then as master of Teaching & Research. She became a Professor in 1992.Throughout her scholarly career, Irena conducted research on the intellectual history of the Reformation. She published several texts, many articles and a dozen monographs (both in English and French). Irena taught courses in the Faculty of Theology at Geneva in Latin and in the History of the Church. Her students will never forget the interest she brought to their work, her acute sense of the historical method, or the immense span of her knowledge.In 2014 Irena suffered a severe cerebral vascular stroke which suddenly and prematurely ended her academic career; she died on 14 June 2019. She is survived by her husband, Guy Backus.Victoria Anne Braithwaite (1985)-32512034861500Born in 1967 in Bradford Royal Infirmary, Victoria was the sixth of seven children of June and Alan Braithwaite. Having older brothers, an older sister and a younger brother she was an astute observer of behaviour. Her formal learning began in earnest at Bradford Girls Grammar School, strongly guided by the school motto “Do this” (Hoc Age)…and she did. She came to Somerville in 1985 graduating in Zoology in 1989. She embarked straight away on a DPhil project about pigeon navigation and she defended her thesis in 1993. Victoria’s attention moved from pigeons to salmon for postdoctoral work at the University of Glasgow between 1993 and 1995, while the nature of her enquiries continued on the theme of spatial learning and navigation. Sensory information processing in animals was to be a strong thread in her subsequent studies and fish were never far away. In 1995 Victoria took up a lectureship in Edinburgh where the learned behaviours of more fish, initially sticklebacks and later trout, and other vertebrates were the focus of her attention. By 2003 she had begun questioning the generally accepted view that fish did not have the capacity to feel pain. This was to become a defining topic of her scientific legacy with 90% of citations to her work being to five key articles on pain in fish. Other keywords that highlight her scholarly contributions are consciousness, cognition stress and navigation.After twelve years in Edinburgh Victoria moved to Penn State, taking her young sons with their soft Scottish accents to be reformed with North Atlantic vowels. Here she taught courses on animal behaviour and welfare alongside more enquiries into environmental influences on cognition in fish raised in fisheries. In 2010 she addressed the question “Do fish feel pain?” in an OUP Book with that title, presenting the arguments so that readers might arrive at their own conclusions. In the preface she records her international network of collaborators – a web of scholarship where her pioneering work will be long remembered.It was just as Victoria was preparing to return to Berlin to become the Director of the IGB Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries that her plans were interrupted by a diagnosis of pancreatic cancer. She kept it at bay while she came to terms with the knowledge that she would be denied the opportunity to take up that prestigious role. She died on 30 September 2019.Victoria has been honoured with a visiting professorship at Bergen), fellowships of the Royal Institue of Navigation, the Berlin Institute for Advanced Studies and the Linnean Society, and a Fisheries Sociery of the British Isles medal, which along with her published works provide a lasting testimony to her professional life. Nicholas BraithwaiteAudrey Butler (Clark, 1946)-254004416300Born in York in 1928, the elder sister of Gerald, Audrey spent most of her first five years in Düsseldorf, Weimar Germany, where her father worked for Price Waterhouse, and where she attended the local Kindergarten. When Hitler assumed power, the family returned to England (though this did not, apparently prevent Audrey’s parents being added to the Nazis’ infamous “hanging list” hastily compiled by the Reichssicherheitshauptamt prior to the planned 1940 invasion).Back in England, Audrey’s schooling was peripatetic, following her father’s work to Bromley, Blundellsands (near Liverpool), Sutton Coalfield and Leeds, where she attended Allerton High between the ages of fourteen and eighteen. These moves, which inevitably broke up childhood friendships and entailed repeated new starts in established school classes, were emotionally disruptive. Always strong academically, Audrey excelled at Allerton, though initially she was often shunned by her classmates as an outsider with a soft, southern accent. Rather than moping, she channelled her spare-time energies into writing a young adult novel “The Vedor Sampler” which was accepted for publication in 1942, when she was fourteen. She had a short story read out on BBC Children’s Hour and won several prizes in national poetry competitions. By the time she left Allerton, the initial turbulence was forgotten; in her final school exams she won two scholarships and left to read Modern History at Somerville in October 1946.Audrey loved her time at Oxford: the curriculum, the social life, the unique mix of demob-ed servicemen taking war degrees and the ‘standard intake’. One of those ex-servicemen was Captain Arnold Butler whom she met at a medieval church history lecture. Shortly before that encounter, Audrey met Barbara Lockwood, another undergraduate, who had joined the same queue. (For what, is lost to history.) The two remained friends for more than seventy years and died within a few weeks of one another. As Barbara’s daughter, Liz, puts it: “Perhaps they are in the same heaven-bound queue, now!” When Audrey made friendships (of which there were many) they lasted a lifetime.Audrey and Arnold married in 1950. By now, she was working for Dents, a major publisher, where she became the editor of successive editions of “Everyman’s Dictionary of Dates”, edited the politics and history segments of a new encyclopaedia, translated for publication in English “The Swiss Family Robinson” and “Noel and the Eagles” from the original French, edited an anthology of English Prose and Poetry and wrote numerous forewords for classic works.While bringing up a family of five children, Audrey had two further novels published.In retirement she enjoyed keeping local councillors on their toes as a part-time correspondent for the Lowestoft Journal. Together with Arnold she wrote a history of Somerleyton Brickfields and a guide to Suffolk’s historic churches, with the proceeds going to charity.Audrey died on May 12th. She is survived by her husband, Arnold and three of her children, Francesca, Sophie and Patrick. Sadly, Mark and Guy pre-deceased her.-2540031940500Nina Valerie Cartwright (Bearman, 1961)Nina was born in Lambeth on 7 August 1937 to Lilian, a graduate of the Slade School of Fine Art and Edward Bearman, a boat builder. During the Second World War Nina was evacuated from Chelsea to Oxford and the West Country and then after thriving at boarding school and the Lycée de Londres, Nina completed her Advanced level GCSEs at the then Westminster College of Commerce.A powerful influence on her childhood was her Uncle E (Ernest Kenton), who took Nina on an eventful tour of France. As a child Nina developed a love of the French language, foreign travel and sunny climes that never left her.Nina was an energetic and vibrant woman who threw herself into whatever she did with commitment. She took up ice skating as a child in London and became a professional ice dancer, touring India and Japan in 1958/59 with Holiday on Ice. It was while on tour in New Delhi, that she met her husband Michael. Nina and Michael later married in 1962 at the Kensington and Chelsea Register Office. Nina and Mike moved to Park Town, Oxford and then six months after the birth of their first child Christopher they moved into 1 Winchester Road, which remains their family home. Never one to rest, Nina simultaneously completed her medical studies and her family with sons, Giles and Nick. Nina studied for her first degree in medicine at the University College London from 1961, completing her MBBS in 1966 graduating from Somerville..At UCL Nina got stuck into student life, played hockey for the university and was member of the photographic society.After working as a house officer at the then Cowley Road Hospital, Nina went on to become a general practitioner at the Wolvercote surgery, where she was the local doctor for 30 years until her retirement in 2002, and where she is still remembered fondly.Nina was a prolific and enthusiastic gardener and won several Oxford in bloom prizes at her surgery.In spite of a busy family and demanding professional life, Nina still found time to pursue her interests in sport, playing club badminton and tennis competitively, as well as ice dancing. For a few weeks each summer in the early 1970s Nina even found time for ‘It’s a Knockout’, initially representing Bicester locally and then Great Britain in Italy in 1973. Nina was a stalwart member of the Oxford Ice Dance Club. Ice dance remained a life-long passion for Nina and continued to provide a steady stream of medals. At home Nina was a loving wife and mother and a generous and welcoming host and provided numerous feasts for family and friends. In retirement, Nina pursued her love of sport, learning and languages with Spanish, tennis and ice dance vying for pole position during her retirement.Nina lived her whole life with unrelenting enthusiasm and joie de vivre and is greatly missed by all her friends and family.Christopher CartwrightPaulla Bolingbroke Catmur (Johnson, 1949)Paulla Bolingbroke Johnson was born on 17 March 1930 in Headington to a strongly ‘Oxford’ family. Her father was John de Monins Johnson, Printer to the University (1925–46); his world-renowned collection of printed ephemera is now held in the Bodleian. Her mother was Margaret Dorothea Cannan, sister to May Wedderburn Cannan, the poet, and to Joanna Maxwell Cannan, the author; and daughter to Charles Cannan, Dean of Trinity and Secretary to the Delegates of Oxford University Press.-985109300Paulla attended Headington School and then read geography at Somerville (1949). Her dissertation on ‘The Severn Gorge between Wellington and Bridgnorth’ is now held by the Ironbridge Gorge Museum. While at Somerville she met her future husband, Richard Stucley Catmur. Paulla and Richard married soon after coming down from Oxford, and embarked on a nomadic life, living at various times in Derbyshire, Kent, Somerset, Sussex, Mexico City, Barcelona, Pennsylvania and then finally Colorado, with a growing family of, eventually, five children and always a selection of dogs, cats, various farm animals and, of course, horses. Paulla had a life-long love of horses and riding, perhaps reinforced by being cousin to Joanna Cannan’s daughters, Josephine, Diana and Christine Pullein-Thompson, all known for their ‘pony books’. As a child Paulla and her friends had an imaginary stable of horses which galloped all over her garden – this eventually evolved into real jumps for their real horses. Paulla went on to win many ‘ribbons’ for her horsemanship; however this came to an end after a serious riding accident that broke her back in two places. Yet she fought through the pain this caused and, to the amazement of her doctors, got back to hill-walking and other outdoor pursuits.She was always a keen hill-walker and climber, thus following in the footsteps of her mother, aunts and grandfather and, early on, she and Richard developed their mutual love of climbing in both the Lake District and the Alps. A life-long family friend remembers climbing with them – they were making an ascent in the Ecrins and a flying stone hit Paulla on her eyebrow causing a deep cut with a lot of blood. She quite firmly refused to go down and they went on to reach the summit. She had the scar to the end of her life!She and Richard were also ‘early adopters’ of skiing, and some of her children’s earliest memories are of arriving on the night-train in some snowy, cold, Alpine resort …Paulla will be remembered for her generosity, donating to many charities and good causes, including sponsoring a succession of young Polish refugees from the Ockenden Venture through the 1950s and 60s; and for the simple things, shelling almonds in the kitchen, walking the dog through the wild rosemary, hiking in the?Montserrat, across Kinder, through the canyons of Utah ….She died in Denver, Colorado on 21 August 2019, and is survived by her husband Richard, five children, fourteen grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren (and counting!).The Catmur familyClaire Marie Donovan (Baker, 1971)I sat next to Claire at the Somerville Carol Concert in 2017 and as we walked back in the same directions to our respective homes we became friends.?Claire had been educated at Oxford High School before studying English and History of Art at the University of London. In 1972 she gained a postgraduate diploma at Somerville and in 1981 a PhD from the University of East Anglia. Her PhD subject "The Early Development of the Illustrated Book of Hours in England c1240-1350", was published as a book in 1981. Claire was working on a new book about The Winchester Bible and the books of the Bishop, Henry of Blois for publication in 2020, at the time of her death.?Before coming back to Oxford Claire had lived in Littlehempston, Devon, where she and her husband Colin Platt transformed the medieval church to be a useful multipurpose space for everyone. Amongst other positions Claire had been an honorary research fellow at the University of Exeter, Deputy Principal of?Dartington?College of Arts, and trustee of the?Poltimore?Trust.?Claire was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a member of the?Kelmscott?Campaign Group, supporting conservation, regeneration and increasing visitor numbers to?Kelmscott?manor, William Morris's home. On March 28th she gave a fascinating talk at Exeter college chapel focussing on William Morris's love of books and medieval manuscripts, his collection of early important books and their association with the creation of the?Kelmscott?Press.?Claire was no dry academic but a warm, friendly person, creator of a beautiful home, wonderful cook, lover of art and the Italian language, proud mother of her two sons Giles and Dunstan and her young grand-daughter, and much loved friend and neighbour. She will be sadly missed.?Judith Collier, 1975??Anne Driver (Browne, 1942)203205524500Anne Driver was born?Anne?Lyster?Browne?in?Sowerby Bridge, Yorkshire.?Her childhood was marked by the death of her father in a tram accident?when she was?two?years old, an event which brought her closer to her extended family?in Shropshire,?especially her cousins and aunts.?She was awarded an exhibition to study English at Somerville,?and came up to Oxford in 1942, turning down the offer of a place at RADA. At?Oxford she studied Old English and Norse literature,?under tutors including?J. R. Tolkien. She?graduated in 1945, and after working for a local newspaper in Bath she turned to teaching, first at the village school at Chipping Campden (1948-1953), then?Oxford?Central?Girls?School, where she was Head of English (1953-1956).?In 1957 she travelled to north India with her partner John Driver, who was studying Tibetan Buddhism. They spent three years living?in the small town of?Kalimpong,?near Darjeeling,?hosting a string of Tibetan exiles who had reached India over the Himalayas. Her two daughters were born there. Following?their?return to England,?she?took up an appointment?in January 1962 as an English teacher?at?Penrhos?College, a girls’ school?in North Wales,?five months after?giving?birth?to?twin boys?in 1961. While working full-time?and?caring single-handedly for her four young children?in?a large house in?Colwyn Bay,?she published three novels?(under the pseudonym Anne Rider)?with Bodley Head?–?The Learners?(1963),?The Bad Samaritan?(1965), and?A Light Affliction?(1967), the last set in the Himalayas and re-published in the USA under the title?Hilltop in Hazard. These drew on her experiences of life in?Oxford,?Rome (where she lived for six months?in 1957) and India. A fourth novel,?A Safe Place?(1974), was published by?Bobbs-Merrill in the USA. Her?writing was variously described by reviewers (including Anthony Burgess and Graham Greene) as ‘serio-comic’, ‘highly intelligent, ironic and most elegantly funny’,?‘taut, elegant and witty’, ‘surgically philosophical’, ‘totally persuasive’, ‘briskly elliptical’ and ‘deeply English’. She moved to London and?joined the English Department at Godolphin & Latymer?School, Hammersmith,?in 1967, staying there until her retirement in 1984. She?was an inspirational teacher,?taking an active part in school drama, running school plays, Shakespeare days, and drama competitions.?Retirement and the departure of her children marked a new phase in her life. She took adult education classes in art history, Italian and Finnish,?and?swam regularly.?A deep commitment to peace and social justice led her to campaigning. She was a Greenham Common peace camper, and was arrested several times for non-violent direct action.?Leading on from this she took part in Cruise?Watch, a network formed to track missile convoys?leaving?American bases on regular road exercises, and was?later?arrested for sitting down in Whitehall to protest against the first Gulf War. She visited Nicaragua to learn first-hand about?conditions in coffee plantations there, and attended an international women’s peace conference in Moscow, taking the Soviet hospitality with a strong pinch of salt and making a lasting friendship with the group’s official interpreter.?She?travelled widely, making a return trip to?Kalimpong,?and?was a member of?one of the first small western groups to?travel to China from Pakistan?via the?Khunjerab?Pass?– including a stint on the back of a cement lorry. Above all, she devoted herself to her many grandchildren, by whom she will be sorely missed. Tabitha Driver, 1976?Audrey Faber (Thompson, 1944)02667000Audrey Faber (née Thompson) died peacefully at home in Oxford on 02 July, 2019, aged 93. She was born in Keswick, Cumbria in 1925,?the only child of Eleanor (née Telford) and William Thompson,?and educated at?Keswick School?before going up to Somerville in 1944 to read History.?The college and her Oxford experience?were profoundly important to her, especially after the death of her beloved mother from TB in 1945. In college she was taught by May?McKisack, though preferred Oliver Cromwell to?her tutor’s?medieval?home territory.?Wider university life was at its most exciting in?those years?when?many?undergraduates returned?from the war, and Audrey’s theatrical adventures included stage-managing?Love’s Labour’s Lost?(directed by Anthony?Besch, with Kenneth Tynan in the cast) for the OUDS in her Finals term.?A stern rebuke for making a noise late at night was all she recalled?of?her studious contemporary Margaret Hilda Roberts.After university she?trained as a teacher and?taught?history?at Downe House School, near Newbury,?before taking?an opportunity to travel to Hong Kong?in 1951?for a?six-month working holiday. There she?met Jack Faber, a structural engineer,?and they married in 1953; they had two sons and a daughter, and?for the next 30 years?their house in Jardine’s Lookout?was a constant refuge for visitors from all over the world. Audrey continued to teach?history, at St. Paul’s College?and elsewhere.?Her strong Christian faith led?to active membership?of the congregation at?St. John’s Cathedral, running the Sunday School and then the Flower?Guild,?as well as helping to make mountains of fudge to sell at the annual Michaelmas Fair.?Audrey always looked to help?people, and importantly to find the ways in which they wanted to be helped. She was?heavily involved in the setting up?and running?of Hong Chi Association (formerly The Hong Kong Association for the Mentally Handicapped, founded?in 1965?by her great friend, Lady?Bremridge); for several years she?ran the library at?The Helena May?(the?central?women’s club in Hong Kong),?and, with Jack,?staunchly supported?St. James’ Settlement?(a youth and community centre).?They?retired?from Hong Kong?in 1983?(though kept a base there until 1997)?and settled in England near Chichester,?where?they continued to welcome?visitors from?near and far.?Audrey?quickly became?an active member of their?village?church,?serving?as?secretary of the PCC and a lay member of the local deanery synod.?In 2006 they moved to Oxford,?and?to a new church?congregation?at St Margaret’s.?She treasured?her?connections with Somerville all her life; having helped mark Daphne Park’s card for Hong Kong fundraising, she became?a member of the College Appeal and the Somerville Association?(alumni relations) Committees.?Audrey?was immensely proud of her Cumbrian roots, and of her family, and her love of history shone through her reading and her conversation. She?is survived by their three children, William, Robert and Peglyn (Pearson), and three grandsons.?Peglyn Pearson?Barbara Evelyn Forrai (Lockwood, 1946)2078212082400A multi-generational household including ex-teacher ‘aunts’ enhanced Barbara’s education continuing through Blackheath High School GPDST (evacuated Tunbridge Wells) and 1:1 lessons with an Oxford Mathematician who encouraged Barbara to Oxford assisted by a Ministry of Education means-tested grant and a Somerville Bursary, topped-up by paper rounds and holiday factory jobs. Rightly, ex-Servicemen had preference so she felt extra-honoured to gain a place and cherished every moment and opportunity which Oxford gave her, never mind rationing and studying wrapped in a blanket. Throughout her life she endeavoured to put these achievements to good use.Barbara’s Mathematics teaching career in wide-ranging schools included, Argentina and Brazil where she married her beloved husband (died 1980), setting up a first computer department, coaching and telephone-tutoring until her death. Barbara spoke five languages, beginning Russian only when preparing for retirement, achieving in her seventies, a degree which facilitated teaching Russian. Superb family member and friend, Barbara had many interests - knitting, sewing, piano, singing, writing, reading, family history research, hosting foreign visitors, tennis into her nineties, skiing started in her 50s while accompanying school trips, etc. WWII restrictions and her father’s dockland walks instilled ‘wanderlust’ and she became an intrepid traveler, visiting the Arctic, Antarctica, Asia, Americas, Australia and far areas of Russia, often including adventurous activities, most recently, aged 91, a hot air balloon.Barbara’s life was one of service and long-term commitment to helping others, in particular, volunteering for the Oxford Society and the British Heart Foundation, serving as Chairman, Events Organiser and In Memoriam Secretary, continuing the latter until her death, dealing with over ?400,000 of donations with expertise in Gift Aid, also a month assisting a street-children charity in Chita, Siberia which she was still supporting through Powerpoint presentations about her travels. Amongst other awards of appreciation, in 2017 she received the British Empire Medal (Civil Division), in The Queen’s Birthday Honours List, for services to charity in the UK and Russia.We are thankful she led a full life until the end. Attitudes learnt in childhood meant she was always keen to learn, diligent about her studies and exercises, ready to participate, have a go or give help, while still thinking from others’ points of view and caring for those around her, all of which brought her cherished friends across the world. There was no funeral as it was her wish that her body be used for medical science, so even in death, she continues her life-long passion for education at the Cardiff School of Biosciences. We have every confidence that she will be remembered far and wide, for generations, but should anyone wish to commemorate her, she requested donations to the British Heart Foundation in her memory. Please include details for Gift Aid if you are eligible.Liz Forrai, daughterElizabeth Patricia Goulding (1960)Elizabeth loved poetry and literature. She believed that language provides the liaison of minds across time. She was born in New Zealand in 1938. Her mother Nona was a hospital almoner. Her father Arthur, a magistrate, had won a Military Cross in World War I. Elizabeth was head girl at Chilton Saint James school from which she won a prestigious National Scholarship enabling her to study for an arts degree at Victoria University. There she won scholarships to study at Oxford. Air travel being a rarity in 1960, Elizabeth enjoyed the month-long voyage from New Zealand via the Panama Canal to the UK on the ship Rangitane with other postgraduate students travelling to universities in Europe. In London her godmother Amy Kane introduced her to the joys of live theatre. Oxford was a bit of a shock. At first Elizabeth was lonely, feeling overwhelmed by the mix of talented students with different ideas, aspirations and educational backgrounds. However, she lived in college and as she settled down to study hard she made many lifelong friends. She enjoyed theatre, debates at the Oxford Union and riding at the Oxford Horsemanship Club. She learned to punt. At Somerville Dame Janet Vaughan and Dr Enid Starkie who tutored her in French studies proved inspirational. Elizabeth was thrilled to spend time in Paris staying with the de Praingy family, contacts she maintained for life. Her parents and sister came to the UK and the family travelled together extensively.She worked in London as a translator at Shell but was recruited to teach at Otago University where she became Head of the Department of French Language and Literature. Her achievements there were recognized by the French Government which made her a Chevalier dans l’ordre des Palmes Académiques in 1992.Elizabeth studied for her French doctorate under the direction of the eminent scholar Professor Jacques Body, Président de l’université de Tours. Jean-Pierre Giraudoux, the son of Jean Giraudoux, attended Elizabeth’s successful defence of her thesis on Le "Motif" de la Communication dans les premiers ouvrages et dans les romans de Jean Giraudoux. Elizabeth was an editor of the Gallimard Pléiade edition of Combat avec l’ange. She was a member of the Société internationale des études giralduciennes (SIEG), publishing papers from conferences in Tours, Bursa, Cusset, Montreal, Aleppo, Paris-Sorbonne, Fez and Madrid. In retirement she contributed to the Giraudoux Dictionnaire, followed tennis and was a keen fan of Roger Federer.In August 2019 Elizabeth was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. A strange thing happened the day before she died. Her beautiful Yorkshire terrier Dexa died unexpectedly. Her sister was shocked to find him dead on the doorstep having left him playing happily in the garden only two hours earlier. Although Elizabeth never knew of this, it seems fitting such close companions were linked in death. As Jacques Body recently suggested, Giraudoux would surely have turned this into a short story in La France sentimentale.Ailsa Goulding, sister and Sonia Spurdle (1961)Leonora Helen Goulty (1944)-5301762400Leonora?Goulty?passed away in hospital on 26th January 2020 aged 93. She was born in Didsbury?in 1926?and attended Withington Girls School before following her Mother (Hilda née Broadbent) to Somerville in 1944 to read medicine.?At Somerville she made many lifelong friends, amongst them her first cousin Mary Ede (née Turner) and Ruth Lister. She travelled widely and often with the latter. Both survive her. In 1946 Leonora won her cricket blue.?After Oxford she returned to Manchester to complete her medical training where she was for five years Senior Medical Student, House Surgeon at the Manchester Royal Infirmary and House Physician at?Crumpsall?Hospital. Her first job reference in 1952 records "I have the highest regard both for her practical ability and for her theoretical knowledge of medicine. Before coming to Manchester she graduated in Physiology at Oxford and this training has resulted in an intelligent and logical approach to medical problems.?Dr.?Goulty?has a pleasant personality and gets on well with patients and her medical colleagues. I have no hesitation in recommending her for any medical situation suitable for her seniority and experience."??Leonora held posts at Westminster Children's Hospital and Montreal Children's Hospital before joining the Lowestoft general practice in 1958 where she remained until retirement in 1991. Her contract of employment contained a "no marriage" clause but sadly she was destined never to test its enforceability. She was the GP of choice for Marks and Spencer and was elected a Fellow of the Royal College of General Practitioners in 1997. A?well known?and popular figure in Lowestoft she enjoyed being approached in later years by patients and thanked for delivering them and/or their relatives.?Leonora's home in Lowestoft for over 60 years was a magnet for her many nephews, nieces, cousins, goddaughters and friends. To them all she was loyal, loving and generous with an encyclopaedic memory for all their activities which she expected everyone else to share. She was thrilled when her great niece, Michelle?Goulty, followed her down the?well trodden?path from Withington GS to Somerville.?But no record of her life would be complete without reference to her frequent bouts of depression. Her former GP partner summed it up when he wrote "I too have seen her many times thrown into the most dreadful despair, but to bounce back to excellent caring work in good cheer."??Leonora's wide interests included music, sport and travel. She rented a beach hut for decades and continued to swim in the sea well into her 80s even after?new hips and knee operations. Her declining physical abilities eventually necessitated the support of a care home for her final years where she presented a challenge but the number of carers who attended her funeral bore witness to her being a challenge they relished. One said "when she smiled she lit up the whole room" and that is how she deserves to be remembered.?Ian Goulty, nephewAntonia Gransden (Morland, 1947)02921000Antonia?Gransden?died?on?18 January 2020 in?Keinton?Mandeville, Somerset, aged 91. As historian James Clark?wrote?in the obituary that appeared in the Guardian on 16 February 2020,?she?‘was among the foremost medievalists of her generation. Her substantial and sustained scholarship spanned seven decades and continues to guide today’s students and researchers.’ A further obituary appeared in the Readers’ Lives section of the Times on 14 March 2020.?Antonia was born?in 1928?in Compton?Dundon, Somerset, as the second?daughter?of Stephen?Coleby?Morland, Quaker?manufacturer, local politician and historian, and Hilda Street. She was educated at?Dartington?Hall, Devon, and Badminton?School, Bristol, before?winning a scholarship?to Somerville, where?her mother had been before her.?Antonia?gained?First-Class?Honours?in?Modern?History?in 1951. She?subsequently gained a PhD, and?was?awarded a?D.Litt?(Oxon.)?for outstanding academic achievements in 1984.?Her most substantial publications were?the?two-volume?Historical Writing in England?(1974, 1982), which covers the period from circa 550 to the early 16th century, and?the?two-volume?History of the Abbey of Bury St Edmunds, covering the 12th to the 14th centuries. Her work on Bury St Edmunds had begun during her years as Assistant Keeper of Manuscripts at the British Museum (1952–1962) and she?completed?it?at the age of 86.?She also wrote many articles and reviews.?In 1965?she was appointed?to a?lectureship?at Nottingham University,?retiring as reader in 1989.?In?retirement?she moved first to Cambridge, then to Oxford, and finally to her?home county of Somerset.?Even in retirement,?Antonia?continued to work to a strict schedule, and did not care to be disturbed. Morning disturbances were particularly unwelcome.?Over lunch she?often?read nineteenth-century novels; Walter Scott and?Wilkie?Collins were?favourites.?On Sundays she walked, and these walks were?sometimes?connected with her work. During the Cambridge years she spent many hours walking along East Anglian towpaths, investigating?sites and?remains of monastic mills.?Single-minded as she was about her work, she?also?enjoyed social contacts and dinner parties, often with fellow historians. In Cambridge she appreciated?the scholarly conviviality?of Clare Hall, and during her?latter?years in Oxford she was glad to re-establish contacts with Somerville.?She liked to hitch up her skirts and cycle across the Parks to college guest nights.?Although not given to conventional domesticity, Antonia was deeply attached to her immediate family.?She took an active interest in the personal and working lives of her children and grandchildren, and participated fully in family celebrations, and in everyday household and culinary life, whenever?the opportunity arose.?Having shown?an early gift for painting, and?created?a collection of nature diaries illustrated with watercolours of wildlife, she was able to pass?on a wealth of traditional lore.?Her interest in art led her to become a connoisseur and collector, especially of early modern European paintings, which she?studied with forensic attention to detail, and provenance.?She enjoyed cultural tours to Europe and to far-flung destinations, often accompanied by one or more of her grandchildren.?A?prolific writer, Antonia?was never at ease with a keyboard. All her work was written by hand, with bibliographical references on index cards, and footnotes on little slips of paper.?Resistance to electronic information retrieval was perhaps the key to?astonishing?feats of memory. Even in the last months of her life she was able to?indicate the?location of?items she required from?dense?sheaves of paper on the various surfaces around her room.?She resisted the onset of osteoporosis with a regime of cold baths, exercise and healthy eating. But a series of grave falls and fractures led to periods of?hospitalisation, and, when she could no longer walk, to residential care, where her family continued to support her.?She preferred being read to, rather?then?learning to press?the right buttons on her audiobook player.?Antonia?married?three?times. Her second husband,?the?literary scholar, poet?and critic?KW (Ken)?Gransden, whom she married in 1956, died in 1998. She is survived by their two children, Katherine and Deborah, seven grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.?Charity Scott Stokes (1957)?Florence Helen Grellier (Brindle, 1949)04151700Florence was born on 29 April 1930, the eldest daughter of Walter and Lily Brindle who lived in Bishopthorpe, York. Her father was chauffeur to Archbishop Temple. Florence was Mrs Temple's god daughter. She gained a scholarship from the village school to Queen Anne Grammar, York. Her family, though poor, supported her childhood dream of going to Oxford.With a West Riding County Major Scholarship in 1949 Florence achieved her ambition and matriculated at Somerville to read History. Florence lost her broad Yorkshire accent overnight after attending a sherry party early on as an undergraduate - regional accents then were not so valued or respected. She graduated in 1952 with a second. Whilst up at Oxford she met her husband Aleyn Grellier, who was reading PPE at Trinity.After graduation Florence taught at the Order of the Holy Paraclete, Hickleton Hall. For a short time she was with MI 5. She also put herself forward as Liberal candidate for Bucks.Once her children, Frances and Jonathan, were of school age, Florence gave up part time teaching and decided in 1971 to apply for the Headship of St. Nicolas' Taplow primary school. With an Oxbridge degree, she got the job with flying colours. Florence was a much loved and revered Head by fellow teachers and past pupils alike, until '93, when she finally retired amid much regret from her colleagues and the school governors. In 1973 she dealt with possible closure from falling admissions by ensuring that St. Nicolas' became not only an infants’ school as proposed but a combined first and middle school. Whilst in charge she dealt with many housekeeping issues other than teaching, such as a continuously leaking flat roof, over ambitious proposals for a swimming pool that would have incurred horrendous maintenance costs, and dealing with the aftereffects of a fire (luckily spotted by her husband and son, out walking one evening, thus avoiding serious damage) causing all sorts of lighting, heating and structural problems. Out of hours Florence took a Diploma in Management studies, was on the Board of the Taplow Recreation Ground and did voluntary work for the WVS.On retirement, Florence became seriously ill but recovered and joined Nadfas as a Church recorder. She also enjoyed being chauffeured up to London by her friends to see the latest art exhibitions, acting as a very knowledgeable private guide. She had attended Art History lectures in Oxford with her " blue badge” coming into its own. Aleyn and Florence entertained at the Leander Club and Henley Regatta, and attended benefactors’ lunches and Gaudies at Trinity and Somerville, one of the highlights being in the audience of the Literary Luncheon in 2009 with Shirley Williams as guest speaker on the topic of Fifty Years as a Woman in Politics.Florence eventually withdrew gracefully to bed at Burnham Lodge ...at last someone was waiting on HER, hand and foot. Within 3 weeks of her husband's death and 3 days before her 90th birthday, Florence died on Sunday the 26th of April 2020.Frances Grellier, daughterRosemary Daphne Harvey (Hawke, 1954)Rosemary Hawke was born on 16 December 1935, the daughter of a nurse and?a?doctor. She came up to Somerville as a Deakin scholar to read Modern Languages (French and German). Her first job after Oxford was at the British Library in special collections, but in 1957 she started work at the John Innes Centre in Bayfordbury, Hertforshire, and she continued to work for John Innes for the next 42?years. She?carved a niche for herself as an archivist and as a multi-linguist she used her talents to translate major texts from science history, especially the history of plant genetics. She was also expert in the fields of evolutionary investigation and Darwinism.?Her passion for languages never waned she had an excellent knowledge of French, German, Russian, Latin and Ancient Greek as well as Medieval Latin and?Palaeoraphy.At John Innes?she met Derek Harvey, whom?she?married?in?1968 in London. They had both moved to Taverham in 1967, when the John Innes Centre moved to its current location in Colney, near Norwich. They had two children, Richard Harvey and Julia Glenn.?Retirement came in 1998 when she was commissioned to write a biography of biologist William Bateson,?pioneering?geneticist and?the first director of the John Innes Institute. She also published many articles based on her knowledge of the John Innes Archives and the History of Genetics Library.Rosemary was a sports enthusiast and a member of the Taverham swimmers from the 1980s until the group closed. She was also part of a birdwatching group and enjoyed a period as head of the Norfolk Ramblers. She was an adventurer and loved travel, in the 1950s visiting Russia and hitchhiking across America.She died on 29 January 2020 after a?five-year?battle with Alzheimer’s disease.?She was the gentlest, kindest person I have ever?known. She taught us, her children, how to have fun, how to think about things and how to live life to the full. She just loved learning and was an endlessly curious person. She was modest and she never used her intellect as a weapon, only for good.?Julia Glenn, daughter?Ruth Eleanor van Heyningen (Treverton, 1948)03619500Ruth was born in Newport, Monmouthshire on 26 October 1917, the daughter of Alan Treverton-Jones, a ship-owner, who died when she was six; a great influence in her life after that was her maternal grandfather, Sir Abraham Garrod Thomas, who was a doctor and had been Mayor as well as an MP and a founder of the local newspaper, The South Wales Argus. After elementary school in Newport, she was sent to Cheltenham Ladies College, which according to her, was a strange institution where rules were both arbitrary and strict, and lacrosse was played before breakfast. But she prospered and in 1939, won an exhibition to Newnham College, Cambridge to read Natural Sciences; she graduated with an upper second in Biochemistry in May 1940; she always said she would have got a first had she not spent the preceding night in an air-raid shelter. The Biochemistry Department in Cambridge was then very supportive of women scientists, producing two of the early women Fellows of the Royal Society. One of Ruth’s younger tutors in Biochemistry was William Edward van Heyningen (known as Kits), who, in 1934, had come from South Africa to do a PhD in the Department. Ruth and he were married soon after her graduation.. After their marriage, Ruth began a PhD, working with Robin Hill, a pioneer in the biochemistry of photosynthesis, and with the great enzymologist Malcolm Dixon. However, this work, mostly on the effect of poison gasses on metabolically important enzymes, was too secret to be published and she had not finished a PhD by the time she and Kits moved to London, where she began work at the Lister Institute on blood group antigens, working particularly with Walter Morgan and Winifred Watkins. However, she gave up active science following the birth in 1943 of her son, Simon, and the need for them both to leave London to escape the V1s and V2s. The following year, after they returned to London, her daughter, Joanna, was born around the time of the atom bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Ruth always remembered being unpopular with some of the other mothers because the bombs had led them to dislike scientists – unfairly for someone who was a subsequently an active member of CND.In 1947, the family moved to Oxford, where Kits had a got a job in the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology. In 1948, she came to Somerville and began work on a DPhil in the Anatomy Department under the supervision of Joseph Weiner. The work was perhaps a little tedious, being principally concerned with the composition of sweat, but it did lead to a DPhil in 1951. She moved to the Nuffield Laboratory of Ophthalmology where she completed the most important part of her career, working on the biochemistry of the eye, usually with her Somervillian friend and colleague, Antoinette (Tony) Pirie, a University Reader in Ophthalmology.Most of her work there was about understanding better the metabolism of the lens, particularly its relevance to the formation of cataracts, a common if not almost universal phenomenon in humans. This meant developing and using many new techniques for identifying relevant compounds and their interactions. One important example was the “sorbitol pathway” , which is implicated in problems in many tissues. She also pioneered important studies into fluorescent glycosides in the lens and the role of tryptophan metabolism in the development of cataracts. In 1956, she and Tony together published a book, The Biochemistry of the Eye, which was a pioneering account of a new field, and a standard text for some years. Ruth retired in the early 1960s, at the same time as Kits and therefore somewhat early. Kits was the first and founding master of a new college, St Cross, set up initially particularly to provide fellowships for university staff who were of the standing that would normally expect to be fellows of a college, but had not actually been appointed as one. Ruth was a fellow herself, and she and Kits spent a lot of their time on college business. She provided dozens of excellent dinner parties at their house in North Hinksey Village. Kits died in 1989, and, with the help of daughter Joanna, an architect, she found a house in north Oxford where she spent the rest of her life. Until near her death, she retained a strong interest in politics (she always voted Labour), art and culture as well as in science. She was an abiding influence on her two children, four grandchildren and eight great grandchildren.Professor Simon van Heyningen, sonJudith Mary Hockaday (Fitzsimons, 1973)-285754699000Judith Hockaday (née Fitzsimons) was born on 19th September, 1929. She joined Somerville in 1973 when she incorporated her Cambridge degrees as the latter part of her medical career was with the Oxford NHS. Her pre-clinical studies were at Girton from 1947-50, and her clinical studies at St. Mary’s Hospital, Paddington, qualifying in ‘53. She gained her MRCP in ‘55 but was not elected to its Fellowship until ’84, three years after she became the first Consultant Paediatric Neurologist at the John Radcliffe Hospital. From Registrar at St.Mary’s she went to the Brompton intending to specialise in Chest diseases, but when work for an MD thesis was under consideration she moved in ‘57 to be Registrar to Dr.Honor Smith who was widely renowned for her work with tuberculous meningitis patients in two units, at the Osler Pavilion in Headington and at Wheatley Military Hospital five miles away. Her thesis, approved in ’60, led to three papers in Tubercle describing the value of daily intra-thecal injections of streptomycin in those more severely ill, steroid treatment, and the long-standing morbidity that TBM could cause. After marriage in 1960, and consequent location in Oxford, she worked as registrar to Dr. Ritchie Russell, mostly with his patients at Stoke Mandeville Hospital, before spending a year in Boston, Mass. where she learnt to interpret EEG (electro-encephalographic ) recordings from children as well as adults, which was a great help in her later work in epilepsy and migraine. There, with Dr.Schwab, she wrote a paper, still quoted, on the prognostic value of the EEG after acute cerebral anoxia. From America she returned to the Oxford Dept. of Neurology but because of her children worked part-time, in general neurology and especially with migrainous patients. She was awarded the British Migraine Association’s annual research award in 1977, and headache in children was later a major interest, the title of her 1984 monograph and several articles, lectures and chapters in text-books. In ‘77 she transferred to the Department of Paediatrics as an Honorary Senior Registrar, later Clinical lecturer, and that year, following self-organised additional training at two London centres, she was accredited as highly trained in both Neurology and Paediatric Neurology. From ‘81, by now a full-time Consultant, she built up a thriving Department of Paediatric Neurology at the John Radcliffe, which acted as both a local and regional centre, with particular interest in muscle disorders and learning difficulties, especially through disordered language, alongside epilepsy and headache. She built links with the other regional hospitals; and in her own practice with relevant social workers and educational psychologists, while also always considering the management of the whole family.She was a natural role model for younger women doctors as someone who had achieved professional distinction while also being highly successful as a wife, mother of three, and home-maker, not to mention her increasing love of gardening. She was a valued mentor to female clinical students and younger colleagues. In retirement, with her flair for design, she greatly enjoyed restoring an old house and its garden, making them a tranquil haven for her family, by then including six grand-children. She died in May 2019, almost ten years after being diagnosed with cancer and, thanks to modern treatments, was really afflicted only in her last four months.Derek Hockaday, widowerHannah Elizabeth Houghton-Berry (Sunderland, 1980)222251587500Hannah was born in Hertford on 26 April 1962 and was the eldest of three siblings. The family moved to Norwich towards the end of the sixties and Hannah attended Norwich High School for Girls. She was offered a place at Somerville to read History but soon changed to read English Literature. After graduating Hannah decided to pursue a career in education and completed a PGCE at Homerton College, Cambridge. Her first teaching post was at Reigate Grammar School. It was during this time that she met her husband Trevor through mutual friends, and they married in August 1990. They relocated to East Sussex and Hannah started teaching at Vinehall Preparatory School. Their daughter Rebecca was born in September 1992. As she wanted to spend more time at home with her family, Hannah started teaching English Language and Literature part time at Bexhill Sixth Form College. She stayed at the college until 2010 becoming an extremely popular and well-respected member of staff with her colleagues and students alike. Keen to take on a new challenge, Hannah became an Individual Needs Assistant at Battle Abbey School in the preparatory department. Rebecca was in the school sixth form at the time. It was in the spring of 2014 when Hannah was first diagnosed with breast cancer. She took some time away from work for treatment but kept in close contact with the many friends she had made during her teaching career. After chemotherapy and a successful operation in December 2014, Hannah was given the all clear in February 2015. Rebecca had started working as a library assistant in Sevenoaks and the family moved to Tunbridge Wells in late 2015 to cut down the length of her commute to work. Hannah decided to explore other work outside of teaching and was a customer assistant at a kitchen and cookery shop in Tunbridge Wells for several months. However, her enjoyment of teaching never ceased, and she became a Learning Support teacher at Walthamstow Hall School in Sevenoaks in 2016. In December 2016 it was sadly found that Hannah’s cancer had returned and had spread to her liver and spine making it inoperable. She retired from work but certainly not from all other aspects of life. She was an active member of the Kent and East Sussex Poetry Society and was published in their annual anthologies despite protesting her poems were, in her own words, ‘rubbish!’. Hannah kept active right up until the last two months of her life. A steady stream of close friends was often to be found visiting her. It was quite a shock when she started to deteriorate as she’d hidden it so well from everyone for three years. In July 2019 she was admitted to Hospice in the Weald in Pembury near Tunbridge Wells. They were able to make her last days pain free and comfortable with Trevor and Rebecca at her side throughout. Rebecca Houghton-BerryLady Jane Mary Howard (Waldegrave, 1952)114304826000In 1934 Jinny Waldegrave had the good fortune to be born into an aristocratic family that most unusually valued education for daughters as highly as for sons. Her mother, Mary Waldegrave (née Grenfell) went up to Somerville as a scholar in the 1920s, Jinny went up as an exhibitioner in the 1950s and was followed by a daughter in the 1970s. As her mother had done, however, she left after only one year to get married and the next 23 years of her life was dominated by rearing her six children and life as a chatelaine, entertaining on a large scale, running the Bath Festival for six years with her husband and supporting his nascent political career in the 1970s. Then the marriage broke down, she remarried a Scottish airline pilot and for three years lived an entirely different life. This marriage also failed and she found herself in her mid forties, with very little money and no qualifications for earning a living. Nothing daunted, she trained as Blue Badge Guide in London, escorting tourists around the sights of London, and gradually established herself as a tour guide with her own business, specialising in taking small parties of American tourists on exclusive visits to Great British houses and gardens, many of whom returned to tour with her year after year and became personal friends. Aged 70, she retired to live in Cambridge, where various of her 17 grandchildren appeared at the university over the years. Once more she reinvented herself and made new friends, rejoicing particularly in the rich offerings of classical and ecclesiastical music that Cambridge afforded. Her last decade was one of increasing ill health and debility, born without complaint.She was a woman of extraordinary energy and charm and almost boundless self-confidence. Her most remarkable achievement was probably her rescue, almost single-handed, of the teenage son of an old friend who had ended up in a Turkish prison after becoming involved with drugs. Then in her mid thirties, knowing no- one in Turkey and armed only with crates of whisky for bribes (supplied by a sympathetic brother-in-law, John Dewar) she set off for Istanbul and duly returned with the young man a month or so later. Not usually given to modesty, she never spoke much about how she had accomplished this, but she undoubtedly risked her own life and liberty.If she had been born fifty years earlier, she might have been a great political hostess; fifty years later, she would likely have completed her education and combined her domestic responsibilities- in which she was never much interested- with a high-flying professional career. As it was, she never quite found equilibrium in her life, but never gave up trying.Jane Morris-Jones, 1973, daughterMadeline Ruth Huxstep (Bishop, 1939)02921000Madeline Bishop was born on 21 July 1921 in Lancaster Terrace, Paddington. Her father was a school teacher, very much interested in history. From her local primary school, Madeline won a scholarship to Christ’s Hospital, a connection which she maintained for the rest of her life through the Charles Lamb Society, of which she was at one time the Secretary. She came up to Somerville in 1939 to read History. As soon as she graduated she was called up and sent to Bletchley Park and soon joined an intelligence unit in Egypt. Her mother told her not to get married whilst she was abroad, advice she did not take. She married in 1943 in Cairo, with a reception at Shepheard’s Hotel; her marriage was one of the war’s casualties and she eventually divorced.When she returned to the UK, she started building her career, working with young people, and 1947-54 she was Youth Employment Officer and Vocational Guidance Officer, Middlesex Education Committee. In 1950 she remarried, Russell Huxstep, a banker, and they lived in Barnes.Faith played a significant role in Madeline’s life and she was always involved with her local Presbyterian Churches, eventually becoming an elder and taking Sunday School classes. She was also a regular Liberal party volunteer and by 1960 had become the agent for a Liberal candidate whom she had known at Oxford. Her home at this time looked like a paper factory; despite her efforts her candidate was not elected. With her husband Madeline enjoyed music and travel and when he became ill, she devoted herself to his care. After Russell’s death, Madeline took up full-time teaching, first at Bishop Temple School and then at a large Catholic Comprehensive behind Sloane Square. She was appointed JP in the Juvenile Courts, serving mainly in Marylebone until she was 60. She was interested in horticulture, visiting many gardens with me, her sister-in-law, and also derived pleasure and companionship from her local U3A. Eventually she had to go into residential care and suffered loss of hearing and sight, but her spirit remained indomitable She always made sure that she had her postal vote.Beryl Bishop, sister-in-lawAnn Penelope (Penny) Iles (Hornblower, 1954) 04127500Penny was born on 20 December 1935 and educated at Cheltenham Ladies College. She came up to Somerville in 1954 to read Physics and was forever fondly committed to the College.Soon after graduation she was offered a happy position working on carbon dating finds for the University museum. From there she moved to work at Oxford Instruments and then Harwell. Here she met and married Doctor Lowde, a theoretical physicist. From this marriage she had three children. Being a mother took precedence and she left her career, although when the children were older she took a job teaching Mathematics at Cokethorpe School.After a divorce in 1982, Penny met Dudley Iles. Both Dudley and Penny retired from teaching at King Alfred's School at the end of the 1980s and two decades of adventure and service followed, with special highlights being 16 tours on various cruise ships around the world, mostly with Dudley lecturing on birds (about which he was a world expert) with Penny providing invaluable administrative support.Driven to have a greater impact for the good of those less fortunate, Penny and Dudley undertook a two year service in Zanzibar off the coast of Tanzania with VSO, an organisation for which they had a great affection. It is of some note that Penny was the first and only grandmother VSO had ever had on their motorbike training course and she adored speeding about the island. Both she and Dudley were grateful to the African mindset for their respect of education in general and the way that they respected also the experience of their elders.Penny's service included her dedication to the Citizens Advice Bureau, where she worked for two decades regularly as a volunteer, using her significant abilities at research and investigation (in the days long before the internet) to champion the plight of those at the mercy of the system. Penny was committed to the local community. She was heavily involved in local campaigns, and numerous societies. More broadly, she was a member of several arts societies and countryside charities, and often would take delight in visiting Kew Gardens, Wisley and many glorious National Trust properties. Gardening was a passion and she maintained a beautiful garden at home. She also had a passion for Bridge and played to a good standard for many years at various clubs and events. Penny was afflicted by severe hearing loss over many years and bore the inevitable frustrations associated with deafness with stoicism and courage. Just days before she passed away, she discovered the brilliant book Sound by Bella Bathurst and she described it as the only account that had ever been able to capture the many varied feelings of isolation that accompany hearing loss.Penny was devoted to her family, and will be greatly missed by her several grandchildren, five children, and four siblings. Corydon Iles, sonCaroline Anne Florence Kenny (Arthur, 1956)-228607366000When Caroline looked back at her Somerville years, she recalled much music, the pleasure of delving into the past and learning how to construct an argument, Port Meadow and the Oxford countryside. But her sharpest memory was of Sputnik going over in 1957 - evidence of her wide horizons. Descended from Colonial Office Arthurs on her father's side and Foreign Office Spring-Rices on her mother's, she was certainly well-travelled by the time she reached Oxford. Born in London in 1937, she had spent her infancy in Cyprus, escaped to South Africa in the War with her beloved Spring-Rice grandmother and younger brother Tom, and then made a highly dangerous journey back to Britain. After the War, she returned to Cyprus for an idyllic childhood, roaming freely and skiing down Mount Olympus.While she was at Somerville her father was appointed Governor of the Bahamas. She spent her summers there with her parents, reappearing with amusing stories and Fats Waller records. Her family base in London was the roomy house known as the Ricery (from the Spring-Rice family), with open door for her friends. After graduating, Caroline spent a memorable year in the Bahamas and then five years at Glyndebourne, working front of house. There she met the musician Courtney Kenny, who was on the music staff, and they married in 1972. Their house in London was a busy centre of music teaching and performance - keyboard and voice. After training at Goldsmiths Caroline taught music with great enjoyment and success at Michael Faraday School in South London. As an imaginative, kind, and yet formidable person she knew how to bring out the best in the children, putting on shows, taking them to concerts, and even on camping trips. The birth of her son Francis transformed her life, and from then on her special qualities were needed at home. After a year in Ireland looking after Courtney's mother, the Kennys moved to Sussex, to the top floor of the family house at Burwash occupied by Caroline's brother. After thirteen years there Caroline, Courtney and Francis (always a trio) bought their own house, further along the beautiful sunny valley. They finally had central heating, and a sweep of fruit, vegetables and flowers - Caroline, like her father, was a dedicated gardener. Caroline and Courtney filled their house with books and music. They had an unusually wide circle of cousins and friends, and all were welcome for delicious meals, conviviality, and laughter. They were also, with Francis, key figures in local Sussex life, at Etchingham church, at Christmas plays, at village suppers, at concerts and choir rehearsals in their house.Caroline was often on the move - to visit family in Scotland and Ireland, to the Mediterranean, and North America. Even after Courtney became dependent on a wheelchair the indomitable trio managed to travel as energetically as ever, up and down to London by train, to Ohio and Wexford for opera festivals (anything but Wagner for Caroline) and always to Glyndebourne. There was one last trip for Caroline, when she was invited to Ottawa to give the address at the opening of the memorial to her very distinguished grandfather Cecil Spring-Rice, ambassador and poet. He is now best known as the author of 'I Vow to Thee My Country', and Caroline had been kept very busy correcting fanciful theories about its meaning. Caroline, asthmatic from childhood, eventually developed emphysema. it took her in and out of hospital for the last couple of years before she died, lucid to the end. Her funeral was held in the fascinatingly historic Etchingham church: ancient, freezing cold, and bright with December sunshine. Just as she would have wished, it was crammed with family and friends.Frances Walsh, 1956Jean Brown King (Davidson, 1954)07178900Jean King, who died on 7 May 2019, aged 84, retained a deep affection for Somerville throughout her life. She had arrived in Oxford in 1953 to read Literae Humaniores after what was an unsettled childhood, judged by modern standards. Her parents were missionaries and were away in Nigeria for much of her teenage years. She was born in Troon, Ayrshire on 28 March 1935 at the home of her maternal grandfather, who was a sugar-broker on the Clyde. Part of her childhood was spent on the London-Surrey border and she was sent to boarding school in north Wales – Howell’s, Denbigh – and cared for in the vacations by relatives.But her upbringing had at least set high academic expectations: her mother read mathematics at Girton College in the era before Cambridge awarded degrees to women; her father read theology at Christ’s, Cambridge, and then trained for the ministry at Ridley Hall. Jean entered wholeheartedly into Oxford life: it was an enduring characteristic that she would cheerfully have a go at anything. She became the wicket-keeper in the university cricket team. She was an officer of the Somerville JCR and plainly felt looked after by Janet Vaughan, the then Principal. . She was awarded a prize for her contribution to college life (the money was useful). In student Christian circles she met her future husband, Michael King, who was reading theology at Worcester College. They were married in Oxford in the summer of 1958 just after he had finished ordination training at Mirfield. Dame Janet gave them use of the Principal’s house for the wedding breakfast. They began an impecunious married life in London, where they produced four children in the space of three years – including twins. After three years in Norwich, where Michael served a curacy and Jean had her first taste of classics teaching, they moved back to north London in 1969. Jean then combined bringing up the children with professional life as a classics teacher. She taught part-time for more than 20 years at Hornsey High School for Girls, a single-sex comprehensive in the ethnically diverse London borough of Haringey. The broadcaster Zeinab Badawi, who was one of her A-level students, described her as “an inspiring teacher”. As the demand for classics waned, Jean also turned her hand to teaching mathematics. When her children left home (two of them completed doctorates at Oxford), she had more time to study German and sing in the local choral society. In London Michael combined a weekday life in theological publishing with non-stipendiary ministry. In 1990, when he took charge of a group of parishes in Norfolk, they moved to Cawston, but Jean continued to assist the London examining board. In 2000, they retired to Loughborough. In her final years, which were blighted by Alzheimer’s Disease, she was cared for by Michael, in a reversal of the norm for their 60-year marriage. He died in January 2019 and she followed four months later, survived by her children and six grandchildren.Tim King, sonKathleen Elizabeth Moore (1946)-234953302000Kathleen was born on 23 July, 1927. She was educated at the Carlisle and County High School and came up to read English at Somerville in 1946. She went on to further studies at a Christian College at Selly Oak in Birmingham, and then returned to teach at Carlisle High School before taking up a post at the United Missionary College in Ibadan, Nigeria, a teacher training college, where she was Principal. During her years in Nigeria she made many lifelong friends and received some wonderful farewell tributes from her students. She returned to Carlisle in the mid 1950s after the sudden death of her father, and was fortunate enough to find work at the High School again. She was happy to list among her students Margaret Forster, who followed her to Somerville with a scholarship. When the High School amalgamated with other schools in Carlisle to form a comprehensive, Trinity, Kathleen moved with it, eventually becoming 'Second Mistress', the first female on the Senior Management Team and the head of Sixth Form. Throughout her life Kathleen was an active Methodist Lay Preacher (for 60 years). The Church played a large role in her life and as well as lay preaching, Kathleen acted as tutor to several women and men who were training to be lay preachers themselves. Kathleen quietly championed women in the church and elsewhere throughout her life. It was a pleasure for me and my husband to bring her to visit Somerville in August 2014, where we were entertained to lunch in the Senior Common Room and a tour of the college including the chapel, the library and the student rooms. This was an occasion which Kathleen loved, although by then Alzheimer's was beginning to exert its confusing influence. Kathleen's health steadily deteriorated and on Christmas Eve she was admitted to hospital where secondary cancer was discovered, and she died shortly afterwards on New Year's Day.Pam Jones, nieceJoan (Joanie) Emilie Philpott (Huckett, 1943)-410974243100Joan was born on 19 July 1925; her father was a doctor. She was educated at Doncaster High School and came up to Somerville in 1943 to read English.Joan very nearly went to Edinburgh University. She had been offered a place at LMH, but was tempted by having seen the handsome medical students from Edinburgh who would regularly stay with her Father. Ultimately she came around to the thinking that Oxford might have equal attractions but by then her offer from LMH had lapsed and she was found a place at Somerville. In Oxford, Joan often visited the Moxley family, friends of her father, and through them was introduced to Peter Philpott, demobbed in 1946. They met on 9 November 1946 – it was love at first sight. They became engaged in 1947 and married in Doncaster on 23 August 1949. Initially living in Davenant Road in Oxford for the first 3 years of marriage, they supplemented their income with lodgers. Joan had got her Education Diploma in 1947 and between 1947 and 1952 she taught in Aylesbury and in Oxford.For many years, Joan was busy bringing up a large family of 5 children. At the same time, she would often look after other children, treating them as extended family. She was consistently kind, caring and non-judgemental.Once the family were old enough, Joan started receptionist work at the newly opened Geriatric Day Care Centre at Queen Elizabeth II Hospital in Welwyn Garden City, where she worked for many years. She thoroughly enjoyed caring for the elderly, regularly organising carol concerts and many other activities. She joined the casualty team as receptionist and according to various GPs with whom she worked over the years, she had quite a hand in their initial placement training. Joan had simple tastes. She has never been abroad, although she consistently maintained throughout her life that her visits to the Isle of Wight were undoubtedly abroad. She enjoyed annual holidays around the UK with her family, but would always say how nice it was to be home again. Joan was a highly accomplished musician and pianist. She gained Grade 8 Piano and won many St Albans Music Festival categories over some years. At Somerville, she sang in the Somerville Balliol Choir. Gardening was another pastime she thoroughly enjoyed. She and Peter shared a love of dancing-Old Time Sequence dancing and for many years danced at various clubs. The last time they danced together was on Joanie’s 80th birthday. Joanie died very peacefully in her sleep on 11th November 2019, at home and looking out onto her roof garden, as she wished.It was amazing good fortune to have had 70 years of very happy marriage, having known each other for 73 years and 2 days.Peter PhilpottFrances Vera Playfer (Tindall, 1951)-107955905500Frances's parents were both teachers in a small Pennine town just outside the Yorkshire Dales National Park. She was the first member of her family to have a University Education .After graduating with a 2nd class degree in Mathematics she was employed by an electronics company to work on guided weapons assessment. Following the termination of the Government project on which she worked, she then found work as a mathematician in a major textile company's research department. Marriage and family led to some ten years of domesticity, before her return to paid employment as a maths teacher in a secondary school where she was soon appointed Head of Maths. She moved school to take a deputy Headship from which she retired in her fifties to a new home in the Yorkshire Dales. There, she continued to enjoy a connection with education becoming a governor and subsequently Chair of the Governing body of the local secondary High School. She also worked as a volunteer for the Abbeyfield Society, as a member of committee planning and launching a new house. She was appointed as the House's first House Chairman and later she became Chair of the local Abbeyfield Society. She continued to work for the Abbeyfield Society as a National Standards Coordinator after a move to the East Midlands. She enjoyed travel, playing bridge, reading and was a very skilled needlewoman. Her three children, and six grandchildren all attended or are currently attending University (three at Oxford, two at Bristol, and the others at Birmingham, Sheffield, Leeds and Leicester). At the time of her death she also had three great grandchildren. Her Yorkshire integrity, her charm, modesty and wisdom made her many friends and admirers. John Playfer, widowerMary Ann Poulter (Smallbone, 1965)02730500Ann was born on 2nd February 1946 in Harpenden, Hertfordshire. The only child of a widowed mother, her friends at the time felt that she had a rather solitary childhood but nevertheless had a loving and supportive extended family.Ann had her schooling at St Alban’s High School and later at Cheltenham Ladies College. From there she won an exhibition to Somerville to read Modern Languages and came up to read Italian in 1965. She had been a musician throughout her school days and would like to have read music but was persuaded that Modern Languages offered better career prospects. After a brief stint in Perugia in Italy and in Switzerland with relatives, she came up to Oxford where she made many life-long friends. Until recently, Ann would meet for lunch once a year with her contemporary Modern Languages students from Somerville.On going down from Oxford, Ann signed up for a graduate traineeship with the National Coal Board. There she acquired varied experience, including going down a mine. While at the Coal Board, she developed an interest in housing law, and after a few years decided to follow a career in the law. She then decided to qualify as a solicitor at her own expense and joined a City firm as a trainee where she met her future husband Alan. Having decided to get married, Ann and Alan looked for posts outside London and decided on Oxford when Alan was offered a job there. Ann subsequently took a job in another local firm and they moved to Oxford in 1974.Ann and Alan had five children who all grew up in their home in South Oxford. The demands of motherhood meant that Ann had to give up her job in the law but she later joined the University Disability Office as a Disability Adviser and found real satisfaction in that role until her retirement.Despite her other responsibilities, Ann was a tireless charity-worker and gave much time and effort to the Gatehouse, a charity for homeless people in Oxford and was instrumental in getting the Oxford Food Bank (of which she later served as a trustee) off the ground. She also made a huge contribution to the South Oxford Adventure Playground, a highly successful play-scheme enjoyed by children from all over the City. Other charities which she supported by active participation in their work were Christians Against Poverty and Asylum Welcome. Always active in the community, Ann helped to form the first parent-teacher association at her children’s school and for many years took part in the organisation of the Oxford Music Festival. Throughout her time in South Oxford, Ann was a devoted member of St Matthew’s church.In the final weeks of her life, Ann suffered from secondary breast cancer and she died of a heart attack on 26th March 2020. She led a full and active life and will be greatly missed by her family and many friends.Alan Poulter Sara (Sally) Margaret Helen Roberts (Hyder, 1955)101606731000Sara Margaret Helen Hyder, Sally, was born to bank manager Will and housewife Peggy on 7th March 1936, in the Farnborough and County War Museum, Hampshire. She was their second child, sister to Richard, eight.The family spent Sally's formative years in Basingstoke. They lived "above the shop" i.e. the bank, and Sally remembered sheltering in the bank strongroom where they kept the ledgers during air raids. Most of Sally's childhood was spent alone, as Richard was sent to boarding school at eight. Despite this the two siblings had a close bond, and always remained close. Sally told us she spent hours climbing trees, once rescuing her beloved cat Tigger from a tall tree during a rainstorm!Sally was very bright, with a talent for languages and a love of the arts, and was encouraged by her school to apply to study Classics at Oxford University, the first girl from her school to get into Oxford! Sally told us a friend she made there - Elizabeth Mrosovsky from Russia, used to bring back Black Sobranie cigarettes from home visits!After graduating, Sally moved to London and worked initially in publishing for Chatto and Windus, before joining Opera for All where she was responsible for organising small scale opera tours to some of the remotest parts of the UK. In the late seventies she moved to Bath and a job at the University, before joining Wiltshire County Council in a senior role in Adult Social Care, remaining there until her retirement.Sally uncharacteristically joined a singles club upon moving to Bath. At her very first meeting she was chatting within a small group of women, when she was spotted by one of the few men there, Geoff Roberts. He left early, but made time to introduce himself and invite Sally to see a play, she accepted, and the rest, as they say, is history!Sally and Geoff married in 1983, giving Sally two stepdaughters, Sarah and Sallie, and a stepson, Andy. Over the years there has been much confusion due to Sally and her stepdaughters sharing the same names! Geoff and Sally shared a great many interests: art, literature, music, walking, travel,; culture, history, theatre. Together they made and maintained a huge circle of friends, both old and new - Sally was always very interested in people and loved socialising. They also generously supported many charities. Geoff sadly died in 2016, leaving Sally, who had for some time been suffering from the onset of Alzheimers, on her own. Sally had always been hugely independent, and so she continued to live at home, supported by her stepdaughters, nephews, and her very many friends, until her mobility deteriorated, at which point she moved into a care home, where she was well looked after until she had a fall, breaking her hip. She sadly died soon afterwards. Sally was a truly unique person, one of a kind, and her generous and kind spirit touched everyone she met. She will be greatly missed by us all. Sarah Woodruff & Sallie Cavill, stepdaughters, Martin & Tom Hyder, nephews.Susan Deborah (Debbie) Sander (1970)170543701100Debbie was born in Taunton, Somerset, in 1952 and grew up in West Sussex. At eight years old, family tragedy meant that she had to step up and care for herself and her younger sister, Ruth. Despite this challenge, Debbie made her way to grammar school where she dreamed of studying at Oxford. She achieved this dream, going up to Somerville College to read Physiological Sciences.On leaving Oxford, Debbie quickly established the two themes that would be central to her life: education and helping the most vulnerable. First, she went to London to train to be a teacher. Then she moved to rural Nigeria, to work with children growing up in extremely challenging conditions. At university she had campaigned passionately against Apartheid laws in South Africa. The years she spent in Nigeria, and the work she did more recently in Tanzania, were part of a lifelong desire to see equality between Africa and the rest of the world, and to fight racism at home in Britain.Moving back to Britain, Debbie spent much of her twenties working in London and around the world for the Commonwealth Institute, now part of the British Council. Part of her job was to seek out brilliant young artists, musicians and writers from around the Commonwealth and take them into state schools across the UK. Among the artists she discovered was the writer John Agard, winner of the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry.Debbie wasn’t prepared to accept injustice in any form. When she was fired as a teacher for taking “too much” sick leave for her cancer treatments, not only did she take the school to court and win, but she also helped to change the law. It is now illegal to sack somebody with a long-term illness.Alongside her job, and raising daughters Hannah and Naomi, she was on the board of hospitals in Reading and Somerset. She stood for parliament several times, giving up huge time and energy to take on Liam Fox in his entirely safe Somerset seat, motivated by her belief in the importance of giving a voice to the underrepresented. She chaired the local Fabian Society, hosted a large Christmas Eve party every year, and still found time to listen to The Archers every day.Debbie would later retrain as an Educational Psychologist and specialise in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, working with children and teenagers. A fitting career change, as Debbie was always there to listen and help friends and family. She was generous with her time. Neighbours came to her for advice. Past students called her up to thank her for helping them get to university against the odds. Friends spent hours on the telephone with her, discussing new partners, new jobs, new political chaos.Debbie died of breast cancer on 16th May 2019 aged 67. She will be greatly missed.Hannah Sander, daughterFelicity Ann Olga Sieghart (Baer, 1944)04445000When Felicity Ann came home from school and announced that she wanted to try for both Oxford and Cambridge, her mother replied, 'Whatever for?' Felicity Ann's education had hardly been a priority in the family (despite her brother being sent to Eton and Cambridge). She didn't start school until she was seven, having learned to read, write and count from her nanny, and she missed another two years of schooling from twelve to fourteen because her mother didn't want to waste her petrol ration. Given that, it's remarkable that Felicity Ann ended up winning places at both Newnham and Somerville at the age of sixteen. She chose to go to Oxford because it was further from home, and her inspirational history teacher at the Hertfordshire and Essex High School had said: 'You must go to Somerville: There she remembered being cold and hungry most of the time, as it was 1944, but hugely intellectually stimulated. Having already won the wartime equivalent of Junior Wimbledon, she was naturally recruited to the Oxford tennis team. And she joined Ken Tynan's theatre troupe, enjoying a hilarious tour of the West Country, in which the stage collapsed in one church and Tynan disappeared in a volley of expletives. After Oxford, she joined the press library at Chatham House, but found referencing Canadian newspaper articles was hardly an intellectual challenge for a Somerville graduate. However, she didn't want to teach, nor to join the Civil Service, as it still had a marriage bar. When a charming Anglo-Irish sisal planter, John Ward, asked her to marry him and to move to Mozambique, she thought this might prove to be more of an adventure than grey, austere post-war London. Adventure it was, but not a pleasant one. Portuguese-run Mozambique was hardly the hedonistic, social whirl of, say, British-run Kenya. Felicity Ann found herself isolated in a hopelessly remote place, far from interesting company, and many hours' bone-shaking drive and a canoe ride in a crocodile-infested river from any sizeable town. Still, she managed to add Swahili and Portuguese to her fluent French, German, Italian and Latin. Ward had promised her that she could return to England after one tour if she didn't like it. He didn't keep to his word. Unfortunately, he also contracted leprosy, and Felicity Ann didn't believe she should abandon a husband with such a disease. So she waited until he was given the all-clear, and then left the marriage. Once back in England, she decided to drive out to Rome and found a job with the British School there, driving around the Italian countryside, mapping Etruscan remains, work that she loved. After that, she spent time at the Natural History Museum, referencing the correspondence of Sir Joseph Banks. In 1958, she met Paul Sieghart, a barrister and human rights campaigner, at a dinner party. By the end of the evening, they discovered that not only did they both know and love Italy (still rare in the 1950s), they both adored Italian church architecture, and particularly the Cosmatesque pulpit in the Duomo in Ravello. This was surely a meeting of minds. Paul already had two small children, Alister and Matilda, but their mother had died. Felicity Ann married him in 1959 and, after William and Mary Ann arrived in 1960 and 1961, found herself looking after four children under seven. It was soon clear to her that she had a clutch of very bright children on her hands, so she started an Essex branch of the National Association for Gifted Children. Not many years later, she was chairing the charity, and she hosted a World Conference on Gifted Children in London in 1979. In 1981, she became a magistrate in the South Central district of London, which encompassed Brixton and Camberwell, then some of the roughest parts of the capital. Many of the Brixton rioters came up before her, and her experience was fed into Lord Scarman's inquiry into the causes of the riots. By 1989, she was elected Chairman of the South Central Bench. After her husband Paul died of lung cancer in 1988, Felicity Ann bought a holiday house in Aldeburgh, on the Suffolk coast. She had long enjoyed summers there, both as a small child herself, and with her own children. She particularly liked the golf course, and she was an accomplished golfer, with a handicap at one point as low as six. Once she reached the compulsory retirement age from the Bench at 70, she moved full-time to Aldeburgh. But with her ever-restless and curious mind, Felicity Ann was reluctant merely to sit back and socialise. So, when the Managing Director of the independent Aldeburgh Cinema asked her if she would like to take over the job, she leapt at the opportunity. The cinema was financially precarious at its best, and was always reliant on blockbusters to cross-subsidise the more arthouse, recherché films. But Felicity Ann brought it back to financial health, refurbished it, and introduced the Aldeburgh Documentary Festival, which has just celebrated its twenty-fifth anniversary. She retired in 2003, at 75, and was awarded an MBE for services to the film industry. Her achievements did not end there, however. At 76, she became probably the oldest person in the world to score two holes-in-one in one round of golf. Corals put the odds of a woman her age doing that, particularly on the difficult Aldeburgh course, at a hundred million to one — seven times harder than winning the National Lottery jackpot. Felicity Ann carded on playing golf until she was 90. She was a passionate long-distance traveller, visiting countries from Burma to Brazil, Indonesia to Peru, even in the last decade of her life. She also attended Latin poetry and English literature classes, learned bridge, devoured social history books and kept utterly up-to-date with politics and current affairs. She was never more than a few feet away from her iPad. More than anything, she was interested in people. Felicity Ann had a huge circle of friends, many of them a generation younger than her, as well as ten grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. All of them thoroughly enjoyed her lively, intelligent and forthright company. She will be greatly missed. Mary Ann Sleghart, daughter Anne Simpson (1955) 05207000Anne was born Darlington in 1936. Her six younger siblings were all born on the family farm, High Wathcote, in Richmond, Yorkshire. So right from the start Anne was somehow ‘different’ and naturally ‘in charge’.Anne attended school locally, at the Convent of the Assumption and then the High School for Girls. From there, she went up to Somerville to read Modern Languages in 1955.She gained a postgraduate certificate in education, and then taught French for a brief time at Cullercoats on Tyneside. But Anne’s horizons had been widened, and she soon ventured off to Kenya, where on behalf of the Church Missionary Society she was a language teacher at a school near Nairobi. A few years later, she moved to Beirut where at the American University she taught English as a foreign language. This was in the late 1960s and early 70s, during the relative peace before the civil war which would change Lebanon for ever. Amidst the growing tension there, she transferred to Cairo where again she taught English as a foreign language; remaining there until the late 1980s. Anne then returned home to Richmond, taking over responsibility for nursing her mother Peggy, who died in 1990, and also taking on some supply teaching, through until retirement. During her long retirement Anne found deep fulfilment. She threw herself into her wide range of interests, which all involved helping other people. She was an extremely kind and thoughtful person.So she volunteered to help at the Richmondshire Museum, at the Station and at the Learning Centre on Newbiggin; she volunteered to teach English to the Ghurkas in Catterick, to support Syrian refugees, and to help with the talking newspaper; she would read to people and she would drive people wherever they needed to go (although ‘you took a bit of a risk if you were her passenger – because she did put her foot down!’). Her time keeping could also be worrying – she was for long known as ‘the late Anne Simpson’. Anne was an active supporter of the Liberal Democrats; in fact she was regarded by fellow Liberal Democrats as a lynchpin in their local area. She was also the local representative of Christian Aid. Although a stalwart member of her local parish church, she was deeply committed to Christian unity She was full of energy and charisma; she was always good company. She loved reading and talking and travel and she was close to all her family. She died at home, cared for by her youngest brother Alan.Jennifer (Jenny) Jane Skidmore (Sargent, 1969)03492500Known as Jenny, Jennifer Skidmore (née Sargent) was born in Pretoria, South Africa to a journalist father, Denis, and his wife Katharine in 1950. She was the first of 6 – a fact which gave her a sense of responsibility which served her well in her later teaching career. Her early years in the Southern Hemisphere also gave her a love of rich colours, African music, and a powerful belief in social justice. Driven by disquiet at the Apartheid regime, her parents moved the family to the UK when Jenny was 10. It was the first of five trips they made to and from England, for they returned to live in Johannesburg twice before settling to live in Surrey permanently in 1964. It was a time before the modern ‘cruise’ industry, and the ocean voyages were a joy. From the fancy-dress competitions, to an invitation to visit the Captain on the bridge for her birthday, to the occasion one of her naughty brothers left a live fish in her sink, this bank of memories was one Jenny drew on for many years to come. Her teenage years in Addlestone were peaceful. She studied diligently, remaining in contact with her school friends for the rest of her life. However, the big breakthrough for Jenny came when she was offered a place at Somerville to read History. She matriculated in 1969, and went on to enjoy three wonderful, life affirming years of books, friendship and freedom. This was where she met her tutor, Barbara Harvey, who became her most important of mentors, doing much to give her the confidence she displayed as an adult. She also met her husband, fellow Oxford student, David.They married straight after university and moved to Sheffield via Devon, where Jenny pursued her career as a teacher and gave birth to their twin girls, Clare and Rebecca. They settled in Milton Keynes in the early 80s. Here Jenny developed a rewarding connection with the Bradwell Abbey Field Centre, an historical site where she combined her growing interest in archaeology with her teaching experience, working with school groups at the site. She also started working as an English teacher to foreign students – a career which was to drive the second part of her working life. In the early 90s the family moved to Warwickshire, where Jenny was to spend 20 wonderful years teaching at Henley College in Coventry. Sadly, the marriage broke down in 1997, and she experienced some very difficult years. However, hope blossomed again when she moved to her last (and happiest) home in the village of Stoneleigh. She retired at 60 and threw herself into work with the local wildlife trust, tending to her garden, as well as life as a grandmother. This was in many ways the most joyful period of her life. She died at the tragically young age of 69, leaving her mother Katharine, four siblings, Mally, Gill, Tony and John, daughters Clare and Rebecca, and much beloved grandchildren William, Bella, Joey and Oliver. Rebecca Lockwood, daughterMaureen Mary Bridget Sleeman (Rough, 1980)-88905143500Maureen died at her home in Penzance on 30 April 2019. She valued kindness and love above everything. Always curious about life, she was also funny. Just before she died she told a friend, ‘If I weren’t dying, this would be so interesting!’ Maureen was born in Upton on The Wirral. When she was thirteen her father died suddenly. It was a loss she felt keenly all her life. After working conscientiously at Birkenhead High School, Maureen was awarded an exhibition to read English at Somerville. She loved Oxford, delighting in the place and the people she met there. She was looking forward to visiting Somerville next year for the fortieth anniversary gaudy. After gaining her PGCE from Nottingham University she taught in Bournemouth and Calne before becoming Head of English at Warwick Preparatory School. She cared deeply about her pupils, relishing their achievements, always striving to bring out the best in them. She wanted them to love learning as much as she did. Maureen married David after meeting on holiday in Greece. She transformed David’s townhouse in Penzance into a beautiful home for them. She became a skilled gardener. Plants flourished in every room and the back yard became a colourful Mediterranean-style courtyard where flowers and fragrances reminded them of their travels. Maureen immersed herself in her work as West Cornwall Women’s Aid Volunteer Co-ordinator, leaving a valuable legacy in the body of volunteers she had trained. One of them recalls her warmth: ‘Maureen could light up a room. She was the dearest, brightest, the best of women. She had such curiosity about new possibilities. She joined up thoughts and ideas, collecting them like jewels, stringing them together to create something that was always uniquely her own’. Recognition came in 2017 when the charity won the Queen’s Award for Volunteering. Maureen and David visited her mother regularly on The Wirral and worked tirelessly to enable her to stay in her own home.Writing was Maureen’s passion. A number of her travel articles were published in newspapers and magazines. She also wrote several books and, before her cancer diagnosis, had decided to retire to concentrate on writing. Amongst her children’s stories was ‘Holy Macaroni! The Dog who Fell through Time’. Macaroni lives in modern-day Pompeii and falls through a hole, crash-landing in the middle of Roman Pompeii. It’s a great story – funny and clever. Like Maureen, it wears its intelligence lightly and has the warmest of hearts. Children she knew read it and loved it. Maureen faced death head-on. After six months of gruelling chemotherapy she was told that the treatment had not succeeded. She knew she had only a few weeks to live but she still found joy in the natural world: the song of a blackbird, a daily visit from a bee and the warm breeze on her face. She planned her funeral in detail including meticulous instructions about the food to be served: ‘I don’t want any curled-up sandwiches at my wake!’ Maureen had made deep and lasting friendships. The church where she and David were married was packed for her funeral. People came from every chapter of her life to grieve for a special friend. Maureen loved living. She strove to be a better person and in turn those near her became better people. Towards the end, Maureen told a friend, ‘You have filled my life with story and true friendship and so so much more. How blessed am I.’ We are privileged to have known her and to have loved her.David Sleeman and Dinah Jones (1980)Jennifer Mary Taylor (Everest, 1954)On November 14th 2019, Jennifer was taken ill at home and was taken by ambulance to the Borders General Hospital in Melrose. Our daughter Mary flew up from London the following morning and we spent the afternoon with Jennifer, who was in some distress and pain but also at times quite lucid speaking sensibly. She was very firm - she wanted to be free of pain and just go to sleep. At about 7.30pm on the 15th November she got her wish and just slipped peacefully away, holding Mary's hand.She had kept in touch with several Somervillians, notably Kathleen Jones (Ennis), and Judy Kennedy (Grundy), whom we met at a number of garden parties and Gaudies, sometimes with our two children Mary and Jonjo and their families. Jennifer taught in various schools from to time and much enjoyed encouraging her pupils to get into the lives of the real French and Spanish people who spoke those languages, not just to learn the rules of grammar and syntax (important though they be). She had been thrilled to win her Blue cricket cap and have beaten Cambridge twice, but after going down she resented the attitude of the village cricket clubs who would only allow her to make the cucumber sandwiches.In politics and religion her views were always somewhat left of centre. She was pleased that Britain's first female prime minister should be a Somervillian, but would have preferred it to be Shirley Williams. On occasion, we debated whether the ancient city of Athens should be called a democracy when only the male citizens could vote. She was, however, human and although she approved the admission of women to my college (Oriel) and the election of the first female Provost in over 600 years, she remained firmly opposed to the admission of men to her beloved Somerville.She also played bridge and tried to teach me; we had a great holiday one time with Judy and her husband Dick on the canals playing bridge on the engine housing while "Dummy" got up and steered. Jennifer and I later joined the local bridge club and won a few prizes there, at congresses and on Saga holidays.After cricket at Oxford, she finally took up golf during our years in Ireland and won quite a few prizes off a middling handicap. We played mixed foursomes, too, and won the odd prize in Ireland and Scotland. My work (accountancy, general management and eventually running golf clubs) had taken us to Birmingham, London, eastern France, Southern Ireland and Scotland, where I reached retirement age.After researching all the Border towns, we decided to settle in Kelso and never regretted that decision. We continued playing golf and bridge, took part in many quizzes, tackled many crosswords and puzzles of all sorts and played an active part in the formation of the Four Border Abbeys U3A (so called to avoid offending any local sensitivities). We were especially involved in the language groups, to try to keep alive our levels of French and Spanish.John Taylor, widowerJanet Quintrell Treloar (1958)76204318000Somerville played a very large part in the life of Janet Treloar starting with Dame Janet Vaughan and concluding with another Janet, Baroness Royall.Janet came ‘up’ in 1958. She was naturally gifted with abilities to see and describe geopolitical situations and was awarded a place on the strength of her essay about the 8th army in the Rhineland. Arriving in Oxford she reignited a relationship, begun in Cornwall with a geology undergraduate at Corpus Christi college, Richard Hardman. Early in 1960, mid way through her second year reading geography, she became pregnant. This meant being sent down for breaching the rules. Janet plucked up her courage to see Dame Janet Vaughan (Principal 1945–1967). This was a life changing moment; she could keep the child on condition no one must know. Tamsyn was born in October and two weeks later Janet commenced her final year at Oxford. -127009017000Janet was an artist and was blessed with being a brilliant draughtswoman and colourist. It is no exaggeration to say that there was not a day that went by that she hadn't drawn or painted at least once. Her favourite medium became watercolours and she pushed that medium as far as she could. Many years after leaving Oxford she was invited to Russia to visit the site of the battle for Stalingrad in 1944. She was hugely moved by the sacrifices that Russian people had made to resist the Nazi threat. When she got to Stalingrad (now Volgograd) she went down on her knees and dropped her entire watercolour pad into the River Volga. She grabbed soil from the bank and rubbed it over the surface of the sheet of paper. This was in freezing temperatures and very soon the water turned to ice. 2975225270891000-247655969000After Oxford, Janet’s expatriate married life took her to Libya, Kuwait, and Colombia in the 60’s and Norway (70’s). She immersed herself into these countries’ cultures, something that had a profound and lasting effect. After four children and happy years raising her family, Janet returned to her academic roots. Remembering a trip to France from her early 20’s, she started a series of paintings based on ‘The Romanesque’ arch. This project took some 15 years, taking her across Europe from Croatia to Spain and Provence to Norway. Her project title ‘A common language for Europe’ carried the wish for an understanding that the political ties of Europe were already underpinned by our common European heritage through the Romanesque arch. Her next theme was suggested by a former US journalist who had been based in Moscow. Russia's ‘Hero Cities’. This started a series of paintings around the Russian sacrifice during what Russian’s call the ‘Great Patriotic War’ in which 26 million Russian people died. Her geopolitical antennae still at work she was received by the Russian ambassador with open arms and with an invitation to exhibit at the Russian embassy in London. The evening was a great success for Anglo Russian friendship and for remembering the great solidarity between Britain and Russia at the time of crisis in the Second World War. Further exhibitions followed and culminated in an award from President Putin of the Russian 3897110486796001460549466500Honorary Silver Order for services to Anglo-Russia relations. Her Russian work developed into an interest in Anna Akhmatova, widely regarded as the heart of Russia's poetic soul. Janet was invited to be artist in residence at the Anna Akhmatova Memorial Museum, St. Petersburg, followed by an exhibition at Pushkin House, London. Through this interest she made the connexion to Isaiah Berlin. He and Akhmatova met and established a mutual respect and admiration. In 1965 Akhmatova paid a visit to Oxford and met Berlin for the final time. Akhmatova’s remark “I see my bird lives in a gilded cage” made apropos Berlin’s life at All Souls, is what Janet interpreted as the pivotal spur for Berlin becoming the founding President of Wolfson College in 1966, with all the risk that that entailed. And so, our circle is nearly complete because, alongside Berlin as one of the three inaugural trustees of Wolfson College, was Dame Janet Vaughan. When the opportunity came for Janet to meet Baroness Royall there was an instant meeting of minds and for Janet at what turned out to be the end of her life, a wonderful recognition from the Principal, and College, that her life, which had begun in such difficult circumstances but with kindness and tolerance, had received the recognition that she had always hoped for. On 10 June 2018 Janet exhibited at Wolfson College with “An Exhibition of Paintings of Fountain House, St Petersburg -where Anna Akhmatova was living when she met Isiah Berlin in 1945”. The exhibition was opened by Baroness Royall. Janet donated a sum of money to Somerville to create the Janet Treloar Anna Akhmatova Travel Grant for undergraduates. One of Janet’s pictures is featured in Somerville’s anniversary book Somerville 140.Janet was elected a Fellow of the Royal Watercolour Society and served as Vice-President She is survived by her husband John Hale-White and her four children, Tamsyn, Paul, Alice and Arthur.Paul Hardman, sonMary Amity Williamson (Mallinson, 1942)82554381500My aunt Mary Williamson, who died on 16 April 2019, was known and loved by many people in the different areas of her life. For some she was a talented teacher who boosted the talents of her pupils, others knew her through her church and charity work. Mary was born on 28 December 1924 in South Hanningfield, Essex. Her father James was a farmer and her mother Mary (nee Bispham) had been a teacher. Mary was the second eldest of five children. After studying hard at school she won a place at Somerville to read French, achieving a BA in 1946, her Diploma examination in Education in1947 and MA in 1950.Her Principal at Somerville commented that, “she has a large element of human kindness in her nature, and will always be eager to help her fellows in need. She…is the kind of person one would like children to be with.” A fellow student at Somerville was a certain Margaret Roberts; later to be better known as Maggie Thatcher. They shared digs in Mary’s 4th year and Maggie would borrow Mary’s evening dresses to entertain the hierarchy of the Tory Party invited to speak in Oxford. After completing her Diploma in Education at Oxford, she worked as a teacher in England – at schools in Purley, Chelmsford and Camberwell – and at schools and universities in Nancy and Brest in France. From 1963 to 1969 she was the senior French Mistress at Park School, Preston. From 1969 to 1977 she was Head of Modern Languages at Wirral County Grammar School for Girls. Following her marriage she taught French, English and Religious Studies at Lavant House School in Sussex. In 1976, she married Father Joe Williamson. ‘Father Joe’, as he was known, was one of the Church of England’s great characters known for his work amongst the poor in the East End of London in the 1950s and early 1960s. He later set up the Wellclose Square Trust to help women who wanted to escape prostitution. Mary met Father Joe as a supporter of his work, and later worked alongside him to help raise funds. They lived on the seaside in East Wittering, near Chichester and Mary was a loving wife to Joe in his later years before his death aged 92 in 1988. My memory is of a favourite, exuberant aunt who always had time for us. She would announce her arrival, by her blasting her car horn all the way down the long farm drive. She would entertain us with mystery tours in her Triumph Herald, stories and games. Mary had a considerable talent for drawing and painting, especially portraits, and excelled at crossword puzzles, winning many prizes.She lived independently in Taunton until she was 92, happily hopping on the bus and going into town for lunch. Her independence was curtailed when she suffered her first stroke in 2016, but she retained the warmth and sense of humour that had characterized her life. Kirstie Jackson, nieceVictoria Avril Jean Wotherspoon (Edwards, 1946)-107953746500Avril Edwards was the elder of two girls, born to a couple utterly devoted to each other. They grew up in Gosforth and by all accounts Avril was a bit of a tomboy and keen on sport. At the start of WW2 the family moved to Corbridge in Northumberland. Avril’s father joined the Admiralty in London to co-ordinate merchant shipping and she was sent away to school at Downe House. She hardly saw her father between the ages of 13 and 18, but at Downe she thrived academically, on the stage and on the sportsfield, ultimately becoming head girl and captain of tennis. Avril went up to Somerville in 1946 to read English and she absolutely loved it. She achieved a half-blue at tennis and won her matches against Cambridge in successive years. One of her fellow students at Somerville was Barbara Harvey (subsequently Medieval History Tutor at Somerville) and the two became life-long friends. Another good friend was Elizabeth Graham (Lady Kirk), who remembers the three of them in a somewhat unholy alliance, all getting together round Barbara's coal fire in Maitland when the 1947 power cuts switched off the central heating elsewhere. After Oxford, Avril embarked on a teaching career and took up a post at St. Georges, Ascot as an English teacher. At her sister Diana’s wedding she met the best man, Iain Wotherspoon, and they never looked back, marrying in 1952 and setting up home in the Highlands. They were blessed with 55 very happy years together and four children. When Avril’s father became President of the Rugby Football Union, the Wotherspoons happily attended many international rugby matches and parties.Avril was ahead of her time. She smoked a mean cigar, never went to the hill without a flask of whisky and wasn’t shy to stalk or shoot with the best of them. She swam in the lochs and fished her way up and down the country. She knew the names of all the wild flowers; and then it was time to put on the ballgown, the heels, the lipstick and join in the dancing.Her golf was impressive. She had a single figure handicap and represented the north of Scotland for many years. She also threw herself into sharing the other love of Iain’s life, a 45ft wooden Buckie built fishing boat, which every year the family took down the Great Glen through the Caledonian Canal to cruise the west coast.Having a strong sense of public duty she immersed herself in the Children’s Hearing Panel after her own children were grown up. She served on the Panel for 14 years, many of them as Chairman for the Highland Region. Avril was able to spend her final days at home. Her sense of humour never dimmed. She was a devoted wife and mother to whom family meant everything. Jonathan Wotherspoon, sonSusan Wright (Leys, 1960)Susan was born in Inverness on 13 February 1941, the youngest of six children, moving to Kent at the age of five. She described her mother as ‘rebellious’ but providing a happy childhood for Susan and her siblings. Although they were brought up in a completely non-religious household, Susan found as she grew older that faith had become important to her.From the age of nineteen, Susan lived in Oxford, first as an undergraduate at Somerville, where her twin sisters had preceded her in 1958, and where she read PPE, and subsequently at St Antony’s where she obtained a B.Litt in Social Anthropology. She then worked as a copy editor for the Oxford University Press, but, following the birth of her children, she took part time jobs: as teacher of A level politics at Beechlawn Tutorial College and Rye St Anthony School, lab assistant at Cherwell School and latterly a library assistant in the University School of Geography. Having grown up with a love of literature and music, she encouraged these in her children – and continued to read, study and learn throughout her life, including a course in creative writing and a period as a volunteer in the OXFAM bookshop. Susan had met her husband Jonathan at St Antony’s. Unlike her, he was a committed Anglican and supported the Conservative party. Before they married in 1969, they agreed that they would both vote Labour if Susan agreed to be baptised, which she did, and the family attended services at All Saints, Wytham, then St Michael’s at the Northgate and finally at the Cathedral for a number of years. After forty years of marriage, they agreed to go their separate ways, remaining on distant, but friendly terms. Their three children are: Sadie, born in 1971. Katie born in 1974 and Ben, born in 1977. Katie describes Susan as an incredibly loving mother, with strong ethical values.Once living on her own, Susan felt a need to try worshipping elsewhere. She described herself as having ‘felt intrigued’ when walking past the Oxford Friends Meeting House, so decided to ‘try it out’. She was immediately struck by the warm welcome she received and by the ‘confidence of women Friends’, and started to attend Meetings, sometimes acting as stand-in welcomer for the 9.30 Meeting; she joined the Quaker Economic Justice Group. An aspect of Quakerism which particularly impressed her as a former Anglican was the fact that Quaker faith is not credal. She described herself as ‘not doctrinally-minded’ and liked the fact that Quakers ‘are a broad church’. She applied and was accepted into Membership on 9 January 2016. By that time Susan was living in the Paddox in a house full of books and paintings.Sadly, within a relatively short time of her being welcomed into membership, Susan’s health deteriorated. She died on 7 November piled by Judith Atkinson, with input from Susan’s family and from Jill GreenMAY THEY REST IN PEACE ................
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