SISTER BERNADETTE CHABONGORA BEd Education 1983

Sister Bernadette Chabongora’s early education was disrupted by two things – her decision, in her late teens, to join the Sisters of the Child Jesus convent, and guerrilla warfare.

Having attended her local village school and a boarding school, both in rural Zimbabwe, Sister Bernadette continued to study for her A levels after taking her vows and becoming a nun. But the unrest due to the protracted guerrilla war caused her school to be closed, barely a month after starting A Level studies, so she and a fellow junior nun were sent to London to complete the course.

After finishing her A levels Sister Bernadette decided to stay on in the UK to train as a teacher, arriving at Homerton in the autumn of 1981.

Sister Bernadette was older than her classmates, a member of a religious order, and one of very few Black students in Cambridge at the time.

Returning to Zimbabwe after her degree, Sister Bernadette worked as a teacher and in teacher training, later completing her MPhil. Rising through the ranks of the country’s education system, she spent time as the National Chief Examiner, as well as working as Education Secretary for the Diocese of Gweru, where her convent is based.

In the early 2000s she completed her PhD in South Africa, returning to Cambridge to write up her dissertation.

education had to take a back seat to overseeing the order’s community projects. These include a children’s home which cares for around 70 orphans and vulnerable children; a home for around 150 children with intellectual disabilities; a health centre looking after patients with HIV as well as providing general health care; and a school supporting young mothers to continue their secondary education.

This crucial role of community support which the nuns provide meant that they were in the frontline when the pandemic hit Zimbabwe in 2020. With no medication or protective equipment, Covid-19 hit Gweru hard, with the convent providing the bulk of the care for those affected. Hyper-inflation meant that the nuns were already struggling to meet their ongoing costs, and were unable to cover the additional expenses of masks and PPE.

When Sister Bernadette’s Homerton contemporaries heard of the difficulties the convent was facing, they rallied round. Four friends worked to spread the word, managing to reach out to 80% of their original year group via a WhatsApp group. Through a Crowdfunder, and a story shared on Homerton’s social media platforms, they raised over £5,000 to support the community through the Covid crisis.

In 2013

Sister Bernadette became part of the order’s leadership team, a full-time role which meant that for six years her commitments in

A longer version of this article by Laura Kenworthy appears on the Homerton website

Keith passed away in February 2022 after a short illness. He was synonymous with theatre at Homerton for over 20 years, during a time when it was the only college in Cambridge offering a degree in drama. Coming from a background in professional theatre, Keith ran the drama studio with the sort of quiet and understated efficiency that was essential to enable multiple productions to be staged in a single evening. This could lead many fresh-faced first years to view him as quite a formidable and intimidating individual. However, there was very much more to Keith than a highly disciplined and effective theatre practitioner.

Keith was certainly somebody whose respect had to be earned and someone whom you wanted to please. He was very generous with his time which he extended way beyond the drama department. Numerous students paid him a visit to borrow props and costumes to use in school during their various teaching practices. For many years he ran a Saturday drama club for Cambridge school children. Whilst in 1991 he and his wife, Ianthe, financially supported a group of students to take a children’s play that had been devised under Keith’s tutelage, to the Edinburgh Festival.

A talented footballer in his youth, Keith remained an active man throughout his life. In keeping with Cambridge tradition, he eschewed the car in favour of a bicycle, was a keen badminton player and enjoyed spending time on his allotment. He was a whisky enthusiast and no Christmas in the Drama Department was complete without a mug of Keith’s mulled wine, made to a secret recipe which he maintained had been disclosed to him by a monk, when he was lighting a theatre production set at a monastery.

Although he had an extensive knowledge of twentieth century plays, Keith’s interests extended beyond the theatrical to literature in general. He had a particular love of European absurdist writing, from the likes of Ionesco and Samuel Beckett through to B.S. Johnson and Flann O’Brien. As well as enjoying reading and discussing books, he also wrote. One short play, which he described as “Pinteresque”, was broadcast on BBC radio.

It was natural that Keith was involved in the move from the old “white building” to a new studio in the Mary Allan Building before finally lowering the curtain on his Homerton career. This was very much the ending of an era. Homerton was transitioning from a teacher training institution and Keith and Ianthe moved on to a new chapter in their lives.

The couple relocated to Pickering, North Yorkshire in 1998 and opened a Bed and Breakfast. This enabled Keith to indulge one of his other loves – cooking. A vegetarian long before it was popular to be so, Keith’s veggie breakfasts were the ideal foundation for a day spent exploring the moors. A keen gardener, Keith took much pleasure in cooking the produce that he had tended on his allotment in Cambridge.

In 2004, after hanging up his apron, there was a move to the small Suffolk village of Monks Eleigh. Here Keith and Ianthe became involved in volunteering for the community shop, with Keith also serving on its committee. Time was additionally spent engaging in local gardening and history clubs.

Their next stop in 2011 was to the land of Ianthe’s birth. Taking up residence in Kalamata, Southern Greece, Keith was able to add citrus fruit trees to the list of flowers and vegetables that he cultivated. This resulted in a plentiful supply of marmalade! They returned to Cambridge in 2019, where they were able to spend more time with their daughters and grandchildren.

Keith will be fondly remembered by generations of Homertonians, particularly those drama undergraduates, who had the great good fortune to spend extended time in his company. His humour, knowledge and generosity of spirit were a pleasure that we were privileged to share.

Submitted by Simon Ray BEd Drama 1989–1993

Cert English 1954–56

Hefina died in August 2022 aged 86. She held a Headship of a large infant school in Gloucester for 16 years, then worked as an OFSTED Inspector for a further 10 years, before retiring to set four grandsons on their life journeys. She was married to Peter (ex Corpus) for nearly 65 years.

Submitted by Peter Petrie

PGCE Education with English & Drama

1996–97

Claire passed away peacefully on 7th December 2022 following a 15 month illness. She was much loved by her husband Robin, and three children, George, Martha and Rose.

Claire studied for her PGCE in secondary English and Drama at Homerton College in 1996-97 before then joining Watford Grammar School for Girls in her first teaching post. Claire taught in various local schools in Bishop’s Stortford after moving to the town, teaching both secondary English and Drama, as well as primary Music. Claire loved literature, music, her family and had a very wide group of friends. She will be very much missed.

Submitted by Robin Newman

In March the College community came together to mourn Daniel Fry, a second-year student of history at Homerton, who died tragically and unexpectedly, aged 20.

Daniel came to Homerton from Belfast, and quickly immersed himself in Cambridge life. He was a film buff, a photographer, and a budding journalist, who also found time to volunteer discreetly for the Cambridge homelessness charity Streetbite.

Daniel’s parents, Susan and Chris, his brother Jonah and his grandparents, who had all travelled from their home in Northern Ireland, joined students, Fellows and staff on the Homerton lawns for a series of readings and reminiscences. A fuller account of the memorial is available at https://www.homerton.cam.ac.uk/homersphere/ news/remembering-daniel.