Obituaries

Ann died in May 2019 in the USA. Her daughter Cindy wrote ‘she would have been thrilled to be included in the Old Girls’ magazine’. Ann had been at the School when King George & Queen Elizabeth visited in 1946 and the Queen stopped to ask about her plans upon leaving.

Elizabeth’s daughter Sandie contacted the School to say ‘Our mum sadly passed away aged 88 on Friday 27 March 2020. She talked often about her times at school and it was obvious she was very proud of attending the RMSG.’

During Elizabeth’s time as a pupil, she particularly recalled the visit (above) of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth in 1946. However this was remembered more for the fact that she was in the Sanatorium and unable to be with the rest of the School – ‘She was naturally very disappointed!’

Elizabeth left school in 1948 and secured a clerical post in Cardiff. At a friend’s party a few years later she met Kenneth Blackmore and they married in 1955. Together they raised five children. ‘Mum was known for her cooking skills, although there were a few memorable disasters such as the Christmas cake. She made the icing herself and it was so hard that even Dad couldn’t cut through it. We ended up taking the icing off in one piece like a giant hat and were left with a marzipan covered cake. It was still delicious as she was very good at cakes.’

Elizabeth’s children have picked up many skills from her such as sewing, knitting and being creative. ‘We were always clothed and fed and never bored as we had always been encouraged to use our imaginations and to be busy.’

Elizabeth was always a cheerful person who looked on the bright side of life, listened well, never judged and was always a willing helper of others and, whilst not one for a lot of make-up, ‘a bit of lippy was essential and she would always have it with her to reapply when necessary.’

In the last week of her life, her family reminisced with her about her school days and ‘we are sure that the opportunity to reminisce made her happy.’ Her daughter requested a prayer be said in the Chapel for her as ‘it would mean a lot to us and to her.’

Anne Palmer-Hall contacted the School to inform of the death of Marion Bourner in 2019.

Marion joined the School in Form II2 in 1948 from Ordnance County Modern School, Chatham. Her father had died in 1944 very shortly after arriving home from India where Marion and her mother had also lived. He had been a foreman at the Chatham dockyard.

Her school record indicates that her performance at school was satisfactory and that she had been a member of the Guides. Perhaps because she joined the School when already 13, her participation was more subdued as there is very little information about her.

She left in 1952 and became a clerk with National Benzole Co, Buckingham Gate and then, in 1956, had a post with Thomas de la Rue, Regent St. We are perhaps less familiar with this company but we all know and use something that they developed – the ATM.

Beryl and Audrey (left) at Weybridge 1936

Beryl’s daughter, Elizabeth, contacted the School with some of Beryl’s memories of her time there. She had started at Weybridge in 1936 where she met her friends Audrey Roberts, Daphne Matthews and Moyra Aberdeen. As with so many, friendships formed became lifelong; not just through all their time at school but beyond it for holidays, together in post-school secretarial training at Densons and, in the case of Beryl and Audrey, at the British Embassy in Norway where both of them were employed. It was here that Beryl met her husband. They were married in Oslo and lived there for a number of years during which three children were born between 1954 and 1957. After returning to the UK in 1960 a fourth child was born in London.

Beryl recalled some of her teachers, including Miss Reckless who taught piano: very successfully in the case of Beryl as she attained Grade VII before she left the School and took the 2nd Music prize in 1945.

Casting her mind back to that little girl in Atholl, Beryl remembered Prayers after breakfast before classes and that she played tennis in summer and netball and rounders the remainder of the year.

In 1961, Beryl and her family emigrated to Australia and lived in South Australia and Darwin (NT) before settling in NSW in the 1970s. From here, Beryl was one of the signatories on a specially designed card sent to the School commemorating the Golden Jubilee of the School at Rickmansworth in 1984. Beryl became a Business Studies teacher (Secretarial & Bookkeeping) before retiring in 1988 (another significant year in the School’s history) as a Head Teacher.

This photo was taken on Beryl’s 91st birthday – 1 January 2020, enjoying breakfast and cake with her family. Sadly, a short time after these recollections of life as a pupil came the news that Beryl had died on 7 June 2020 in Figtree, NSW, Australia.

June became a pupil after her father was killed at sea on HMS Welshman which was capsized and sunk in 1943, 45 miles off Tobruk, Libya. Like so many of the girls who became pupils as a result of their fathers being killed during the war, June probably found some comfort from the friendship in adversity offered by her contemporaries.

During her time at the School, a film about it was made in which June appeared in a class being taught. Ten years after she arrived, June left the School to make her way in the world, returning to visit the following year. She maintained her membership of OMGA without being an active member. Her daughter contacted the School earlier this year to announce her mother’s death.

Bill & Babs Withers wrote of their daughter that on Monday 18 November 2019, Georgina passed away aged 32, the way she lived her life, with dignity, courage and grace. She was born in Aldershot and from that day on, she brought nothing but happiness and joy into the lives of her family and many others.

Georgina was born into a close military family, moving house then school every two years. A calm, easygoing child, she demonstrated an intense love of nature. In her early years, she was transfixed by Attenborough and the Natural History channel, devouring books relating to animals. She had the usual childhood pets of fish, guinea pigs, rabbits and Labradors, and rode horses, happily mucking out stables in the school holidays.

She started her 9 years boarding at RMS in 1996 where her sister Philippa was already a pupil. Enjoying extracurricular pursuits like choir and Drill, Georgina also flourished academically, gaining a foundation scholarship. She was awarded several form prizes plus those for Design Technology and all round progress. Science was her forte and she was a gifted artist. Much of her art takes inspiration from the natural world. She was a Prefect, Deputy Head Girl and Head of Boarding. She did occasionally break rules, keeping a secret goldfish hidden in her room.

Thanks to RMS, she achieved a string of good grades in GCSE, AS and A levels after which she went up to Leeds and completed a degree in zoology.

In her first month at Leeds, she met Greg. After 10 years together, on a trip to Paris, she accepted his proposal of marriage to the delight of all. In June 2017 they had a joyous wedding near Greg’s parents’ home in Marbella. After marriage, they settled in Twickenham with their fox red Labrador puppy Bruce, whom she adored.

Georgina graduated in a recession and was therefore unable to enter her chosen career. However, she was chosen for a graduate role in the HR department of Autodesk, a career in which she excelled and thrived. Ironically, her degree knowledge of animal behaviour equipped her well for the human zoo of the workplace. A quietly determined achiever, Georgina had not long secured a promotion into a new role at Cisco when she had the shocking diagnosis of bowel cancer in March 2019. Under the care of the Royal Marsden and initially hopeful of cure, unfortunately by July she had multiple sites of spread which advanced relentlessly until she died in R.M. in November. She treated her cancer like a project to be managed, selfless, serene, uncomplaining, and facing each day with the heart of a lion. She remained positive to the end and her passing has been a shock to many.

Georgina has left an indelible mark on all lucky enough to have known her. She is survived by her best friend and husband Greg, Labrador Bruce, grieving family and friends and so many more. She will never be forgotten and will be deeply loved forever.

Georgina will continue to bring sunshine in the memory of her laugh and comfort in knowing she is free from suffering.

We loved the girl with the utmost love of which our souls are capable and she is taken from us.

Yet in the agony of our spirit, in surrendering such a treasure, we feel a thousand times richer than if we had never possessed it. (To misquote Wordsworth, who lost his young son.)

Joan became a new girl at the School at the same time as the School began to occupy its new site at Rickmansworth. However, as she joined aged 9 it is probable that she went to Weybridge first before transferring to Rickmansworth perhaps a couple of years later. Her school record notes her as a girl of fair ability but hampered by deafness. She appears to have been proficient in needlework as she earned grades I to IV and all of them noted as Very Good or Good. Perhaps she had inherited her skill from her father, who had been a tailor before becoming a clothing manufacturer. She left in 1941 with very creditable commercial qualifications.

In 1942 while working to support the war effort, she met her future husband, an American army sergeant, and they married in 1945 in Epping. In March 1946, Joan sailed to America to join her husband, Robert Henrickson, in North Carolina. They had one son and, later, two grandchildren and they made their home in Kannapolis, North Carolina where Joan became an American citizen.

A tribute online records that ‘Joan enjoyed a good book, spending time with family and friends, watching golf and following her beloved Atlanta Braves’. For those less familiar with American sports, the Braves are a baseball team: just maybe it reminded Joan of her time at school as she was a member of the Rounders team.

Joan died, aged 94, on 14 April, 2019. She was the last survivor of her nine siblings and had been predeceased by both her husband and her son. She is buried in Carolina Memorial Park.

‘…for me it is a joy and privilege to take this opportunity to thank the Masonic organisation for all they did for us.’

It is not often that one can begin a tribute with the words written by the subject herself but Dorothy, on rejoining OMGA aged 92, sent biographical material in 2015. She was one of six children of whom all, barring one, were educated at Masonic schools after their parents died within a week of each other in 1925. The family were kept together by their maternal aunt (‘a truly remarkable woman’) who took in all six children. Their father’s Masonic lodge helped in whatever way it could which included ensuring the children received a good education: ‘My siblings and I received not only a first class education but also a wonderful Christian upbringing.’ Dorothy and sister Kathleen were both pupils of RMSG, ‘cared for by a wonderful team of teachers and matrons.’

During her time at the school, Dorothy earned many prizes – all of which she could recall with great clarity 75 years later! One of them was the Good Conduct Prize which gained her a Singer sewing machine. Lest you should be trying to imagine a girl lugging a sewing machine off the stage and back to her place having been presented it, Dorothy let us into a secret. A key to the machine was always handed to the recipient so that they did not have to carry the machine off the platform and down the hall! However, Dorothy won her prize in 1939 when it had been decided to donate all prize money to the Red Cross. A Freemason in the audience sent money to the Headmistress for ‘the little girl who so valiantly gave up such a wonderful gift as a sewing machine’. Dorothy made good use of her machine all her life (‘my own clothes and the children’s’) until just a few years ago when it was donated to a charity.

Dorothy was still living in Rickmansworth at the beginning of the War and she remembered air - raid practices in the underground shelters.

‘I received my commercial training at the school as it was not possible for me to attend Denson’s Secretarial College in London’, and then she left school in 1940 to work at the Royal Bank of Scotland in the City. ‘They were screaming out for women in the Ledger Department to take the place of the men who were being called up for service. I [had] received the Writing Prize and my best subjects were Maths and Arithmetic so I decided to take the place of a man! In those days … there was no mechanization so everything had to be done by hand’.

After ten years there, she moved to an importer of flooring materials/monumental marble, eventually becoming the Managing Director’s Secretary. Dorothy’s final employment before retiring was for the Managing Director of the X-ray Department of Philips Medical Systems in Balham. This was the era of Computerised Axial Tomography (CAT scan) and, just as she retired, Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) equipment had just been put on the market.

Dorothy moved to Brighton, making many friends particularly in the musical and amateur dramatic field. ‘I inherited the gift of singing from my birth mother and many of my family have been associated with the theatre’ (her father had been a Box Office manager before his untimely death) and she was an active member of the Brighton & Hove Operatic Society.

In summing up such a full life, Dorothy said ‘I feel that I have been very blessed’ with ‘12 wonderful Grandchildren and 11 Great Grandchildren.’

Barbara was born in 1927, one of two daughters of Thomas Forrester, pharmacist, who died when Barbara was just two years of age. Her older sister Pamela also became a pupil of the School.

Barbara first went to Weybridge in September 1934, moving on to the Senior School in 1937 during which time she was a member of the Musical, English and Geographical societies as well as the Choir. In addition, she played piano, gaining her Grade V in the instrument. She was in the cast of Quality Street in about 1938, so music and performing were clearly important to her.

Described in her valedictory report as ‘intelligent, personable and very capable’, Barbara left school in 1943 with her Cambridge ‘school cert’ and went, as so many before her, to Denson College in London. However, by 1953 she had changed direction from clerical work and was a stewardess with BOAC flying in 40 – seater Argonauts on round trips to Tokyo in 18 – 21 days. As part of her job, she was on Princess Margaret’s African tour flight and the Duke of Edinburgh’s flight to Africa in 1956.

https://www.pprune.org/aviation-history-nostalgia/559718hrh-princess-margaret-east-african-tour-1956-a.html tells us that the royal flight was on the Argonaut ‘Ajax’ commanded by ‘Captain R. E. Hallam, who will have a crew of eight, including three stewards and a stewardess’ and that stewardess, we know from her own recollections, was Barbara.

In 1957, she married Edward Huxtable and had two sons, one of whom notified the School of their mother’s death on 16 March 2020, aged 92.

In May 2020, another of our alumnae died from COVID-19 and underlying health conditions. Jeanne Robina Canberra Jennings, née Garnsey, JP, died aged 93 in a nursing home. She was a ‘passionate advocate for social justice’ and worked tirelessly for many organisations in Lewes.

It is with great regret that we announce the death of Sue Jones (née Browne), Vice-President of OMGA. A full tribute to her will appear next year.

The Reverend Jennie Cappelman contacted the School to inform of the death of her mother Ruth Kay (née Pybus) who died in April 2020. She had been suffering from Alzheimer’s. Ruth had been a Cumberland girl and left in 1948.

A former pupil who made generous donations in the later years of her life was Jane Mills, née Burtenshaw-Bain,s who died peacefully at Stanley Wilson Care Home, Saffron Walden on 6 August 2020, aged 92. Sadly, we have been unable to contact her family and the information was passed to us by the home in which she was living at the end of her life.

Carol’s father, Michael Wensley, married Maud in 1936. He served with the Royal Signals until his death in 1943, leaving his widow in war-torn London with three children, Dudley, Elizabeth and Carol, who were educated at RMIB and RMSG.

Initially attending school in Hemel Hempstead, Carol went to Weybridge aged seven. She quickly made friends and many happy memories leading to an appreciation of music, the arts, crafts and architecture giving her lifelong joy. Each child also had a small garden, which inspired Carol’s love for horticulture.

Carol and her sister were in Ruspini and immensely proud to be in the house named for the man who began the School in 1788. Detentions were given for many things, but Carol’s were mostly for talking! As she grew up, she learned to use her talkativeness effectively in her career and abundant social life.

Graduating from Rickmansworth in 1959 with a set of clothing, Bible, Prayer Book and a £1 note, Carol started working for W.L. Arber Ltd, later becoming a dental nurse. Carol believed that her Masonic education and natural loquaciousness enabled her to join the charitable sector as a fundraiser. She went on to become a charity chief executive, a consultant, and was active voluntarily in the local community as Parish Treasurer, Trustee, District Councillor and as Chairman of the Market Lavington Neighbourhood Plan Steering Group.

She married young and had two sons, Andrew and James, by Colin Hollingsworth. They divorced amicably and she later married David Part, with whom she shared a happy life until her death from cancer in August 2020 with her family around her. The funeral was outside and socially distanced, all dressed ‘brightly’ as per her wishes, while the weather held off from the forecast deluge. Carol was buried in a biodegradable casket with the ashes of her beloved Welsh Springer spaniel, Pepys.

Mary Pryor (née Hicks, Atholl 1948) died on 22 July 2020. She was 90. She and her sister Jenny, who died in 2016, had both been pupils. Lesley Bishop, informing the School, wrote: ‘Mary spent her last few years at a care home in Woodbridge, very happily. I last spoke to her in April, and she was her usual cheery self. Mary had kept in touch with many Old Girls, always writing thank you letters after any reunion she attended, a very Masonic tradition. I will miss her kindness and gentle humour.’

Mercy died in 2016 but, sadly, the School was not informed until the current residents at her former address contacted us. Subsequent research uncovered her death four years ago and so we belatedly include a tribute to her.

A former Head Girl and Gold Medallist, Mercy left school with a string of prizes and accolades: prizes for chemistry, physics (these two subjects twice), prizes for school certificate, RK, geography and biology; several sports prizes were also awarded and, in a cartoon (right) entitled ‘Who’s Who in the 6th Form?’ appearing in Machio in 1942, a suggestion that she also had a good voice. ‘Her voice is soft and gentle’ reads the caption.

On leaving school, Mercy attended Bishop Otter Training College and then began teaching in Hampshire. Six years later, Masonica carries the information that she was teaching in a secondary school for girls in Omdurman and had been learning Arabic. By 1953, she was to be found in Sudan where she married Jack Read. They travelled to the West Indies in 1957 to live in Trinidad, returning to the UK by the 1970s.

Widowed in 1989, Mercy continued to live in the UK and retained her membership of OMGA, visiting the school in 1992. In 2001, however, she moved to Australia to be nearer her family who had previously emigrated.

Lesley Nash (née Corfe) informed the School that Valerie Ridley died in 2020. Valerie had been in Zetland and had left school in 1968.

News was received by the School that former pupil Betty Walker died on 11 March 2020. Betty had become eligible as a pupil after her father, Harry Gander, died in 1927. However, as Betty would only have been four years old when this happened, she would not have become a pupil until 1933.

There are very few school references to her but it is recorded that she took part in a play, Quality Street (J M Barrie), which was performed about 1938. In 1940, Betty left school with commercial qualifications and put these to use in a clerical post. In 1942, she had a post in the War Dept Command office and by 1943 was working in the office of the Deputy Commander of Royal Engineers.

On 18 November 1942, Betty married Lionel Walker in Tarring-on-Sea and went to live in Worthing. Later Masonica recorded the birth of her two daughters (1943 and 1951).

Although she stayed in touch with the School via her OMGA membership, Betty was one of the ‘quiet ones’ who never thought anyone else could possibly be interested in their lives. If only we could convince them we are – before it is too late.

Contacted by her solicitor, the School learned of Patricia’s death in June 2020.

Like so many of her contemporaries, Patricia came to the School after the death of her father. In her case, her father died suddenly aged just 37. Patricia was then three years old so she became a pupil at Weybridge in 1939, just after the Second World War was declared. As such, she would have been one of the group known as ‘Weybridge girls’ but actually at Rickmansworth as the Junior School moved to Ricky for the duration. In 1943, Patricia joined the Senior School so remained at Rickmansworth. Five years later she left and took a post with B & S Skinner in London on a salary of £2 10s per week. Later she worked for Norwich Union in Tunbridge Wells and presumably both were in the capacity of clerical work as she left school with qualifications in typing and shorthand.

Patricia maintained her contact with the School throughout her life, frequently attending Old Girls’ days. In 2008, she moved into sheltered accommodation in Reading but continued her membership of OMGA. Indeed, having no siblings and after her mother died in 1971, the School became her de facto family, remembered generously in her will.

(Until she went to school she was always known as Libby, transformed to Liz at boarding school and university [left] but seemed equally at home with both truncations.)

Born in 1945 in Hertford, the family moved to the Isle of Wight when Libby was six months old. Her father died when she was nine, and Libby and sister Kathy both went to boarding schools in Hertfordshire, making the journey from the Isle of Wight by boat and train at the beginning and end of each term, being met by a ‘universal aunt’ at Waterloo station and transferred across London. Libby left in 1962 with ten O levels and a status as sub-prefect and Ashlar. As the Ashlar had only been introduced in 1960, Libby would have been one of the first recipients, an indication of how her value was perceived by the School. This despite her own self-deprecating comments that she did ‘little worthy of recognition’ at school except accrue record numbers of order marks. Libby was determined and driven to complete goals and had excellent organisational skills which she honed until she could manage multiple projects simultaneously.

‘Liz was always very fashion conscious and would leave the house looking very chic – however long it took. A particular bouffant hair style with lots of back combing seemed to take for ever!’ her sister recalled.

Libby graduated from Leeds University with a BSc in Maths and Stats in 1966 and began working in Operational Research with United Steels where John Thring was a graduate apprentice. They married in 1967 and moved to London in 1973 where Libby worked for Thomson Travel, firstly as a planning executive and later as Head of Planning within the rapidly expanding package holiday business. She described this as ‘The best job ever, with lovely people and fantastic perks!’ her family adding that ‘family holidays were spent testing out Thomson’s trips to Rhodes, the Canaries and Madeira.’ In addition, she gained an MSc in Operational Research, Accountancy and Finance from LSE and produced two daughters, one arriving mid-MSc studies.

A return to Yorkshire saw Libby undertaking more Operational Research roles and then Senior Auditor roles with British Coal. In 1986 she joined Kirklees Metropolitan Council’s Directorate of Health and Housing, unsurprisingly making big improvements there before becoming the Senior Assistant Director of Recreation at Sheffield City Council. Following her very successful management of the 1991 World Student Games, she was appointed Sheffield’s Director of Recreation and Amenities with a staff of 400. As she said of herself, ‘At school I was well known for my reluctance to participate in sport. I used to lie low at the far end of the upper playing field. When I tell my [school] friends what my job is now they fall about laughing.’

After taking voluntary redundancy, Libby built up a recruitment agency to provide for Chief Executives and Directors to cover gaps and sort out problems. Having created it into a multi-million pound business, she left to join another similar group where she did the same thing again. Despite having allegedly taken early retirement and not content with doing just one job, Libby ended up with several.

But it wasn’t all work, as family and friends were an important part of her life. ‘Royal Ascot with friends became a regular fixture’ and John’s vintage car interests brought them a large group of friends touring in vintage vehicles and costumes. And keeping up with school friends was important too.

Libby was an excellent cook. Her family declared that ‘Her turkey pie was the culinary highlight of Christmas, enjoyed by everyone …. mince pies always had to be home-made (fruit marinated in alcohol) and her brandy butter usually involved so much brandy that it wouldn’t set without being frozen.’

Her hostess skills were exercised frequently. In 2012, the Jubilee pageant on the Thames was a cause for celebration (right). Libby and John’s apartment overlooked the river and became the venue for a party. As Libby herself wrote: ‘The husband said firmly no more than 16 ... So I put the word out to OMGA committee colleagues … and in no time we were 22.’ The warmth, humour and generosity evident in this statement is typical of Libby and, clearly, watching spectacular events from her home was not new to her. The Holton house on the Isle of Wight was on a hill overlooking the Solent with a view of Portsmouth in the distance. Her sister Kathy wrote: ‘In 1951 … [we watched] the Spithead review fireworks from the garden, as we were allowed to stay up for the occasion while the grown-ups had a party.’

Libby lived her life to the full and on her move to Poole enjoyed finding local groups to join: book club, Italian classes and exercise groups.

Her death ‘peacefully in Poole Hospital’ was announced on 2 January 2020. We have lost an amazing person but ‘we can surely take a little inspiration from the way she lived her life to the full. She was a fantastic friend, wife, mother, mother-in-law and colleague.’

I first met Libby in early 2012 when I responded to her appeal in Masonica for someone to join the OMGA Committee as her Assistant – she had been serving as the Association’s Treasurer since 2008. Following a very sociable ‘interview’, I was duly elected to the Committee at the AGM that March. Over the years she was to become a very good friend who also provided invaluable support when I subsequently took over as the Association’s Secretary.

I well remember walking back to the RMS car park on Remembrance Sunday 2013, when Libby confided to a couple of us that her health was deteriorating, her consultant had given her two years and she needed to stand down from the Treasurer role. Six years later, Remembrance Sunday 2019 proved to be the last time that her RMS friends would see her. She was in excellent form with her usual positive outlook – those who knew her were delighted she was able to join us that day.

After standing down as Treasurer, Libby stayed on the Committee providing valuable advice and suggestions. In spite of having what she referred to as ‘chemo brain’, she was always willing to help develop thinking on the difficult issues, to scrutinise drafts of Committee papers and provide constructive criticism. On one occasion, she concluded a very helpful telephone conversation by saying that, if I could let her have the next draft later that morning, she would look at it while having her treatment that afternoon. What dedication, so typical of Libby. We will all miss her.

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