Obituaries

My sister, Frances, more commonly known as ‘Frankie’ at School died on 16th January 2022. Roedean was literally our alma mater as our beloved Father died when we were 10 and 12 and our younger sister, Emma, was only a week old. We were not allowed to attend his funeral, nor the service held for him in Westminster Abbey. The Junior House, our friends and the rigorous routine kept us supported after this traumatic loss.

Frances was not only bright in the classroom but enjoyed lacrosse braving the fierce Channel winds with determination. She was also good at tennis which we learnt to play with our mother and in the Sixth Form, golf our father’s key sport. Studying hard Frances gained excellent ‘A’ levels and went to King’s College, London gaining a 2.1 in French with German. After a secretarial course Frances worked at the Royal Dental Hospital and Guy’s Dental Department preferring this type of environment to the more commercial. Later she brought a cottage in Sevenoaks and then in Tunbridge Wells when she worked for a firm of Solicitors, having also studied law herself. During this time, she met Frank and they married on 17th June 1989 at St Marys Church, Kippington, our paternal Grandmother’s favourite Church. Frances and Frank enjoyed many European holidays where her fluency in French and German was notable. Frances enjoyed speaking Spanish when staying at our mother and Stepfather’s villa in Mallorca and also learnt Italian to help integrate when on many a holiday with Frank in Lake Garda. Latin must have helped! Frances recovered from bowel cancer but was eventually diagnosed with a rare complication of Crohn’s disease while being attended to so caringly by her Husband Frank. She is greatly missed by Frank, Emma, and I as well as her Nieces and Nephews on both sides of the family. She is buried in Bexhill Cemetery close to Frank’s Mother and Father.

Claire Simpson (Brown, No. 2, 1962-68)

Michele was the sweetest and kindest person I have ever met in my life. Everybody knows she was beautiful. In fact, her beauty shone from within, from her good heart, and that was what captured my attention in the first place. When I first dated her, she was living in a spacious apartment. Yet, she was willing to marry a poor guy who could only afford a small apartment only a fraction of the size of what she was used to. Shortly after we married, she was pregnant and for practical reasons, she agreed to share an apartment with my parents. In the end, she spent 18 years with my father in the same apartment. This was obviously her sacrifice for love, and I am indebted to her forever! She respected and cared for her parents very much and extended the same love and attentiveness to her grandparents, uncles, and aunties. Her famous quote was “charity begins at home". She certainly honoured it till the very end. In 2012, I initiated a charity project with an NGO called "Youth Good Deeds" to promote Confucian values to the younger generation and help the underprivileged. As I was not good at it, I needed to study and read lots of books. To ensure I understood it well, I had to rewrite my understanding in my own words. She was always the first person to discuss and proofread my essays. In short, without her help and support, I wouldn't be able to do this on my own. These are just a few examples telling how kind-hearted she was, and I am truly lucky and proud to be her husband.