Obituaries | 83
Mary Russell Vick (de Putron, 1940) Mary was born in Guernsey in 1922. Her father held the office of Jurat of the Royal Court of Guernsey and was in charge of food and fuel on the island during the German wartime occupation. Mary was sent to her aunt’s school in Bexhill as a boarder aged 7 and there she excelled at all sports, playing in the junior tennis championships of Great Britain at Wimbledon in 1938. She went up to Somerville in 1940 to read Mathematics, tutored by Ida Busbridge at St Hugh’s, and gaining a College Prize in 1943. She gained four Blues in hockey, squash, tennis and cricket. She was on the Committee of the JCR when Daphne Park was JCR President. This was the beginning of a life-long friendship between them. Indeed when Daphne, as Principal of Somerville, was asked by the JCR for funds for a new boat, she agreed mainly because she remembered how much sport had meant to Mary, even though she had not cared for it herself. In 1943 towards the end of her time at Oxford Mary became engaged to Clive Russell Vick who was the brother of her friend Jacqueline (known as Bunny, who was at St Hilda’s). The Russell Vicks had provided a much needed home for her away from occupied Guernsey. In the same year Mary was called up to the WRNS (Women’s Royal Naval Service) and she and Clive were married in December 1944. In 1951 she started teaching Mathematics at St Hilary’s School, Sevenoaks where she taught up to ‘O’ Level until 1977, only retiring when she could no longer hear the whispering at the back of the class. However, she is better known for her international hockey career, as one of the outstanding hockey players of her generation and a highly respected and pioneering administrator. She was selected for England in 1947 – she is believed to be the first Oxbridge woman to earn the honour – and she continued to