LETTER FROM HEATHER LEIGH

We were delighted to receive a letter recently from Heather Leigh, neé Spence (BA Languages, 1956). Heather met her future husband, John Leigh, during her studies and went on to have a successful and varied career in teaching, setting up the Spanish Department at Enfield School, serving as a Deputy Head at a school in Walthamstow and eventually founding her own language school, Leigh Languages, which she still runs today.

Heather wrote to us about her reluctance to go to university, as she had at that time set up a Dance School in Southampton which she wanted to expand. Her father insisted that she attend university first. Heather trained several dancers for the Rag Ball in 1953, putting her dance teaching skills to good use.

Heather’s husband John sadly died seven years ago, but she recently remarried and moved to live nearer the eldest of her two sons. Heather said:

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“I began teaching in 1957 and I’m still teaching. I have been teaching for 63 years non-stop except for two periods of maternity leave. How lucky it was that I paid attention to my Father and agreed to go to university. I have never forgotten the happy days I spent there. I was an only child. I spent my childhood evacuated away from my parents. My father was in the Merchant Navy. He was a sick man having had cancer of the stomach at the age of 25 and the first person to receive radiation treatment. He survived the war but was frequently ill. I was halfway through my final exams at Southampton University when I received a phone call at my Halls of Residence telling me my father was in hospital seriously ill. My father survived that night but died a few months later. How I wish now I could tell him how grateful I am for what he did.”