were able to say whether any of their care leavers left school Described by her colleagues at Pembroke as sympathetic with qualifications that might help them get a job. Helen and welcoming, they also noted that she was demanding was instrumental in changing that. Passionate about fighting of her students and ‘critical in the best sense of the word – the injustices faced by children whose life chances had been constructive and never dismissive or condescending’. compromised by poverty, abuse and other disadvantages, she She is warmly remembered by all those she supported as a had hands-on knowledge of the challenges facing children tutor, a colleague and a friend. in care and used her position to introduce policies to provide them with better protection, higher standards of care and more extensive opportunities to fulfil their potential. Ruth Lister (1944) Helen led the cross-government initiative to introduce specific, evidence-based programmes to improve the life chances of Born in London and educated at children in and on the edge of care and worked to introduce St Paul’s School for Girls, Ruth multi-dimensional treatment foster care to England and was Head Girl and an academic Wales. When she left the Civil Service, she undertook projects success. Her time at Somerville was throughout Europe and beyond. She helped introduce the overshadowed by war and life was Assessment Framework in Canada, Italy and France and worked short of creature comforts. The with the French government to introduce a child development Bursar advised new undergraduates perspective into protection policy and practice. She facilitated that the only personal belongings legislation and policy and set up foster care services in Russia allowed were their ‘identity and and several other Eastern European countries, not resting until ration cards, gas mask, electric she had encouraged reluctant ministers to take forward torch, warm rug, butter dish with lid, RUTH LISTER another initiative. a 1lb jam jar with lid, a tin (for sugar), two pairs of bed socks The beloved wife of Jerry, and a supportive friend and colleague and a jerry.’ to many, Helen is very much missed. Such restrictions did not bother Ruth. Practical and pragmatic, she had a strong and robust constitution, and led a very active Martha Klein (née Bein, 1987) life well into her eighties. She was a keen golfer, skier and gardener; and a swim before breakfast in an unheated pool was part of her daily routine. She loved a good, brisk walk and Martha Klein was born in California had a succession of dogs, many of them dachshunds, that and brought up in New York City. accompanied her around Bury St. Edmunds, where she lived for Starting a degree at Queens College nearly 70 years. She was also an intrepid traveller, visiting many in New York, she was forced to parts of the world over the years, including the Galapagos leave after a year for personal Islands, Pakistan and Yemen, regularly accompanied by lifelong reasons, and was not to return to Somerville friends. university until, at the age of 33, she embarked on a Philosophy degree at Medicine was a profession for which she was temperamentally the University of Reading. well suited – conscientious, thorough, calm under pressure, MARTHA KLEIN strongly committed to public service – and one in which she In the years between she worked excelled. After posts in Nottingham and Leicester, she joined a variety of jobs, from waitress to the Angel Hill surgery in Bury St Edmunds, where the senior film production assistant, and then, after marrying her husband partner was a woman and keen to have another female doctor Larry, on a Norwegian ship on which the pair sailed for nearly in the practice. When Ruth was offered the job, it was made three years. In the UK, she worked at the British Film Institute clear to her that she would have to resign if she married. and then in the Photographic Department at the University of Reading. This last role prompted her to take two A Levels that Ruth remained there until her retirement in 1991, by which allowed her to study as a mature student. time she was senior partner. In a very full life outside work, she Martha came to Oxford to complete the BPhil at Somerville, was a committed member of the Baptist Church, sang in the and in 1980 began her doctoral thesis on free will and moral Bury Bach Choir for forty years, and was a Justice of the Peace responsibility. In the same year she began to teach at Reading for twenty-five years. But what mattered most to Ruth was and a number of Oxford colleges. Seven years later, on her family. She was a devoted daughter, loving sister and very receipt of her doctorate, she was appointed to a lectureship generous aunt and great-aunt. in Philosophy at Christ Church. In 1993 Martha was elected She also retained a lifelong connection with Somerville Fellow of Philosophy at Pembroke. Here, she continued to focus and when her great-nephew followed in her footsteps and her research on philosophy of mind, specialising in free will, matriculated at the college in 2007, she was very pleased to moral responsibility and the relationship between thoughts visit him and have the chance to see her old room in Penrose. and actions. She was particularly interested in the intersection Although so many years had passed, she was still able to recall of philosophy of mind and moral philosophy. Martha is in vivid detail arriving on her first day with the few possessions remembered for teaching and encouraging generations of permitted, eagerly anticipating everything ahead. The fact that Philosophy students. The great fondness and respect with her memories were still so clear 60 years on reflects the lasting which she was regarded by her students was clear. impact the college made on her life. 49