Pauline went on to study Mathematics at Somerville, and I Susan Bevan (1960) first met her when Miss Cobb, our tutor, put us together for our tutorials with her and with Mrs Thomson, who lived up the Daughter of an RAF officer, Susan Woodstock Road, for which our bicycles were definitely useful. was born in Newcastle on Tyne, but We went on to study slightly different areas of Mathematics her early life took her to Malaysia and so it was not until our third year we really became firm and Germany, as well as staying with friends. We were partners in the University Badminton team, relatives and attending boarding and so played a lot together. We also went for long cycle schools. Her fierce independence rides when our work was proving too difficult and we needed was a product of this early life. a break. Moving to Somerville to read PPE, After her teacher training year, Pauline taught at Scarborough she developed and honed the strong High School. While there she became increasingly aware of socialist principles which were to SUSAN BEVAN the problems deaf children had in school, so she went to remain such an important part of Manchester for a Diploma in Teaching the Deaf. From there her life. Becoming a financial journalist when she graduated, she went to the Mary Hare School for the Deaf in Berkshire, she worked for, amongst other publications, The Economist, and while there she met her husband, Alan, through the The Daily Telegraph, The Birmingham Post and The Investors’ badminton club. She loved her work with deaf children and Chronicle. Some might find this career path strange for such found it very rewarding, but they had to move for Alan’s work, an avowed socialist. However, Susan was ever a pragmatist. to Liversedge, back in Yorkshire. Pauline taught at the Girls’ She had the ability, if she wanted to, ‘to run with the hare and Grammar School in Halifax until it combined with the boys’ ride with the hounds’, although her sympathies would have school, when she took early retirement. always been with the hares! She played a very active part in the running of her local Headhunted to help launch a new financial newspaper, The chapel, being an Elder for many years, playing the organ and Business Times, in Kuala Lumpur, Susan faced both the being involved in the various activities, especially those for male dominated world of financial journalism and the extra children. She also became involved with local committees and challenge for professional women in 1970s Malaysia. But organisations, particularly those involving the countryside and she was never afraid of challenge, and she was successful open spaces, walking for miles checking on the condition of in her career: a very talented writer, who had the courage local footpaths. Pauline enjoyed her garden, working hard to and determination to not let prejudice of any sort stand in keep it tidy, raising seedlings, taking cuttings and pottering in her way. her greenhouse. In the final stages of her career, she worked for the Institute During Covid, Pauline and Alan became very isolated and of Strategic Studies as their Publishing Manager and then their health gradually deteriorated, so that they both became became a freelance financial journalist which she loved. house bound. Pauline had a stroke in 2023 and although she Then, in 1990, Susan made the decision to buy a house in recovered well, she was often very tired and lacking in energy. Tonbridge. The final 30 years of her life were probably the However, it was a great shock to all to learn of her sudden happiest and most contented. She loved her house and death, and even sadder to learn that Alan had died on the garden and loved Tonbridge. She soon became active in morning of her funeral. her local community in the Slade and was involved in the Christine Parker (née Gregory, 1956) setting up of the Slade Area Residents Association, known as SARA, where at various times Susan was Chair, Secretary and Editor of the Newsletter. Susan was also passionate Jill Brock (née Lewis, 1956) about Tonbridge as a whole and was an active member of the Tonbridge Civic Society. After reading Medicine at Susan was an amazing sister, aunt, friend, journalist and Somerville, one of only four women fighter for what she believed in. in her year, Jill travelled alone to work in a mission hospital in South Africa. Fearless in the face of Pauline Blackman (née Taylor, 1956) challenge, she returned to the UK to train in oncology. Pauline was born in Steeton, That fearlessness was mixed with Yorkshire, on 19 November 1937: a dash of stubbornness, and a the only child of Horace, a woollen lot of loyalty and generosity. Her JILL BROCK merchant, and Sarah, a teacher. patients benefited from the latter Although an only child, she had as she freely gave her time and expertise. As a consultant many cousins living in Steeton, and oncologist at Clatterbridge Hospital and Alder Hey Hospital, going with her to the local primary Jill treated children with cancer, and was very good at it, as school. Her cousin, Thea, was even shown by the number of weddings she was invited to and the in the same class with her at the number of Christmas cards and gifts she received. She was PAULINE BLACKMAN senior school in Keighley. clinical tutor and programme director for many years, training a 38