Hazel Thomas (1973) Phyllis Treitel (née Cook, 1948) Hazel and I met on our first day in Phyllis Cook might never have Somerville. We had both been given studied PPE at Somerville at all. rooms in West, which created an As the entrance exam loomed, she instant bond, as almost everyone came down with scarlet fever. Her else in the first year had been strength of will and determination housed in Vaughan. Hazel was an led her to have the exam questions impressive undergraduate: hard- brought to her in her in her sickbed: working, well-organized, fiercely buckling down, writing her answers analytical, and full of enthusiasm for and sending them off. She was history. She was also a warm and HAZEL THOMAS offered a place, and thus began what PHYLLIS TREIREL utterly reliable friend, always ready was to be a life-long connection to stop what she was doing and provide a cup of coffee and a with her College. chat. She was as interested in the minutiae of other people’s lives as she was in the great events of the past. After graduation, she applied to join the Colonial Service, It was no surprise that Hazel continued in academic life after which had opened some clerical positions to women. She her B.A. and eventually obtained a D.Phil. in medieval Italian became an Assistant District Administrator in the Southern history. More surprising was her subsequent decision to train Cameroons, where she sat at a desk and signed papers. At as a chartered accountant. She applied herself to her new least, that was what she was supposed to do. But some of the career with characteristic energy, and became an expert in the papers depended on facts “on the ground” in one village or relatively new area of transfer pricing. This eventually allowed another, and she wasn’t going to sign them until she was sure her to return to her beloved Italy, to provide expertise to the of her facts, so she got in her little car to visit the village. Men Milan office of PWC. told her how bad the roads were and she’d get stuck without four-wheel drive. She replied, “Not if I’m careful,” and off she After retirement in 2014, Hazel bought and renovated a went, and back she came, having done her job to her own medieval apartment in Pontremoli, in Tuscany. For a few happy satisfaction. years, she divided her time between London and Italy. She Marriage to Guenther Treitel, who would go on to be Vinerian revelled in the wealth of cultural and intellectual opportunities available in London, and she loved the language, climate, Professor of Law at the University of Oxford, and the birth of cuisine and architectural beauty of Italy. two sons brought a change to Phyllis’s working life. She took part-time jobs, such as acting as research assistant to various The COVID years were a severe trial, as they kept Hazel in Oxford scholars, something she later continued in her role as London and restricted the activities that were so important assistant to Professor Sir Rupert Cross. to her. She made full use of all the online offerings, including the church services provided by the parish of All Saints’ in With two young sons growing up, she took charge of the Cottenham, a village near Cambridge. It was for this reason Somerville alumni network and began the project that that, on receiving the devastating diagnosis of MND in the Liz Cooke was to continue. As part of that role, she was summer of 2021, she decided to move to a small bungalow in responsible for producing the College Report that her obituary Cottenham, where she would be near to her new friends, and is now printed in. Her sons remember that in her day this to one very old one. consisted of a sizable booklet, a leaflet or two, and about Hazel’s last two years were a triumph of force of character 2,400 envelopes, to be filled and posted. The printing was over adversity. She attended lectures and concerts online, done professionally, but when it came to putting things in received friends from all over the world, visited churches envelopes, Phyllis chose to use the labour supply she had, and National Trust properties in the area, kept up with village namely herself and those two young boys. They remember the gossip, and, most significantly, succeeded in remaining in her process fondly, and the pride of loading the filled boxes into own home until her death. Her formidable intelligence, and her the car for posting. irrepressible sense of humour, were intact until the very end. Phyllis had an English fondness for the countryside and she Frances Horgan (née Clegg, 1973) enjoyed nature writers. So, in 1979 she joined the Richard Jefferies Society, which was to play a major role in her life. She introduced the first RJS Journal of 32-pages which helped to make the Society more professional and scholarly: contributing to it over the years, transcribing Jefferies’ letters, and co- authoring the important chronology. Phyllis Treitel’s kindness, her wisdom, and her loyalty; her determination, her attention to detail and her wicked sense of humour are legendary. Though her final years were hampered by the growth of dementia, she is remembered with such fondness and gratitude by the College she did so much in her life to support. 58