Jessie

Thank you for the life of our Friend
I have just found this which may be of interest

Nov 2005
Jessie Baston
1926 - 1932
message via Roger Graham
Hi John,I have had a letter from Jessie Baston, an ex pupil and a donor to the Samuel Clegg Scholarship Fund, who is a retired teacher living in Sheffield. She told me that she was at School from 1926 to 1932. In this letter received this morning ( in reply to mine a few days previously ) she told me that she cannot come on Saturday adding that she is " too old to drive far these days ". She is 90.She and Prof. Alan Roper ( 1935-42 ) paid a nostalgic visit to the School in September 1994. Alan was a retired professor of genetics at Sheffield University and in his retirement he serves as a Quaker Chaplain. Shortly after their visit Jessie sent a sum of money to be added to the Samuel Clegg Scholarship Fund. I wrote to her thanking her for the donation and we have kept in touch ever since.Jessie had been one of the very first recipients of a Samuel Clegg award shortly after leaving school. She told me in a letter in 1994 that the grant to her " was an enormous help to me ". Both her parents died during her time at Nottingham University. She obtained a first in French and then embarked on a teaching career mostly at Woodhouse Grammar School in Sheffield. She became Head of Modern Languages, then Senior Mistress and finally Assistant Headteacher.She told me in a letter in 2002 that " Those days at LECS were really the happiest days of my life and I shall always be grateful for what they gave me. I didn't miss even one half-day of the six years that I was there."In the latest letter she also writes : " It's very sad that the school is leaving that lovely building. What memories come flooding back ! I wonder if any of my contempories will be with you - Peter Musson, Tagger Taylor, Philip Wright, Harry & Ernest Plackett, Joan Comery ? I shall look forward with great interest to reading/hearing all about it. " Other contempories of hers mentioned by her in previous letters were Gordon Hobday, Joan Knott and Enid Rowbotham.There is nothing confidential or similar in the 5 paras above & so please feel free to publish all or part as you think fit.Best wishesRoger.
In Friendship
Peter