After taking a job at Imperial College in 1959 I often worked with Peter; which is how I met Jane. Thinking about her now brings endless memories of places, of walking and sailing, of suppers, inevitably of her family and also of her boundless store of potential energy that was always evident.

My earliest memory of Jane and Peter, was the “Big Freeze” winter of ’62-’63 when I joined them on a parental visit to Gloucestershire. Could one of the worst winters, ever, be enough to prevent the trip? For Jane, of course not, and as she was driving, we arrived safely. There was then, of course, lots of walking in the very, very deep snow of that winter.

I remember suppers and long discussions at Dora Road, Crispin and his lovely wooden building blocks, walks on the Common, with Clare pretending to get lost, and Ruth who would happily, it seemed at the time, have missed most meals. Always, though, Jane’s love and personality abounded and were woven deeply into the fabric of Dora Road, which was forever abuzz with energy.

I remember the cottage in Bwlch and the many Friday night drives down in the camper-van, always with the obligatory stop for fish and chips, as it used to be. I remember Jane’s roast beef on Saturday evenings with my hot-hot horseradish sauce that eliminated all sniffles, overnight! And I remember walks up the Allt, sometimes with Mo, on her little legs, complaining at every step. She tells me now that, despite always
watching preparations in the cottage very carefully, she never managed to work
out how a bar of chocolate unfailingly appeared at the top. Needless to say, it came from Jane. Now, Mo lives in the Alps where, she says, there is never any chocolate when she gets to the top!

There were many, many weekends on Annucia with Jane and Mick. He was the skipper and I was crew, but it was Jane who really looked after us. The earliest reference, in the logs, to the three of us is mid ’79 and the last is in mid ’96. About halfway through this period, after Mick had moved to Lulworth and had his heart attack, Jane and crew were
required to sail the boat round from the Medway to its new home in Wareham, a trip that was full of adventures. On one dark, stormy night, for instance, we left Ramsgate to catch the tide. Then some time later, Mick got a bill in the post for unpaid mooring fees. As we told him afterwards, there was no one we could pay at that time of night!

More recently, there were visits to “WWW”. There, after supper, and relaxing in the
lounge listening to music, with Peter and Jane, she would be still beavering away, still exhibiting that never ending store of potential energy. We, also, of course, had more walks in the local countryside and along the clifftops, too.

This is a snippet from 55 years of memories about Jane and a few of those she loved. That none of my other friendships has come within sight of such a lengthy period is entirely a mark of all those qualities that are, manifestly, Jane.

Peter G