Jean Harrison remembrance page and online condolences

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Jean Harrison deactivated

12 Sep - 05 Apr

The administrator of this page is Sita Brand

Jean was a poet, teacher and friend to many all over the world. She as thoughtful, generous and kind. In her writing she had a talent for precise description and clear language. She published two collections of poetry, Junction Road and Terrain and two novels, On a Wandering Planet and The Fern Hedge. She loved walking and cats. In Settle she established the poetry group, Settle Sessions and was a founding Trustee for the charity Settle Stories. She is much missed by all who knew her. A memorial site for her friend Barbara Bowman can be found at https://barbara-bowman.muchloved.com/

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09-02 2021 21:54 View / Comment (0)

Helen Haran

Helen Haran

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I knew Jean from teaching with her for 17 years at Queens’ School, Bushey. I joined the Staff there in January 1973 and Jean had started the term before. Our roles at Queens’ were very different: Jean was Head of R.E. and I was initially Head of Girls PE. Our previous teaching experiences were also very different although we had both been teaching overseas prior to Queens. I had taught boys and girls in mixed schools in Australia whereas Jean had come from a Girls’ Grammar School in Ghana and would be the first to admit she found the change to a mixed Comprehensive School understandably somewhat overwhelming at times. In spite of this we got on really well from our first meeting: both single we enjoyed each others company a great deal, sharing occasional meals at each other’s homes and weekend walks. Jean was a good sportswoman and an asset to more than one Staff sports team when we played the 6th Form. Seeing her wielding a rounders bat and hockey stick made me relieved she was on my team not the opponents!! When I later became one of the Heads of House at Queens’, Jean was one of my Form tutors and as such we worked closely together. She was a very caring and supportive Form Tutor getting to know her students well though several of them could never be classed as “angels” – not even by their parents! Every year the 1st year students in our House visited the Yorkshire Dales for an “adventure week” with myself and their Form Tutors. Settle was always on the itinerary for the first day and I can’t tell you how grateful I was that Jean was with us one year. We had just reached a halt on the way up to Victoria Cave when I received a shout from one of the group leaders that a certain young man wasn’t with us! Immediately a member of staff set off back along the route we had taken only to see, approaching us, the missing youngster together with a lady. She had seen him in Settle and, when he told her which school he was with, she knew exactly where we would be and brought him to us. How? Because she just happened to be a close friend of Jeans and knew exactly which route we were taking! Jean even trusted me to join the RE Department for a while. Not because I had studied R.E at College but because the two 3rd Year Forms in my House were a rather difficult mixed group (academically and behavior wise) and she came to me undecided about which lucky member of her Department should have the pleasure of teaching them. We chatted about it and suddenly without me realising how she had managed it, I had been subtly persuaded to teach both forms myself for the year!! So with Jean guiding me I was introduced to the R.E. curriculum: I thoroughly enjoyed the experience – and was delighted when she asked if I would continue the following year with the new 3rd year pupils in my House. Perhaps it was the fact that my Grandfather had been a missionary in the West Indies in the 1930s that gave her confidence I would rise to the occasion!! When I left Queens and returned to my native Yorkshire we stayed in touch – by phone and mail - and when Jean moved up to Settle to join her friends we met up at least once a year, in the Dales or Ilkley, initially taking in a walk but in later years just for lunch - often with her friend Barbara as well. These lunches usually lasted for hours as we never ran out of things to talk about! I have very fond memories of Jean, both as an ex colleague, and more importantly as a friend. I particularly think of her whenever my husband and I visit the Yorkshire Dales. Ann Poyner (nee Burrow)

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09-02 2021 21:47 View / Comment (0)

Helen Haran

Helen Haran

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Jean Harrison Jean came to Queens’ school in Bushey, Hertfordshire in the early 70’s. She had been appointed as Head of Religious Education. I first started to work with Jean when we were both in the same house and I taught a number of pupils in her form. I always got on well with her, finding her easy to talk to and I was impressed with her obvious concern for the pupils in her charge. She had a quick mind and was full of ideas. Later on, when the Head of Careers left Jean and I took on the job. This mainly involved advising year 11 students and liaising with the local careers office in Watford. She was very good at getting shy and awkward teenagers to discuss their ideas and aspirations. Each year we organised a series of visits, talks and meetings for students in year 10. We got to some very interesting places and Jean clearly enjoyed the activities. She always wanted me to drive the minibus. Surprising really as she was a competent driver. Jean and I also attended meetings for careers staff. I remember going to one at Brunel University. We went in Jean’s car. On the way home the traffic was quite heavy and suddenly Jean said “blow this I’m not missing my art class” and we shot off through the traffic and I clung to my seat. I drove the minibus when she took her form to Knebworth for an end of term outing. These were rather boisterous teenagers. There was another group going round the house. The teacher in charge of the other party said loudly to her group, clearly for us to hear “I’m sure my group know how to behave”. Jean’s comment to me was unprintable. Jean took part in the staff shows, not always with a leading part but always with enthusiasm. I know very little about her religious education classes except that she was a great believer in covering all religions with her classes. Her intellect came across in all our conversations and I certainly knew my place. The rest of the staff clearly had respect for Jean but they did find her almost illegible lists of pupils out on visits quite frustrating. She had a good rapport with her own form as she clearly cared about their welfare. We enjoyed seeing Jean’s photographs of her trip to Peru which she undertook with her mother who must then have been in her eighties. Jean must have been a very good traveller as the difficulties of the trip were dismissed as minor problems. When Jean retired she eventually bought a cottage in Giggleswick. She had the lovely address, “Smithy Cottage”, Belle Hill. Hilary and I visited her twice when she was in Giggleswick and walking round the town she was greeted regularly by friends and acquaintances. She had clearly made herself part of the community. David Jones.

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26-06 2020 13:18 View / Comment (0)

Sue Vickerman

Sue Vickerman

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I miss Jean. She was a very private person, though I would describe her as quietly ferocious rather than quiet, and decisive and wilful - which I loved. She expressed her opinions vehemently. She was great to discuss things with. You could spar. And she was funny. And she was completely batty about her cat. And idealistic and warm-hearted and thoughtful and loyal. And didn't suffer fools, so (since I am one) I was very relieved she felt able to put up with me. We will remember you, Jean! And will party for you at your posthumous book launch, here at Settle Meeting house on Saturday 26th June 2021!

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26-06 2020 11:21 View / Comment (0)

Sue Vickerman

Sue Vickerman

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2010, Sheffield

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26-06 2020 11:20 View / Comment (0)

Sue Vickerman

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2008, mugshot for poetry event brochure

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26-06 2020 11:18 View / Comment (0)

Sue Vickerman

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Jean and poet Pam Thompson

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26-06 2020 11:16 View / Comment (0)

Sue Vickerman

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THE WORD BIRDS reading in Sheffield with me, Debjani and Sue

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26-06 2020 11:11 View / Comment (0)

Sue Vickerman

Sue Vickerman

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I got to know my lovely poet friend Jean when, soon after moving to Settle, I started cadging a monthly lift with her to the famed Brewery Group poetry workshop in Kendal. As fellow poets in the village we have spent many hours over the years, whether in groups or 1:1 in her house or mine, workshopping each other's poems. A special memory is when we set off as two couples in one car to Orkney, with a stop in Aberdeen: me and my ex, and Jean and Barbara. That was amazing. Once on the island we stayed in different places - a friend of my girlfriend and I had found a bothy right on the beach where Jean and Barbara could stay. It was idyllic. We stayed with our Orkney friend in a converted butcher's shop-turned-mini Arts venue. Hence Jean and I were able to give a poetry reading in Orkney with a small audience crowded in. Brilliant. It was one of a number of poetry readings we have done together all over the place over the years, some under the umbrella of a women's group 'The Word Birds'. Sheffield stands out. So Jean was on the spot when my relationship fell apart - it was in her car, having that lift to the Brewery workshop, where I first poured it out. We got very close around that time (long ago now) and on the foundations of our poetry alliance, a very special and lasting friendship deepened. Thank goodness, Jean wilfully battled her way out of hospital and back to her home a few days before lockdown so that she could spend her last weeks in her bungalow. This was only made possible due to the generous offer of Rebecca - the wonderful angel who had got to know Jean and Barbara through doing their garden - to move into Jean's bungalow with her so that she would be permitted to be at home. Jean physically deteriorated, needing more and more care, and eventually, once bedridden, the hospital bed was duly delivered into the bungalow's sunny living room and set up before the French windows looking onto the April garden. On many of Jean's last days it was warm enough for those doors to be thrown open. I had been busy and a bit out of touch. Now, in this strange lockdown world, with no family able to come and be with Jean, I started to go most days to hold Jean's hand and chat, entering by the French windows and social distancing from Rebecca, while Jean's speech and then, probably, sight, gradually left her. A very special evolution in our relationship; she couldn't retort to any opinions I expressed, so I could get away with anything! As well as holding her hand, whether she liked it or not! It was a strange but lovely funeral with July the vicar, two nephews who bravely drove a long distance to be there after all, and Sita, who was there partly to represent Barbara who was of course in Gargrave in the nursing home. It was really sad that Rebecca, Jean's angel, had immediately gone home to - at last - isolate herself after Jean had died, due to all the risk she had been under from the daily visits of palliative carers, district nurses - and me! (Rebecca's own health issues meant that she ought in fact to have been shielding). So four of us plus funeral directors stood about like chess pieces at a distance from each other and from the plot at the Rathmell natural burial ground, while Julie's vestments at the graveside billowed in the stiff breeze. Jean was in a basket that had lovely associations with groceries and bicycles rather than death, and the sky was blue, and the view breathtaking. In the year or two beforehand, and even during Jean's decline due to all the health issues, Jean was working hell-for-leather on a poetry collection. I knew of this, and she had asked me ages beforehand if I would look at this big wad of poems and help her decide what was what. Then this project sank into the background. A couple of days before Jean died, the wonderful Rebecca put a thick folder into my hands that she had found in Jean's study. This was It. I checked around Jean's poetry friends to see if anyone else had been more in touch with Jean than I had over this collection and in the end, with the say-so of others, I have taken it upon myself to edit this wad into a manuscript. It will be shared with fellow poets for proofreading and reviews before it is published by Naked Eye Publishing in time for a launch party and reading at Settle Meeting House on SATURDAY 26th JUNE 2021: please note in your diaries! It has been a privilege and an eye-opener to carry out this task. I had thought that Jean had been rummaging out all her old stuff from over the years and 'doing them up'. It turns out that these poems are fresh and new. Some are absolute stonkers that leave you startled or breathless. This is far and away her best collection, and I am really excited about its publication. Discussion is still underway with family about which cause should benefit from the proceeds of any sales, the main thought being, that it will be something local and literary that was important to Jean. Lovely, special Jean. She gave me all sorts of hilarious life-advice. She sort of "stood at the back". You even see it in photos. I liked her politics. She absolutely detested class division, and having taught with Claris and Barbara in Ghana in a school which is nowadays staffed by Ghanaian women, was highly aware of our colonial past and would have been very engaged with Black Lives Matter. What more can I say. I'm squeezing your hand, Jean.

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24-06 2020 19:48 View / Comment (0)

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24-06 2020 19:36 View / Comment (0)

Krishna Ramamurthy

Krishna Ramamurthy

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23-06 2020 08:23 View / Comment (0)

Sita Brand

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23-06 2020 08:19 View / Comment (0)

Sita Brand

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Jean with Ghanaian friends

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23-06 2020 08:18 View / Comment (0)

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Jean with Barbara and Pat

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23-06 2020 08:10 View / Comment (0)

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Jean and Barbara at Tillman Close

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23-06 2020 08:09 View / Comment (0)

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Jean and Barbara out walking

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23-06 2020 08:04 View / Comment (0)

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Jean out walking

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23-06 2020 07:59 View / Comment (0)

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Jean at the beach

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23-06 2020 07:59 View / Comment (0)

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Jean and Helen

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Jean Harrison

September 12, 1935 - April 5, 2020

The administrator of this page is Sita Brand

Jean was a poet, teacher and friend to many all over the world. She as thoughtful, generous and kind. In her writing she had a talent for precise description and clear language. She published two collections of poetry, Junction Road and Terrain and two novels, On a Wandering Planet and The Fern Hedge. She loved walking and cats. In Settle she established the poetry group, Settle Sessions and was a founding Trustee for the charity Settle Stories. She is much missed by all who knew her. A memorial site for her friend Barbara Bowman can be found at https://barbara-bowman.muchloved.com/

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