Photograph: from family/unknown
My grandmother and friend Anne Krish, who has died aged 94, was a social worker and mediator who helped thousands of families in London and Norfolk.
Anne was in her 40s, older than most colleagues and a newly single parent, when she joined Camden social services in north London in 1974. She trained at North East London Polytechnic (now the University of East London), gaining a certificate of qualification in social work in 1977, before returning full-time to Camden, where she worked until 1989.
There, she helped many families who were struggling with poverty, substance abuse and domestic abuse, running support groups for single mothers, organising adoptions and foster placements but also working hard to keep families together. Anne always focused on children, and stayed involved with some young lives for years.
At 60 Anne moved to Norfolk and expanded her career. She served on the council of Nagalro, the professional body for independent social workers, and sat on the board of its journal, Seen and Heard. As a guardian ad litem advising family courts, Anne was a persuasive voice for children’s interests in care proceedings.
Much of her later career focused on mediation. Working at the Norfolk Family Mediation Service for 27 years, Anne helped 1,700 separating couples. On retiring at 87, she was interviewed on BBC Radio Norfolk. “Thank you to Anne,” a listener texted in, “because she helped me and my ex-partner. Without her the meetings wouldn’t have carried on.”
Born in Selsey, West Sussex, to Enid (nee Archer), an administrator, and Ralph Stratton, a farmer, Anne grew up there and in Wiltshire and was educated at Christ’s Hospital school in Hertford. After leaving school she joined the Council of Industrial Design (now the Design Council) in London. She worked on the 1951 Festival of Britain as an administrator for the South Bank pavilions and was always proud of this formative experience.
In 1954 Anne married John Krish, a film director; they had three children and 15 happy years in Hampstead, London. They separated twice, finally in 1976, divorcing a few years later.
Anne’s love and attention enriched many enduring friendships. Her life in Norfolk was a mixture of hard-won independence and deep interest in others. She worked, gardened, chatted, listened, cooked, read, went to the beach, walked on the marsh and helped run a community cinema. For 34 years she welcomed a wide and loving network of friends and family to her home in Burnham Deepdale.
She is survived by her children and nine grandchildren, and her sister.
