My mother, Jean Shirley, who has died aged 91, became a teacher in her 30s after she had spent her 20s bringing up her young family. Most of her subsequent career was dedicated to Ashgate primary school in Derby.
She was born Jane Davidson in Dumbarton, near Glasgow, to Margaret, a housewife, and John Davidson, a butcher, but there were so many Janes in her class at Dumbarton Academy that she was renamed Jean, a name she kept. Although she was academically gifted, her family circumstances meant she had to leave school early, and for a number of years she worked as a secretary in a solicitor’s office.
During her early 20s she was diagnosed with tuberculosis, which led to two years in hospital, where she made up weekly horoscopes for the hospital magazine to keep everyone’s spirits up. She was saved by the introduction of streptomycin, a major advance in the treatment of TB at the time.
Afterwards, in 1953, Jean married John Shirley, a physiotherapist, whom she had met many years earlier over a crate of milk at school. They began their life together in Buckie, Banffshire, where John’s mother, Elizabeth, came to live with them and where their first son, Alan, was born. After a move to Trowbridge in Wiltshire for John’s work, their twins, Ken and me, were born. Then there was another move, to Baldock in Hertfordshire.
Once the children had grown to a more manageable age, Jean did her teacher training in Chorley, Lancashire, on a course designed for people without the usual qualifications.
Her first appointment was as a maths teacher at a secondary school in Derby, but she later spent the rest of her career at Ashgate, moving there in the early 1970s and settling with her family in the nearby village of Etwall, where she and John made many friends.
After her retirement from Ashgate in 1992, Jean and John enjoyed taking holidays together. When he died in 2003, she moved across Derbyshire to live in the market town of Glossop to be nearer family.
A lover of music and poetry and a proud Scot, she always had a positive attitude and made a new life for herself, joining the U3A, going to concerts and the theatre.
She is survived by her three children and five grandchildren, Camilla, Alex, Justine, Robyn and Clem.
