In Memoriam
03/12/2009

It is with much regret that we notify you of the deaths of the following Old Paulinas and members of staff. Our sincere sympathy goes to the families and friends concerned.

Shula Aucken, Mrs Udoff (OP 1947 -1956), died 4 December 2009
Sally Shulamit Udoff, 72, known to her many friends simply as Shula, passed away on December 4th after a ten-year battle with Myeloma. She was born in Derby, England and attended St. Paul's Girls' School in London. Shula's association with the entertainment industry spanned an ocean, working in London for Westinghouse News before moving to Los Angeles where she worked for Quinn Martin Productions. That post was followed by various positions at CBS, where she was senior script analyst. After her network days, she was executive assistant to Screen Gems founder John Mitchell, and then worked with former CBS President Bud Grant both at Tribune Broadcasting and later on when Mr. Grant became an independent producer, primarily at Warner Brothers. "Murder in the Knolls," Shula's first novel, was making the rounds of publishers while she worked on a second, which was cut short as her cancer moved into its final stages. Her friends will remember Shula's vivacity, loyalty, wit, laughter and the wonderful dinner parties she prepared and hosted with her husband in their home in the Hollywood Knolls and later on in Valley Village. Many of her recipes appeared in Bon Appetit. Shula is survived by her husband of thirty-two years, the playwright and screenwriter, Yale Udoff ("Bad Timing"..."A Gun Play") and their Siberian husky, Dmitri. A celebration of her life will take place in the spring.
As published in The Los Angeles Times on 5 March 2010.

Ailsa Bertram, taught Classics 1975-1987, died 5 September 2009, aged 59
Ailsa Bertram, who taught Classics at St Paul’s from 1975-1987, was a remarkable woman. Born in Dublin, but growing up in Mombasa, Nairobi, Letchworth and Oxted, she read Classics at Newnham College, Cambridge. (“She was no good at haymaking,” said her Irish cousin ruefully. “Her head was always in a book.”) She taught her endangered subject at four schools, passionately defending it, and drawing high standards from her students (“I admit I never wrote to her without a dictionary at hand”, confessed a Headmistress.) She rounded off her hardworking and devoted professional life, only days before her death, discussing exam results with colleagues from her wheelchair on a sunny afternoon in the hospice garden. Ailsa embraced the advantages of a single life warmly. Earning a living, and running a home were a serious business – and few people will have realised that while at St Paul’s, she was sole carer for three frail relatives. But she also allowed herself to rest and relax comfortably. To visit Ailsa was to be entertained in the best and most old-fashioned way – 3-course luncheon, complete attention, shrewd comment, food for the journey home. She spent her last weeks contacting friends with a final gift: to explain that she had terminal cancer, and to say goodbye. Jane Serraillier (English 1977-1981)

Vita Gollancz (OP 1937-1938) died 8 October 2009

Evelyn Haselgrove, taught Classics 1959-1968 and 1978-1983, died 17 September 2009, aged 95

Hannah Horovitz (OP 1949-1954) died 4 March 2010 aged 73
An obituary was printed in The Guardian on 5 May 2010.

Norah Eugene Johnson, Mrs Saville Peck (OP 1924-1930) died 19 June 2010 aged 97
From an early age Norah had been involved in music, her father had a wonderful Baritone voice, and she sang with him in the London Bach Choir. She learned to play the violin at St Paul’s and rose to be lead violinist in the school orchestra. After leaving St Paul’s, Norah went on to train as a physiotherapist at St Thomas’ Hospital in London before joining Addenbrooks Hospital in Cambridge where she met and married her husband, the physician, Dr John Peck. They moved to Canterbury in 1937 where John set up a general practice. Norah had set up a madrigal group in Cambridge and started another after moving to Canterbury which became known as the Canterbury Singers. She was their secretary for over 40 years and only ceased singing with them aged 80. One suspected it was because her voice became a little ‘wobbly’ but she always denied this! She also took up bell ringing and once had the honour of ringing the Canterbury Cathedral bells. With the onset of war in 1939 Norah was asked to set up a Red Cross detachment to train volunteers in first aid. A second detachment was needed and Norah, who had now been appointed Commandant, helped patch up the exhausted and wounded troops returning from Dunkerque and elsewhere. After the war, Norah threw herself into charitable work setting up a ‘meals on wheels’ service for her elderly neighbours and raising funds to build a new Red Cross centre in Canterbury, where Norah established the over 65 lunch club for which she did all the cooking. Norah was awarded the ‘Maundy Money’ by the Queen in 2002 in recognition of her voluntary work. Norah’s family never ceased to be amazed at the activities she would get up to and at the age of 93 she decided to go on a three-month round the world cruise visiting Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Easter Island, Antarctica and numerous places in between to visit family and friends. Norah sadly passed away on 19 June 2010. She was aged 97.
Taken from the notes read by Norah’s son-in-law, David Spencer, at Norah’s memorial service in Canterbury Cathedral on 5 July 2010.

Gladys Murray, teacher at St Paul's for 33 years (1945-1978) died 8 November 2009 aged 91
Gladys Murray was educated at Manchester High School and St Hugh’s College, Oxford. She joined the staff at St Paul’s when Miss Strudwick was still High Mistress, and was successively head of Classics, senior mistress and librarian. Her interest in Classics was deep but far from narrow; she was constantly creative in her teaching methods, and cast her net wide in choosing reading matter and illustrating ideas. She is remembered as being both exacting and kind; a stern manner was accompanied by ‘an unmistakable twinkle in the eye’. Lessons were enlivened with entertaining digressions on aspects of the ancient world, from recipes to the dry-cleaning of togas. She cared passionately that her pupils should think for themselves: ‘She liked nothing better than for us all to be flummoxed by some Latin word and chase it around in circles… Her face would light up with a sort of inner “tally-ho” as we ran the quarry to ground.’ As a true supporter of independent learning she loved the potential of Dalton days; her own fascination with books was infectious, and a stimulus to ‘curiosity and independent rummaging in the library’. In retirement, when she returned to Manchester to care for her mother, her fondness for intellectual inquiry took a new direction; she became absorbed in research on the life and work of the painter John Melhuish Strudwick, Miss Strudwick’s father. Muriel Hall (Classics 1971-1996)

Miss Murray was my form mistress for two years. She had a great sense of humour, which she needed, told me off for talking too much, made me learn Bible verses by heart which I still, aged 74, remember. I had never learned Latin before I came to St Paul's and she helped me, with correspondence lessons throughout the summer holidays, go from division four to division two, from sheer love of the language. But my best memory was of her letting down her long plaited hair to recite 'Lord Ullins Daughter' with Miss Tyrrell.
Hilary Turk, Mrs Maurice (OP 1948-1952)

Vivien Tanner, Mrs Raynor (OP 1940-1944) died 15 February aged 82
An obituary was printed in both The New York Times and The Villager.