It is with great sadness that we inform the JAGS community of the death of JAGS alumna Jennifer Gordon-Smith (Class of 1966).

Please see the below tribute written by fellow JAGS alumnae Alison Balaam (née Haile) - 

Jennifer Alison Gordon-Smith 27th October 1947 – 7th June 2024

I first met Jenny in September 1959 when we were both 11 and started secondary school at JAGS. She travelled in by train with Alex Palmer (née Newman), Eleanor Price (née Harvey) and Mary Francis (née George), walking from Herne Hill to East Dulwich Grove and sharing much of their lives together, both inside and outside school. Jenny and I also became friends and used to go to local Christian activities together.

After we left school at Christmas in 1966, Jenny got a job for a few months, in the corsetry department of a Bromley department store. In April 1967, we spent 6 weeks in Greece with Cynthia Moore (nee Redmayne). It was an extraordinary adventure, although I’ve never quite worked out how we persuaded our parents to let us go, especially as we left the UK as the Generals took over in Greece!

In September 1967 Jenny went to Sheffield University to read Physiology and then did her PGCE at Exeter. Sadly we lost touch, but I know that she spent her working life teaching Biology at Stevenage College of Further Education, mostly in the evening. She wrote all her own courses and used to delight the young housewives of Stevenage by answering all their questions about human bodies which they dared not ask anyone else!

We met up again in the 1990’s and gradually got into the habit of meeting more regularly, either in London with other friends from JAGS, or at weekends with Cynthia. Our lives were very different, but we got on extremely well, talking and laughing, putting the world to rights, visiting National Trust properties and generally enjoying one another’s company.

When Jenny retired she became very involved at the Lister Hospital in Stevenage, first doing Patient Satisfaction Surveys, and then also with the Butterflies. Jenny was a founder member of this wonderful group, who sit with patients who are dying and ease their passing by holding a hand or reading something or just sitting quietly with them. In 2020, the Butterflies were awarded an MBE as part of the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service and Princess Anne came to present it to them. What a proud day that was for Jenny and all the other Butterflies!

Then came Covid, which hit Jenny very hard because it curtailed all her activities and kept her trapped in her own home. And then, too, in March 2022, “the BIG C”. Jenny was diagnosed with ovarian cancer and knew, from the beginning, that it was a terminal condition. She coped incredibly well with radical surgery and chemotherapy and then had about another year before the cancer finally took over. She died peacefully on Friday 7th June 2024.

In Jenny we have lost a greatly loved friend, whose memory we shall always hold very dear.