My mother-in-law, Caroline Gould, who has died aged 93, was an artist and teacher – and sometime shepherdess. She lived an endlessly curious, well-travelled life.
In the late 1950s, Caroline worked as an art therapist at Tone Vale psychiatric hospital, Somerset, when the therapeutic practice was in its infancy. Her humanistic view of art was influenced by the art historian Ananda Coomaraswamy. Caroline believed creativity was universal, and would share Coomaraswamy’s words with newcomers to her classes: “The artist is not a special kind of person; rather each person is a special kind of artist.”
She returned in the 60s to her native Kent, founding Sidcup Pottery to make and sell ceramics starter kits. In the 80s, she taught art at south-east London secondary schools, including Coopers school, Chislehurst, and Bonus Pastor Catholic college, Bromley, and in the 90s ran “Look and Paint” adult education classes. She exhibited in the annual South East Open Studios event, her oils and watercolours capturing the beauty of Kent’s landscapes, and painted until she was 90.
Caroline was born in Farningham, Kent, the youngest of the four children of Gordon Guthrie, an engineer, and Kirstie (nee Stevenson). After Benenden school, she attended Sidcup School of Art (now part of Ravensbourne University London), before training as a teacher in Birmingham.
She met Jack Gould, a toymaker, back in Kent after renting him workshop space in Sidcup. They married in 1968. Their honeymoon was a typically unconventional road trip to Italy in a VW campervan, collecting dolls for Pollock’s Toy Museum, London, where Jack was a trustee.
A globetrotter since her teens, Caroline had been an au pair in Sweden and Italy, including caring for the children of the Tarzan actor Lex Barker. She had a stint at an Icelandic fish factory in her early 20s and travelled to Morocco and the Czech Republic in her 60s. In her 70s and 80s, she visited Nicaragua, Syria, China and Nepal.
Her adventurous soul remained rooted in Farningham village, where she and Jack settled soon after their marriage. Caroline was a trustee of Roper’s Charity, helping those in need locally, and she led a funding campaign that in 1997 secured the green space of Market Meadow for the community. She was also a keen bell ringer.
Caroline embraced organic smallholding in the 70s, keeping bees, pigs, geese, chickens and sheep. She was an active member of the Jacob Sheep Society into her 80s, representing the charity at the Kent Show, and designing its T-shirts, book covers and a logo that is still in use today.
A job reference written by her former school principal, Kathleen Bird, in 1953 remains a perfect reflection of Caroline’s character: “She has a fresh, original mind, clever fingers, good taste … In dealing with younger girls in the house she was good tempered, patient and stimulating.” Bird added: “We thought of her as an outstandingly good person.”
Jack died in 2016. Caroline is survived by her sons, Rob (my husband) and Will, three grandchildren, Maya, Sami and Ruby, and her older sisters, Georgina and Jane.
