When my mother, Chris Higham, was born, she weighed less than a kilo and was paralysed down one side of her body. She was not expected to survive and was left in a cardboard box while the doctors attended to her mother. They were surprised to find the baby still alive when they returned. Chris, who has died aged 99, confounded all expectations and went on to lead an active life.
Chris was so tiny because her mother had been undernourished during the first world war, which ended a few months before Chris was born, in London, the only child of George Taylor, a telephone engineer, and his wife, Mary. The family moved to Edinburgh, where she spent her childhood years, before being sent to Ackworth, a Quaker boarding school near Pontefract in West Yorkshire. There she honed her musical skills, playing both the piano and the cello to a high level, and at one point considering a career as a concert pianist. Instead, she studied classics, initially at Bedford College, London, and then in Cambridge, where she also gained a teaching certificate.
After teaching in Ipswich schools for a while, she returned to London and took a secretarial course, working for the archaeologist Gordon Childe, and also meeting Max Mallowan, husband of Agatha Christie.
She met John Higham in London but left him to emigrate to Canada, where she taught for 18 months, making lasting friends. By the time she returned, John was working at the United Nations in Geneva, and in 1958 they married there.
The following years, until John’s early death in 1965, remained the happiest of her life. After his death, Chris stayed on in Geneva, living in the house they had built together, and working for the International Narcotics Control Board. When the INCB relocated to Vienna just before her retirement, Chris went with it for a year to train locally recruited staff. She made the most of this opportunity, learning German and exploring the area in her free time.
Once retired, she backpacked around the world, visiting many countries, including Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Tahiti and the US. On her return to Geneva, she threw herself into volunteering, joined two choirs, took evening classes, travelled extensively within Europe, enjoyed outdoor swimming, cross-country skiing and mountain walking and was an active (and founder) member of a local international women’s club. She even found time to make frequent trips to the UK, where she loved to encourage her two grandchildren in school plays, concerts and dance shows.
Age finally caught up with her and at 94 she moved reluctantly to a care home, where she made the most of the available activities, including swimming, picnics and concerts.
She is survived by two grandchildren, Ben and Claire, and by me.
