In mid-life my mother, Gillian Oxford, who has died of cancer aged 79, switched from being a stay-at-home mother to teaching children with reading difficulties. She spent the next 20 years working in north London comprehensive schools, building the confidence of many pupils.
Gillian was born in Banstead, Surrey, to Helen (nee Oakeshott), a headteacher, and Peter Mason, a chemist. She went to Twickenham County grammar school before training as a dairy scientist at the University of Reading.In 1965 she married John Oxford, a virologist, and after starting a family they moved to Australia when John was offered a job there. In Canberra Gillian worked as a theatre reviewer for the Canberra Times. She also took a great interest in the language, theatre and art of the Indigenous Australians, spending weeks in the outback immersed in their communities.
When the expanding family moved back to the UK in 1972, Gillian looked after the five children while learning Greek and Irish and maintaining her interest in politics. As youngsters, she took us to Greenham Common and to demonstrations that mattered to her. During the miners’ strike she travelled to Barnsley to help in the kitchens.
She was also a supportive and proud wife to our father, travelling with him to international conferences on influenza. Not for her the shopping trips offered up to “the wives”: she enjoyed the science, the ideas, and the pleasure of meeting rigorous thinkers.
In 1975 Gillian founded London Voices, a political group where people met monthly to read and discuss their writing. It later became part of the Federation of Worker Writers, gathering annually for a national weekend of performance, politics and debate. In 1985 my mother published the group’s first anthology of poetry and prose, Rising Tide. More anthologies followed and the group continues to this day.
At the age of 50 Gillian announced that she was not going to do day-to-day cooking any more and would be retraining as a teacher of children with reading difficulties. John took on the task of running the household, while Gillian worked at various north London schools. She later wrote a series of books for children who had dyslexia, published by Heinemann.
During those years Gillian also took up Irish dancing. Her last competitive performance was at the World Irish Dance Association’s championship in 2019, where, aged 77, she was given a standing ovation by competitors and spectators.
At home she was a fabulous host, throwing open the family house to young people who needed a place to stay and holding regular parties – even weddings – in the garden. We will always remember her vibrancy, dancing towards us with her long auburn pigtail, outstretched arms and utter strength.
She is survived by John and their children, Catherina, Berenice, Gerard, Juliette and me, and 10 grandchildren.
