My mother, Rosemary Hobsbaum, who has died aged 86, was an English teacher and student guidance counsellor with a great love of literature and art.
She was born in Ilfracombe, north Devon. Her father, John Phillips, a maths teacher, died when she was four, leaving her mother, Hilda (nee Moore), a violin teacher, on her own. Money was in short supply.
At Ilfracombe grammar school Rosemary developed a love for English literature. Through literature Rosemary realised there was more to life – and that academia offered her a way out. She applied to Somerville College, Oxford, to study English and was accepted.
At Oxford, Rosemary found her tribe and she also met George Singleton, her future husband. She graduated in 1958 and they married the following year, settling in Glasgow, where she trained at Jordanhill Teacher Training College. She had found her vocation and loved teaching in the newly forged comprehensive schools of the city. After her first position at Knightswood secondary school, she settled at North Kelvinside school in 1962 and stayed there for a decade.
At teacher training college she became friends with a young art teacher, Alasdair Gray, who went on to achieve great success as a writer and artist. Rosemary and George were among the first to commission works by him, including a portrait of them both and a large black and white mural for the stairwell in their home, which still survives in the house to this day.
Rosemary and George divorced in 1974. In 1976 Rosemary married the poet and critic Philip Hobsbaum. Their 30-year marriage was powered by their shared love of literature – Philip called her his “anima candida” (“pure soul”). Meanwhile Rosemary became not only an excellent English teacher but also moved into the guidance field, helping many students through their tough high school years.
In 1974 she moved to Colston secondary school, where she became deputy principal of guidance. In 1990 she took up a deputy principal of guidance post at Hillhead high school. She also referred many students for Oxbridge applications. She retired in 2000.
In retirement she was a director of the Citizens theatre. As a great advocate for theatre in education, she chaperoned many groups of children to see performances. She was a Labour party member and took an active role, delivering leaflets and attending meetings up until her final years.
In 2005, after Philip died, Rosemary moved to Reading to be near her daughter Mary. She read many books a week. She loved cinema, theatre and art. After I went to Toronto in 2006, she travelled to Canada often to visit. She also met a new partner, Norman Hixson, a neighbour in her retirement flats, and enjoyed several happy years with him until his death in 2022.
She is survived by her daughters, Mary and me, and by four grandchildren, Amy, Jacob, Gregor and Sam.
