My mother-in-law, Tara Wright, who has died aged 68 after suffering from cancer, overcame the stigma of becoming a single mother in Ireland in the late 1960s to make a new life for herself in England, where she eventually became a headteacher. She raised not only the son from her initial pregnancy but another three children from a long-lasting marriage.
Born Philomena Begley in Tralee, County Kerry, to Patrick, a postmaster, and his wife, Bridget, she studied hard at the strict Mountmellick Convent school in Co Laois. Challenging the nuns’ low expectations, she won a place at Trinity College Dublin, to study English. But she left within 18 months after a romantic liaison with a fellow student resulted in pregnancy. Aged 19, she was effectively disowned by her parents and in early 1970 was forced to leave for England, where she planned to give up her baby for adoption.
On the boat over she resolved to change her name to Tara Walker – a decision perhaps symbolic of the metamorphosis she had begun to undergo. She sought refuge in a Salvation Army hostel in Leeds, where she stayed until June 1970, and where her son, Aidan, was born.
Once he had arrived, she decided to keep him and later that year, after moving to London, she was able to get a job as a live-in nanny with a young media couple – Peter Jenkins and Polly Toynbee – both of whom later worked for the Guardian.
She retained that post for the next decade, spending two years with them in Washington DC from 1972, and forging lasting friendships with the whole family. While in the US she met Alan Wright, a salesman for RCA records, and later brand manager for the Ferrero chocolate company, whom she married in 1981 and with whom she had three daughters, Coralie, Emilie and Polly, and a stillborn son, Joseph.
Determined to make up for her hasty exit from university, Tara trained by night to become a nursery school teacher, qualifying in 1979. She eventually left London and worked her way up from being a supply teacher to becoming a head, latterly of Bowerdean nursery school in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, where, under her leadership, the school earned an Ofsted rating of “outstanding” three times.
Two days before she retired, in 2015, Tara discovered she had pancreatic cancer. She had endured many ordeals, some of which encapsulated the social constraints of her era and of her native country – but these never stripped her of her generosity and kindness.
She is survived by Alan, her four children, and five grandchildren.
