Pat Phillips

Pat Phillips (SCR 1978-1988) 

The following was kindly provided by Pat’s son, Nick Phillips.

Pat Phillips, who died peacefully at home with her family on 25 September 2022, was a superb linguist, excellent musician, brilliant cook, wise guide and mentor, loyal friend, and lovely mum. She was for more than 60 years part of a team, publicly and privately with her husband John – Warden of St Edward’s from 1978 to 1988.

 

Born in Singapore in 1929, Pat survived a tough childhood – separated from her parents for eight years, she in England they in Singapore and Australia – and thrived. She read French at St Anne’s, Oxford and met John as well as many lifelong friends at Oxford to add to those she’d made at school.

Their married life started at Charterhouse where John was a master and housemaster until 1978.  Their time there was punctuated by the births of four children between 1954 and 1964 and family life was always of enormous importance to them.

They operated as a team, in which Pat was a major partner. At St Edward’s she became fully involved in the school in multiple areas. Her skill as a French teacher was used for coaching pupils for Oxbridge entrance. Her talent as a cook and sympathy with boys and later girls who were uncomfortable on the games field led her to set up cooking classes – much heralded in condolence letters received by the family.

John and Pat were progressive people and pushed hard to make the introduction of girls to St Edward’s a priority. And then Pat took up a formal pastoral role with the new female intake and made absolutely sure that the move was a great success both for the pupils involved and the school.

One of the first girls at St Edward’s, Helen Cook who is now a governor, wrote to the family recently: “Your mum was an absolute star for us – she cared for us with her firm steer on matters of boys, her desire for us to pioneer female leadership in the school and her authenticity, humour and compassion are memories I carry with me. I often have flash backs as to how well she mentored us without us knowing it – a real skill.”

Pat saw and used the power of social life to benefit all. She and John were hugely hospitable and not just because they enjoyed parties. She would use social situations to get to know people and spot those that might need a little extra help. It was always given, unobtrusively and sensitively.

Malcolm Oxley, St Edwards Second Master at the time, described daily post lunch coffee sessions in the Warden’s House: “There was always lively chat and enjoyable gossip,” he said “and a lot of laughter as well as bits of school business. One experienced there not just Pat’s huge sociability but her acute intelligence, her ready grasp of issues, a sharp understanding of the human condition which went with that wry sense of humour. These qualities and her superb backing of John’s wardenship of course contributed an enormous amount to the school.”

When they retired from St Edward’s to Devon there was so much more to come and as ever Pat and John tackled it as a team. For many years they worked part time for educational trust the Emmott Foundation. That meant travelling round Britain, assessing cases, together of course. And they’d usually manage to take in a restaurant review – part of another sideline as inspectors for the renowned foodie’s bible the Good Food Guide.

Retirement also included frequent returns to the St Edward’s touchline, cheering on their Hargreaves grandchildren Tom (Field House 2002-2007), Olly (Field House 2004-2009) and Alex (Field House 2008-2013). Incidentally, Olly and Sophie Draper (Avenue 2004-2009) added their own proof of the success of the St Edward’s move to co-education by marrying last year… Back to the touchline: Pat had, despite a total absence of interest in sport, been a dutiful regular before, but now she was back with renewed enthusiasm – or as Tom suspected other skills: “we can confidently add acting to her resume,” he said, “given the amount of time she spent on the touchline pretending to have the slightest clue what was going on.”

For their final years Pat and John  moved to West Sussex, where they again enjoyed life to the full. John’s death in 2013 was a bitter blow to Pat, but she continued to display her indefatigable determination to get the most from life until a combination of macular degeneration, hearing loss, dementia and a broken hip finally became too much for even her to power through.

She is survived and hugely missed by her children Jan, Nick, Gilly and Nessa and her grandchildren Tom, Olly, Alex, Emily and Katie.

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