Former teacher Barbara Prescott, known by generations of East Oxford students, has died aged 93.
She died on January 29, the day of her 93rd birthday.
The family are convinced she achieved her final life goal to get one up on Peter, her late husband, who died aged 92, and put him in the junior position. She died peacefully, after a chest infection with her daughter, Carolyn, and her granddaughter, Emily, by her side.
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As a former science teacher, librarian, mother and grandmother, she relished her role in various schools, helping to prepare the many students, and her own children, over the years for adult life.
Born in Macclesfield in 1929, she moved to Ebbw Vale with her father, Cyril Leighton, mother Emily and younger brother Forrest, just prior to the outbreak of the Second World War.
She met Peter in 1941 when he was evacuated from Dover, Kent. He should have been sent to Monmouth but when the train, containing one half girls and the other half boys, was split to continue their separate journeys, the girls ended up in Caerleon, Monmouthshire, and the boys sent by mistake to Ebbw Vale. A huge disappointment to the boys of Ebbw, but a fortunate error for Barbara and the family.
So began a courtship that would eventually culminate in their marriage in 1951 in Maidstone Parish Church, however their story was interrupted by her studies in Manchester and his National Service in the RAF. They were married for 67 years.
After graduating in 1949 she worked at St Mary’s in London.
Pathology wasn’t for her and she soon found a job as a science teacher at a girls school in Kent, by this time having made contact with Peter again, and they revived their courtship.
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They settled in Westgate on the Kent coast, and she continued teaching until first Toby the family dog and then Robert appeared on the scene in 1955. Barbara loved walking on the promenade and beach.
The family moved to Marston, Oxford in 1963 and Barbara briefly returned to teaching until Carolyn arrived in 1964.
Barbara was a member of the Mothers Union in Marston and the WI in Horspath, which later turned into a coffee and friendship group.
With the family complete and now at school, Barbara returned to work, this time as a technician in the science department of Peter’s school, the start of an 18-year working partnership with Peter, first at East Oxford Secondary school and then at Isis Middle school, where her role had changed into librarian and resources manager.
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She ruled her area with benign authority and there will be generations of East Oxford students and staff who benefited from her knowledge and improvements to the resources but who also knew better than to cross Mrs Prescott!
In 1989, Barbara and Peter retired together, and she was pleased to have more time with the now growing family as grandchildren added to the Prescott clan, with Bob and Cindy’s boys, Adam in 1985 and Nick in 1987. She loved being a ‘Nanna’ and she enjoyed spending time with the boys.
In retirement, she and Peter travelled more widely. She became a ‘media star’ when she was a model for Brookfield Care Home’s calendar, and if you Google Manor Drive, Horspath, and open up Google maps in the photo view, Barbara, on her scooter, still appears in two of the images.
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