Ann’s London childhood coincided with Hitler’s blitz in World War Two. Life was tough for her parents Tim and Lilian. He worked in a munitions factory and was an active trades unionist. Both were committed to Moral Re-Armament, which aimed at a classless society under God’s guidance. Some nights Tim went with MRA colleagues to talk to people sheltering in the depths of Underground stations. One who went with him was Rear-Admiral Edward Cochrane, called out of retirement to be a Convoy Commodore in the Atlantic.
By the end of her schooling Ann was well aware of the need for an idea that could unite the forces of good in the world, and counter divisive materialism, whether of left or right. She committed herself to the struggle for absolute moral standards in family and nation. A degree in Geography was followed by a post-graduate certificate in Education. She started at a London school, and shared a flat with two other women teachers. Active in the National Union of Teachers, they were part of a network of educators around Britain and other European countries with the same aims.
In the early 1960s MRA, which owned the Westminster Theatre in London, began a series of plays to strengthen the faith element of Britain’s industrial and civic life. Colourful, humorous, thoughtful, they drew a considerable public audience. Coachloads came from industrial areas around the country. The pantomime “Give a Dog a Bone” ran for eleven Christmas seasons. For schools in closer range there was ‘A Day of London Theatre’. Ann and her friends brought their own pupils, and spread the word to other schools.
Around the middle of that decade she was one of seven British teachers who gave up their salaried posts for full-time service in MRA’s world work. The saying “Where God guides, he provides” felt improbable at the time, but friends still in teaching gave regular financial support. Some expenses could be claimed. For the rest it was faith and prayer. Ann brought a warm heart, down-to-earth thought, and gales of laughter, to her hard work and care for younger people. For years at MRA’s training centre in Cheshire she was part of a team cooking for forty residents and sometimes double that number at conferences.
At the world assembly each summer in Caux, Switzerland, it was more like four hundred for every meal. She kept abreast with education issues, co-editing ‘Polestar’, a bi-monthly UK publication. Invited to India to help in MRA’s programme, she was asked for a manual for teachers of children aged 9- 13. In response, she and a colleague, Joy Weeks, in 1991 produced The Other 3Rs with nine modules covering Responsibility, Relationships, and Respect. This expertise also took her to Fiji, New Zealand and Australia.
Care for her parents in their old age meant a move to Merseyside, where she stayed for the rest of her own outgoing life. She joined the local council to ensure best service for communities in need, and for a time managed a care home. She played her part in MRA campaigns in the region. One involved UK restitution for the triangular slave trade between Liverpool, West Africa and Richmond, Virginia. Another addressed the historic relationship between Ireland and England. Common to such endeavours was the change in difficult situations that comes through change in difficult people.
When we two former teachers married in 1972, Ann was Chief Bridesmaid. For us, as for many around the world, she remained a valiant friend to the last.
Jean and Peter Everington
English
