Sister Mary Austin Thompson, Honorary Life Member, died on the 27th August 2010 at the age of 81. The Roman Catholic Diocese of Middlesborough have a web page in her memory.
She is, of course, remembered by members and ex-members of the Society. Jayne Wilson (née Plaxton) writes:
I was a pupil at Endsleigh when Sister was a teacher and then headteacher. Many of us have her to thank for awakening in us a love of music, principally through teaching us to play the recorder. Our school recorder ensembles regularly played on the stage of the Hull City Hall and I remember proudly playing bass recorder there at the age of 10. After qualifying as a teacher, I went, each month with Sister Mary Austin and Sister Anne Marie to the Leeds branch of the SRP, and three or four times to the Summer School in Nottingham and Doncaster in the late 70s. We also took children to Bridlington for ‘recorder weekends’ where she always had a swim, in summer in the sea. I had the privilege of working with Sister at Sacred Heart Primary School in Hull until I left to have my family and lost touch with her. It was some years later when I took a recorder group to the Hornsea Festival that I met up with her again – she continued to enjoy listening to recorder players and offered advice and encouragement. I could mention many more occasions when Sister promoted love of the recorder but I’ll finish by emphasising how she believed that the way to a child’s heart was through music, particularly those children in whom others had lost faith. The recorder world has lost one of its most loyal promoters, Jayne Wilson (née Plaxton) |