Gina Huntington, Tennis Coach
Gina was born in 1938 in Hillsborough, Sheffield. She showed an early talent for tennis and on leaving school went to London to work for Fred Perry as an administrator, which financed her playing in tournaments, equipment and travel etc. She then turned professional as a player and got sponsorship from Dunlop/Slazenger in the 1950s. […]
Mona Armitage, Lord Mayor of York
Mona Armitage was the youngest of eleven children and her father was a furnace man. Born in Wallsend, Tyneside, she recalled that a day trip to York as a child left her with a lasting impression of a ‘fairy-tale city’. When she left commercial college in Newcastle she came to live with a sister in […]
Jenny Zobel, Centre for Global Education
Throughout her life, Jenny Zobel (1946 – 2018) never failed to connect with her ancestors. In her own words “I wanted the portrait of my parents that hangs on the wall of my flat to act as a magic portal to transport me to the world of my ancestors.” Jenny was born in 1946 on […]
Kathleen Jones, Professor, University of York
Kathleen Jones (1922-2010) founded the department of social policy and social work at the University of York in 1965. Daughter of a lorry driver and a dinner lady, she was brought up on a large council estate. She won scholarships to the North London Collegiate school and Westfield College, part of the University of London (then based in […]
Wendy Mitchell, NHS worker and Dementia Champion
At the age of 56, Wendy was enjoying living by the river in York and her job in charge of a team preparing the Nursing rotas at St James’s Hospital, Leeds. She had raised her two daughters as a single parent and they were now settled and independent. She was fit and active, enjoyed running, DIY, […]
Dianne Willcocks, Vice Chancellor, York St John University
Dianne was born 3 days before the end of WW2. At 18 she left home, went to London, refused to go to University, married a member of a rock band and had 2 children! Ten years later, at 28 she went to the University of Surrey which stimulated her interest in social gerontology. She moved […]
Vivienne Faull, first woman Dean of York Minster
After some one thousand years, in December 2012 Dean Vivienne Faull was appointed as the first woman Dean to York Minster, breaking a tradition and legacy of male appointments to this position in the Anglican Church. She was ordained deaconess in 1982 and priest in 1994. From 2000 she served as Provost, then Dean, of […]
Mary Hughes, Co-founder York Refugee Committee
Mary Stuart (1886-1953) was born in Sudbrooke, Monmouthshire, Wales in 1886, the daughter of Alfred Donald Stuart and Emily Humble. By 1901 the family were living in Harrogate and in 1911, in Heworth, York. In 1912 Mary married John Armstrong Hughes and in 1913 they had a daughter, Barbara, followed in 1915 by a son, […]
Rachael Maskell, York’s first woman Member of Parliament
Rachael Maskell was born on 5 July 1972 in Winchester, on the anniversary of the NHS. She had a good childhood, growing up with her parents and older sister, and spent time outward bound whenever she could, walking, cycling and involved in guiding and later scouting, as well as playing the piano and cello in […]
Moyra Johnson, President Yorkshire Gliding Club
Moyra Johnson (1915 – 2012) said that she “grew up a bit of a tomboy. I could drive before I was 17, and other girls’ mothers told them not to mix with me because I was a hooligan”. Her father was a gun maker who was made a freeman of the City of York, a […]