Posted - June 13, 2007
Phyllis, who died, aged 88, in November 2006, had a wonderful smile that lit up any company. Phyllis, whose maiden name was Carr, was ‘Jericho to her fingertips’. She was born in Great Clarendon Street, and although she changed houses she never changed street. Phyllis went to the Church Girls School in Cardigan Street until she was 14. She took full part in the Church’s youth organizations and was confirmed in 1930. About the same time, she first got to know a boy over the garden wall: Jack Webster who was a year or two older and was a ‘foreigner’ (from St. Giles) who was visiting a neighbour. But it was not until ten years later in 1940 that they were married. Jack had only a few days leave from the army to return to Oxford and propose to Phyllis, and they were married in St Barnabas. Phyllis herself helped the war effort by repairing Spitfires at Morris’s. Towards the end her aches and pains occasionally got her down but she never lost her sunny disposition. Our sympathies to Jack.