Gail Mead

Gale Mead/Peto – 1943–2001. For the past 30 years Gale lived in Jericho, which she loved, worked in the Radcliffe Infirmary, and took her holidays in Greece. In Jericho she was a mother (to Tom and Leon), in the Infirmary she was an amazingly good medical secretary (to, among others, her partner Richard Peto) and on holiday in Greece she was free. She usually went alone, with a bag of novels to read in peace on the beach or in the ‘taverna’. On her last trip, however, she had a massive allergic reaction to an insect sting: within half an hour her airways were closed tight shut, she suffered brain damage and never regained consciousness. Richard, Tom and Leon flew to Greece and eventually brought her home to the Radcliffe Infirmary, where she died a few days later. Gale was a lovely, warm, neighbourly person, who had a lot of friends, particularly in Jericho and in the Infirmary, but she would have been amazed at the effect her death had on so many people. More than 300 attended a celebration of her life on October 2 in Freuds, where there were many affectionate tributes and stories from family, friends, neighbours and colleagues (one of whom said later that this was the only funeral she’d been to where the past smiled on the present). Gale was the centre of a large extended family, many of whom live in Jericho. Her unexpected death is the worst thing that has happened to us: we miss her terribly. Viv Peto, significant neighbour, Great Clarendon Street