Tribute to Horsham resident Jill Clark

Jill Clark 1926-2020
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Jill joked about being born in the year of the General Strike but there was no hint of stoppage about her life. Her father was an art teacher; her mother a dancer, her Kensington childhood enlivened by stories told by friends of her uncle Norman Shelley (of Archers fame).

War and ill health cut short her secondary education but she went to art school in Sidcup and Walthamstow and ended the war years with art and design qualifications.

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She impressed many in the postwar wardrobe department at the Royal Opera House, including costume designer Tanya Moiseiwitsch, stage designer Oliver Messel and young singers Geraint Evans and Elisabeth Schwarzkopf.

Jill ClarkJill Clark
Jill Clark

In 1949 she worked at GB (Gaumont British) Animation at Moor Hall in Cookham painting backgrounds: her husband-to-be, Ron, created the storyboards, roles they re-deployed in the 1980s in Paris working on Asterix films.

Meantime she and Ron moved to Horsham and started a family of four. She kept her artistic skills sharp with creative embroidery, teaching it at night school in Horsham and then privately to devoted pupils.

Her youngest daughter, Philippa, has Rett syndrome, a condition little-understood when she was born in 1963. Jill always strove to do the best for Philippa visiting her at least once a week with tasty treats and a sing-song.

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For a while, when Ron’s work became scarcer, she worked as a nurse at the Forest and Horsham Hospitals and at Roffey Park.

When Ron died in 2009 she was already suffering from osteoporosis and arthritis but she moved into Homestream House by the old Prewett’s Mill, enjoyed a fine view of St Mary’s spire and quickly made a new circle of friends including the Sunday lunchers at the Church Hall in The Causeway, always with one eye on the welfare of Philippa who she continued to visit right up until the week before she died.

A growing cocktail of medication for a lengthening list of ailments, none of them life-threatening by themselves, proved unable to keep up with Jill and she died suddenly, at home, on the morning of November 2.

The funeral is on Thursday November 26: there is a tribute page for donations to Rett UK at jillclark.muchloved.com.

She is survived by her two sisters, four children, six grandchildren and two great grandchildren.

Her light shines for all of us.