Tribute to much loved woman at the heart of Amberley's community who fought hard to save village school

Jenny Toynbee, who was 77, had served as a governor at Amberley Primary School, was membership secretary of the Amberley Society for a number of years, looked after the advertising for the parish magazine, was a member of the Society of Amberley Garden Enthusiasts (SAGE) and the Book Club, and held the first of the village’s successful Macmillan Coffee Mornings at her home in East Street in 2003. She also helped run the Amberley Good Neighbours Emergency Service (AGNES) for many years.

Born in Sutton, Surrey, Jenny had a peripatetic existence for the first eight years of her life, her father serving as a lieutenant in the Royal Engineers and who was part of the liberation forces at the end of the Second World War. Her parents had married at Horsham during the war and Jenny spent many happy childhood holidays on a duck farm at Brooks Green, run by a great uncle and aunt. The family finally settled in Little Chalfont in Buckinghamshire.

Her first job was as a trainee pharmacist at the Royal Westminster Hospital in London. But she soon realised it was not a career for her and went to work in the finance office of the United Nations Association’s London office before heading off for Greece as a volunteer for the UNA’s Greek project in conjunction with Freedom from Hunger. Working as PA to the liaison officer, she quickly became fluent in Greek in order to help negotiate development work in the villages of Epirus and the small town of Filiates on the border with Albania. Here she made many lifelong friends and on her return to London played an active role in fundraising to build a youth centre in Filiates and which continues to thrive today.

She then worked as a secretary at an advertising agency, moved into PR and looked after the publicity for the Greek National Tourist Office in London. In 1980 she joined Travel Press Service (TPS), a dedicated travel PR company, looking after a number of accounts, including Cathay Pacific Airways, the Hong Kong Tourist Association, Hertz, the Balearic Islands (Majorca and Minorca), and a number of hotels and restaurants. She was deputy managing director when the company was taken over by Shandwick in the early 1990s. Her former boss said “…. she was always there for me and the clients and her colleagues loved her. She was so professional, no nonsense and charming with it.”

Later, as a freelance consultant, she represented the Melbourne Convention Bureau. She met Mike Toynbee in 1980 at a function neither of them wanted to be at but had attended out of a sense of duty. They lived together in Notting Hill and finally got married in 1998. They bought a weekend cottage in Amberley in 1985, having previously spent regular weekends at a chalet, owned by Jenny’s aunt, on the river bank at Houghton. They moved permanently to Amberley in 1997.

Virtually the first meeting Jenny attended as a governor of the primary school, West Sussex County Council announced plans for its closure. A major campaign was mounted to save the school, with Jenny coordinating the publicity. It proved successful and the school remained open and went on to flourish with pupil numbers increasing. Martin Carter, who was then chair of the school’s governors, recalls that “Jenny knew exactly what we needed to do and how to do it and she took a ‘no nonsense’ approach which gave us great momentum. Having said that she was always polite when dealing with others and she had my unwavering support in every single detail. It was such a pleasure to work with her and the village can be most thankful because the fact is Jenny did so much more than anyone else to save the school.”

In 2003, she organised the first of the village’s Business Breakfasts, inviting the then electricity supplier to come and explain why Amberley and the surrounding area suffered so many power failures. She extracted a promise that things would improve – they did – and even shamed the company into donating £1,000 for whiteboards for the school by way of compensation.

She became an enthusiastic gardener, joining SAGE, and transforming a somewhat neglected garden into a showpiece which was subsequently publicly admired at the biennial Amberley Gardens Open events.

Jenny and Mike both travelled extensively on business – she often escorting press groups to the destinations she represented, or attending overseas conventions – and he as editor for 18 years of a monthly publication for executive travellers.

She was a member of Goodwood for the horse-racing for a number of years and more recently of the polo club at Cowdray. Although Jenny did not share Mike’s passion for cars (“I just want something that will get me from A to B without breaking down”) or motor sport, she always organised a lavish picnic for friends and petrolheads on the Friday at the Goodwood Revival.