Announcement: REES-WEBBE Jean (nee Pocock, formerly Fisher) died peacefully on 8th December 2014, aged 97. Much loved mother of Andrew and Christopher, grandmother and great-grandmother. Funeral at Lyme Regis parish church at 2pm on 22nd December 2014. Tribute: Our Mother, Jean, lived a long and varied life. She was born in to a privileged and traditional family, sensitive that amongst five children she was born the third consecutive daughter, followed by two sons. There was much happiness in her Surrey childhood though, by today’s standards, it had its ‘upstairs, downstairs’ aspects, including such things as being dressed up in their best clothes so that they could have Sunday lunch with their parents. She told us of many more small incidents during childhood, including getting into trouble with the gardeners for climbing trees in the orchard, and getting into trouble with her parents when her older sister pulled the ribbons out of her pigtails! This might be why in later years she was always concerned about keeping her hair tidy and smart. With finishing school in Brussels and cruising and ski-ing holidays available, a comfortable, conventional life was ahead of her as she completed her teenage years. But she wanted more independence; she had done well at school and decided to build on this through training as a pharmacist, and went on to live and work in south London – Battersea and Clapham – in a dispensing medical practice – foregoing, or so we are told, the fashionable life of central London. During the war she relocated to Maidstone and only survived one serious bombing and building collapse through sheltering under a reinforced kitchen table, where she was buried for many hours before being dug out. War brought not only peril and loss, but also excitement and a readiness to live outside the previous social norms, and at the end of the war her choice of husband reflected this. She and our Father, Ted, were married in 1946 and moved to Watchet with our father's army posting. This brought them to the west country, but Father soon left the army and they moved to Weston-super-Mare for a short time, and then to Banwell where our father started a riding school. The riding school was not a financial success, and soon a move to Churchill to run the Churchill Inn in the early 1950s was necessary. The period at the Churchill Inn was very successful and included father training his own race horse. I remember the time his horse won a race, and Jean had put a £1 each way bet on it. Winning as a 100 - 1 outsider meant that she made a lot of money that day. I also remember times when I was in trouble with my father, but my mother always stood up for me!! At the end of 1959 it became necessary for them to move to Lyme Regis where they ran the Victoria Hotel thinking that they could make the same success of it as they had achieved at the Churchill Inn . While there were some good aspects to the next few years, the overall effect was dreadful. By the time they gave up the hotel in 1965 they were exhausted, their marriage was on the rocks and they were in deep debt. Around the age of 50, Jean had to start her life afresh, while uncertain as to how she might make ends meet and keep a roof over her head. Her parents, friends and siblings rallied round, but beyond this her salvation was twofold: firstly, through her earlier medical training she had the credibility to secure a job as medical secretary and eventual practice manager at the Uplyme surgery, then run by Dr Guthrie. She performed this role until the practice was merged with that of Charmouth in the late 1970s. Particularly under Dr Guthrie, she regained her confidence and self-respect and once again was able to stand on her two feet. Secondly, in 1970 she remarried and in Jasper, then a widower, she found companionship, comfort and security: it was a marriage which happily worked well for both of them. She enjoyed living in View Road for some 40 years and participated in the social life of Lyme Regis. Her children flourished, notwithstanding the episodes of stress in earlier family life, and she was fully engaged in their lives and that of their children. She liked to laugh and giggle. Her experience meant she got on with people from all walks of life. She liked to find out people’s unguarded opinions, and was well able to play the innocent to get them to reveal a little more, perhaps, than they had intended. She liked a bit of gossip and the gentle humour which could be found in everyday life. She enjoyed the conspiracy and fun of a shared confidence or secret. She didn’t complain. That she remained independent to a great age and notwithstanding her progressive loss of sight and agoraphobia was thanks in no small part to the support she received from Traci Emmett and her family, to the friendship of Daphne Tomkins, John Chase and Monica Symes, to the taxi driving of Trish Evans - which extended to large parts of Southern England, and to the medical support of Dr Beckers from the Charmouth practice. For the last two years, she was well cared for at Clarondene, where she gained a new lease of life before dying contentedly just short of her 98th birthday. Throughout her life she was always The Lady in all that she did, and our mother.