Carol Margaret (Donnison) Weston (1950 - 2019)

Ancestors

Contents 1 Vital facts 2 Biography 2.1 Childhood 2.2 University and early career 2.3 Career at Ford 2.4 Second marriage 2.5 U3A 2.6 Photography 2.7 Pets 2.8 Health 3 Autobiography 3.1 Barr's Hill Reunion 4 Eulogy 5 Family photos 6 Languages 7 Sources

Vital facts

Carol (Donnison) Weston was born on the 15th September 1950 (Battle of Britain day^[1]) at St Helens in Lancashire, the only child of Kenneth Donnison (1914-1992) and Florence Skyrme Fairhurst (1917-2004)^[2][3] and was baptised on 31 December 1950 at Gorton Pariah Church, Manchester ^{[citation needed]}.

She was married to Peter Geddes in Coventry on 12 July 1971 and divorced in 1988, she had one son by her first marriage.

She was married to JG Weston on 26 November 1988 at Brentwood, Essex^[4][5]. They had no children together.

She died on the 6th February 2019 at Broomfield Hospital, Chelmsford after a series of strokes ^[6]. Her obituary is [here].

Her will was dated 30th December 1988 and was witnessed by S. A. Davies and John Houghton. She left everything to her husband on the understanding that his will would bequeath her half of the estate to her family. There was provision in both wills should both die together, but this did not apply.

Biography

Childhood

Having no siblings, her cousin, Nick Hough, was a surrogate brother. She went to school at Huyton College ^[7] , and although a Lancashire lass, thereby acquired a neutral accent. When she was thirteen her father became the optician/pharmacist for the Coop at Coventry and they moved there. She then attended Barrs Hill ^[8] from 1963 to 1968. This was a problem as the two schools were very different in their curriculae, She was ahead of the others on languages, but behind in science. Her father had a Ford Mark I Console which was called Ollie.

University and early career

Paris University identity card [1]

She went to St Andrews University [2], with 6 months at the Sorbonne [3] , and got an M.A. in French. She met her first husband, Peter, at St Andrews and they were married at Coventry in 1971. They had one son. After graduation she took the post graduate course in education at North East London Polytechnic and got a job teaching French at Sweyne Rayleigh. When micro computers first started appearing in schools, they got one at Sweyne. Carol got interested and realised a career change might be a good idea. She applied for and got a place on a TOPS [4] course at Grays Technical College and after a training placement with Ford during the course, applied for and got a job in the Systems Office at Ford's Central Office at Warley, working on the Salary Roll Payroll system. She asked her supervisor on the first day how many others were working on the team. "Oh, just you", he replied. This was a rude shock, and she wondered what she had let herself in for. Luckily she had an aptitude for programming and this was not a problem.

Career at Ford

She remained at Ford, working mainly at Warley but with a spell at Trafford House, Basildon, until she retired in 2011. She worked mainly in Payroll, Software and Equipment Support (later renamed Software and Productivity Support) and Office Productivity departments. Towards the end of her Ford career she worked partly from home with a concept called Hot-desking and using the internet with VPN so that she could access Ford central network from home. This was 20 years before the world woke up to the possibilities during the Covid pandemic. She completed 25 years service ^[9] and shortly before retirement volunteered for part time working.

On 18th July 1983 she changed her last name by deed poll to Fairhurst.^[10].

Second marriage

She married JG Weston in November 1988 at Brentwood registry office^[4], and lived there (Warley), opposite Ford Central Office for a year, but then moved to South Woodham Ferrers in 1989. She was very much on the Arts side but her husband was very much on the Science side. They influenced each other and did many Open university courses together and some different ones.

Carol and JG at Bath summer school

She got a second degree, a BSc, from the OU studying Philosophy, Psychology, Astro Physics, Paleantology and Geology, among others. She sometimes took courses together with her husband, for example A101, the Arts foundation course, so they could attend summer schools together. Her husband introduced her to bird watching and she became adept at being able to name birds at a distance.

U3A

She joined the South Woodham Ferrers U3A [5] in 2007, soon after it started in South Woodham Ferrers and has been a member of many groups. Just before her death she was still an active member of the Science and Technology and Digital Photography groups and she taught French to the French group. The digital photography group combined the earlier separate groups of Digital Photography and Video (film making) groups. [This] is one that she made. The exercise was to make a two minute film although the run time of her one was five minutes.

Photography

She always had an interest in photography starting with an SLR (Zenith) and an Olympus Trip. When the digital cameras first came out, Carol, like many of us, saw the benefit of no longer having to worry about how many images one took, cost was no longer an issue. Many people looked down on digital as the early low resolutions were no match for the quality of film. Carol stuck with it though and learnt how to get the best out of Photoshop as well as the Camera and improve by entering club competitions and participating in the 365 Project [[6]]. She took the digital courses offered by Steve Hedges and the Open University course TG089 Digital Photography and learnt much from the digital photography group of our local U3A [[7]]. She became an accomplished photographer.

Pets

When a child her parents had a dog Angus but when an adult she was a cat person. In her flat at Westcliff she had a lame black cat called Max. I have no photographs and never saw him, but she was very attached to him.

Ludo

After he died she had another cat called Ludo, presumably named as a kitten from the Latin for "I play". He lived to old age (for a cat) and was replaced by a pair of black cats, brothers named

Oscar

Oscar and Django. These came from the Cat's protection League at Great Baddow. She supported several animal welfare charities.

Health

She had normal health until her late forties when she was diagnosed with high blood pressure and put on mild medication. She suffered a period of sciatica with leg and back pain for which she had treatment at a chiropracter and used a TENS unit. She later was diagnosed with arrhythmia and was hospitalised for a procedure which did not resolve the symptoms and so she was put on blood thinners, initially warfarin then rivaroxoban. She had to wear a bracelet to warn paramedics that she was on blood thinners. The blood thinners did not avert the stroke .

Autobiography

(This duplicates some of the above but gives a different perspective as she wrote it herself (about 2010).)

After I left school in 1968, I went to St Andrews University, where I graduated with an M.A. in French. I worked part-time after that (taught French at evening classes) while I looked after my son. In 1978, I trained as a teacher and taught French at a comprehensive school in Essex for 2 years. In 1980, the school acquired a computer and I'm afraid it was love at first sight! I left teaching to train as a computer programmer and ended up working for a large multi-national company, again in Essex. I'm still working there, now specialising in integrating computer software into the workplace. I enjoy the computer industry very much -it is always changing and always challenging. In 1988, I remarried and as he is another computer enthusiast we are a rather sad pair! In the 1990's I took a BSc degree in Psychology with the Open University. I try to keep up my French by attending advanced conversation classes at work and also by holidaying in France or Belgium as often as possible.

What have I been doing since 1968? <Takes a deep breath>. Went to St Andrews University, got a degree in French, got married, had a son, taught evening classes and then taught in a secondary school for 2 years. The school acquired a computer in 1980 and I fell in love with it! I left teaching to train as a computer programmer, did my Industrial Attachment at Ford in Brentwood, Essex, they offered me a job and I started there in February, 1981 (and am still there!). I got divorced, had a miserable few years on my own, then met John, who was also working at Ford as a systems programmer. We got married in 1988. In the 1990’s I did an Open University degree in Psychology, out of interest. My current job at Ford is working in Collaborative Applications – i.e. investigating ways of communicating on the PC with colleagues in other locations, using methods such as videoconferencing and data sharing. I get to play with the latest hardware and software and really am in my element! I’m afraid I have turned into a bit of a geek; I’m on the PC all day at work and also spend most of the evening and weekend at my PC too, reading email, working on web pages, surfing etc.. My interests (outside computing!) are astronomy (we have a 10 inch telescope in the garden), classical music, watercolour painting (I’m hopeless at it but it is very relaxing), cinema, wine, birdwatching and most things French. We have 2 cats and live in a small new town just south of Chelmsford, Essex. The house is within strolling distance of the River Crouch. We get some interesting birds here particularly in the winter and it’s just a short drive to Maldon to see the lovely Thames barges. These days I tend to go to London (40 minutes on the train) only for courses but we used to go to concerts and the opera quite regularly.

Barr's Hill Reunion

She attended a reunion, in about 2010, of former pupils of her grammar school. These are recollections she recorded afterwards,

Barr’s Hill Reunion: What struck me….

• Seeing a photo and not remembering where it was taken
• Seeing a message on a school magazine in my own handwriting but not remembering anything about it. And the handwriting has changed , even though I can recognise it as my own.
• Not being able to recognise the other girls until I’d read the name labels and then it clicked.
• Having anecdotes recited about oneself and just not remembering (taking somebody’s table at lunchtime when nobody else would, Lawrence of Arabia, the school choir)
• Having the same old gut feeling about people one didn’t get on with and having warm feelings again for those one did
• Realising that some perceptions/memories were inaccurate
• Realising that some things I found unpleasant were unpleasant to the others as well. I was not alone!
• Of course, how difficult it was to believe we were 50-year old women and that school was a long, long time ago.

Eulogy

They say there is a reason, They say that time will heal,
But neither time nor reason, Will change the way I feel,

No-one knows the heartache, That lies behind my smile,
No-one knows how many times, I have broken down and cried,

I want to tell you something, So there won’t be any doubt,
You’re so wonderful to think of, But so hard to be without.

From Melissa L Eshleman’s book, “Always Within; Grieving the Loss of Your Infant.”

I found this poem when looking for something suitable for our remember the children page. It seemed appropriate to express my feelings about Carol (they are still the same four years later) so I have included it here.

I later wrote one of my own.

TO CAROL

I daily miss your presence so devine
And for you still beside me I do pine.
They say, but 'tis not true; time does not heal
According to the heart pangs I still feel.
You are no more, but yet you still remain
Within my memories, though they bring me pain.

JGW 20 September 2022

Family photos

Carol had a collection of family photo that she inherited from her dad. She had identified some but was still working on this when she died. I am adding these as I scan them in to the free space page for family mysteries.

Languages

Sources

1. ↑ Although the Battle of Britain was fought from 10 July to 31 October 1940 (Wikipedia accessed September 20, 2023), during the Second World War, the 15th of September was thought to be the crucial turning point and is now celebrated each year as Battle of Britain day. Wikipedia contributors, "Battle of Britain Day,", The Free Encyclopedia, (Wikipedia accessed September 20, 2023).
2. ↑ Birth registration: "England & Wales Births 1837-2006" (Findmy past accessed 1 June 2023, Carol M Donnison in 1950 (DONNSON Carol M, LOYNS, St Helens, 10 f 604)
3. ↑ Personal knowledge of JG Weston
4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1} Second marriage: "England and Wales Marriage Registration Index, 1837-2005," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QVXV-G2GV : 8 October 2014), Carol M Fairhurst and null, Nov 1988; from "England & Wales Marriages, 1837-2005," database, findmypast (http://www.findmypast.com : 2012); citing 1988, quarter 4, vol. 9, p. 1387, Brentwood, Essex, England, General Register Office, Southport, England. Accessed 25 April 2023.
5. ↑ Marriage certificate in possession of JG Weston.

   26/11/88	John Geoffrey Weston	50	Previous marriage dissolved	Software programmer	5 Thornton Court, Eagle Way, Warley	Geoffrey Howard Weston (deceased)	Airline Reservation Clerk
   	Carol Margaret Fairhurst (name changed by deed poll)	38	Previous Marriage dissolved	Systems Analyst	5 Thorndon Court, Eagle Way, Warley	Kenneth Donnison	Chemist/Optician (retired)

6. ↑ Death: "Death certificate" in possession of JG Weston

   Registration District	Essex
   Date and place of death	6 February 2019, Broomfield Hospital
   Name	Carol Margaret Weston
   Date and place of birth	15 September 1950, St Helens, Lancashire
   Occupation and address	Computer Analyst (retired), Wife of John Geoffrey Weston Computer Analyst (retired), 21 Leeward Road, South Woodham Ferrers, Chelmsford, Essex
   Name of informant	John Geoffrey Weston (widower of deceased)
   Address	21 Leeward Road, South Woodham Ferrers, Chelmsford, Essex
   Certified by	JG Weston (signed)
   Cause of Death	Myocardial Infarction, Ischaemic Heart Disease. Acute Ischaemic & Haemorrhagic strokes, Aspriation pneumonia. Certified by Sadek Ali MUDr (Komenskeho University)
   Date of registration	11 February 2019
   Registrar	P Brown (signed)

7. ↑ Wikipedia contributors, "Huyton College," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Huyton_College&oldid=1023910094 (accessed June 15, 2021).
8. ↑ Wikipedia contributors, "Barr's Hill School," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Barr%27s_Hill_School&oldid=1022630247 (accessed June 15, 2021).
9. ↑ certificate
10. ↑ scan of deed poll

• My own first and second hand (from my wife) knowledge ( JG - JG Weston) on profile creation.

• Source: Personal recollection of her husband, JG Weston in February 2019 [8] following her death.