Eleanor Mary Whitmore

Their story

Eleanor (a fictional example used to demonstrate this page) was born in a terraced house near the river, the youngest of four. She trained as a primary school teacher and spent thirty-one years in the same classroom, where she was known for the jam jars of seedlings lined up along every windowsill.

She married Arthur in 1956. Together they kept an allotment for over fifty years, and most Sundays ended with a flask of tea and a bag of runner beans handed over the fence to whoever was passing.

In retirement she volunteered at the local library, read every Agatha Christie twice, and never once let anyone leave her kitchen hungry. She is remembered by her children, five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren, and by generations of former pupils who still grow tomatoes because of her.