Jean Asterley (nee Bates)
1912 - 1989

Jean Asterley

Jean married Dan Asterley in 1942, in Worcester Cathedral.  She remained a “Friend” of the Cathedral for the rest of her life.

On joining the school she took over responsibility for the domestic aspects of school life; she was also ‘a friend (to the boys) should the going become too rough’.

'Seldom does one person have the opportunity to touch so many lives – the fact that so many of those who knew Jean became and remained her friends is tribute enough to her life'.  Andrew Duncan (1954-1959)

In the early 1950s while testing the ice on the lake to see if it was safe for the boys to skate, Jean fell through it into the water.  'It was very much touch and go but with the aid of a ladder and ropes we got her out; just in time'.  Henry Pullinger (Staff 1949-1952).  She continued to swim in the lake in the summer months for the rest of her life.

Jean’s brother Michael was at Aymestrey 1926-1931, and his ashes were scattered on the cricket field.

Jean’s health had been of concern for some time, and by 1965 was failing to the point where she needed to stop work, so at the end of the year Dan sold Aymestrey to Hugh and Gill Griffith.  She and Dan moved to the cottage, and Jean continued to be involved in the school in an informal way.

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_To me she was a marvelous friend and ally in the difficult days when we started here and all the way through.  She always came to school functions and it was so easy to talk to her about a school problem, because of shared experience and because she could be relied upon to lighten the load with humour.  She was also a fount of knowledge about the intricacies of this extraordinary house, its plumbing, drains, gutters etc.
GSG (Aymestrey Magazine 1989)

_MEMORIES OF JEAN
Andrew Duncan (1954-1959) at Jean's memorial service at Cotheridge, reproduced in the 1989 magazine:
Jean never altered – from my earliest days as a boy at Aymestrey, Jean has seemed to me to be the same – imperturbable, unflappable, unpretentious and, never far below the surface, that sense of fun struggling to get out. ...  Humour was never far away when Jean was around and if there was a funny side she invariable found it.

Though retired, her interest in the boys never waned and one story which I think encapsulates her attitude to life involved a visit to the boys one winter’s day when they were enjoying some tobogganing: Jean watched for a while but became progressively more appalled by the boys’ efforts and eventually decided that she must demonstrate how it should be done – she commandeered the nearest toboggan, leapt upon it and set off in the traditional style head first down what generations of boys have know as the Cresta Run.  She had timed it well, had picked a good sled and result was a record which stood for many days and provoked much comment and admiration within the school.

Jean Asterley (Mike Powell)