Jean E A Gemmell

Stage-struck, from the age of four, I trained as a dancer, but after an ankle injury in my mid-teens, I devoted my energies to things of a more academic nature. At the age of eighteen, instead of going off to ballet school, I went to university and read physics and maths. A neighbour of my mother's said, "No one should have been surprised because Jean was always very physical."

For forty-plus years, my working life was in the world of education: teacher, headteacher, Trade Union General Secretary, then eight years as a borough councillor, including one year as the Mayor, but my spare time was reserved for extracurricular speaking engagements and my theatrical activities. I've performed in, choreographed and/or directed well over two hundred operas, plays, musicals, concerts and pageants and recently compered my first Zoom concert.