Irene Cox

Date: Friday 11 April 2008

Many thanks to the Kentish Gazette for the use of this article commemorating the life and work of Irene Cox (nee Lester).

"An extraordinary love story has ended with the death of a former matron of St Edmund's Junior School, Canterbury.

Irene Cox passed away on March 28th, aged 98, just 15 days after losing her husband, John, who was a former Master of the Junior School.

Mrs Cox, who lived at Harbledown Lodge Nursing Home, embarked on a life of helping others after her own parents died when she was just thirteen.

She began work as a housemaid to two families and had brief spells as matron in three schools before joining St Edmund's as Miss Lester in 1949, where she would spend 25 years working alongside her future husband.

But the couple did not marry until they had both retired.

Mr Cox had moved to Papua New Guinea to take up a teaching post. But soon after, he proposed to Irene in a telephone call home to England, and she flew half way around the world to marry him.

She was 75 and he was 63 but the couple are said to have been devoted to one another for many years previously.

The wedding was conducted by Bishop David Hand, the former Archbishop of Papua New Guinea, whose nephew Peter had been looked after by Mrs Cox at St Edmund's in the 1960s.

They returned to Canterbury soon after to live together in Glen Iris Avenue, Canterbury, and dedicated themselves to serving many local charities.

They were also members of St Paul's Church. Mrs Cox could still be seen selling her poppies in the High Street in her 90s during Remembrance Week.

But friends say she lost the will to live after being told of her husband's death.

Her funeral is at St Paul's Church, Canterbury, at 2.00pm on Friday April 18th."

St Edmund's is planning a service in memory of John and Irene to coincide with the School's former pupils' summer reunion on Sunday May 18th. Further details, when finalised, will appear in these pages.