24 February 1953 - 7 July 2019

Written by Helen's husband, Jeremy 

Helen was born at Hazeley Farm near Twyford in Hampshire, where her father farmed. Her childhood included galloping across the Hampshire downland to meet friends on her pony and joining in pony club activities, which were her fondest memories of life on the farm.

She went to St Swithun’s where both of her sisters, Gill and Jane, also went. She made lots of friendships there, many of which lasted until she died.

After leaving St Swithun’s she went to secretarial college in Oxford and then on to various secretarial jobs. Following that, she followed her sister Gill out to Crete where Gill and her husband were living. She spent a year there helping on farms, picking grapes and doing other sundry jobs.

After that, Helen moved back to England to share a house near Winchester with friends (some of whom were at St Swithun’s) and to work as a secretary.

One of her friends who shared the house was a New Zealander, who suggested that Helen might like to accompany her on an overland trip back home. Helen immediately jumped at the idea and the adventure began. Helen joined her in Iran and from there travelled extensively through Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kashmir, India and Nepal. Next they journeyed to Burma, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore and finally on to the Indonesian islands of Java, Bali and Lombok before flying on to Sydney. Having travelled in Australia briefly they finally arrived in New Zealand where Helen travelled around for another year doing odd jobs.

Helen then returned to England where she found work as a legal secretary in Winchester. It was then that she met her husband to be, Jeremy, who had also travelled widely, and they were later married at St Cross Church. Jeremy was a landscape designer and together they set up home in the country on the outskirts of Braishfield, a village near Romsey, to the south of Winchester.

They had two sons, dogs, cats and chickens and led the perfect country life. In addition to the design office there was a landscape contract company and a plant nursery which Helen helped to develop.

Sadly, after thirty years of marriage, Helen developed ovarian cancer and after suffering a long illness died in July 2019.