Obituaries
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Jacky Windsor Hall (Francis) 1949-56
Our thanks to Jacky's husband, John, and daughters, Bridget and Suzannah
Some years ago, after we had returned to Colchester, one of Jacky’s friends at an Old Girls’ function said that Jacky had had it all: marriage, children and grandchildren, travel and a career. Jacky agreed - she had lived a very full, fruitful and gracious life.
During our 60+ years of married life we lived in Edinburgh, Liverpool, Newcastle, Singapore, Sungei Patani, Malaya, Bergen-Belsen and Werl in Germany, and London. We returned to Colchester where we first met and had both been at school, Jacky at CCHS and John at CRGS. She became a Quaker in 1963.
Jacky had an exemplary career in translation. A friend from the Institute of Translation and Interpreting sent us a newsletter from 1999 in which she explained how an early interest in languages began aged just 9 or 10 with her sister’s French exchange student,. However, she didn’t go to university and study Dutch and Indonesian until her late 40s, reflecting her earliest life in Europe and South Asia. Her longest time away from home was when she spent her year out in Leiden, living in a student house as a mature student and then later travelling around Java as a native for two months, touring the country on buses and staying with Friends (Quaker) and friends whilst picking up the language.
She was always a campaigner, but was hands on. In Singapore she packed Penicillin for the North Vietnamese, in 1982 she joined the huge Embrace the Base protest at Greenham Common and also took part in an all night vigil in London when the missiles arrived.
She contracted Covid in hospital following an emergency hip operation after a fall. She died in St Helena Hospice and because of the lockdown restrictions, the family used FaceTime every day to keep in touch.
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Along the way Jacky has used her languages in the Friends world by translating letters from East Timorese, acting as a Friends World Committee link, and attending Friends World Gatherings. In Germany she worked as a translator and interpreter for the Royal Military and was a prison visitor to convicted murderers serving life sentences. She was one of only three Dutch-English medical translators, and translated essential infectious disease information for circulation across Africa and this work is still on line today. She also translated from Dutch a manual of early practice in in-vitro fertilisation. She set up a successful translation business, working for 15 years and only retiring aged 70. Another important factor in her life was visiting prisoners in UK and writing to prisoners on death row in the USA. She even went to Jackson, Georgia, to meet one of them. She would also advocate on behalf of transgender women in hospital for their right to dignity and grooming support.
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