The woman who inspired one of Sir John Betjeman's most famous poems has died at the age of 92. One Today listener kindly sent these school photographs.
Listener Jen Green writes: "I was born and brought up in Farnborough where Dr Hunter Dunn had a practice. When I was about eight years old, I had been hay-making in the grounds of the cemetery with my older brothers. Our father was the Superintendent and we had been roped in to help. I got bitten all over and by the late afternoon I was covered in big blisters and had a temperature so mother called in Dr Hunter Dunn who confirmed I had a 'harvest bug rash' and prescribed camomile lotion to cool it down. If I remember correctly Joan had driven her father and as she waited by the car I could see her from the bedroom window chatting to my older brothers; she must have been in her mid-twenties, wearing a tennis dress. The afternoon sun lit up her full head of reddish hair and she looked very sporty as she laughed with my two oldest brothers. They had clearly taken a shine to her and I heard Tom comment after she had gone that she was 'a bit of a corker'. Later they rode on their bikes to the tennis courts in Farnborough Park hopeful of seeing her play. I saw her again in the early 1970s when she came to visit the soon to be closed cottage hospital where her father consulted. Soon after I discovered she was the inspiration for my favourite poet Betjeman and have never forgotten her. It was sad and poignant moment to hear of her death but I am that happy she had a long and fruitful life to look back on."
© John Morrison