OBITUARY: Jean Agnes Vickridge MNZM October 5, 1934 – April 2, 2018 People’s champion, ‘daughter of Hamilton’
Jean Vickridge’s son Howard got it right in his eulogy to the 400-or-so who attended her farewell at Chartwell Cooperating Church (St Albans) – his mother, he said, had been a ‘‘daughter of Hamilton’’.
Jean lived out her life in this city, the daughter of Ruby and Les Cameron, who ran the Home Cookery and Dairy on the corner of Rimu St and Maeroa Rd.
Hers was an upbringing in a community based around church and hard work. Jean recalled in her memoirs, recorded for the Hamilton oral history programme, the ‘‘contingent’’ of neighbours who kept her in line when growing up, and how she felt she could not do anything wrong without being seen by someone who knew her.
Schooled at Hamilton High, where she won the Junior All Round Championship Cup in athletics, she cried when, at 15, her parents insisted she give up on her education and work fulltime in the dairy. With her first pay she put a downpayment on a set of Arthur Mee’s Children’s Encyclopedia because she ‘‘really loved the world’’ and wanted to learn more.
While at school Jean had hoped to be a teacher or nurse, and finally trained as a maternity nurse after she turned 21.
Jean loved music, sang in the church choir, and played the violin from the age of 10.
‘‘I wanted a baby brother or a violin,’’ she told the oral project, ‘‘I got a violin very quickly. Much, much quicker than having to wait for a baby brother, I might add.’’
A keen tramper, she walked Mt Te Aroha, the Milford track, Ruapehu, and Pirongia.
Entertainment also was to be found on Saturday night dances at the Caledonian Society, where Les was in the pipe band and, when she was old enough, at the Starlight Ballroom. The Caledonian Society was to prove a lifelong interest for Jean, who became a patron, as was her father before her.
As for the Starlight, well, Jean remembered she gained her driver’s licence at 15 so that Les could allow her the use of the family car to drive to dances. All so that his daughter did not have to be driven home by ‘‘some lad’’, you understand.
Howard said it was family lore that Jean ‘‘learned to dance before she could walk’’ and so it was no surprise she met pharmacist Leigh Vickridge at a dance in 1957. They married the following year, and built their first home, in Hukunui Ave, in 1959. Three children, Ian, Margo Bimler, and Howard, followed.
As a young mother in the 1970s she served as a Plunket volunteer and also hosted visitors from Tokanui Hospital in her home for Sunday outings. She hosted foreign students in the 1980s and later in that decade became involved with the Triangle Trust – an organisation providing housing for people with HIV, in the Waikato.
She was an active leader of St Alban’s youth group, where, according to friend Russell Young, her ‘‘wicked sense of humour’’ came to her rescue on many occasions.
In an interview with the Times some years ago, Ian recalled the Vickridge family ‘‘did not have a hard contour’’ and from early on they welcomed people from many cultures into their home. Speaking at the funeral, deputy mayor Martin Gallagher said Jean’s interest in others meant that, when she was elected a city councillor in 1986, ‘‘her absolute focus was on how we were becoming a more diverse society’’.
She also had a strong interest in the arts and, on retiring from the council in 1998, was made a life member of the Hamilton Community Arts Council, in recognition of the many times she battled at city hall for the arts. In accepting the honour, Jean noted simply her belief that the arts ‘‘measured the soul of the city’’.
Martin said he had tremendous admiration for Jean and the passion and commitment she brought to the causes she championed.
‘‘She gave a voice to those who may not have otherwise been heard, and the sheer breadth of her community involvement is a testament to her strength of character and her desire to improve the lives of her fellow Hamiltonians.
‘‘She was a truly inspirational person to work with, and her warmth, caring nature, and sense of humour shone through in everything she did.’’
Friends Jan Sylvester and Russell Young recalled Jean taking scones and jam out to PD workers doing community service in her street. After one of the workers expressed amazement that the scones came with jam, Jean was back the next day, this time with scones, jam, and cream.
A keen Rotarian, Jean was awarded the organisation’s highest award, the Paul Harris Fellowship. She served on the Fairfield College board of trustees, was a Justice of the Peace, a former trustee of the Hamilton Gardens Summer Festival, a trustee of the SkyCity Hamilton Community Trust, a life member of the Hamilton Operatic Society, an active member of Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, and patron for 38 years of the Waikato Prisoners’ Aid and Rehabilitation Society (PARS).
She was made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for her services to the community and, in 1993, was awarded The New Zealand Suffrage Centennial Medal, recognising those who had made a significant contribution to women’s rights or women’s issues
Flags on Hamilton’s municipal building flew at half-mast on the day of Jean’s funeral.
Jean left strict instructions that she wanted no long-winded narratives or sermons at her farewell. This admonition, together with her Scottish heritage, came together with everyone holding hands and belting out
at the close.
Jean’s was a good life, well lived, that ended gently on a high.
Jean was the wife and soulmate of the late Leigh; loved mother and friend of Ian, Margo Bimler, and Howard; mother-in-law to Marie-Christine and Trevor; grandmother to Malyon, Elise, Caroline, and Jeremy.
●➤ A Life Story tells of a New Zealander who helped to shape the Waikato community. If you know of someone whose life story should be told, please email Charles.riddle@wintec.ac.nz