Dr Sally Carr
BORN LIVERPOOL, NOVEMBER 10, 1935. DIED OXFORD, JANUARY 4, 2016, AGED 80
AN INSPIRATIONAL and vocational teacher — described as a Mrs Chips — Sally Carr will be remembered by many of her pupils as a most “significant other” who changed their lives by inspiring a life-long love of literature and drama. She also promoted inter-faith tolerance and was a keen supporter of the Council of Christians and Jews.
Dr Carr was the daughter of Sam Leigh, a GP, and his wife Stella, who profoundly influenced her as she grew up in Liverpool in the 1940s and 1950s.
Dr Carr loved Pride and Prejudice which opens famously with the line — “A single man, in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife” — and at the age of 21 she married Malcolm Carr. In her late 20s, as a mature student, Dr Carr started to fulfil her natural academic talent. She obtained a first-class BA in English from Liverpool University and then stayed on to complete an MA followed by a
Dr Sally Carr: imbuing her students with a love of English literature PhD awarded in 1974. In her PhD, she refuted the theory, expounded in the New Arden edition of Shakespeare’s King John that the source of the play was Holinshed’s The Third Volume of Chronicles, and identified the major influence as the anony-mous work The Troublesome Raigne of King John, a view now accepted by the majority of Shakespearean scholars.
Dr Carr loved children, whom she described as “little people”. She generously hosted “themed” parties full of fun and games. She sought to spark curiosity and wanted them to grow.
In her mid-40s, following her divorce, she commenced her teaching career. She taught at the Catholic High School in Chester and then moved to Carmel College in Wallingford. She found the ethos at Carmel charming and her colleagues affable.
She proved to be the most gifted teacher of English and director of the school’s theatre . Philip Skelker, Carmel’s headmaster, said her classroom “was a lively place, where the scepticism of truculent, self-absorbed and ostentatiously uninterested adolescents was challenged and defeated, and a love of literature instilled”.
Her humility was the key to her wisdom. She applied her intelligence and knowledge in a logical way. One of her favourite authors was Henry James and she appreciated his tenet: “Never say you know the last word about any human heart.” She took on board that everyone has some quality or characteristic that can be instructive, and a wise person knows wisdom resides everywhere. She saw the potential in everyone, viewing the accomplishments of her pupils and family as a source of pleasure rather than pride.
Dr Carr supported and encouraged her friends, always fulfilling the wishes of her visitors. When I spoke at an Oxford Union debate on a motion doomed to defeat, having been trounced by very clever students making brilliant points, Dr Carr’s response was to the point: “What did they know about life!” She enjoyed many happy years of retirement in Oxford, conducting classes with her friends in Russian, French and Spanish literature, and playing bridge and scrabble.
She is survived by her son, the High Court Judge, Sir Henry James Carr, daughter-in-law Jan and her four grandchildren Oliver, Harry, Charlie and Lily.