In Memoriam We remember with great fondness members of our College community who have passed away this year and our thoughts are with their families and loved ones.
Caron Freeborn (right) with her Connections partner Cecilia Wong in 2019
Sandra (“Alex”) Saville (English, 1990) (22/3/39-29/9/19) Alex was born in Gravesend, attending Walthamstow Hall in Sevenoaks gaining A levels in English, French and History in 1957. As was customary at the time she went on to secretarial college working in London through the 1960s. She held 3 glamourous secretarial positions including secretary to MP Reginald Maudling and then Robert Runcie. In 1969 Alex married Reverend Jeremy Saville (son of the children’s author Malcolm Saville) and settled into parish life and motherhood. 20 years later when Jeremy became Rector of Ashdon and Hadstock, Alex decided to apply to Cambridge (Due to its proximity and being able to live at home). Lucy Cavendish was recommended as the college most open to mature students. Following an interview in November 1989 she was given a conditional offer on the basis of gaining a B in English A level in 6 months. This she did and spent 3 very happy years at Lucy Cavendish particularly loving her work on Oscar Wilde and Iris Murdoch. Despite people asking Alex what she was going to do with her degree she was never tempted by a career (her sole aim being for education’s sake and to fulfil her intellectual potential) . However Alex then went on to start and lead Shakespeare, Poetry and Reading groups for the next 30 years up to her death, inspiring dozens of people who like her had not had the chance to study Literature. Alex was a natural teacher and saw the potential in people from all backgrounds.
Caron Freeborn (English, 1992) written by alumna Lizzie Speller (Classics, 1992) (16/01/1966-26/04/2020) This is an obituary that I never imagined writing. I still feel that Caron could be hovering over me, rolling her eyes at my punctuation. We met when we both came up to Lucy Cavendish in 1992 where she read English. I was scared of her and she was wary of me. She was urban to the bone and claimed that all countryside was prowling ground for axe-murderers. Her father had drunk in the notorious Blind Beggar in the East End of London and she had two dogs, her beloved Auch and Blake. I was fifteen years older, the mother of three and came from the Cotswolds. She smoked liquorice roll-ups. I liked Fruit ‘n Nut bars. Yet transformation is at the heart of what Cambridge and Lucy Cavendish make possible. In one term superficial difference became irrelevant in face of a shared love of books, argument; a passion for politics, feminism and Country and Western. We wrote a novel together and ran an extended riff on life for twenty-seven years. In that time Caron became so many things to so many people but passion drove her, always. When she arrived at Lucy she was still in the shadow of agoraphobia and we would walk to lectures together. She was phobic about dentists and had agonising tooth problems. But she was dogged and brave: she never missed a lecture, she vomited every time she had a dental appointment, but she had the work done. She started going to the theatre if promised a seat near the back and by the aisle. She decided to join my Ancient Greek supervisions, which usually ended with our supervisor and us in hysterics. Eventually we set off to France, her first trip abroad, with Caron’s hugely tolerant partner, Chris. ANNUAL REVIEW 2019/2020
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