Patricia Briggs

Patricia Briggs 6/11/1935 - 6/11/2024

Pat was born in Bishop Auckland, County Durham, in 1935. She was the second of three daughters and, many years later, her brother Michael was born. Pat was talented in all school subjects, in particular Mathematics frequently achieving 100% pass marks. After her “A” levels, and as a young woman, Pat made the big step of moving to London for further education with the goal of becoming a teacher. There she met her future husband, Graham who had followed a similar path from Derbyshire, and they had 2 sons, Stephen and Simon. Graham and Pat both gained posts at Edmonton County school. They were known as a golden couple, for their film star good looks, but also as excellent and inspiring teachers in PE and Maths respectively. In 1966, Graham went on to lecture in teacher training at Trent Park college and, much later in 1981, Pat was appointed to the teaching staff at Latymer Grammar School. Stephen has always been grateful that this was after he left the school in 1979, but Simon did not have the same good fortune! She excelled in her teacher roles, setting high standards academically and in her expectation of student behaviour. Her approach to parenting was slightly softer but both of her children benefitted from tough but undoubted unconditional love and support through their childhoods. Pat’s world, and that of her family, was torn apart with the unexpected death through illness of Graham, aged just 61, in 1995 and after more than 35 years of marriage. Graham and Pat were dependent on each other as a couple, but both with strong independent capabilities and it was to Pat’s massive credit that she slowly re-built her life, retiring some 3 years later and using her lifelong love of sport to build new friendships as well as leaning heavily on a small number of loyal and wonderful friends, her love of the theatre, of travel and of Bridge. Pat was a very good netball and tennis player but that sadly came to an end when she badly injured her knee in a staff vs school netball match. After Graham’s death though, she took up golf and joined Bush Hill Golf Club where she ultimately became Ladies Captain and also took on administrative roles on behalf of the club. She became quite fanatical, going on many golf holidays, playing frequently and getting full value for her Sky Sports subscription for her love of golf, football, cricket and tennis. In 2014, Pat was given the devastating news that she had dementia. She carried on valiantly with her various activities but they began to dwindle as the illness took hold and impacted her confidence. However, her strong sense of independence persisted and she continued to live on her own, even after late 2019 when, following a hospital stay, visiting care was put in place. Ultimately though in the Summer of 2020 she had to go into full-time care and remained there until her passing on her 89th birthday, a symmetry she would have liked as a mathematician. Through all of this, and even to near the end, she remained a strong and principled character with many of her personality traits still evident. It is of solace to her immediate family and to her 4 grandchildren, Sam, Katie, Noah and Isobel, that she retained an immense amount of pride and love for them all. She will be sorely missed by her family and loyal and beloved friends.