Jean attended several schools but her education was interrupted when tragedy struck the family when her mother, Dora was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. Jean was still only at primary school age. In those days there wasn't the help or medication to help as it was before the NHS was created. This meant that as the older daughter, even at this young age, Jean was expected to help care for her mother as well as continuing to try to get a decent education. When she became a teenager she became a Girl Guide in the 1st Crouch End Guide Company attached to St George's Church in Priory Road. She greatly looked forward to Friday evenings as this was when she could enjoy herself with friends of her own age and leave her mother in the hands of others for a few hours.

Work and the war

When it was time to leave school, Jean got a job as a filing clerk in a firm just off North Gower Street, still looking after her mother when at home. It was during this time that as she travelled to work she met up with a friend, Vera, who later introduced her to George Barwick who lived at her parent's house.

By now the Second World War was looming and Jean was keen to sign up as she wanted to do her duty for her Country but was unable to do so because she was still looking after her mother. She was a frequent visitor at Vera's parent's home and the friendship between her and George Barwick deepened when eventually they became engaged and married on 21st July 1945 in Holy Innocents Church.

Her mother died in May 1942 which now left her free to join the ATS. She signed up as soon as she could and trained at Guildford and then went on to Mill Hill to cook for Officers. Later she was stationed in Aberdeen and Inverness, Scotland, to be the Senior Cook for the Officers' Mess of the Transport Corp. She loved the comradeship of those days and life generally in the forces. From 1942 whenever she came home on leave, her Aunt and Uncle who lived in Rokesly Avenue would take Jean along to Holy Innocents on a Sunday. Even when she was in Scotland if she was off duty on a Sunday, she found a church to attend. Just before Christmas in 1942 her father, Charles, also died.

Church life at Holy Innocents

A year after getting married, Jean found she was expecting her first and only child who turned out to be Brenda! This meant that Jean had to leave the ATS and became a mother and housewife.

The Barwicks left Wood Vale in 1947 when we moved into 41 Elder Avenue where Jean has lived ever since.

She then became a regular attender at Holy Innocents encouraging Brenda to attend too.

She became a member of the PCC in the late 1950s and soon after became the first lady sidesperson the church ever had. She delighted in helping wherever she could in the church over the succeeding years.

She helped decorate the church for Easter, Harvest Festival and Christmas, preparing food for Harvest Suppers, she started the Cleaning Rota on Saturday mornings and for several years she tended the front garden right up until the 1990s when the incumbent, Fr Nigel Asbridge told her that he feared for her personal safety. She very reluctantly gave up as she loved doing the job so much. She read Lessons and Intercessions. She was one of the first Eucharist Ministers appointed at the Church. She was a founder member of the Young Wives Group who met in the late 50s & early 60s. Along with others she helped organise and take part in numerous fund raising efforts such as Summer Garden Parties, Christmas Bazaars and Jumble Sales. She was also one of the first official Sick Visitors for the Parish visiting those in need. All of this taking place over many years.

Beyond Holy Innocents, she supported the Womens' Day of Prayer by attending the Services and quite often reading at them. She also attended Churches Together in Hornsey Services.

Jean's work with UCH

In 1973 she was struck with bowel cancer and it was touch and go if she would survive but after being in the UCH for 6 months she came home very weak but after a short time Jean was back to her old self. While in the hospital she made a pledge that if she was spared she would join the Volunteers of the Hospital.

She kept her word and served for over 16 years as a Volunteer from 1976 to 1992 being presented with a certificate to prove it. It was because George became too frail to be left that she had to leave. She was heart broken about having to give up but she knew where her duty lay and so she became a full-time carer for her husband. During the time she was in the UCH as a patient, she never missed receiving Communion every week from the Hospital Chaplain.

Jean - church warden, lobbyist and a few examples of her Christian witness in Hornsey

It was in the 1980s that she became Church Warden. Holy Innocents was going through a bad patch and she worked devotedly to keep the Church open. When Tesco's threatened to buy the Church and surrounding land to build a supermarket, Jean was one of those who fought to keep Holy Innocents as a Church despite a lot of opposition. It was also a time of interregnum when Jean worked unselfishly to make sure that the Bishop of Edmonton of the time found a new Priest for us. She also made sure that the Church Furnishings were not disposed of when the incumbent at the time wanted to sell them.

She was also responsible single-handedly in finding the perfect house to become our Vicarage.

The Diocese had decided to sell the original Vicarage and so a new house had to be found. One morning Jean was shopping in Crouch End Broadway when she passed an Estate Agent and looked at the properties being displayed in the window. She knew immediately she saw 99 Hillfield Avenue being advertised that that was to be the house. She immediately phoned the Diocesan Property Department and within 24 hours a deposit was being put on the property to secure it.

A similar story happened over the font that is currently in use. One Friday morning just after Nigel Asbridge became our Incumbent, she was looking through the Church Times. She spotted the font in the small ads. After some frantic phone calls the same day to the Parish in Essex that was disposing of the Font and to Fr Nigel, Holy Innocents was able to secure the font. Later it was found by complete coincidence that it's age was the same as Holy Innocents, it had been made in 1877.

A further story during her time as Church Warden was when the IRA bomb went off at the Hornsey Journal Offices. Because it meant that the Hornsey YMCA had to be evacuated, she organised with a group of others, a soup kitchen for the residents at Holy Innocents so they could have somewhere to go for the day.

She has also been the Parish Trip Organiser arranging trips to Walsingham, Chichester, Bournemouth and other places.

Outside the church

Outside of Church she has had other interests. She has been a keen member of the Labour Party for most of her life. She has been a very active member helping at many General and Local Elections and helping to organise the Annual Christmas Bazaar for the local Party when it used to be held at the Hornsey Town Hall.

She was on first name terms with the late Barbara Castle and has met Hugh Gaitstkill and Harold Wilson. She received a card from Tony Blair on her 85th birthday. She was overjoyed when Barbara Roche first won the Constituency for Labour having known Hornsey when it had a 20,000 majority for the Conservatives!

Jean was a staunch supporter of the NHS and it certainly did not let her down in her hour of need. The care and attention she received from the Whittington Hospital, her GP and the District Nurses was wonderful. She wouldn't let anyone say anything against the NHS always reminding them that they wouldn't be critical if they knew what life was like before its existence.

She also kept her interest in Guiding. All the time I ran the Brownies at Holy Innocents she tested generations of Brownies for their Cooks, Hostess and Home Safety Badges. Whenever I meet ex-Brownies, many now mothers themselves, they always ask after her, recalling the day they came to our home to be tested. She has also been a member of the local Trefoil Guild for many years until her health started to fail.

She remained a devoted wife and mother. She did everything she could to help both her husband George, and me. For many years she devoted all her life to looking after her husband as his health failed. Giving up all her pleasures and other activities to be at his side.- until his death in 2002 at the age of 101.

When I became Archdeacon of Hampstead's PA, there was a time until she became too breathless to do it, that she would enjoy hand delivering letters around Crouch End to save the Diocese some postage!

At home as well as being a wonderful home-maker she enjoyed looking after the front and back gardens. She found gardening therapeutic and relaxing. As she tidied up the front garden she often got passers-by chatting to her. She was well known in the local shops and made a point of being friendly with her neighbours in Elder Avenue.

There was a time when the Mountview Theatre Club used to put on weekly plays performed by the students, she enjoyed going to see them with friends. She also enjoyed live Classical Music concerts, as well as seeing the plays put on by the St Andrew's Dramatic Society, Muswell Hill.

She also enjoyed the odd visit to a London Show. Latterly her enjoyment came from listening to Classic FM as she found it relaxing. She became very frustrated when her eye sight started to fail because of cataracts she could no longer read a book or the Hornsey Journal to catch up with what was happening around her. The one TV programme that she never tired of was "Songs of Praise". Everything had to stop when that was on and even when it was quite obvious that she was becoming very ill, she asked me to turn her chair round so she could see the best she could and listen to the programme.

Recent years

Over the past few years as her health deteriorated, she found it difficult to accept that she couldn't get to church and live her life as usual. However, she never gave up the hope that one day she would be well again.

Throughout her life, Jean was a carer. She cared for her mother, she cared for her husband, she cared for her daughter, she cared for her nieces and nephews and for all her in-laws. She cared for her Church and anyone who she came into contact with who needed her help. She was always putting others before herself.

She died as she wanted, quietly at home without any fuss around her except for me at her side.
May she rest in peace.

Brenda Barwick
28th March 2009