Muriel – A brief biog

Muriel was born in Essex in the summer of 1922, but moved to  Guernsey in the Channel Islands as a child where her Mother originated.

Tragically her father died when she was only 6 and her mother took up a position as Matron of the Alderney Hospital to make ends meet. My mother had happy memories of Alderney and wrote about those days for the Alderney Museum.  She loved bathing in the sea and seeing the twice weekly boat from Guernsey carrying supplies and passengers. At 12 she went to school in Guernsey and only returned during the school holidays.

Just before the outbreak of World War II, my mother moved to London to train as a nurse at the Royal Waterloo Hospital. She was there during the Blitz. Life was very hard as a trainee nurse and human tragedy was with her every day. But she looked  back fondly on her days in London and loved visiting the capital whenever she could.

Muriel as a Ward Sister at Old Windsor Hospital soon after the formation of the NHS.

 After the war, my mother moved to Old Windsor Hospital, becoming a Ward Sister at the formation of the NHS in 1948. She met my father Philip Hunt who was the Hospital Secretary. They moved to Oxford in 1958 when he became a welfare officer for deaf people. My mother was hugely supportive of his work and she was a regular visitor to the Deaf Centre in St Ebbes.

Muriel (to the right) with her husband the Reverend Philip Hunt at the Deaf Centre in Oxford.

My mother was also very supportive of my father when he became an ordained clergyman in later life. After years of worship at Mary Mags he became an Hon Assistant Priest at St Barnabas. They returned to Mary Mags for the last years of my father’s life.

 My mother entered enthusiastically into the life of the Church. Apart from her time at St Barnabas she had worshipped at Mary Mags for 64 years. Even in her last year she managed to join services and events online from her care home. One of the highlights of her 99th birthday was a Zoom call with Father Peter and members of the congregation.

Here is Muriel at home after receiving her British Empire Medal as pictured by the Oxford Mail