Rowan Eileen Thompson

School education necessarily entailed long months away from home, at first in South India, and then in Edinburgh. Rowan’s early memories of school were few, most likely since being away from home is not something a small child wants to remember. However, in her quiet way, Rowan was a diligent pupil, and did well academically and socially.

On leaving school after fifth form, Rowan took advice given, and did a year’s secretarial training before entering St Mary’s Hospital School of Nursing in Paddington, London. She made close friends and found her niche. She loved nursing and the city life, and also developed her Christian faith, attending All Soul’s church in Langham Place.

Her love of travel then led her to work in Switzerland, California, India and Australia. In the latter, she did a Diploma in Intensive Care Nursing. However, this led to a sense of the importance of preventive health care, and on return to the UK, Rowan studied Occupational Health and gained a Diploma in OH. She worked for a number of companies in London including ICI, Wellcome and Glaxo-Wellcome, Shell and Marsh Insurance. She then moved away from London to Leicester. Having developed an interest in Ergonomics, she enrolled in Loughborough University to study for a Masters degree in Ergonomics. Never having previously attended university, the study and academic application required proved quite demanding, but Rowan gave it all she could, and gained her degree successfully in 2006.

During her time in Leicester, Rowan was diagnosed with breast cancer. The following year, she lost her mother and father within 4 months of each other. Shortly after this, she moved to work at Olympus Keymed in Southend-on-sea as an Occupational Health Adviser. She thoroughly enjoyed her work, always trying to learn more, and giving 110% as she tried to help employees in her care, especially those with challenging circumstances or longstanding health problems. She was also a popular, loved and respected colleague.

In 2016, just after the death of her elder sister due to Parkinson’s disease, Rowan was diagnosed with secondary breast cancer. She moved to Scotland to be with her younger sister and family, and underwent treatment there. Initially, she was able to return to work, but after a year or so, she had to take retirement. She bore her change in circumstances, pain and all that goes with cancer, with her characteristic stoicism, always choosing to focus on others around her, whether by analysing characters and people-watching in hospital, or by remembering birthdays and other special events of friends and family.

For Christmas 2019, she was well enough to travel to New Zealand and had a lovely holiday with a niece and her family, and with one of her best friends. Over the ensuing year, Rowan’s health gradually deteriorated, but she hid it well, sometimes even from herself. When she had to be admitted to hospital in January 2021, she said “It’s so well-timed as I’ve had a lovely Christmas and New Year”. Acknowledging the strength that her faith in God gave her, she was taking whatsapp and zoom calls right up until the afternoon before she died.

Rowan had a tremendous capacity for true friendship and kindness. She had a keen sense of the one who needed to be put at ease or given reassurance, and never minded inconvenience to herself if it helped someone else. She is missed all around the world, not least due to her amazing ability to write long letters and remember birthdays, but also for her warmth, hospitality and humour.

She died just before 9 am on 14 Feb 2021.

Kirsteen Dutton (Rowan’s younger sister).