Tribute to Fran Jenkin
"I am deeply sad that Fran has passed away. Now that I am thinkng back I can recall so many moments when my friends or I needed help and we couldn't think of anyone but Fran who was always there to fight for us. Meeting Fran in difficult times meant that there still was a hope of receiving justice. Fran was sad when we were unhappy and was excited when we were happy. This was like having a good family member around to share our feelings with. For many service users of the RSG and Exeter college students Fran was at the same time a lawyer and a mother. She was an angel".
Kourosh
"Quite rarely in a lifetime does there come the experience of encountering someone of indisputable goodness. Such a one was Fran Jenkin, with whom I worked closely in the Refugee Support Group (Devon), who has died of cancer at the age of 67.
Franscilla Mary Jenkin was born on 17th December 1942, the only child of West Cornish parents. She attended Penzance County Grammar School for Girls, then read English Literature at Trinity College, Dublin. By the time she left, she was a single parent as well as an MA. After teaching in Londonderry, Fran left for England shortly before Bloody Sunday, taught for a time in Truro, then in 1973 settled in Devon, working at Exeter College for over thirty years.
Fran was an active member of the Labour Party, campaigned to return the party to its leftwing roots and supported Tony Benn’s leadership bid in 1988. She resigned in protest at the Iraq war, although recently she rejoined, to have a vote in the forthcoming leadership election.
The groups and campaigns to which she devoted her time and energy over the years included CND; the Exeter/Ethiopia Link; the Greenham Common women; the Devon Racial Equality Council; and the setting up of a women’s refuge and, later, a women’s centre, both in Exeter. And all this on top of her post at Exeter College, where many students bear witness to her inspirational teaching.
Fran was also passionate in her support of Exeter City Football Club, working for the club’s Trust and, in particular, for the Kick Racism out of Football campaign.
Latterly, she was a founder member of the Exeter Refugee Support Group and, from 2005 until her death, its chair. She worked tirelessly on behalf of asylum seekers and refugees, most of them from Afghanistan or Iran. Among her many achievements was the setting up of a wonderfully successful Women’s Group.
Fran’s readiness to act and to activate others for the causes she believed in was uncompromising. She demanded respect and justice for others, and for those who have been the beneficiaries of her commitment (and there must be hundreds) the results are radical, central to their lives. But none of this was solemn: Fran had a terrific sense of humour. As a friend noted, ‘she did fun well’. She had also a vulnerability that in itself contributed to her capacity for generosity and compassion. And if she could be tough, she was inherently tender, witness her deep attachment to her son Laurence and her grandchildren Sean, Niall and Ciaran, who survive her.
The challenge of Fran’s lifelong principled activism continues: for her, there was no gap between belief, intention and action. I count it an honour to have been one of her many friends".
Lawrence Sail
Fran Jenkin - death of a local hero
On Friday 13th about 150 people filled St Peters Chapel at Exeter Crematorium to overflowing. With few exceptions, everyone there had known Fran personally and counted themselves her friends. We came from across the political spectrum - some Conservatives I’m sure, all strands of the Left and Labour movement including Exeter’s MP - all of whom, except for the Tories, would have regarded Fran as a comrade. She had friends from all over the world and from every faith and a fair few were represented there - Afghans, Africans, Anglos, Christians, Moslems, Jews, Buddhists, atheists, football fans.
We listened to recollections from Louise Goodbody, a fellow teacher at Exeter College, poet and broadcaster, Lawrence Sail, Maggie Walker, a former Access student and now a teacher herself, and Steve Bull, a fan of Exeter City FC who shared Fran’s passion for the club that she helped rescue from oblivion as a member of the Supporters’ Trust. As the obituary, published in the Express & Echo on the day of her funeral, described, the range of people she helped, befriended, inspired was awesome - very rarely do you hear so much praise for one person, where no-one thought it was an exaggeratedly rosy picture. Fran would have been deeply embarrassed. We could only hope she knew how much we felt it to be true about her life, it may help to make up for losing her from ours.
Richard Billam
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