Grandmother graduates after 70-year wait

11 Dec 2013

A grandmother has picked up her University of Manchester degree alongside her granddaughter, 70 years after she finished studying.

Gene Hetherington (formerly Helen Georgine Jones), 90, received her BA in Commerce on August 3, 1943 – but because of the war was unable to attend the graduation ceremony.

The graduate, originally from Neath in South Wales but now living in Mere Green, Sutton Coldfield, studied from 1940 to 1943, but went straight to help the war effort after she finished.

Working in the ministry of aircraft production founded by Lord Beaverbrook, she carried out the task of auditing in aircraft factories manufacturing Wellington bombers.

Because she subsequently led a busy work-life as a Lewis’s buyer and a busy family life, and she never found the time to attend a graduation ceremony.

She has not been back to Manchester since the war - except for a trip to Jodrell Bank 50 years ago.

She said: “The ceremony was wonderful and I was so pleased to see my granddaughter Rachel receive her degree, for which she worked so hard.”

Shortly after Gene started her degree, many of her fellow students abandoned their studies to fight overseas in the forces.

But she still remembers the air raids which blighted the city, and especially the devastation caused by a bomb dropped in Christmas 1940 behind St Gabriel’s church, close to where she stayed.

Her 23-year-old granddaughter Rachel, who studied for a Master’s degree in Law, attended the same graduation ceremony at the University’s historic Whitworth Hall.

Rachel said: “I have enjoyed my time at Manchester and I was very proud to share my graduation ceremony with my grandmother.

“I cannot imagine that many people can claim to have done that.”

Gene’s son (and Rachel’s father), David said: “I am so proud of my mother. It is incredibly moving to witness her receiving her well-earned degree so many years after she passed it.

“I know how she feels because I too had to wait to attend my own graduation ceremony at Coventry Cathedral in 2009, which was cancelled in 1974 due to the IRA bombings in Coventry and Birmingham.

“My mother does not like any fuss – but since this occasion is so special, I hope that she will not mind a bit of well-deserved attention.

“I am also proud of Rachel, who worked very conscientiously and deserves all of the success that she has achieved.”

The Hetherington family can trace its roots back to Manchester in 1784.