Sadly Jean Poat, eldest daughter of Geoffrey and Joan Shilcock, passed away on 10th November 2018. Geoffrey Shilcock was Headmaster of Westbourne House between 1932 and 1961. He and Joan, with their three small girls, took over Westbourne House in its original location in Folkestone. At the start of WWII, they moved Westbourne House temporarily to Barnstaple and after the war, unable to return to Folkestone, they found Shopwyke House and moved Westbourne House to its current location. Jean and her sisters were the first girls at Westbourne House.
Jean Poat's daughter, Sarah Lindsay, contacted Westbourne House saying:
"It is with great sadness that I am writing to let you know of the death of Jean Poat nee Shilcock, the eldest of the 3 daughters of Geoff and Joan Shilcock. She died at the age of 89 on the 10th November and her funeral will be at 11am on Friday, 30th November at All Saints Church, Harnham, Salisbury. She leaves her 3 children, Colin, Sarah and Jenny and 7 grandchildren.
Her sister, Gill died last year and the youngest surviving sister is Anne Spann, who lives in South Africa. Anne's granddaughter, Jess Webb is currently one of the ‘gappers’ at Westbourne House School."
Colin Poat, Jean's eldest son, wrote to the Sharmans, who took over Westbourne House from the Shilcocks in 1961 and led the school until 1989.
He added, "She endured the trials of dementia towards the end of her life but the friendship she had with you [the Sharmans] was a frequent topic of conversation in our visits - spurred on by using the Westbourne ‘centenary’ book in particular. That was always our ‘go to’ reference. It brought her comfort and joy - we used to play devil’s advocate and purposefully get things wrong - to be corrected brusquely if we associated a wrong name with a wrong picture!”
