Margaret Whitfield
18 May 1942 – 7 November 2024
Biography
Margaret spent her life teaching English at a grammar school in Bristol, passing on her love of words and poetry to one generation of pupils after another. Born on a Somerset farm in the middle of the war, she grew up between the orchard and the bookshelves. Mother of three and grandmother of seven, she made every Sunday feel like an occasion. A keen gardener, a reader of Italian literature and a walker at sunrise, she leaves behind an unfinished notebook of poems, an enormous library, and the memory of a woman who was free, funny and deeply kind.
“We must cultivate our garden.”
– Voltaire
Memories
The garden at the family house, one afternoon in June.
Wells, Somerset
Memory
Every Sunday she made an apple crumble, singing along to Ella Fitzgerald. The kitchen smelled of cinnamon and her laugh filled the whole house.
— Her daughter Helen
Her bookshelves, where she spent her mornings with a coffee and a novel.
Bristol
A trip to Italy for her 70th. She said Venice smelled of wet stone and longing.
Venice, Italy
Anecdote
She learned Italian at 65, simply to read Dante in the original. Six months later she was reciting the Inferno to us over pudding.
Her roses, which she pruned with endless patience.
Wells, Somerset
A family walk in the Lake District, the summer she turned 78.
Grasmere, Cumbria
Tributes
Helen, her daughter
3 days ago
“Mum, you taught us to love books, the seasons and the quiet. Thank you for every apple crumble, every poem said from memory. Your house will always be a place to come back to.”
John, a former pupil
last week
“Mrs Whitfield, you were the teacher who made me want to write. Thirty years on, I still remember your lessons on Keats, and your laugh when a line landed just right.”
Sophie & Anthony, her grandchildren
2 weeks ago
“To our beloved grandmother: your summers in Somerset will always be the best part of our childhood. The smell of the orchard, your stories at bedtime, your hand holding ours on the stony paths.”
Life story
18 May 1942
Born in Wells, Somerset
Born on a Somerset farm in the middle of the war, she grew up between the orchard and the books.
1964
Degree in English, Bristol
The start of a life spent passing on a love of words.
June 1967
Married Robert
1970
Birth of her first daughter, Helen
September 2012
A trip to Italy for her 70th
Venice, which she said smelled of wet stone and longing.
7 November 2024
Rest in peace
Playlist
La Bohème
Charles Aznavour
River Flows in You
Yiruma
Comptine d'un autre été
Yann Tiersen
Ne me quitte pas
Jacques Brel
Nocturne in E-Flat Major, Op. 9 No. 2
Frédéric Chopin
Family tree
13 relatives · 3 generations