Gill Stoker, 1954⁠–⁠2024

I'm here today to share some very sad news. Our dearest colleague,

your teacher Gill, passed away in London, England in February 2024.

The year before that, Gill had received a

diagnosis of brain cancer. She handled the news

with strength, with courage, and with peace of mind. She even continued to plan lessons

and organize poetry events in her area. In the past year, Gill was supported by

friends and family, and in the final stages was

provided excellent care by St. Christopher's

Hospice. For those of you who may be interested

in giving a donation, Gill had advised that this

donation could go to St. Christopher's Hospice.

We will provide details in the video description

below. Gill was not only a teacher, she was also

a musician, an actor, and a champion of the arts

in her community. For those of you who have

followed Gill's lessons over the past nine years,

we have created for you a video, not only in

honor of her memory, but also so that you can

get a sense of her rich life, her many talents,

and her unique contributions in so many different

fields. My name is Rebecca, and I'm another

teacher here at EngVid. On behalf of the entire

EngVid family, which includes all of you, I'd just like to say with all my heart,

thank you, Gill. We'll miss you. May you rest in peace.

A few words about my colleague Gill. Gill was

born in 1954 in Derby, an industrial town in the

middle of England. She was studious from a young

age and had a desire to learn and to broaden her

horizons. She loved classical as well as pop

music and sang her entire life. But her parents

did not approve of pop music at home, and they

weren't supportive of her applying to university.

They pushed her to secretarial college, but even

there she managed to add supplementary courses

in French and took singing classes as well. At

the age of 20, Gill moved on her own to London

to audition for the Royal College of Music. Though

she was not admitted, she stayed in the city and

several choirs, supporting herself with jobs at

a software company and at the Royal Opera House.

Through the 1980s, while working full-time,

Gill earned degrees in English and art history,

completing a PhD with a thesis on Sir John

Tenniel, who is known most famously for his Alice

in Wonderland illustrations. In 1984, Gill replied

to an advertisement looking for a soprano singer

to help a musician with some jazz compositions.

She auditioned and ended up getting the job,

as well as a future husband. Gill's husband,

Richard Stoker, was an accomplished composer.

She supported Richard's career, and he encouraged

and was supportive of her wide-ranging endeavours.

The couple liked to start each day by taking

turns reading a chapter of a book to each other.

Gill and Richard settled in Blackheath in the

south-east of London. There, Gill was very

involved with the local community and took an

active part in local events throughout her life.

She was a lecturer at the Open University and

also worked in the field of health policy.

In 1999, Gill began working at the Mary Evans

Picture Library, a unique collection of artwork

and images from books, illustration, posters and

film. For 25 years, she brought great energy to

her work, cataloguing and captioning images at

the library. Those she worked with were always

astounded at her memory for detail, especially

in the fields of music, literature and art.

After studying and working in London for many

years, Gill decided to retrain as an actor and

singer. She performed on stage and in film productions, and it was here that we met,

working on a stage project, many years before we started working for EngVid.

Gill was also a strong believer in feminism and egalitarianism. After overhearing some

colleagues making fun of the 19th century composer and suffragette Dame Ethel Smythe,

Gill was inspired to write her own one-person play about the composer's life,

where she performed herself across England. One

of the ways Gill chose to work in her community

was by volunteering as an English teacher. She

saw teaching English as a way to meet and help

people from other countries who were starting

their new lives in England, as well as a way

to expose herself to other cultures. Many of

Gill's students from this period remained lifelong

friends and helped with her care during her illness. English tutoring led Gill to apply

to be a teacher for EngVid. This is how you

knew Gill, as an online teacher with a clear

and approachable style. On top of a solid foundation of grammar and the basics of the

language, Gill brought to her lessons some of

the personal interests and knowledge I've told

you about. History, literature and community.

There's one EngVid video you may have seen where

she visits a fish and chip shop. Many of you

will have watched Gill's lessons on poetry.

Gill loved poetry and loved to get people reading.

In addition to her poetry videos for EngVid,

Gill created an ongoing online project called

'Poems and Pictures' for the Mary Evans Picture

Library. There, each week, a new poem would

be published, illustrated by an image from the

collection. 'Poems and Pictures' now continues in

honour of Gill's memory, with over 400 poems for

you to have a look at. In 2021, Gill's husband

Richard passed away suddenly. In his memory,

she established a trust to promote Richard's

music through performance and to support musical

education. You can find out more about the Richard Stoker Trust at the link provided.

Gill had a remarkable life full of poetry, art

and music. It was not the life given to her.

She worked hard and struggled against her family

and society's expectations to enter these worlds.

But despite her many accomplishments, Gill remained a humble and private person.

She wasn't the type of person who rushed to

tell you how much she knew or what she had done.

Instead, she listened to people and she worked

quietly and diligently at whatever task she had

chosen for herself. Gill loved languages. Even in

the final weeks of her life, when she was moved

to full-time care at Lee Lodge and being taken

care of by the staff at St Christopher's Hospice,

Gill enjoyed practising Portuguese with one of her nurses.

St Christopher's is a charity that provides care

to people with serious and terminal illnesses.

Gill benefited greatly from their work in her

final months and they rely solely on donations,

so if you're able to donate, it would be greatly appreciated.

The link to donate is in the video description.

I mentioned earlier that Gill met her husband

Richard when she auditioned as a singer for him.

We're going to end now with one of those recordings that Gill and Richard made when

they first met, performing James Taylor's song 'Fire and Rain'. Rest in peace, Gill.

[Music]

Just yesterday morning they told me you were gone

Oh honey the things they did put an end to you

I woke up this morning I wrote down this song

Just can't remember who to send it to

I've seen fire I've seen rain

I've seen sunny days I thought would never end

I've seen lonely times when I could not find one friend

But I always thought I'd see you again

Look down upon me Jesus won't you help me make a stand

I can't make it any other way

My body's aching my time is at hand

I can't make it through another day

I've seen fire I've seen rain

I've seen sunny days I thought would never end

I've seen lonely times when I could not find one friend

But I always thought I'd see you again

Then a look in my mind just an easy time

My back turned toward the sun

Lord knows when the cold wind blows it turns your head around

Now there's plenty of time on the telephone line

To talk about things to come

Sweet dreams and flying machines in pieces on the ground

I've seen fire I've seen rain

I've seen sunny days I thought would never end

I've seen lonely times when I could not find one friend

But I always thought I'd see you again

I always thought I'd see you again

I always thought I'd see you again