HITLER RUINED HER BIRTHDAY
She was born Jeanne Bush in Norwich on the 20th April 1929.
Her father, Arthur Bush, was the owner of the Magpie Hotel in the marketplace of Harleston, Norfolk. He was well known for his involvement in the local community and his generosity. Jeanne’s mother was Kate Bush.
Jeanne had a sister, Hylda, who was years older than her. Hylda was always known as ‘Binky’.
The Magpie was a popular hotel and drinking establishment and as a girl Jeanne always enjoyed market days when the hotel was full of local farmers – eating, drinking and going about their business. The hotel was also used for the meetings of local clubs and societies and for formal meals.
In the holiday season, the hotel was always extremely busy and Jeanne’s bedroom was hired out to guests. She was sent to stay on a local farm, where she was expected to get up early to milk the cows. Jeanne hated this so much that once she ran away, and was found hours later, in a country lane, sitting next to the milk-cart.
During the Second World War, there was an air-raid scare. Her father sounded the siren and all the hotel guests and the family went down to the cellars under the bar. Jeanne remembered everybody spending the night sitting on beer barrels in their nightwear.
Jeanne shared a birthday with Adolf Hitler (even though he was thirty years older than her) – but she complained that during the war nobody ever wanted to celebrate on this day. All her birthdays were ruined.
However, there was one thing Jeanne did enjoy during the war. She loved going down to London to West End shows during blackout.
Jeanne also experienced racism on one occasion. The Magpie was used by American servicemen. The Americans decided the front bar was to be used by white servicemen only – the back bar by black servicemen, despite the fact Arthur insisted all his bars were open to anyone. One day, a black soldier went into the front bar and a massive fight broke out. From that day on, Jeanne hated anything to do with racism.
Jeanne had a very close friend called Rosemary, who lived opposite the Magpie, on the London Road. They set up tin telephones, joined by string, so that they could talk to each other at night. This worked well until a double decker bus went past and snapped the string. However, their friendship was not broken – and continued for the rest of their lives.
Jeanne undertook her early schooling locally, at Miss Nuttall’s in Harleston, before going to Felixstowe Girls School. That establishment was relocated during the war to Riddlesworth Hall, near Diss (a school later attended by Lady Diana Spencer).
Jeanne hated Physical Education and Games, so used to take herself off during these lessons and hide in the nearby forest, reading books or writing poetry. She loved drama.
In 1941, her sister Binky, married her childhood sweetheart Noel Lusher, from the nearby village of Gissing. The marriage only lasted a year as Noel was shot down and killed whilst flying over Denmark.
In 1947, Jeanne’s mother, Kate, died of cancer.
That same year, having finished her schooling, Jeanne went to the Birmingham School of Speech Training and Dramatic Arts. She lived with Binky who had remarried an airman from Warwickshire.
Jeanne was reported to be, “An excellent actress”, and was touted as, “The next Joan Crawford.”
Jeanne graduated in 1949, and moved back to Norfolk, living on Rosary Road in Norwich. By now she was employed teaching Speech and Drama at her old school, Riddlesworth Hall.
Jeanne became very friendly with the Clark family who owned a bookshop in Tombland, Norwich. Their shop was the base for the Norfolk Wherry Trust, and Jeanne became actively involved. She produced a couple of theatre shows to raise money for the Trust.
By now, Jeanne was working on various BBC radio shows – but she became a victim of the ‘casting couch’. When she resisted the advances of a director, he told her he would make sure she never worked in the media industry again.
He was correct -she didn’t.
Instead, she went to teach Drama and Public Speaking at the Solihull Institute of Further Education. There, she met English teacher, Norman Bowker, and they became engaged.
Just before their wedding, Jeanne was diagnosed with secondary breast cancer and was given just three months to live.
A chance encounter between her father and a consultant at the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital, resulted in Jeanne’s referral to cancer specialist, Dr Victor Riddell of Harley Street. He performed immediate emergency surgery and saved her life. She was forever grateful to Dr Riddell.
In July 1959, Jeanne and Norman were married at St. Peter’s Church in Riddlesworth, Norfolk.
They moved to Lancashire and then to Stratford-upon-Avon in 1966. There, they adopted a daughter, Diana.
Jeanne threw herself into working at the Citizen’s Advice Bureau in Stratford, and stayed there for over twenty years, helping to sort out countless problems.
In 1995, Jeanne was awarded the MBE for her services in “Helping others.” She called it, “My proudest moment”, especially as she was introduced to Princess Anne. She was a dedicated royalist.
Jeanne loved animals and had five Shetland Sheepdogs. She was also dedicated to preventing animal cruelty and supported Avon Cat Rescue. Jeanne refused to eat chicken or eggs that were not free-range. That was the first question she would ask in any restaurant or food shop – “Are they free range?”
She kept a close link with Norfolk and Suffolk, mainly through her friend Rosemary. When Norman died in 2018, Jeanne moved back to East Anglia, choosing to live in a nursing home in Halesworth, Suffolk.
When Jeanne died, her daughter Diana, paid her a fitting tribute. “Mum was always bright and optimistic. She was impulsively generous with time and money towards friends and others in need. She loved having an audience and she would always have a tale to regale her friends with, some tale of how she’d got in a muddle with something. Holding centre stage came naturally to her and she was always entertaining to listen to. You always knew when she was in a room by her voice and the stir she could create.”
RIP – Riddlesworth’s Impressive Pupil
