Gill Stoker, 1954⁠–⁠2024

0:00 I'm here today to share some very sad news.

0:03 Our dearest colleague, your teacher Gill,

0:06 passed away in London, England in February 2024.

0:11 The year before that, Gill had received a diagnosis of brain cancer.

0:17 She handled the news with strength, with courage, and with peace of mind.

0:24 She even continued to plan lessons and organize poetry events in her area.

0:30 In the past year, Gill was supported by friends and family,

0:35 and in the final stages was provided excellent care by St.

0:39 Christopher's Hospice.

0:40 For those of you who may be interested in giving a donation,

0:46 Gill had advised that this donation could go to St.

0:50 Christopher's Hospice.

0:51 We will provide details in the video description below.

0:55 Gill was not only a teacher, she was also a musician,

1:00 an actor, and a champion of the arts in her community.

1:05 For those of you who have followed Gill's lessons over the past nine years,

1:12 we have created for you a video, not only in honor of her memory,

1:18 but also so that you can get a sense of her rich life,

1:23 her many talents, and her unique contributions in so many different fields.

1:28 My name is Rebecca, and I'm another teacher here at EngVid.

1:33 On behalf of the entire EngVid family, which includes all of you,

1:38 I'd just like to say with all my heart, thank you, Gill.

1:43 We'll miss you.

1:45 May you rest in peace.

1:48 A few words about my colleague Gill.

1:52 Gill was born in 1954 in Derby, an industrial town in the middle of England.

1:58 She was studious from a young age and had

2:01 a desire to learn and to broaden her horizons.

2:04 She loved classical as well as pop music and sang her entire life.

2:10 But her parents did not approve of pop music at home,

2:14 and they weren't supportive of her applying to university.

2:18 They pushed her to secretarial college,

2:20 but even there she managed to add supplementary

2:23 courses in French and took singing classes as well.

2:26 At the age of 20, Gill moved on her own

2:29 to London to audition for the Royal College of Music.

2:33 Though she was not admitted, she stayed in the city and several choirs,

2:38 supporting herself with jobs at a software company and at the Royal Opera House.

2:44 Through the 1980s, while working full-time,

2:47 Gill earned degrees in English and art history,

2:50 completing a PhD with a thesis on Sir John Tenniel,

2:54 who is known most famously for his Alice in Wonderland illustrations.

2:59 In 1984, Gill replied to an advertisement looking for a soprano

3:06 singer to help a musician with some jazz compositions.

3:10 She auditioned and ended up getting the job, as well as a future husband.

3:16 Gill's husband, Richard Stoker, was an accomplished composer.

3:21 She supported Richard's career,

3:23 and he encouraged and was supportive of her wide-ranging endeavours.

3:29 The couple liked to start each day by taking

3:32 turns reading a chapter of a book to each other.

3:36 Gill and Richard settled in Blackheath in the south-east of London.

3:40 There, Gill was very involved with the local community

3:44 and took an active part in local events throughout her life.

3:49 She was a lecturer at the Open University

3:52 and also worked in the field of health policy.

3:56 In 1999, Gill began working at the Mary Evans Picture Library,

4:00 a unique collection of artwork and images from books,

4:06 illustration, posters and film.

4:08 For 25 years, she brought great energy to her work,

4:13 cataloguing and captioning images at the library.

4:16 Those she worked with were always astounded at her memory for detail,

4:21 especially in the fields of music, literature and art.

4:25 After studying and working in London for many years,

4:28 Gill decided to retrain as an actor and singer.

4:31 She performed on stage and in film productions, and it was here that we met,

4:36 working on a stage project, many years before we started working for EngVid.

4:43 Gill was also a strong believer in feminism and egalitarianism.

4:47 After overhearing some colleagues making fun of the 19th

4:51 century composer and suffragette Dame Ethel Smythe,

4:55 Gill was inspired to write her own one-person play about the composer's life,

4:59 where she performed herself across England.

5:01 One of the ways Gill chose to work

5:04 in her community was by volunteering as an English teacher.

5:07 She saw teaching English as a way to meet and help

5:11 people from other countries who were starting their new lives in England,

5:15 as well as a way to expose herself to other cultures.

5:18 Many of Gill's students from this period remained lifelong

5:23 friends and helped with her care during her illness.

5:27 English tutoring led Gill to apply to be a teacher for EngVid.

5:31 This is how you knew Gill,

5:33 as an online teacher with a clear and approachable style.

5:37 On top of a solid foundation of grammar and the basics of the language,

5:42 Gill brought to her lessons some of the personal

5:45 interests and knowledge I've told you about.

5:48 History, literature and community.

5:51 There's one EngVid video you may have seen

5:54 where she visits a fish and chip shop.

5:56 Many of you will have watched Gill's lessons on poetry.

6:00 Gill loved poetry and loved to get people reading.

6:03 In addition to her poetry videos for EngVid,

6:06 Gill created an ongoing online project called 'Poems

6:10 and Pictures' for the Mary Evans Picture Library.

6:13 There, each week, a new poem would be published,

6:16 illustrated by an image from the collection.

6:19 'Poems and Pictures' now continues in honour of Gill's memory,

6:23 with over 400 poems for you to have a look at.

6:27 In 2021, Gill's husband Richard passed away suddenly.

6:31 In his memory, she established a trust to promote

6:35 Richard's music through performance and to support musical education.

6:39 You can find out more about the Richard Stoker Trust at the link provided.

6:45 Gill had a remarkable life full of poetry, art and music.

6:49 It was not the life given to her.

6:52 She worked hard and struggled against her family

6:55 and society's expectations to enter these worlds.

6:58 But despite her many accomplishments, Gill remained a humble and private person.

7:03 She wasn't the type of person who rushed to tell

7:06 you how much she knew or what she had done.

7:09 Instead, she listened to people and she worked quietly

7:12 and diligently at whatever task she had chosen for herself.

7:16 Gill loved languages.

7:17 Even in the final weeks of her life,

7:20 when she was moved to full-time care at Lee Lodge

7:23 and being taken care of by the staff at St Christopher's Hospice,

7:27 Gill enjoyed practising Portuguese with one of her nurses.

7:32 St Christopher's is a charity that provides

7:34 care to people with serious and terminal illnesses.

7:37 Gill benefited greatly from their work in her final

7:40 months and they rely solely on donations,

7:43 so if you're able to donate, it would be greatly appreciated.

7:46 The link to donate is in the video description.

7:50 I mentioned earlier that Gill met her husband

7:52 Richard when she auditioned as a singer for him.

7:54 We're going to end now with one of those recordings

7:58 that Gill and Richard made when they first met,

8:01 performing James Taylor's song 'Fire and Rain'.

8:04 Rest in peace, Gill.

8:11 [Music] Just yesterday morning they told me you were gone Oh honey the things

8:24 they did put an end to you I woke up this morning I wrote down

8:34 this song Just can't remember who to send it to I've seen fire I've seen

8:48 rain I've seen sunny days I thought would

8:55 never end I've seen lonely times when I

9:01 could not find one friend But I always thought I'd see you again Look down

9:13 upon me Jesus won't you help me make a stand I can't make it any

9:22 other way My body's aching my time is at hand I can't make it through

9:34 another day I've seen fire I've seen rain

9:41 I've seen sunny days I thought would never

9:46 end I've seen lonely times when I could not find one friend But I always

9:55 thought I'd see you again Then a look in my mind just an easy time

10:03 My back turned toward the sun Lord knows when the cold wind blows it turns

10:10 your head around Now there's plenty of time on the telephone line To talk about

10:15 things to come Sweet dreams and flying

10:19 machines in pieces on the ground I've seen

10:24 fire I've seen rain I've seen sunny days I thought would never end I've seen

10:35 lonely times when I could not find one friend But I always thought I'd see

10:43 you again I always thought I'd see you again I always thought I'd see you again