Gill Stoker 1954 to 2024
We were greatly saddened at the death of our friend and colleague, Gill Stoker, who passed away on 13th February after being diagnosed with an incurable brain tumour last summer. If you've ever used a Mary Evans picture, or even just browsed our website, you will have no doubt been helped in your search by Gill's captioning and keywording at which she worked diligently, meticulously and with great expertise every afternoon for a period of twenty-five years.
Gill also ran our hugely popular
Poems and Pictures blog which we will continue in her memory.
Away from the Mary Evans office, Gill had studied drama and music, and appeared on stage and screen on numerous occasions, she was an associate lecturer at the Open University having gained a doctorate through her research into Sir John Tenniel, and gave English lessons online via an award-winning Youtube channel which had an incredible 1.97 million subscribers. You can read more about her
extraordinary life and achievements here.
Gill's funeral took place at Hither Green cemetery on 18th March and was a true reflection of her wide-ranging talents and interests. We watched her give an online EFL tutorial, listened to a recording of her singing, and heard readings of poems and an excerpt from Essentially Ethel, the one-woman show she had written and performed about the composer and suffrage campaigner, Ethel Smyth.
Afterwards, we invited friends and family here to the library to celebrate her memory; a heart-warming and convivial occasion, despite the sadness.
We've set up a fundraiding page for St. Christopher's Hospice in Gill's memory. If you'd like to make a donation, you can
do so here.
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