Submitted by Bedford alumna and Bedford Society Committee member, Jennifer Glastonbury (BA French with German, 1969).
I first became aware of Ruth David in January when I saw her interviewed on a TV documentary for the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. She was an impressive interviewee, radiating wisdom and intelligence. It was only later that I discovered she was a Bedford alumna!
She had come to England aged 10 on the Kindertransport from Germany, and spent most of the second World War living in a refugee hostel in Windemere. Her parents died in the gas chambers of Auschwitz in 1942. From 1947 to 1950, she studied languages at Bedford College, having won a Reid scholarship, and she took a degree in French.
Afterwards, she went on to gain a PGCE from University College, London, and then worked as a teacher of French at various schools in Leicestershire for 30 years. During this time, she also researched and wrote about the Holocaust: her memoir Child of Our Time: a Young Girl’s Flight from the Holocaust (2003) is her most well-known book.
Later in life she became an international speaker on the Holocaust and was awarded the German Order of Merit for her regular talks on this subject to German schoolchildren.
In April of this year she died aged 91 from Covid-19, and was active and engaged right up until then: she gave a lecture at the National Holocaust Centre in Nottinghamshire just weeks before her death.
She was clearly a most remarkable woman - I am so sorry she could not come to our Bedford Society Languages Reunion in 2018, as she would have been our oldest and most distinguished guest, as well as a role model for anyone who loves languages. I wish we knew more about her time at Bedford College, but the Covid-19 lockdown of the Royal Holloway and Bedford New College campus has meant I have been unable to access the Archives and Library. When they reopen, I will try and see what more I can find out and pass this on to readers of the newsletter next time.
