Jean Stogdon
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Jean Stogdon OBE |
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|---|---|
| Born |
Jean Sangster July 22, 1928 New Southgate, London |
| Died | December 25, 2014 (aged 86) North London Hospice |
| Nationality | British |
| Occupation | Social worker and campaigner |
| Known for | Co-founder of Grandparents Plus |
Jean Stogdon OBE (22 July 1928—25 December 2014) was a British social worker and campaigner. Stogdon is best known for co-founding the charity Grandparents Plus with social entrepreneur Michael Young, Baron Young of Dartington.
Jean Stogdon was born in New Southgate, London on 22 July 1928, the daughter of Percy, a capstan fitter for Standard Telephones and Cables, and Mary (née Ellis) Sangster. She was educated at Russell Lane School, East Barnet, London, leaving at the age of 14 with no formal qualifications. She met her husband-to-be, Bill Stogdon, that same year. He was the grandson of the flower-seller on whom George Bernard Shaw is believed to have based his character Eliza Doolittle. When she was 17 years old, Stogdon started work as a receptionist at the telephone company for which her father worked; she left in 1948 when she married Bill, by then a bookmaker.
In 1969, at the age of 40, Stogdon enrolled at the North London Polytechnic (now part of London Metropolitan University) as a social work trainee. Her husband disapproved of her decision, and as a concession she continued to carry out her domestic duties as well. She followed a successful career in social work, becoming area head in the London Borough of Camden with a staff of 200 by the time of her retirement in 1988. Stogdon had been active in the design of Camden’s child-protection services, and acted as a court-appointed children’s guardian in the ten years after retiring from social work. This role led to her awareness of the speed with which children were placed in care homes or put up for adoption by local authorities, notwithstanding that the Children Act 1989 required them to consider whether the child could be cared for by an extended family member before doing so.
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