Many thanks to her son Jeremy for sharing her obit with us. 

June Maxwell Drummond

June 2 1931 – October 22, 2024

June attended Sidcot from 1941 at the age of 10 in the ‘Lower Third’ until 1949. She was ‘second generation’ following her father, Ronald Harris Smith, who had been at the school during the First World War. Subsequently her sons, Julian and Jeremy attended Sidcot in the 1970’s. Her sisters Ruth and Marion both attended Sidcot and the family gave the school the Maxwell Smith Tennis trophy at the end of their time.

June made her mark on the world through strong, quiet determination to successfully adapt to the circumstances in which she found herself. She and her husband Alan lived in many places, and in each one she found her niche in a diverse variety of arenas.

June was born in Ashbourne, Derbyshire to Ronald, an agriculturalist, and Marion Ada Maxwell, a homemaker. The Smiths were an established, Essex, farming family whose Quakerism dates back to the time of the founder, George Fox. June was a lifelong Quaker and joined local meetings wherever she lived. Aged 10, she was sent to Sidcot, a Quaker boarding school in Somerset, soon to be followed by her younger sisters, Marion and Ruth.

She gained a place to study Zoology at St Hilda’s College, Oxford. June started dating Alan after he stopped to talk to her during a country walk while she was tying her shoelace. Alan still had a year left to finish his PhD by the time June graduated. She thought of doing an MSc in embryology, but her interview was abruptly terminated when the professor discovered she was engaged! 

In August 1954, June and Alan married in Newport Quaker Meeting House on the Isle of Wight, where her parents were leasing Mottistone Manor Farm. They promptly took the ship to Ottawa, Canada, where Alan had obtained a research fellowship.

After two years they moved to California where their three sons, Adrian, Julian and Jeremy were born. Raising three children, under the age of two, with no other immediate family support was no mean feat. They returned to the UK in 1961 and after settling into their new home in Sutton Courtenay, June started teaching Biology at a local girls’ public school, St Mary’s, Wantage. She rose to become Head of the Science Department by the end of the decade. 

From the early 1970’s Alan and June moved every couple of years, first to Brussels, then New York City, Miami, Houston and back to New York City as Alan’s roles with Esso changed. In Brussels June finally got a formal teaching qualification. At the same time, with Britain a new member of the EU, she compiled a guide for British expatriates moving to Belgium.

Initially in the US, June’s visa did not allow her to work, so she volunteered as a guide for the NYC Natural History museum. She also helped at the Xavier Society, which produced books for the blind. June had learnt braille from letters exchanged with her Grandpa and went on to transcribe two books using a typewriter that punched the six dot ‘letters’ onto a plastic sheet.

In Miami June managed a large group of teachers leading the education department for the Miami Museum of Science. She and Alan took full advantage of the outdoor life learning to scuba dive, sail yachts and water ski. On one occasion she happened to bump into Sir David Attenborourgh in the museum lobby when he had stopped by when returning from Patagonia. After giving him a tour she invited him home for tea. She persuaded him to take her English christmas cards so she could save on postage.

On their return to New York, she was looking for a new opportunity. Walking past an after school club, she decided to go in, and commented that “they looked busy”. Shortly thereafter, she was installed as Operations Manager and became the right hand to the owner, Lisa. When they were returning to the UK, Lisa begged her not to go.

Ronald, had bought a locally built dinghy called Daphne when they lived in Keyhaven after the war which instilled their lifelong love of sailing. There was a memorable trip when June sailed the family GP14, Bluebird, across the Solent to Yarmouth with the three young boys as crew. It was the same boat that she towed back from Spain on her own with the kids, overcoming serious car trouble along the way.

Back in the UK they moved to the village of Childrey, near Wantage to retire. At the same time old pictures of the village surfaced and June set about writing the village history, which she self-published in paperback along with the photos. Later after they had moved to Cheltenham, the parish council published a second edition because of its popularity. It remains an important local reference to this day. 

Genealogy, which was much more of a challenge in pre-internet days, was another retirement hobby, and June was chuffed to meet up with distant Drummond cousins she contacted during a trip to Australia. Her Uncle Jack was killed on the Somme in the First World War and June edited his final letters into a moving tribute before depositing the originals in the Imperial War Museum Archive. She also edited the diary of her Grandma, highlighting the life of a young Quakeress in Victorian Essex.

A lot of June’s focus, later in life, was caring for Alan. She took her marriage vows seriously and diligently managed most of their lives including a move to Southsea, where she enjoyed walks along The Promenade and the views across the Solent to the Isle of Wight.