Sr Anne died on the 9th of June 2025 at St Michael’s Care, Westgate-on-Sea, at the age of 87, having spent 58 years in religious life.

Her funeral will take place on the 25th of June at 2 p.m. at Thanet Crematorium, Manston Road, Margate.

Barbara Anne Vernon Thompson was born on 7^th May 1938, in Woolwich, Southeast London, the first of three daughters, in a family of practising Anglicans. Their father was called up to serve during the war, and their mother was left to bring up her daughters. Wanting a good school in the neighbourhood, she sent them to St Joseph’s Convent School. Not surprisingly, Anne later became a Catholic, although not until she had left school and was training as a nurse at St. Thomas’s Hospital. Following nursing training, she qualified as a midwife, a profession she loved and continued on and off for many years.

Anne entered the novitiate of the Daughters of Jesus in 1963. At the time, there were no sisters in England in health care professions. After her religious vows in 1966, she remained in Massingham taking care of older, sick sisters, for which she always felt she was not suited. Eventually, in 1968, she was sent to the school of tropical medicine in Antwerp, Belgium, as preparation for a missionary country. Here she lived in the community of sisters in Tournai and began her acquaintance with a French community.

In 1967, she was missioned to Cameroon as midwife, where she worked for three years until a serious road accident nearly paralysed her. After her recovery in England, she worked for a while in social work until she took up a post of midwife in Kent and Canterbury Hospital. In 1973, she trained as a midwife tutor, a role she pursued in Pembury Hospital and Kent and Canterbury Hospital for several years, when she felt a call to return to Cameroon. This was short-lived as another accident obliged a return to England, where she returned to the training of midwives. In 1985, she was tutor and subsequently Assistant Director of the Olive Hayden School of Midwifery. In 1987, she was seconded part-time for the English National Board, and the University of Surrey for Direct Entry study to the profession of Midwifery. In 1990 she was Senior Lecturer at the Royal College of  Midwives.

In 1994 she was head-hunted for a leading midwifery role at the World Health Organisation, based in Geneva in Switzerland. In this capacity she visited many countries and advised on projects in the Safe Motherhood programme, of which she was the chief contributor.

Among Anne’s many talents, she served for six years as Provincial. She was also bursar in England for 12 years, where she worked to establish the Province’s finances on a sure and solid foundation. During these years, she was also an executive member of the Conference of Religious, and a valued contributor at the annual Bursars’ Conference.

Her years with the World Health Organisation gave her many friends as well as opportunities for extending her work visits to include some sightseeing, which she enjoyed, and for which she expressed deep gratitude.

It was said that Anne had no “small talk”, yet her sensitivity, intelligence, compassion, and humour endeared her to many, as shown in the tributes received from friends and work colleagues.

Anne was lovingly cared for by the staff at St Michael’s despite the differences of opinion that sometimes occurred between patient and carers! Anne remained a strong personality, “her own woman” to the end! This came peacefully after a loving visit from her sister just a week before her death.

As we say our farewells, we can use Newman’s words to give thanks for such a full and fruitful life:

“So long Thy power has led me  – sure it still will lead me on, o’er moor and fen, or crag and torrent till the night is gone …  and with the morn those angel faces smile, which I have loved long since and lost awhile … and now have found in the fullness of joy.”