Valerie Raeside

Published on 02/03/2023

Mrs Valerie Raeside (née Wall) passed away on Sunday, February 12th, two days before her 93rd birthday. She was born and grew up in Liverpool where she attended the Waterloo Park Grammar School for Girls and afterwards studied at University College London and Liverpool Institute of Education. At UCL she met her husband Ian Raeside, a fellow student of French, whom she married in 1953. She first moved to St. Albans in that year when she was employed as a French teacher at what was then St. Albans Girls' Grammar School (now St. Albans Girls' School). She made a number of good friends among the teaching staff, with whom she remained in contact until the final years of her life. With the birth of her eldest son, Mark she retired from teaching and spent a year in India, where her husband Ian was sent on a research tour and where she gave birth to her second son James. Her third son Ben was born three years after their return to St. Albans. When Ben had reached secondary school age she began work as a librarian, firstly at the London Colney Library and then at the former St. Albans Building College. She and her husband were active members of a number of Scottish Dancing clubs, as well as being keen mountain walkers and cyclists. After Ian died in 2011 she spent her final two years in a care home next to Ben's house. She is mourned by her three sons, daughters-in-law Wendy and Keiko and her six grandchildren: Alison, Matthew, Emma, Verity, Edward and Luke. A woman full of fun who had a great appetite for life and who will be very sadly missed. Arrangements will be made for a memorial service to be held in August this year.

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