My mother Judy Routledge, who has died aged 95, was a nurse for more than 50 years.
While holding down a job and raising four boys, she co-founded parent-led nurseries in Wandsworth, south-west London, in the 1960s, and was among the first wave of school parent-governors in the early 80s.
As a nursing sister in the NHS, she worked at several London hospitals. She also served as secretary to Sir Richard Bayliss, the Queen’s physician, and later joined a GP surgery as a practice manager.
Born in Croydon, then in Surrey, she was the daughter of Mabel (nee Newman) and Henry Hall, a film cameraman. After moving to Denham, Buckinghamshire, in 1939 so that her father could work at the local film studios (they lived next door to the actor Sir John Mills), she attended Wycombe high school for girls, leaving at 14 when the family relocated to Glasgow.
After the second world war Judy worked as a medical secretary at All Saints hospital, Lambeth (1949-52), and then trained as a nurse at St Helier hospital, Sutton (1952-55). She loved the theatre and joined the Clairview Players in Streatham, south London, appearing in many productions and making new friends, including my father, Douglas Routledge, a trainee TV cameraman for the BBC. They married in 1957.
Judy had begun working as a ward sister at Westminster hospital in 1955 and, while there, was headhunted by Bayliss, a consultant, to become his medical secretary (1960-70). He became physician to the royal household in 1964, then to the Queen in 1970.
By then Judy had settled in Putney with her growing family, embarked on a new chapter, as a GP practice manager, first in Garratt Lane, Earlsfield (1970-79), and then at the nearby Brocklebank health centre (1979-95 and 2000-03), where she looked after more than 10,000 patients.
At the age of 70, she returned to education, achieving a BA and then MA in English literature at the University of Roehampton. She retired at 75 and enjoyed being a grandmother and travelling with Doug and her many friends.
She also found time to be an escort for Universal Aunts, meeting and ferrying young people around the capital, and was active in the Jane Austen Society. Her love of literature was a constant in her life, and she was a member of several book groups.
Doug died in 2009. Judy is survived by her children, Nicholas, Timothy, Christopher and me, eight grandchildren and her siblings Michael and Wendy. Another brother, Peter, died in 2017.
