My aunt, Maisie Best, who has died aged 90, was a social worker with a special interest in looked-after children and in adoption, sparked by her own childhood in foster care.
Born in South Shields, Maisie was one of two children of Sarah Shackleton Hopper, who was born and bred in the north-east of England, and Bernard Hart, a merchant seaman from Jamaica. Maisie and her younger sister, Adina, were orphaned aged eight and five following the early deaths of their mother, to asthma, and father in the sinking of the SS Dayrose by a U-boat in 1942. They were put into foster care separately.
Maisie grew up in Natland, Westmorland (now Cumbria), with a family on a smallholding. She worked hard to help the family, especially while her foster father was serving in the forces. She always described herself as a country girl who loved walking.
She left St Marks CE school, Natland, aged 14, and went to Blackpool, where she qualified as a shorthand typist. She then moved to London and took O-levels and A-levels at evening classes, living in a safe hostel for young working women, where her sister joined her. In 1959 Maisie started work as personal assistant with the Colonial Office. She took a diploma in public and social administration from Ruskin College, Oxford University (1963), followed by an applied social studies certificate in childcare at the University of Birmingham. She then became a house-mother and assistant warden at a hostel for young people in London.
In 1964 Maisie was appointed as a childcare officer for Buckinghamshire county council. Throughout the rest of the 1960s and 70s she worked in child welfare roles for Barnardo’s, the London borough of Haringey, and as an adoptions officer in Hammersmith and at the Independent Adoption Society. Here she was mainly concerned with placement of hard-to-place children – children who were older, black or of dual heritage, or disabled.
Maisie married Ivan Best in 1969 and had a daughter, Judith. The couple separated later but remained on friendly terms.
In 1977 she was appointed deputy director at the National Children’s Home in Jamaica. The two years she spent in Jamaica helped to give her a sense of identity. Returning to the UK, she embraced her dual heritage with confidence, seeing a sense of belonging from both countries. She settled in Northampton, close to Adina, and trained as a teacher to support young people and adults with learning difficulties – a job she was able to do part-time while bringing up her daughter.
In 1990 Maisie returned to social work with Northamptonshire county council, approving families for adoption. She specialised in placing minority ethnic children and young people – an area of expertise because of her own experience. She retired in 2001.
Maisie remained active in community relations, and in particular with Northampton West Indian Parents’ Association. She volunteered as a teacher at the association’s Caribbean supplementary school. She was also a member of Northants Black History Association.
Maisie was researching for a book on black identity and self seeking, which was halted by the onset of dementia, and in 2010 she moved to Thame, Oxfordshire, to live near Judith. Committed to her family and her beloved sister, Maisie also enjoyed yoga, cookery and travel, and had a keen interest in politics. Despite her dementia, she was a regular figure seen striding along the Thame Phoenix Trail.
Maisie is survived by Judith, her four grandchildren, Ella, Seren, Megan and Benjamin, by Adina and by her nieces, Vindy, Dinea and me.
