Elizabeth Jones Obituary , Death – It is with great sadness and a heavy heart that I write to notify you of the passing of our Chair of Governors and longtime friend of St. Damian’s, Mrs. Elizabeth Jones MBE, who was affectionately known as ‘Betty’ by the St. Damian’s community.
Betty’s management and supervision were vital in ensuring that our goal, which was for our school to be regarded as an extraordinary Catholic institution, was brought to fruition. Our goal was to have our school acknowledged as an exceptional institution of the Catholic faith.
Betty has been a frequent visitor to the school, and she has never missed any of the various activities that have taken place there, ranging from visits from the Bishop to Celebration Evenings to staff training. In fact, she has never missed any of the activities that have taken place at the school at all.
Since 2011 up to the time of her passing, Betty served as the Chair of our Board of Governors, a position that she had held since 2011 until the time of her dying. The rest of the staff and I felt a profound sense of satisfaction in having Betty hold this position, as did I. Having such a remarkable woman at the leadership of the organization was, despite this fact, another one of our many other sources of good fortune.
Her ideals and ideas were deeply ingrained, and she always made decisions based on what she firmly thought to be in the institution’s overall best interest. Betty was able to keep her composure and her stoic demeanor while working through the difficulties that were brought on by the decisions that she had to make in order to live up to her beliefs.
At the ceremony in which she was honored as “National Governor of the Year” at the House of Lords in December 2021, the community of St. Damian’s had the distinction of being there, as did they at the ceremony in which Mrs. Jones was honored with an MBE at Windsor Castle by the Princess Royal in 2022. The United Kingdom served as the location for each of these occasions.