STAFF, Governors and former pupils of St Mark’s were sad to hear of the death of Rosemary Porter. Rosemary was a former teacher and a great servant of both the school and the wider community. Rosemary joined the school in 1975 as a teacher of English having previously taught in West Africa. 

She will be remembered as a firm, but fair, teacher who was well-respected by staff, pupils and parents. She was extremely loyal to St Mark’s and cared deeply about the school throughout her long career. She held a number of positions in the school including English Teacher, Head of English and Head of Sixth Form. In each of these roles Rosemary was a confident and calm leader and a patient mentor. 

She had a life-long love of literature which she instilled in her students as she taught them to appreciate the great writers in the literary canon. She was an accomplished writer herself and had her own poetry published. She was an active participant in local writers’ groups and workshops and a part of the Harlow U3A Creative Writing Group. 

Although she officially retired in 1997, Rosemary remained involved in teaching at St Mark’s and as late as 2013 she was still tutoring small groups of students to prepare them for their GCSEs. 

She was also a key figure in Holy Cross Parish being a reader, a catechist and Eucharistic Minister. She returned to her native Ireland in recent years. She died on 19 October and her funeral was on 22 October. She will be sadly missed.