Biography

Teresa is a Londoner and grew up in Keston where her father built a family house in 1935. But it was only a mile as the crow flies from Biggin Hill airport where the Battle of Britain was fought in WW2. In the 1940s, air battles raged - Spitfires and Hurricanes by day, joined by incendiary bombs by evening. Then there were doodlebugs, V1 and V2 bombs and terrible pictures of the bombing all over the country as well as London.

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She was notably good at art, and after the war, at 18, she wanted to go to art school. But the Government made a rule that women were to be nurses, teachers or secretaries and were to be paid 20/30% less than men. Teresa became a teacher. University was often free in those days. She read English Literature and Education, studied Art and even Theology, later becoming a University Lecturer.

There were many problems for women, starting with no bank accounts and no mortgage allowed. However, travel was cheap. In honour of the women pilots who were never honoured in World War 2, Teresa got her pilot’s license in 1974. Despite this achievement, she failed miserably when she stood as an MP. She was presented to the Queen Mother in London. Cambridge University rated her work as "good enough for Cambridge“, but when Cambridge University found out it was a woman’s work, they said “Sorry, we do not employ women”. Seeing how hard it was for women influenced her later work.

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Sacked at 50, she went back to art and research, saying “Life has good moments and bad...”