Jocelyn Herbert Archive NT
I am Jocelyn’s eldest daughter Sandra and I speak on behalf of my brother Julian and
sisters Jenny & Olivia (also we have some of the grandchildren and even some great
grandchildren of Jocelyn’s here tonight). This is a very amazing occasion and I can’t help
but feel Mum would be astonished at this gathering but extremely pleased and proud as
well. John Sorrell has already talked about Jocelyn’s archive and the wonderful variation
of work it contains so it just leaves me to thank a few very special people.
Jocelyn loved working here at the National. She delighted in the team work behind the
scenes, the paint shop, the costume cutters, wig makers, painters, props and dyers &
especially the making and breaking down of costumes. She used to say they were the
best and a joy to work with.
This was also where her retrospective exhibition was held in 1993, where we held a
memorial exhibition for her in 2004 and where the Jocelyn Herbert Prize has been
presented at each of the subsequent Linbury Awards
The Archive would never have made this journey without the love and care of Cathy
Courtney and Eileen Hogan. They were both great friends of Jocelyn‘s and her choice of
Cathy as her archive executor was such a wise one. Cathy as you all know is an Oral
Historian, she first worked with Mum recording her life and next they worked together on
The Theatre Workbook so she knows her work well. Eileen is a wonderful artist &
researcher, Mum really loved her work and she is also a Professor at Wimbledon.
So they are both extremely qualified to be working with Jocelyn’s archive and have worked
extremely hard to make it integrate with the course work at Wimbledon. This enabled the
students to use it for various projects.
Our next special thanks go to Rod Bugg who was Head of College at the time and was
wonderfully supportive of the archive moving to Wimbledon. Other colleagues at
Wimbledon who were instrumental in making it work were Peter Farley who has made
many exhibitions with her work and Jane Collins who helped to set up projects in particular
with Stirling University where Lindsay Anderson’s archive is, Lindsay as I am sure you all
know was a great friend and collaborator of Jocelyn's.
But without The Rootstein Hopkins Foundation taking such an interest in her Archive and
funding a strong room and office at Wimbledon and paying for the archive to be
catalogued and all the drawings to be scanned, we would not be here today. So I would
very especially like to thank Deirdre Hopkins, Michael Southgate and Graham Feldman for
making all this possible. Sadly Michael is unable to be here tonight.
Still with Wimbledon I would like to thank Simon Betts and his staff for the continued use of
such a generous space We really enjoyed meeting the students and seeing the projects
they did relating to Jocelyn’s work.
Jocelyn always liked being with young people and she wanted students to be able to
access her work if possible and certainly the Wimbledon students appreciated it. But
situations change and life moves on and although In many ways it is sad to leave
Wimbledon we all feel this move to the NT is extremely exciting, It would not even have
been worth contemplating moving to the NT if we hadn’t felt that the Wimbledon students
would benefit. With all the exciting new changes in the NT I know this is possible and
indeed is already happening, not just for Wimbledon but so many more students.
Lastly, Nick I would like to thank you for making this all possible and to Alice & Erin and
their teams, for transferring the archive with open arms and apparent ease, although I am
sure it was hard work, to the NT Archive. Thank you all for making us feel so welcome.
We, her family, are absolutely delighted for it to be here.
I have one last interesting fact to relate to you in 1935 the London Theatre School was in
this building for a few weeks run by Michel Saint-Denis and George Devine. Mum was one
of its students although I think not until 1937 when the LTS had moved to Upper Street
Islington. But in a way you could say that she has come full circle and is back where she
began.