Jane Blom-Cooper

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Biographical Information

Jane Blom-Cooper (died in 2007) "Not academically inclined at school, she was led by her social and political concerns to gain a social work qualification at Ruskin College, Oxford, in 1965, and worked in the field of social services childcare in Oxfordshire until 1970 and in the London borough of Camden until 1972. Via a research project in 1967 at Bedford College, London, she met the lawyer Louis Blom-Cooper. Marriage to him in 1970 meant that she joined forces with his independence of mind and involvement in causes of justice and liberty.

"Her quarter-century career as a magistrate, particularly in the cause of youth justice, was a major life purpose. The need for social housing via the Circle 33 Housing Trust in London and the south-east was another, and she played an integral part in the architectural competition for the Old Ford affordable housing development in east London.

"With her brother David, she devoted much time and energy to enlarging greatly the chalk-quarrying business in Suffolk begun by their father. Somehow she found time, too, for judicial appointments panels and prison reform causes; charities, including Parents for Children, Young Minds and Medical Aid to Palestine; school governorship; and even leading the rescue of a Shropshire inn and brewery..."