University mourns the loss of Joanna Seldon

Joanna Seldon, the wife of Sir Anthony Seldon, Vice-Chancellor of The University of Buckingham, has passed away after a long illness.

Sir Anthony said: “She had an incurable cancer for several years, enduring frequent long periods in hospital with incredible grace and courage, but eventually she could no longer prevail against it.

“I prayed as a young man for a wife I could love all my life and who would make me happy. In Joanna, my prayers were answered 100 times over. She had the best mind of anyone I’ve known and won the top first in her year at Oxford, where she took her doctorate. I loved her courage, honesty, vulnerability, brilliance, beauty, kindness and innocence.”

Just ten days before she died Joanna completed the last draft of the book about her father. Her biography marks the 50^th anniversary of the successful campaign by her late father, Maurice Pappworth, to stop medical experiments on human guinea pigs.

Joanna was an author and wrote a number of acclaimed novels and short stories as well as a large number of poems. As an English teacher she played a key role in school life at Wellington College, where Anthony was previously Master.

Joanna, who was 62, attended University events including Graduation, formal dinners and judging of the University’s annual duck race, much loved by students, staff and local residents.

The couple have three grown-up children, Jessica, Susannah and Adam.