Letter: Penelope Putz obituary

Sarah Sheils writes: I understand that Penelope was at the February 2003 anti-Iraq war demonstration in London

Penelope Putz was one of a number of girls from the Quaker Fox family, at least 19 of whom attended the Mount school, York, at some point in the 19th or 20th centuries.

As a teacher there from 1987 to 2006, I wrote a history of the school, Among Friends (2007), and there have been all sorts of radicals among former pupils.

I understand that Penelope was at the February 2003 anti-Iraq war demonstration in London. A group of girls from the school and I were there, too. After the war was declared we spent many break times on the pavement outside the school in York with our banners, with many girls writing to our then MP, Hugh Bayley.

In Penelope’s time at the school, during the second world war, the staff ate supper in the dining room with the girls. The latter complained that the staff were getting better food than they were, so held a demonstration outside the dining room: thereafter, the staff ate separately in the evening.