As a small child, Carol moved to Birstall, where her parents ran “The Holt”, a Local Authority children’s home. After the local Primary School, she joined the High School in Upper III, aged only 10. In her Upper VI year she was awarded a State Scholarship in recognition of her A-Level results in French, German and Latin and the next year she became Head Girl. She then went to Bedford College, University of London, where she gained a 1st Class degree in French and German in 1964.
Carol began her postgraduate research and teaching degree at the University of London but later moved to the University of Liverpool where she became a Lecturer in the French Department. Her research was in sixteenth century French literature, particularly the works of Montaigne and Clement Marot. However, her outstanding contribution to the study of French was in language; she herself spoke perfect French. She devised and taught an MA degree in French Language. She also possessed great pastoral skills and was Senior Tutor in the Faculty of Arts for many years. She took early retirement from the French Department but continued to teach both within the University and outside.
Carol was a devout Roman Catholic and, from 1990 onwards, was closely involved with the Archdiocese of Liverpool; she was chair of governors at several schools. For many years she acted as a respite carer for a girl with learning difficulties and accompanied her to Lourdes. This led her to become a Trustee and Pilgrimage Director of the charity HCPT, which takes thousands of children with various needs on pilgrimages to Lourdes. Carol’s last visit to Lourdes was only 10 days before her death. It was a tribute to her that seven priests attended her funeral and that her parish priest said that if there were only more Carol Chapmans in the world it would be a better place. She was always a good friend to many of her schoolmates, always chatty and optimistic, caring about others and thoughtful about the world. She had a strong sense of duty. Now she is much missed by those friends and her large number of godchildren, two of whom are the children of her LHS contemporaries.
