A combination of keen intellect, boundless energy, sound planning and tenacity was the hallmark of campaigns and projects for the benefit of Cumbrian people organised by Ann Risman, who has died at the age of 85.
For many years a resident in the Penrith area, she was particularly known for her work for the county’s farming community, particularly during and after the foot and mouth crisis of 2001 and in connection with Newton Rigg College.
Ann Margaret Risman BA, MPhil OBE was born in Cumbria to the Hebson and Graham families, of Matterdale and Whitehaven, respectively.
She went on to become an accomplished administrator, innovator and breaker of “glass ceilings” in the fields of adult education, charitable endeavour and local representative government. She was made an OBE in the New Years Honours List of 1999.
An always charming but fiercely combative intellect, she rose to leadership positions in both her chosen professional fields – chairing Royal Berkshire County Council and Richmond Adult Education College, sometimes simultaneously for extended periods in the 1980s and 1990s. These were trailblazing achievements at a time when such appointments were rare for women.
As well as raising her family, she also applied her energies with characteristic vigour in the support of local causes in her beloved Cumbria, in particular the farming community — becoming a Beacon Fellow for her work with the Pentalk charity.
Ann drew comparisons regarding capacities and, very occasionally, style — among her professional adversaries — with Margaret Thatcher. The two were contemporaries in terms of era but certainly not in politics, with Ann being a committed Liberal and opposing the Conservative politician with characteristic fervour.
That the two never did direct battle with one another was due not least to Ann’s still greater devotion to her famous Rugby playing husband Bev and their family.
Bev was son of Gus Risman, whose statue now stands outside Wembley stadium and whose affiliations with Cumbria also ran deep. Having straddled the Second World War with his international career, Gus had led Workington Town to an improbable Challenge Cup victory in 1952.
As an accomplished academic raising three sons with both sporting and academic inclinations, Ann judged the sacrifice of running for high office too great.
Born in Whitehaven, Ann was the only child of Arthur and Joan Hebson. Arthur was a school headmaster who was sent to New York during World War Two as a member of the RAF working in aspects of wartime intelligence, while Joan looked after evacuee children.
Ann grew up in the village of Greysouthen, attending the local primary school before progressing to Cockermouth Grammar School.
In her early years there were signs of the emerging fierce intellect and her father rescued her from several school situations caused by her excessively sparky mind. She made her first speech to a farmers’ market at the age of nine.
She was an accomplished athlete and at Cockermouth Grammar School she won the 70 yard dash, shot put and cricket ball throw on the same day. Later in life she excelled at netball, taking advantage of her 5ft 10in stature.
In 1957, she and Bev left Cumbria to attend Manchester University, where they studied English literature and geology, respectively. At this time, Bev’s Rugby Union career was already burgeoning, with him being selected as fly half for the British Lions tour of New Zealand in 1959 aged just 21. Ann chose to do a further degree in philosophy at Nottingham University.
Between 1963 and 1968, three sons — Martin, John and Michael — arrived in quick succession. After Bev’s career ended in 1970, the family moved south to Crowthorne, a village in Berkshire that is also home to Wellington College.
Ann took up a position as a teacher at a local primary school, while Bev taught sports education at Borough Road College. All three of their boys would subsequently attend Wellington on various local and merit scholarships.
It was from this base that Ann’s rise began in the twin spheres of local politics and adult education. In the late 1970s she began representing the Liberal Party in the local constituency. Over the following years she rose simultaneously to chair Royal Berkshire Council and take on the role of principal of Richmond Adult Education College which, with 30,000 students was the largest such institution in the country.
At this time, family and friends remember her working late into evenings on her two full-time jobs, making gleefully short work of any obstructive or chauvinistic influences during the week and releasing uninhibited and regularly distracting yells of support from multiple sporting touchlines at the weekend.
Around 2000, with the children now away, Ann and Bev announced to their friends a surprise move back to the Lake District. They had found Spring Bank, a house with land on the edge of a fell near Penrith, and set about building an idyllic rural existence.
She had not lost any of her energy, however, and threw herself into local causes like Pentalk, which supported the Cumbrian farming community with computer skills training. This came into its own during the foot and mouth crisis, when it helped farmers overcome isolation.
A second battle was for the future of the farming training centre at Newton Rigg, Penrith. In her final years, she led the 100-year commemoration of the First World War in Penrith.
Ann was a force of nature and, for those that knew her best, the “battle that never happened” — with Margaret Thatcher — would have been a no contest. The country would have been in good hands.
Ann passed away after a short illness. She is survived by her husband Bev, three children and many grandchildren, all of who loved her greatly and felt privileged to have had her in their lives.
