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Joan Catherine Hall
née Mackerras

28 January 1934 - 23 September 2020



JOAN CATHERINE HALL née MACKERRAS passed away on Wednesday 23rd September, aged
86 years. Beloved wife of Graeme and wonderful mother of four sons, she will be
missed beyond measure and remembered fondly by all who knew and loved her.

Joan had a long and happy life. She died at home after a short illness with her
family, and many friends and relatives visited her or spoke with her on the
phone before she died. She was born in Sydney into one of Australia’s most
distinguished families, the Mackerras family, and was the fourth of seven
children.

One of the great formative years of Joan’s life was when she came to England to
study the violin at the Royal Academy of Music in 1954, and then taught at
Headington School, Oxford. When she didn’t find the right man there her mother
persuaded her to return home to Australia to find a husband! Australia wanted to
encourage people to migrate down under and so in 1959 Joan became a Ł10 POM!



Graeme was the Director of Music of Sydney Grammar School and appointed her as
Head of Strings. She was a musicologist who specialised in eighteenth century
violin bowing. They married in 1965 and came to Europe the following year.

Joan had many funny anecdotes – she had a fabulous sense of humour and was full
of joie de vivre. She was kind, generous, animated, highly intelligent, had a
profound love and knowledge of history, literature and classical music and her
memory was amazing. At one point she could speak fluent Italian. She would often
quote pieces of Gilbert and Sullivan, Shakespeare or the Bible. She was, of
course, proud of all her talented siblings but she did so enjoy listening to her
brother’s music on Radio 3 and it gave her such a thrill to hear the announcer
say “conducted by Sir Charles Mackerras”. She would know instantly if it was one
of his recordings.



Joan had an unusual ability to make life-long friends – she had at least twenty
from all eras of her life, friends from school in Australia, Sydney University
where she received her MA, the Academy in London, Oxford, Grenoble, Norwich and
Suffolk where the family have lived for forty six years and where she was Head
of Strings and taught A Level Music at Woodbridge School.

Of the many words describing Joan perhaps the most frequent was “inspiring”. She
inspired a love of music, of history, of religion, of places such as France
where she and husband Graeme renovated a ruin in the Loire Valley. She also
loved Suffolk, the moon, intellectual conversation and above all classical
music. Joan was the model of Christian love in practicing her Catholic faith.
Her family and her friends will miss her beyond measure, her extraordinarily
interesting conversation and her loving disposition. Joan will always be
treasured.

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Requiem Mass

A Requiem Mass for the repose
of the soul of Joan Catherine Hall
was held at 1 p.m. on
Tuesday October 13, 2020


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