Deone Bartlet obituary Michael Bartlet The Guardian, Thursday 10 February 2011 <li class="history">Article history Deone Bartlet combined a varied career with being a single parent, raising four children My mother, Deone Bartlet, who has died aged 85, was born Deone Vernham in Buckinghamshire, to an English mother and a half-French father whose warmth and sense of humour she inherited. She had many memories of a happy, pre-second world war childhood spent in Australia and New Zealand, including riding to school on a horse and – less pleasantly – being bitten by a koala. In the late 1930s, with war clouds gathering, the family returned to Britain. On the boat back they witnessed the spectre of Italian submarines sailing though the Suez canal. In 1942 Deone was recruited to work at the codebreaking centre at Bletchley Park, Buckinghamshire, where the unusual lives of people whom she met gave her an early interest in psychology. After the war she was one of the first to study psychology at University College London, and in 1951 she was on the first diploma course at the Maudsley hospital, Denmark Hill, south London, where she made friendships that lasted throughout her life and where she met her husband, Eric Bartlet. After the marriage ended in 1967, Deone combined teaching at Hylton, a Froebel school in Exeter, with bringing up her four children. In 1971 she retrained in behavioural therapy at the Middlesex hospital before setting up a department of clinical psychology in south Devon. During a varied career, she drew on personal experience to develop an unconventional analytic technique that helped others to live more courageously. She was one of the first generation of clinical psychologists, combining the role of mother with a professional career. Deone had a gift for friendship, listening attentively and dispensing good advice, often with a glass of red wine. She had a great sensitivity to language, music and painting. Her generous heart and love of words were expressed in warm letters to friends and family, written throughout her life, and revealed in more occasional poetry. For the last 10 years, Deone lived in Impington, Cambridgeshire, where she developed friendships through her love of the arts. It was characteristic of my mother that, even when seriously ill, she maintained an interest in the lives of others. She is survived by me, her daughters, Clare, Heidi and Sue, and five grandchildren. Deone Bartlet obituary | From the Guardian | The Guardian
