Remembering Janty
MEMORIES & STORIES
Started life on earth: 9 September 1946
Started life in heaven: 22 April 2025
Janet was born in Bedford, England, on 9 September, 1946, to Jack and Edith Dain.
Her father, Jack, met her mother, Edith, at a Missionary Language School in India. Prior to attending Missionary College, he had been in the Merchant Navy.
Her mother, Edith, was the daughter of Rev Dr Alexander Stewart, a minister in the Free Church in Scotland.
Married in 1938, Jack and Edith had three daughters (Sheila, Maureen, and Alison) in India before returning to the UK, shortly before Janet's birth due to her mother's ill health.
Back in the UK, having served as General Secretary to a prominent missionary society, Jack and Edith emigrated to Australia in 1959.
Janet enjoyed her time at Clarendon School in Wales, where she made lifelong friends. However, in 1959, the family moved to Australia, and Janet completed her schooling in Sydney.
Janet continued her education in Sydney, where she graduated from the University of New South Wales with a degree in psychology.
The UK called her back, and after a short stint as a social worker in Australia, she returned to London, eventually becoming the Company Secretary of a prominent London firm of accountants, Neville Russell.
London was swinging! Janet and her sister, Alison (a teacher at Hill House), enjoyed a vibrant social and church life. Janet also found a base for herself just off the King's Road, right behind one of her favourite shops, Peter Jones.
Janet was a grand entertainer and consummate host with a knack for squeezing numerous guests in a relatively small space! Her flat was the site of many wonderful parties with its informal roof terrace, high above Sloane Square.
What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments but what is woven into the lives of others.
—THUCYDIDES
What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments but what is woven into the lives of others.
—THUCYDIDES
