Kathleen Henry, who died in Ardview House, Ardglass, Co Down, on March 8th, was born in India on October 16th, 1912, the daughter of Herbert and Kathleen Watson. Her father was a civil engineer, and Kathleen was educated in a convent in Darjeeling, India, and later in England. When her father came back to Belfast, Kathleen went to Methodist College, and thence to Queen's University, where she graduated with a B.A. Shortly after graduation she became the wife of R. M. Henry, professor of Latin, secretary of the Academic Council of Queen's and brother of the painter Paul Henry.
Prof Henry had long been a widower and was about to retire after a most distinguished career. Unusually among professors at Queen's at the time, he declared adherence to Irish nationalism. After his retirement from Queen's, he became professor of Latin at St Andrews, and he and Kathleen began their married life there in wartime. Kathleen could give a good account of being on the east coast of Scotland with occupied Europe across the water. When Prof Henry retired from St Andrews, they moved to Dublin, where he was appointed to a lectureship in Trinity College. Despite the disparity in age and religion theirs was a very happy marriage, and in Dublin they had an interesting social life among the older writers and artists, including Paul Henry.
After her husband's death Kathleen went under the auspices of the British Council to Istanbul, where she taught English and music for some years, returning to Dublin to nurse her widowed mother. After her mother's death Kathleen's own health broke down. While she was in hospital in Dublin she lost many of her possessions - sold to pay for her care. What was an especial sorrow to her was the loss at this time of her husband's books. He had bequeathed most of his library to Queen's, including his extensive collection of books of Irish interest which now forms the nucleus of the R.M. Henry Collection. Kathleen had inherited a small collection including her husband's own History of Sinn Fein. She lost this at this time and was never able to replace it.
Another, later grief to her was the dreadful irony that, when republican activists threw a petrol bomb into Queen's Great Hall, the one thing they destroyed was the portrait by Paul Henry of his brother, the Irish nationalist, R.M. Henry.
On leaving hospital Kathleen returned to Northern Ireland, and was fortunate to become one of the first residents in Ardview House, Ardglass, where she lived very happily. When it was proposed to close Andview House she was active in opposition, to the extent of applying (at the age of 81) to the High Court in Belfast to have the matter judicially reviewed. Her application was unsuccessful but it helped to bring the matter to the attention of the Minister for Health and Social Services, the Baroness Denton. The Baroness visited Ardview House and, having met Kathleen there, ordered that the house be kept open.
Kathleen had a fund of reminiscence from her childhood in India, her time at Queen's, St Andrews, Dublin and Turkey. she is very much missed by her friends in Ardglass and Killough, Co Down.
M.J.F.