In the summer of 1971, I worked my student vacation as a chambermaid at The Royal Hotel in Southampton’s Cumberland Place… until illness overtook me.

I was shown the ropes by a very experienced and hardworking colleague called Jean, who looked after many of the third-floor bedrooms, others of which were to be my responsibility.

The rooms on this floor required a lot of linen changing as they were largely occupied by passengers spending a single overnight before or after travelling on a liner.

I soon found myself in agony from a pre-existing spine injury, on account of all the bed stripping, re-making, and fresh linen carrying.

One morning, I came back from a staff coffee break to see Jean’s daughter disappearing down the stairs at the far end of our 3rd floor corridor, although she herself worked on (I think) the first floor.

I wondered what she was doing up there.

It turned out that she had discreetly used her own break to come up and carry supplies of fresh linen for me to use in the various rooms for which I was responsible.

Although I can’t recall her name after all these years, I am hoping that someone may recognise who she was, and pass on that I have been forever grateful for this act of kindness - small to her and maybe long forgotten, but still a very precious memory to me over half a century later.

Jane Sherwood
Somerset