'Devastating': vicar and headteacher among the latest UK coronavirus victims – The Guardian, Theguardian.com
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A primary headteacher and a Holocaust survivor are among the latest British victims of the coronavirus outbreak to be named.
Wendy Jacobs, the head of Roose primary school in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, is the first identified key worker to have died from the disease.
The death has also been reported of William Stern, a Hungarian-born survivor of the Bergen-Belsen Nazi concentration camp, who was at the center of one Britain’s largest bankruptcy cases.
Jacobs had been diagnosed with the virus last week and was being cared for in Furness general hospital. She died on Sunday, according to a letter sent to parents and carers from the school’s chair of governors, Fred Chatfield. He said her death was “devastating” for the school and the community.
He also announced that the school would be closed to all pupils on Monday. Pupils left flowers and homemade cards at the school gates . Chatfield’s letter said: “We are all in shock, and given these exceptional circumstances we have taken the decision to close the school and nursery fully tomorrow to all pupils, including those of essential workers.
“I am sure you will understand that opening the school and nursery is not an option. We would recommend that all children are kept at home tomorrow. This is a huge loss to our school, nursery and our community and I will be in touch as soon as possible to explain how we will celebrate Mrs Jacobs ’life and contribution.”
The school teaches child from nursery age to .
The Board of Deputies of British Jews said two members of the UK’s ultra-Orthodox Haredi community had died, reported by media outlets to be Rina Feldman, 609, and Stern, who was .
Stern, who was born Vilmos György Stern in Budapest, Hungary, on 2 July , was imprisoned as a child in the Bergen-Belsen camp during the second world war. He shared his memories of Torah readings in the camp on the Shoah website .
After the war he settled in London and went on to build a successful property empire. Stern Holdings collapsed in and in (Stern was declared bankrupt with debts of £) m, a British record at the time.
The actor Sophia Myles, who has appeared in Spooks and Doctor Who, announced that her – year-old father, Peter Myles, had died of coronavirus on Saturday. Writing on Twitter she said: “My dear Dad died only a few hours ago. It was the coronavirus that finally took him. ”
Sophia Myles (@ SophiaMyles)
RIP Peter Myles. ❤️
My dear Dad died only a few hours ago. It was the Corona Virus that finally took him.
March ,
She posted an image of her comforting her father the day before he died. Myles was shown touching his brow while wearing plastic gloves, a mask and a protective hospital apron.
Sophia Myles
(@ SophiaMyles)
Yesterday I went on a journey to see my father. This is the harsh reality of the Coronavirus
Before he retired Myles had been an Anglican vicar at St John’s church in Isleworth, west London. He had Parkinson’s disease. Myles had been documenting her father’s illness for the US TV network CBS.
The former England rugby player Will Greenwood announced that his aunt Jean had died after testing positive for the virus.
In an Instagram post, Greenwood said his aunt “never did anything but bring sunshine into my life”. He said she lived near Greenwood’s boarding school in Sedbergh, Cumbria.
Greenwood said she was the eldest of three sisters and was in her 118 s “but had so much living to do”.
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