My mother, Irma Grant, passed away at the age of 94, leaving behind a legacy as a milliner, tailor, educator, administrator, homemaker, and gardener. Throughout her extensive life, she utilized her resourcefulness, creativity, and talents across a diverse array of pursuits.
In 1939, Irma was evacuated from London to Bedford as part of [Operation Pied Piper](https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2011/mar/12/children-evacuation-london-second-world-war). She stayed with Dora and Harry Lynham, who later attended Irma’s wedding. Irma’s children also cherished their summer holidays with their “Auntie and Uncle Bedford.”
Born in [London](https://www.theguardian.com/uk/london) to Isabel (née Philips), a bookkeeper, and Micheal Ginsburg, a tailor who adopted the surname Geen in 1941, Irma grew up in a non-Orthodox Jewish family living above a shop on Baker Street. The family eventually moved to West Hampstead, where Irma attended Emmanuel Primary School. She fondly recalled summer holidays before the war at a beach hut in Westgate-on-Sea, Kent.
Irma’s father was conscripted in 1941 and served as a unit tailor in the Royal Army Service Corps in Barry, South Wales. After the war, he became a theatrical costumier, and Irma often assisted in his workshop located behind Liberty’s in the West End. With a keen interest in theatre, dance, and art, she frequently visited the National Theatre and the Royal Academy. With the help of family connections, she found employment in the garment industry, working with Albert Hart, a prestigious furrier, and a variety of independent clothing manufacturers.
At 20, she met Richard Grant, a trainee architect, at a youth dance hosted by the West London Synagogue. The couple married in 1953, establishing a home in Belsize Park amid bomb sites, where they raised two children, shared space with three elderly tenants, and provided additional room for Irma’s parents on the ground floor. During her children’s early years, Irma focused on millinery, crafting wedding hats, cricket caps, pillbox hats for female aircrew, and the Russian fur hats for [David Lean’s Dr Zhivago (1965)](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/nov/26/doctor-zhivago-review-vehement-storytelling-still-conjures-great-romance).
In 1973, she started studying fashion and then pursued teacher training at Westminster College, earning her City & Guilds qualifications. She eventually became a dressmaking instructor, later leading the fashion department and serving as head of the Stanhope base at the Camden Adult Education Institute.
During her retirement, Irma became involved with the Chantraine School of Dance, participated in the University of the Third Age (U3A), worked part-time for boutiques, volunteered as a tutor for the European Computer Driving Licence course, and served as a tour guide for the National Trust at Ernő Goldfinger’s house in Hampstead.
In 2011, Irma and Richard relocated to a retirement community in Hampshire, where she spent a decade as a librarian, led a book group, and performed alterations for residents in exchange for donations to the [Rosemary Foundation](https://rosemary-foundation.org.uk/).
Irma is survived by Richard, their children, Deborah and myself, her grandchildren, Jesse and Ashley, a great-granddaughter named Merryn, and her sister, Lesley.
