Evelyn Cleavely (1934-2023)

It is with sadness that we record the death on 12 June 2023 of Evelyn Cleavely, a long-standing colleague of ours held in much affection by those who knew and worked with her.

Born in Bethnal Green, the middle of three children, Evelyn (Eve) spent much of her upbringing in Worthing, where she resided in a care home for the closing months of her life. Aged fifteen, she enrolled as a trainee nursery nurse with Barnardos at Barkingside, qualifying in 1952. After six years with Barnardos she trained as a state registered nurse at Mile End Hospital, London, qualifying in 1958. In 1964 she obtained a certificate in social science at Southampton University and, the following year, the Home Office probation certificate. She worked as a probation officer between 1965 and 1974, and was promoted to the position of senior probation officer in 1971. In April 1974 she joined the staff of the Institute of Marital Studies (as Tavistock Relationships was formerly known) where she worked until 1989. She was an advocate for recruiting staff from statutory services, a keen supporter of the Institute's Registrar programme (enabling practitioners from other agencies to train within the IMS), and a contributor to the social work training programme run by the Tavistock Clinic. After she left what was by then known as the Tavistock Institute of Marital Studies she worked in private practice, specialising in consultation and group relations training, activities that she continued until shortly before her death.

Sympathetic to Jungian ideas, her colleagues recall an independentmindedness that was evident in her professional and personal relationships: the phrase “she was very much her own person” recurred in several messages of appreciation. Perhaps this is reflected in her choice of a comfortable West London mobile home for her primary residence, and ownership of “Fiver”, a boat in which she cruised local canals and rivers, and from which she developed her passion for the natural world. Apart