Skip to main content

Anne, with David Guilford, at the opening of the sixteenth court at Eton

Elizabeth Anne Shortland-Jones - Nee Young (1931 - 2018)

Anne Shortland-Jones will be remembered in Fives circles as the devoted wife of the EFA's late President, Martin, whom she supported wholeheartedly in his passion for the game.

Even after Martin's untimely death, she maintained her own interest in Eton Fives, continuing to foster the game at Ipswich by donating a cup to the school in Martin's memory. She attended home matches and was always at the Ipswich Tournament.

The EFA Veterans Competition has also benefitted from Anne's gift of a trophy, thus again deservedly perpetuating Martin's name.

Anne was educated at Ipswich High School, but after the war started, she and her brother went to live with their paternal grandparents at Houghton near St Ives, where they attended Slepe Hall School until 1943, when they returned to their parents in Ipswich. Anne went on to board at Bedford High School and then read classics at St Hugh's College, Oxford. After graduation, she worked for a short time at Investment Research, Cambridge and then moved to the MOD in London, for a position that she was not allowed to discuss, and where she stayed until she married aged 40. During that time, she worked for three years at the British High Commission in Lagos.

Anne married Martin in 1971 and together they played a full part in college life at Eton. Shortly after marrying, they bought a flat in Malta, which they visited on most holidays, driving out. On the journey, they took different routes, stopping to look at classical sites as well as other places of interest.

When Martin retired, they moved to Ipswich in 1991. Martin was taken ill after returning from a cruise along the Turkish coast in 2000 and died a few months later. Anne sold the property in Malta, but continued to go abroad on holiday, including to Eastern Turkey and another to Mali.

In her early 80s, Anne gradually suffered memory loss and finally moved to Mistley Manor, where she was a favourite with the staff. She was there for 15 months before she died. Except for dementia, she was in good physical health until she contracted a virus about four weeks before her death and she was admitted to Colchester Hospital, where she passed away.

We send our condolences to her extended family.

Gordon Stringer/Peter Boughton/John Young