Jenny Clapp
Obituary
Jenny Clapp ( nee Little ) died after a long illness on October 15th 2022. As Jenny Little, she attended Whitehead High School in County Antrim and, in the family tradition, went to university at Trinity College, Dublin, graduating in 1968. While at Trinity, Jenny played first-team hockey and badminton and played in the tennis mixed doubles final during Trinity Week in 1968, which made the sports page of the Irish Times as Jenny had never played for the college ladies' tennis team. Her partner was her husband-to-be. A couple of days later, she was pictured on the front page of the Irish Times with the caption, "Jenny Little, Whitehead, Co. Antrim at the Trinity College ball last night. ". Fame indeed.
After Trinity, Jenny joined the British foreign office. Around this time Jenny received the Royal Humane Society's award for bravery when she rescued three seventeen years old boys in danger of drowning in the Irish Sea. In 1970 Terry and Jenny were married and, within a few years, were living in New York at the behest of Terry's employer. Nicholas was born in 1973, and Lucie in 1975. In 1980 the family returned and set up home in Cobham, Surrey. Sport featured prominently in family activities. Around 1990 Terry was invited to join Royal County Down Golf Club, and Jenny joined RCD Ladies Golf Club. This prompted the purchase of a tumbledown cottage in the mountains of Mourne which, over two years, they restored, providing a holiday home for the next thirty years close to the golf club and a base to play golf courses throughout Ireland.
At home in Surrey, Jenny played tennis regularly and was honoured to become Lady Captain of St. George's Hill Golf Club in Weybridge. In some of her spare time, she helped at "Care in Weybridge", driving people who needed help to get to medical appointments etc. In 2009, with no warning, Jenny suffered a brain haemorrhage. She made a partial recovery but in 2015 suffered two more haemorrhages and, by 2016, needed a live-in carer. Jenny continued to travel only by car, assisted by Terry and the carer for another three years, to Ireland and Italy, where she had four grandchildren and one in England. Over the years before Jenny became ill, she and Terry had travelled extensively across the world, and they were thankful that this had not been saved for retirement as it would never have happened.