Tribute paid to much-loved, former Broadstairs teacher Kristin Foster

If you attended The Charles Dickens School in Broadstairs over a 25-year period during the 1970s, 80s and 90s, you will most likely remember Mrs Foster, a much-loved teacher of English, who sadly died on October 16th, a fortnight after her 80th birthday.

Kristin Madeline Gardner was born on 2nd October 1944 in Dewsbury, Yorkshire, where her mother Joan had been evacuated following intensive bombing of the South East by the Luftwaffe during the Second World War.

Tragically, Kristin’s father, William, was killed in Germany in the last two weeks of the war; he had been unable to return home on leave, so never saw his daughter.

After the war, Joan and Kristin returned to Canterbury where Joan met Jack Ratcliffe. Joan and Jack married in 1946 at Monkton Church, and daughter Jocelyn – Kristin’s half sister – was born in 1948.

Kristin always loved reading and was the first person in the family to pass her 11-plus exam, enabling her to attend Dover Grammar School for Girls and then Simon Langton Grammar School for Girls in Canterbury.

She decided on a career as a teacher and, having obtained her A-levels, embarked upon her training at Kirby Fields College in Liverpool in 1963 – again, being the first member of the family at the time ever to have continued to further or higher education.

Kristin loved her time in Liverpool, making friends with a bunch of like-minded girls, many of whom remained in contact with Kristin throughout her life.

Whilst in Liverpool, in 1964, she also met young Lancastrian, Richard Foster, with whom she fell in love and they were married in 1968. They lived together in Southend, Leigh on Sea and Cornwall – moving around for Richard’s work – before settling back in East Kent in 1971.

Kristin and Richard never intended to have children – they acquired a large Great Dane dog, Alice, instead = so it came as something of a surprise when Kristin fell pregnant in 1972 and gave birth to twins, Edward and Stephen, in November of that year.

Kristin would never have described herself as maternal, but proved to be the most loving and caring mother her sons could have wished for, taking over the role of principal carer after Richard moved abroad in 1979 for work and looking after Edward and Stephen as a single parent after she and Richard separated in 1988.

Kristin, Edward and Stephen lived in Fairfield Road in Broadstairs, just around the corner from Charles Dickens School, where Kristin spent some of the happiest years of her teaching life. She started as a specialist English teacher, moving up to become a housemistress and assistant Head of English, before her early retirement. She also served for many years as a school governor, as the teacher representative on the governing body.

She was respected and much-loved by her colleagues and students, many of whom still remember her fondly and credit her with enabling them to achieve higher grades in the subject and appreciating her kindness and generosity, both inside and outside the classroom.

Following her early retirement, she worked for Edward (briefly) and then retrained as a pharmacy assistant, working for Stephen for many years in his various pharmacy businesses, before eventually retiring in her 70s.

Kristin was by now living in a bungalow in a quiet cul-de-sac in St Peters, with her many cats, within a stone’s throw of Edward and Stephen, who would visit regularly.

Sadly, in early 2021 she suffered a fall at home, badly breaking her thigh, and spent several months recuperating at a nursing home in Westgate. After her condition deteriorated, she was transferred to the Temple Ewell Nursing Home outside Dover in November 2021, where she remained until her death on 16th October, following complications from a fourth bout of sepsis.

Kristin was loved very much by her family and friends and will be greatly missed. She leaves her sons, Edward and Stephen, and six grandchildren.

Details of Kristin’s funeral arrangements will be publicised in due course; if anyone wishes to attend, please contact Edward on 07515 850194.