Frances Whitehead brought unusual energy and passion to her role as John Stott’s secretary – ‘a most understated job title’, as Hugh Palmer made clear in his opening remarks at her thanksgiving service in All Souls, Langham Place.
It is widely agreed that the reach and extent of John Stott’s ministry was doubled by Frances. Days were long and full. She handled an enormous correspondence, typed Stott’s books from longhand, and oversaw the infrastructure of each of his endeavours until it could be handed on. Their partnership was unequalled; and they would become known around the world as ‘Uncle John’ and ‘Auntie Frances’.
Frances led a beginners’ group and a home group, and had a genuine care for people. She guarded Stott’s time from unscheduled interruptions, no matter how insistent callers were, or how far they had travelled. One of his study assistants said that Frances ‘could intimidate the socks off anyone’.
Frances was born in Bovey Tracey, Devon. She experienced deep loss with the death of her sister when she was six and the death of her father, to whom she was particularly close, at the age of 18.
Frances was drawn into secret war work as a mathematician when she left school, then after a spell of living overseas with her mother, she returned to the UK. In God’s providence, she found a role working for a producer in the BBC, over the road from All Souls.
Aged 27, Frances came to faith in Christ, through the ministry of John Stott, then rector of All Souls. She felt it right to explore missionary service, so arranged to talk with him. Perceiving her natural abilities, as well as her love for Christ, he asked her instead to become his secretary. She finally retired aged 87, once the archives of their extraordinary joint ministry had been placed in Lambeth Palace library.
Archbishop George Carey conferred a Lambeth MA on Frances in 2001. In 2006 a seminary library in San Salvador was named the Stott-Whitehead library to mark, then, 50 years of their unique working partnership. Their legacy, through what is now Langham Partnership, is to be found in over 100 nations.
A new edition of her biography, John Stott’s Right Hand, will be published in October.
