For someone who spent decades at the heart of the Paralympic Movement, Jean Stone appears remarkably rarely in her own archive. But the collection does contain a handful of photographs of Jean herself, offering a quiet portrait of a remarkable life.

The earliest known photograph shows Jean walking across an airport tarmac, probably in the early 1960s. A vintage KLM aircraft tail fin is visible to the right, a classic coach behind her. She is wearing a dark green jacket with a Stoke Mandeville badge or emblem on the breast, and she is smiling. Given the context, she may well be heading to or returning from one of her first Games.

The second is a small newspaper portrait, reproduced in a full-page spread from The People's Journal in November 1962. The Scottish team is preparing to fly to Perth, Western Australia, for the first Commonwealth Paraplegic Games and among the photographs of athletes and officials, one is captioned simply: "Miss J. Stone (Thistle Foundation)." She is twenty-nine years old, dark-haired, looking directly at the camera. She has already been to the Rome Paralympics. She has already helped found the Scottish Paraplegic Association.

The third is candid and unposed, probably in the 1970s. Jean is at an archery competition, wearing a GB tracksuit with the Union Flag on the breast. She is standing on grass beside a male colleague, both of them deep in conversation, the archery targets visible in the distance behind them. Those who knew Jean have noted that she was usually immaculately turned out, which makes this glimpse of her in kit, practical and focused particularly revealing. This is Jean at work.

The fourth shows Jean at a Scottish Paraplegic Association exhibition stand, wearing a striking scarlet red suit with a yellow brooch at her lapel. Behind her, a display board carries photographs, a Saltire pennant, and printed materials. She is looking at a book being shown to her by a colleague. Her red suit against the blue display boards is bold, but no stranger to being the only woman in the room, Jean wasn’t afraid of bold.

The fifth is perhaps the most quietly characteristic. Jean is standing alone on a running track, wearing a smart navy-blue skirt suit, a notebook in hand, caught mid-stride as she glances back over her shoulder with a smile. Grey skies stretch above her. It is entirely candid, Jean in her working environment. The navy suit and heels on a running track is a detail tells us a little about the way she moved through the world.

The sixth shows Jean seated inside a wooden-panelled river boat, a copper ship's lantern gleaming above her, water visible through the window behind. She is wearing a smart teal jacket with a gold brooch, and she is smiling, relaxed and poised, and holding a leaflet in her hands. This is the Jean that Pauline Betteridge, Chair of British Wheelchair Archery, remembered: someone who could calmly and quietly get things done, and who always looked the part doing it.

The seventh is perhaps the most historically significant of all. It shows a group of six women gathered in an office, the Seoul 1988 Olympic emblem hanging on the wall behind them and a Hodori tiger mascot poster to their right, placing the photograph at around 1988. Jean stands on the far right, her auburn hair and broad smile immediately recognisable. On the far left stands Joan Scruton MBE, Secretary General of the International Stoke Mandeville Games Federation for decades and one of the architects of the Paralympic Movement alongside Sir Ludwig Guttmann. Between them stand four other women who were clearly part of the same world, colleagues and friends, entirely at ease with one another.

It is a remarkable photograph to find in the collection. Two of the most significant women in the history of the Paralympic Movement, caught in an informal, collegial moment smiling, surrounded by materials from the Games they had both helped to build. The NPHT hopes to explore Joan Scruton's extraordinary contribution in greater detail in future projects. For now, this photograph offers a quiet glimpse of the world Jean inhabited, and the remarkable company she kept.

The final photograph was taken on 30th August 1993, and is amongst the most characterful photograph of Jean in the collection. She is seated on a chair, at the javelin throwing line at the edge of a running track, wearing a teal green top and navy skirt. She is holding a javelin aloft and smiling. Around her, wheelchair athletes watch, a young man in a pink shirt to her left, another in a Crossport t-shirt to her right. 

There is something joyful about the image. Jean, in her sixties, on the field, holding a javelin. It speaks directly to what Richard Brickley described at her memorial. Jean was someone who coached athletes, passed on knowledge, and believed resolutely that sport could change lives.

Eight photographs. More than thirty years apart. The same person, the same quiet commitment, seen from eight very different angles. Between them, they tell the story that the rest of the archive helps us to fill, of a woman who was always there, always working, and was happy to be so.

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Further photographs can be found within the Jean Stone Collection, which has now been catalogued and will soon be searchable via the Buckinghamshire Archives Disability Sports Catalogue.