Ann wrote the following: Although I call myself a writer or local historian and am a member of the Society of Authors I have had a varied life which includes politics and public service.  From the ages of 5 to 14 I attended Wychwood School in North Oxford.  I would have preferred the Dragon School but my mother did not approve of mixed education.  In 1940 when the invasion of England looked inevitable I was evacuated with my brother Peter to the USA.  We were members of a party of 125 Oxford children and 25 mothers who crossed the Atlantic at the invitation of  several Universities in Canada and the USA.  The majority of us went to New Haven, Connecticut, the home of Yale University, where we stayed with foster parents during the war. 
 
I returned home in the summer of 1944 and was accepted by St Anne’s College, Oxford to read philosophy, politics and economics.  After some years in Oxford, Cambridge and Abingdon working for Conservative MP’s, I became a Parliamentary candidate standing once in North East Leicester and twice in Brigg, Lincolnshire. I worked for Age Concern Oxford and later chaired Age Concern England. I also became a City of Oxford Councillor and later a County Councillor.  See my Who’s Who entry for further details of national bodies on which I served.
Also see https://pstalker6.wixsite.com/symonds/books
 
Lord Mayor of the City of Oxford 1976-77
 
Ann and Richard Symonds (John Richard Charters Symonds) were married at St Peter’s, Wolvercote on 30 December 1980. Richard died on 15 July 2006.