Ruth Henderson
April 16, 2015
Ruth Henderson seemed to have been involved in hockey for ever. It also seemed that she would go on forever despite all her trials and difficulties.Her life revolved around her family, her involvement in sport and her professional attachment to Wesley College.
While her interests were wide ranging, in sport there was an allegiance to the equestrial world but it was in hockey where her heart lay and the coaching of young people.
Her work at Wesley College kept her busy with hockey, PE, boarding duties and she also organised the annual schools photos - no mean feat. She coached girls and junior boys. Her approach was competitive, vigorously contesting when it came to match play giving her young teams much success as they followed her advice and instruction.
Small in stature she may have been, but she would prove to be a formidable opponent when facing a school, a team or a teacher when drawn against them. She was direct but fair and was not a lady who suffered fools gladly.
Unfortunately her husband Don passed away a few years back but she had been enjoying her now grown up family and the next generation appearing. She followed her sons' and daughter's fortunes about the world as they grew up and as they also contributed to the world of sport. All three played hockey.
She contested how own health problems with the same determination that she showed on the sports field : to overcome. She continued to work at Wesley and it was this that kept her going as her health waxed and waned. Her accounts of hospital encounters on her Facebook Page were as direct as her personality.
She was prepared to help out on the administration side of sport and sat on Leinster Committees for both boys and girls. And while she also acted as Leinster representative on the erstwhile Irish Schools' Committee, her interest was really based out on the pitch showing the young children and beginners the rudiments of hockey.
However Ruth was on of the first coaches of the Leinster under 16 Boys sides and helped to break the Ulster dominance at that time in favour of Leinster.
She also was a stalwart of Railway Union Hockey Club and at one stage took on the mantle of coaching the men's teams : she was fearless.
She was essentially a doer and would be the first to gather a few reluctant teachers and coaches together as a working committee when it came round to Leinster to organise the Irish Schools Competitions. Wesley College and herself would become the hug on these occasions and although never one for the limelight, she would always be on hand to see that the rules were obeyed and structures were in place.
Ruth will be missed in hockey and in Wesley College. She was the sort of volunteer that will become harder and harder to find, she was the epitome of working in sport for the sheer love of it.
It is perhaps of symbolic significance that Ruth died on the afternoon while the annual boys under 14 John Waring tournament was being played in Ulster and where many of her hockey colleagues had gathered. It would add a tinge of sadness to the proceedings at Lisnagarvey.
But in the final analysis it is her family that will be ultimately left with a void never to be filled and sincere sympathies to David, Mark and Diane in their loss.
Ruth is now free from the pain of ill health and the struggle she managed so bravely. May she now rest in peace from that struggle and from all her labours.
Our thanks to Herbie Sharman for his words on Ruth.
