Graham Jeffrey leaves a legacy donation to Action for Stammering Children

Legacies play an important role in helping our charity continue its work, supporting children who stammer. We recently received a legacy from the estate of the late Graham Jeffrey. We spoke to his niece Jane Hamlet to find out a little more about his life and why he chose to remember Action for Stammering Children in his will.

Graham Jeffrey was a private but confident man who was not afraid to see what the world had to offer. He had a stammer as a child and challenged himself to speak more fluently when he was 9 years old. Eventually he became fluent naturally. After finishing school, he went from strength to strength and went to work for the publisher Robert Maxwell.

After learning the inner workings of publishing, Graham started his own company, dealing in medical journals. It was here that he discovered a love of traveling as he flew across the world in order to further his business. One of his favourite places in the world was in Malaysia, where he would travel to visit the book village on Langkawi Island. He maintained that the book village was the love of his life.

Later in life, he became hard of hearing. He didn’t let that stop him and learnt to play the piano by ear. Jane explained that he could sit at the piano, listen to any tune and play the piece back perfectly straight away. He enjoyed playing the piano in the pub, where he also got the chance to socialise and enjoy a pint or two of real ale.

Graham was 83 when he died and spent the last months of his life with his family. He is survived by his sister, niece and nephews. He was an intelligent and a generous man and will be much missed. We are hugely grateful for him for leaving a legacy to Action for Stammering Children. His legacy will enable us to support more children who stammer and their families.