Jacqueline Anne Bergbusch

1932-2026

Jackie Bergbusch, the daughter of Basil and Veronica Tunks (née Dobson), died in Ottawa, on the 1st of June 2026.  Her death is deeply mourned by her husband, Eric; by her three sons, Matthew (Danica Meredith), Thomas (Isabelle Mayr), and Jonah; by her four beloved grandchildren, Nicolas and Emanuel Mayr-Bergbusch, and Charlotte and Lucy Meredith-Bergbusch; by her sister, Michele Derr, and her cousins Paul Farnfield and Tim Noble. The extended family, friends, and neighbours will grieve her loss but she will also be well-remembered by them.

Jackie was born in Streatham, London, on September 7, 1932. She attended schools in many parts of England during and after World War II as her father moved from job to job with his firm.  She was an accidental university student.  Having taken a secretarial course after finishing school, she came, in time, to work in the Registrar’s Office at Bristol University. While assisting the professor in charge of admissions, she remarked one day that some applicants did not seem to have very good marks.  He said nothing but the next morning told he she would be accepted if she applied.  She did so, in the face of her family’s surprise and scepticism.  Three years later, in 1954, she was one of thirteen students to graduate with First Class Honours.

Later, working in London, Jackie answered a newspaper ad and was duly chosen to be an Education Officer in the British Council. This led to a year spent in Finland teaching English in Pietarsaari (Jakobstad). This was followed by British Council postings to New Delhi and Tel Aviv, during which she met the likes of Arnold Toynbee and Margot Fonteyn.

In Tel Aviv, she met her husband, an officer at the Canadian Embassy. They were married twice in Athens, once in the British Consul’s office and again in St. Paul’s Anglican Church, where – owing to an unforeseen change of schedule – she was given away, on short notice, by the Canadian ambassador and former Premier of Québec, The Honourable Antonio Barrette.

With Eric, there were postings to Geneva, Tanzania, Poland and, more prosaically, Toronto, as well as the years spent in Ottawa.  She was an active diplomat’s wife, involving herself in local welfare and cultural activities and entertaining people from many walks of life — not excluding  ministers, prime ministers, and two future presidents.  But it was in the local markets (and her language classes) that she picked up a good smattering of Hebrew, Kiswahili, and Polish.

Back in Canada, Jackie took pleasure and satisfaction in helping beginners in local schools learn how to read.  And she found assisting at a suburban food-bank and welfare centre full of human interest and equally rewarding.

Throughout these years, her first thoughts were always with her three sons both as they grew and set out on their own, and then with their partners and their children – the grandchildren in whom she took much pleasure.  She was also much involved in the wider family:  As a dab hand at writing “ditties,” she celebrated, with strict adherence to rhyme and meter (and a measure of wit), both family events and the passing years.

A loving and loyal wife, mother and friend, Jackie was a woman of principle who valued kindness and courtesy.

A funeral service will be held at St. Peter’s Lutheran Church, 400 Sparks Street, Ottawa at 10:30 am on Wednesday, June 10; it will be followed by interment at Beechwood Cemetery.  A reception for family and friends will be held at Beechwood National Memorial Centre at 12:30.

Flowers may be directed to Beechwood.