Maureen Fuller (Steren Mor (Star of the Sea))
Maureen was born in St. Barnabas Hospital, Saltash and brought up in a house overlooking the Tamar . She was educated at Longstone Infants, Saltash Junior School and finally, Saltash Grammar School. At 18, she went on to Rolle College, Exmouth, where she trained to be a teacher and youth leader. On graduating, she returned to Saltash because of her mother’s ill health and obtained a job in her old school, Saltash Junior School, where she remained for 39 years, although latterly it was renamed Brunel Primary School, when it merged with Longstone Infants.
Maureen has always been interested in all things Cornish and at 10 years old, could be found interviewing great aunts, great uncles and grandparents about her family history. Her mother’s family hailed from Coverack, on the Lizard and St.Mawes on the Roseland peninsula. They gravitated to Falmouth and were instrumental in establishing the pilotage. One great grandfather was a popular Harbourmaster of Falmouth, whist the other regularly piloted the Cutty Sark into Falmouth. At the same time, great grandmother was cook to Lord Falmouth at Tregothnan.
Her father’s family are descended from Boscastle fishermen. At 13, Maureen saw a programme on Spotlight where Ann and Richard Jenkin were filmed having tea in their garden, speaking in Cornish. From that day, she was hooked on the language and decided to learn when she found a teacher. In 1973, on returning to Saltash, she joined Wella Brown’s Cornish class and became a language bard at St. Columb in 1977 by Richard Jenkin, Map Dyvroeth. Continuing her family history, she was excited to find a family name ‘Roskruge’ in the Cornish Language.
In 1981, Maureen joined Kesva an Taves Kernewek and soon became the exam secretary, a position she still holds today. In 1991, she was asked to be Senior Steward in the Gorsedh, in 1994 Junior Marshal and in 1997 Gorsedh Marshal, a post she has very much enjoyed.
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