Janice Firth – 12th April 1962 – 4th October 2026

Janice ringing handbells with one of Duncan Loweth’s daughter’s

Janice had wanted to have a go at ringing for many years but hadn’t had the opportunity. In 2014 Janice came to a presentation at her son’s school where the students were showcasing the various activities they had been doing during the last week of school before the summer holidays. My activity was bellringing and for the presentation event we had erected a dumbbell on a frame and Janice was keen to have a pull. I whispered to the students to be ready to catch the rope in case she missed it but she caught it and rang well. The following week she was up the tower at Town Church, Guernsey and enjoying learning to handle.

Handling took a while for Janice to master but at the same time she joined our handbell group and could plain hunt with two handbells before she could ring rounds in the tower.

Her first QP was the following year and, as we were all learning handbells together, it was ‘only’ Plain Bob Minimus. However, with the help of experienced handbell ringers from Alderney she easily rang Plain Bob Major and then Plain Bob Minor. Shortly after that she rang her first tower bell QP on the tenor to doubles at Town Church.

Janice was a committed member of both the guernsey handbell group and the Town Church Bellringers, taking on responsibilities of secretary and treasurer as well as pouring hours of her time to raise thousands of pounds towards our project to install a service bell and training bells into the tower.

During Covid lockdown Guernsey and Alderney quickly became Covid-free but bubbled from the rest of the world. We could have our inter-tower competitions (without jersey) but we couldn’t fly over a judge. Janice volunteered to sit in the spire above the bells, wearing ear defenders, stopping and starting Hawkear and picking out details to assemble a report and ranking.

Janice had an attitude that if she could help she would help! Whether that meant packaging 500 boxes of fudge, assembling mini-ring wheels or relentlessly ringing handbell peals. If she could help she gave it.

In the tower Janice rang 197 QPs progressing to be a solid treble to surprise minor and achieving her QP of Kent TB Minor inside.

In hand Janice rang 139 QPs, one half peal and 21 peals. Mostly of Plain Bob and St Clement’s but also of Grandsire doubles, Stedman Doubles, variable treble Bastow minor, Cambridge Minor and named a new method Sarnia Bob Minor.

Janice was an excellent ringer because she understood that being a good ringer is more than learning complicated methods but being, as fully as you can be, part of the team.

Her death was sudden and sad and she will be very much missed. However, she will be remembered frequently whenever we ring the training bells she raised money to install at a local school, every time we ring a mini-ring that she assembled the wheels for and every time we pay our youth scholars that she helped to establish and raise money to fund.