Thérèse Vanier

Thérèse Marie Chérisy Vanier (27 February 1923 – 16 June 2014) was an English decorated veteran and medical doctor who specialised in haematology and palliative care. With her brother, she co-founded L'Arche UK, a branch of the international organisation dedicated to the communal care of people with learning disabilities, establishing the first community in Barfrestone near Canterbury in 1974.

Biography Thérèse Vanier was born on 27 February 1923 in Camberley, Surrey to Pauline Vanier (née Archer), an appointed member of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada and Georges Vanier, a decorated soldier and former Governor General of Canada. Her third name, Chérisy, marks the location in France where her father lost a leg in the trenches during World War I. Vanier was the eldest of five children. Her brother Jean Vanier, a trained naval officer and Catholic philosopher founded the first L'Arche community in Trosly-Breuil, France in 1964.

Vanier opened the first English L'Arche community in January 1974 in Barfrestone near Canterbury in Kent. She went on to personally oversee the opening of four other communities. Today there are ten communities in the UK, including one in Lambeth, south London, where Vanier lived, almost until her death in 2014. Vanier's Catholic Requiem mass took place at the Anglican Canterbury Cathedral on 10 July 2014. Her body was laid to rest at Barfrestone cemetery, around 100 metres from "Little Ewell", the first L'Arche Kent Community house she helped to establish in 1974.