During her years at Bedford College where she took her degree Miss Adams was esteemed for her mathematical ability as well as her strength of character. Her reputation was handed down to my generation and I heard of it with awe, regarding her as one of the great ones of the recent past.

My own experience of education divides itself neatly into two halves. In the first half as pupil and as teacher in various schools and colleges I experienced almost every form (other than technical) of selective education. During the second half by my own choice I have been immersed in popular education carrying this interest on through contacts with training colleges during ten years of retirement. For much of this later half of my life I functioned as jack-of-all-subjects and I have even tried to conceal the fact that I viewed education with the eyes of a teacher trained as a mathematical specialist.

She had an unbroken record of fifty-one years of membership and during that period had served on the Teaching Committee for some twenty years, exerting a strong formative influence which helped the Committee to broaden its enquiries until it can now claim to have produced reports on the whole range of school mathematics.

... opened many new doors for those attending and they returned to their schools with sufficient ideas to last them for many years. Afterwards Miss Adams visited these teachers and her experienced appraisal of conditions and results helped to raise the status of mathematics in the schools and ensured a larger share of the annual budget for a subject until then largely regarded as non-practical. Miss Adams never came empty-handed and always left behind, in exchange, one might say, for the children's work she took away, a suggestion or a question, thrown out casually, but later found to be full of meaning and a source of fruitful investigation. She talked to the class and her questions went straight to the essential mathematics of the situation, provoking thought as well as demanding replies.

On 30 March the first item was a symposium on Modern School work, organised by Miss L D Adams (H.M. Inspector of Schools). Aspects of Modern School teaching were explained by three teachers from Bristol schools, and a large and varied display of work done by children in Modern Schools was exhibited. Much of this work came from Bristol schools; but items from all parts of Great Britain had been obtained and were on show. An inspection of this work gave the impression that the very considerable difficulties which confront the teacher of mathematics in the Modern School are partially diminished by the comparative freedom under which the work is done.

The work ranged from a drawing by a five-year-old of a large cow and a small calf, each with 6 or 7 legs and labelled by Miss Adams, "Size before Number!", to photographs and maps resulting from a surveying exercise and some individual assignments completed by the top class of a local boy's school. This exhibition showed work quite advanced for its time and many of the ideas found there are still being put forward as "new." Miss Adams led a team of three speakers in a symposium on this exhibition. For two of these this was the first time of speaking in public, and they greatly appreciated the help she gave on that occasion and the tactful way in which it was tendered.

This is a book based on observation of children and their learning of mathematics. Its main contention is that such learning can only take place against the background of the child's whole experience, and that this is necessarily a different background for each child. In the early stages, the experience is all important, and no re-iteration of words or symbols can take its place: in fact, according to the writer, if such words and symbols are introduced too early, and not adequately related to experience, they hinder, and my even prevent, mathematical development. An able child learns more quickly from his experience, and each bit of it therefore recedes more quickly into the background of his thinking, than is the ease with a slow child; but a rich experience is necessary for all. Miss Adams tells stories of some eighty individual children, of all ages from two to twelve, observed in their homes, in school, or in chance meeting in train or bus; she describes work seen in progress in about fifteen classes and she suggests other ways in which primary school mathematics may be linked with the children's experience. The teachers and children referred to are incognito, and her pictures are composite ones, but she has combined them to make a readable account from which teachers will learn much. For the book is addressed to teachers, and intending teachers, and, though some will find in it implied criticism of methods they have practised, all will appreciate the sympathetic insight into situations as they confront the learner. Some parents, and, perhaps, some teachers, will be surprised to discover how much more there is in learning mathematics than the rote mastery of tables, and the careful carrying out of "rules" shown by the teacher. Perhaps some reader will feel constrained to examine anew the background of his own mathematical thinking, and cultivate afresh his mathematical imagination, as a prelude to cultivating more effectively the mathematical imagination of his pupils (see page 170). It is acknowledged that when observing children it is easier to describe the very slow learner on the one hand, and, on the other, the initiative and powers of expression of the markedly able, than it is to give any picture of the children between: on the whole, too, more opportunities have occurred for recording the individual experiences of the under-sixes. The chapter (VIII) on 'Written Reckoning' has but few references to actual incidents, but will repay careful reading and provoke thought: it contains an analysis of necessary mental preparation for reckoning.

During the long day as Chairman she remained bright and cheerful, feeding the hungry with chocolate and resolving impasses with her mature judgement and wisdom. On the way home when younger members were flagging she enlivened the journey with tales from her early days in the inspectorate when a woman inspector was a novelty and expected by headteachers to be interested in girls' subjects only. Miss Adams drove her committee hard, particularly those within telephoning distance, who might be roused at an early hour to hear of a new idea. But she did the lion's share of the writing herself.

Miss L D Adams had a personality of such warmth and generosity that her loss will be deeply felt by very many people associated with education. Some will have known her personally through her visits to schools as H.M.I., or her lively contributions at conferences and refresher courses. We in this Association mourn her as one of our most distinguished members.