Jean Metcalfe was the eldest child of Guy Vivian Metcalfe, a railway clerk with the Southern Railway at Waterloo station, and Gwendoline Annie, nee Reed.
13 Facts About Jean Metcalfe
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Jean Metcalfe's family were a typical lower-middle-class family of the time.
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Jean Metcalfe excelled at elocution and art at the local county school, and formed a passionate love of the radio at home.
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Jean Metcalfe joined the Children's Hour radio circle, and entered competitions which entitled the winners to visit Broadcasting House, headquarters of the BBC.
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Jean Metcalfe excelled at school dramatics, and once played Queen Victoria.
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Jean Metcalfe joined the BBC Africa Service, and began her long period with the programme that made her a household name: Forces Favourites, later renamed Family Favourites.
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Jean Metcalfe began the job after five hours of study with the programme's editor Margaret Hubble.
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Jean Metcalfe last presented the programme as a Christmas special on Radio 2 in 1985.
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Whilst doing the programme from London, Jean Metcalfe met her male colleague at the Hamburg end of the operation, Squadron Leader Cliff Michelmore.
10.
From August 1950, Jean Metcalfe presented Woman's Hour on the BBC Light Programme.
11.
Jean Metcalfe gave up broadcasting in 1967 to devote her time to her family and did not return full-time until 1971, when she presented If You Think You've Got Problems, a programme in which a broad range of human problems were discussed, many of which would not have been allowed to be aired when she began her association with Woman's Hour.
12.
Jean Metcalfe wrote and illustrated Sunnylea: A 1920s Childhood Remembered and wrote a joint autobiography with her husband, Two-Way Story.
13.
In retirement, Jean Metcalfe lived with her husband in the West Sussex village of South Harting.