A MEMORIAL plaque has been dedicated to the Usk poet who was murdered by her stepson in 2014.

The Usk Environmental and Conservation Group, headed by Graham Morris, led tributes to Anne Cluysenaar in the Owain Glyndwr Field in Usk last Thursday evening (23rd July).

Anne Alice Andree Cluysenaar Jackson, aged 78, who wrote under the name Anne Cluysenaar, was a popular Usk figure, involved in the world of academia and respected in wide circles being well known throughout the district and beyond.

Friends and fellow artists gathered to read poems and the first verse of one of Anne Jackson’s songs and planted two wild roses next to a ceramic memorial, made by Chepstow potter Ned Heywood.

Graham Morris, chair of the Usk Conservation and Environmental Group said that Anne was a good supporter of the group: “She was interested in many of the projects we undertook, such as the wildflower meadow and the community planter and gave talks on subjects such as Alfred Russell Wallace, on whom she became a great expert.

“She was always interested, always inquisitive and always wanting to know: a true academic and never rested on her laurels,” he added.

Belgian-born Mrs Jackson, who published her last collection of poems last year, lived at Little Wentwood Farm near Llantrisant, with her husband Walt Jackson.

She had moved as a child with her family to Britain just before the start of the Second World War and started writing poems. From the 1970s until her death, she ran writing workshops in museums, galleries, schools, and community centres.

Her stepson, 48-year-old Timothy Jackson, of Mount Street in Sheffield, was sentenced at Cardiff Crown Court to life in prison for her murder on 26th March this year. At her inquest, it was reported that she had died from stab wounds to her neck and chest.