Part I: Seals teeth and whales ears - Scott Polar Research Institute ...

I was very fond of my father but, though proud of my mother's achievements, I did
not feel loved; there were few warm moments like hugs, cuddles or kisses. She took a
leading role in local politics, first as a conservative and then as an independent. She was
the first woman chairman of the old Whitley Bay Urban District Council in l945 and
later Mayor of the town, by then a Borough, which she served with great distinction for
35 years. She epitomized that great British characteristic of voluntary public service - a
characteristic which has been and is being eroded by today's Welfare State - and she
served with great enthusiasm on many public bodies before entering the council. During
the War she served as chairman of the Manpower Commission in the region. She was a
founder member of the local Council of Social Services and a Chairman of the Whitley
Bay Standing Conference of Women's Organizations. She was awarded an MBE in l972
in recognition of her public service and greatly enjoyed her trip to Buckingham Palace
with her two sons.
A woman of high principle, great integrity and sound commonsense, she was also a
difficult person to live with and the family had to deal with her outbursts, when
(wrongly) she felt herself undervalued. An overall unhappy childhood memory is of
the flaming rows between her and my father, who was all for a quiet life; he had a
pressing personal problem, continuous pain. But, although she was impatient with her
family and not in my recollection a particularly loving mother, she was always
accessible to local people who sought her help with multifarious problems. She was
keenly aware of the injustices of the rating system as a means of raising revenue and of
the unfair burden this represented to those least able to bear it - although in domestic
life she had an extravagant streak. She was a good customer of the local florists' shops
and the house was always well-furnished with vases of fresh cut flowers; our home was
overstocked with linen, clothes, food and domestic supplies, because she always bought
more than necessary.
She was in charge of the town's affairs in the immediate post-war years - a time of
new, exciting, starry-eyed ideas, many of which we have now learned to our cost were
preposterous. For example, as chairman of the Council and of its Finance Committee she
did not share the then current enthusiasm for the new [high-rise tower blocks] as the
solution to the post-war housing problem. Elsewhere throughout the country local
authorities committed themselves to the building of these ill-fated and inhuman
monstrosities (many to be demolished after a mere fifteen years as unfit or unsafe).
Whitley Bay, thanks to my mother's determination and good sense was spared this
horror and instead built the well-planned, generously laid-out ‘Foxhunter's Estate’ of
semi-detached houses - an estate which improved with maturity.
She stood under the Conservative and later Independent banners during what was
often a controversial life in local politics. Independently minded she abhorred the
introduction of party politics into local government, seeing it as an irritating and
unnecessary diversion from the important job in hand - the efficient running of the town
for the benefit of its citizens. To her the expression "parish pump politics" was not a
derogatory one, but in fact the very heart and soul of what local government was, and
should be, all about. She became more and more disillusioned and in l972 resigned as a
counselor; but five years later, at the age of eighty, returned to politics when she
launched a protest group against the rating system.
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