Daphne Park Memorial book 3_3.indd - Somerville College

More documents

Recommendations

Info

DAPHNE WAS THE PRINCIPAL OF THE COLLEGE when I was in my first year.She met all students near the end of the year to find out how they were getting on. In ourchat I told her that I wasn’t at all happy and was worrying a lot about taking my Prelimexams. She suggested I take a long walk and end it with a pub lunch. On explaining thatI didn’t think I could afford the lunch bit (my Dad had just been made redundant) uppopped her handbag and she thrust me a £5 note. She insisted I keep it in spite of myobjections. I have never forgotten this very well-received gesture of kindness and I neverwill. Fabulous how such an incredible lady could be so thoroughly down-to-earth!Jane Knott, 198852
House of LordsONE DAY AS A NEW PEER in 2001 I chatted to Daphne about a Home Office Billwe were both interested in and I asked her about the Monmouth in her title. Nothingto do with the town of Monmouth she told me. It was her tribute to friends in theService who used to work out of a Monmouth House. This is very unusual in titles.Very unusual Lady.Lord RookerExtracts from the Memorial Address given by Lord Salisburyat St Margaret’s Church, Westminster Abbey, 26 October 2010“I WOULD HAVE THOUGHT THAT YOU, Robert, of all people would haverealized that Southern Africans don’t do coups”.The idea that a Zimbabwean coup was a realistic possibility, in Daphne’s eyes meritedthe crispest of reproofs. The words were mild, but her irritation was all too evident. Ifelt ignorant and well and truly ticked off. Daphne may have looked like MargaretRutherford, but she had a mind like a steel trap and the physical toughness that comeswith an African childhood.The woman this congregation remembers today attracted more attention both in theevening of her life and after her death than most intelligence officers. This was onlypartly because she became a public figure after she retired from the Service. After all,we do feel, and the press in particular feel, a frisson when a corner of a veil is lifted ona secret world. However, it is more than a frisson that has filled this church. It is theaffection and admiration we all feel for Daphne, and our understanding that we werelucky enough to know one of the more remarkable women of her generation.The headlines of Daphne’s life are by now well-known to her friends and admirers. Itwould be dull and otiose to rehearse them here. Nevertheless, to read a list of her publicappointments and to listen to the tales of her exploits in the Secret Intelligence Serviceis to realize that this was a woman who lived many lives: intelligence officer, governor ofthe BBC, member of the British Library Board, Director of the Zoological DevelopmentTrust for London Zoo, Chairman of the Lord Chancellor’s Committee on Legal Aid,53
Page 1:
Daphne Park1921-2010MEMORIALTRIBUTE
Page 4 and 5: ContentsForeword by Dr Alice Procha
Page 6 and 7: Address given by Miss Barbara Harve
Page 8 and 9: ecame, the servant of a country tha
Page 10 and 11: Nevertheless, these stories are maj
Page 12 and 13: Conservative policies. Having recei
Page 14 and 15: ifle. Nevertheless, his young wife
Page 17 and 18: SchoolIN HER OWN WORDS:I LOVED SCHO
Page 19 and 20: presented the play, I duly delivere
Page 21: War ServiceFrom the Profile of Daph
Page 24 and 25: The Secret Intelligence ServiceMemo
Page 26 and 27: to exercise it. Nevertheless much s
Page 28 and 29: say, as a conservative cross benche
Page 30 and 31: Daphne, this moral dimension of hum
Page 32 and 33: The following accounts of some of D
Page 34 and 35: On June 30, 1960, independence was
Page 36 and 37: that there would be a lot of armed
Page 38 and 39: it. Weevils and worms used to come
Page 40 and 41: leave, and the Mongols would supply
Page 43 and 44: thought, slightly amused Miss Marpl
Page 45 and 46: one or the other type, millionaires
Page 47 and 48: she gave to the New Yorker in 1989,
Page 49 and 50: Even better, of course, was really
Page 51: Wolfson during the afternoon with a
Page 57 and 58: Member of the Sheffield Development
Page 60: Somerville CollegeOxford OX2 6HDTel
show all

Daphne Park Memorial book 3_3.indd - Somerville College

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?