Family pay tribute to active citizen and former mayoress
TRIBUTES have been paid to Margaret Duncan, a former Charnwood Mayoress and resident of Herrick Road in Loughborough for more than 60 years, who has died aged 92.
Margaret was an active citizen and brought to the organisations she supported not only her committee skills, but also her willingness to get involved at a practical level, her family said.
She had many roles in Loughborough life over the years including, Secretary of Nottingham Road Playgroup, Chair of Governors at Mountfields and Thorpe Acre schools, Burleigh Club chairman (the University Ladies Club) and was one of the driving forces of the annual Parish Church Christmas Tree Fair.
She was a staunch supporter of the Labour Party, an active fundraiser through events such as the Autumn Fair, and Mayoress when her husband Alistair was Mayor of Charnwood in 1992-93.
Margaret was born in Bristol in 1928 and was a proud Bristolian. Her father was a headmaster and she grew up in a close-knit, loving family that was interested in architecture, books, music and theatre.
Many activities came to a halt after the Second World War broke out in 1939 when Margaret was 11. The dock city was heavily bombed, and during most of the war the family slept in their reinforced cellar for safety.
She later recalled that Bristol endured 100 consecutive nights of bombing and the shocking sight of the medieval city centre in flames – but she also remembered the fun of painting tents with camouflage paint so that she could go to Guides camp in 1941.
When her grandchildren studied the war at primary school, Margaret was welcomed into class to describe her experiences – not many children had a granny who had been bombed!
One of the key themes of Margaret’s life was education. She was immensely proud that her three granddaughters were the fourth generation of girls in the family to go on to higher education. Getting the top mark in the Bristol 11-plus exam in 1939 which gained her a place at Clifton High School, and then going up to St Hugh’s College Oxford in 1947, were events that shaped her life.
Besides the academic experience and the opportunity to study in Germany and Austria, she made lifelong friends and met her husbandto-be Alistair.
After Oxford she joined the Army as a regular officer because she felt that it was unfair that only the men of her generation had to do National Service, and was posted to the School of Anti-Aircraft Artillery at Manorbier, near Tenby.
She left the Army when she married in April 1953, and they lived for a few years in Leeds before moving to Loughborough with their two boys in 1958, when Alistair got a new job at the then College of Technology.
Although her family were all teachers, Margaret came to teaching accidentally, when the headmistress of the Convent School approached her to teach A-level French, having heard through the grapevine that Margaret was a Modern Languages graduate.
She later taught at Loughborough University where she prepared students for years abroad in Germany.
She also taught German evening classes at Mountfields Evening Centre every Tuesday and Thursday for decades.
She was enormously sociable, and many people came to her house for a cup of tea, a meal, or for a party and she regularly provided hospitality for guests from overseas often visiting academics or students and more visitors from L o u g h b o rough’s twin towns. Describing her grandmother, one of her granddaughters said: “She thought everything we did was amazing”. Margaret was a devoted, handson granny who delighted in spending time with her grand-children, and was always interested in what they were doing.
Although frail towards the end of her life, she remained well informed about current affairs and continued to enjoy conversation, jigsaws (for which she had a passion), and the occasional glass of wine.
She is survived by her three children George, Andrew and Rachel, and five grandchildren.
When her grandchildren studied the Second World War at primary school, she was welcomed into class to describe her experiences