Audrey brought a community together
Tributes are paid to ‘loving and determined’ Audrey Wilson
A much-loved woman at the heart of her community has passed away surrounded by her devoted family.
Audrey Wilson, a hugely popular member of Osgodby and Scarborough’s community, died peacefully on October 6.
Audrey was the beloved wife of Stanley Wilson, who died in 2000. The pair had joined the internationally regarded Scarborough Writers’ Circle more than 50 years ago, and founded its famous annual Writers’ Weekend which hosted many of the UK’s leading authors and playwrights.
Born in Guernsey in 1921, Audrey was brought up in Jersey and then left the Channel Isles to work in London in 1937.
Audrey met Stanley during the war in Manchester while both working in the Civil Service. Their final des- tination was Scarborough, where they settled together and became an integral part of the community.
Audrey began to apply her keen word sense to compete in trade competitions - big consumer companies offered prizes for good slogans. After untiring attempts, she won £3,000 in one week - a fortune in 1960.
So the family moved from Scholes Park to The Firs in Osgodby where they became communicants in Cayton Church. It wasn’t much of a village in the early 60s, but Audrey brought people together which grew to a thriving community centre.
She was also a faithful columnist for the Scarborough Evening News and a weather girl, from her kitchen window over Cayton Bay, for Radio York.
Audrey had a healthy disrespect for authority and a tireless enthusiasm for bringing bureaucracy to task - hence her unfailing and fair opposition to the A165 re-routing which cut Osgodby Village in half. Thanks to her, the community remains stronger than ever.
Her funeral was at Scarborough Crematorium on October 21, followed by a memorial service to a packed St John the Baptist Church in Cayton. Most of the congregation then retired to Osgodby Community Centre, which Audrey established in 1975.
At her memorial service, her daughter Anne expressed the family’s thanks for the unfailing support that Audrey had received from the selfless nursing staff and all the end of life care services, to her neighbours and friends who had always dropped in and make sure that she was coping with her increasingly fragile years.
They were not just carers but also friends, whose life Audrey had enriched in her own unique way.
Her grandson Jonathan spoke of her wisdom and help for him as a child, student and then husband and father. Her son Michael played the organ alongside Audrey’s son in law Andrew on soprano sax.
Michael gave a flavour of a mother who might not have been in the front line of the family but who was the quiet but determined one, who’d guided the family with unfailing love and steely resolve behind the scenes.
Both Stanley and Audrey were posted to many places across the UK in their early careers. Scarborough and Osgodby became not just the end of the line from much upheaval but the start of a rich and wonderful life in a generous and happy community.