Memories of Patricia Edwards - TrustNews March 2008
And there you stood,
Proud Patricia,
Pleased as punch
in your domain;
Planted in your garden.
Andrew Snow
When Pat resigned as chairman at our last AGM, I experienced my own sudden transformation from President to Patron. As I look back over the past seventeen years and the performance of the four admirable chairmen of the Trust during that time, it was surely to Pat's credit that she outshone them all in the personal devotion and assiduous attention she gave to the Trust; boldly confronting the difficulties that arose, while continuing to win for the Trust the high regard in which it is so widely held today.
She concentrated on all aspects of the Trust's work, often volunteering to pursue many of the pressing questions on the agenda of the council's meetings, and sometimes even to the point of exasperating those who found that she had been there before them.
I recall with some satisfaction how I managed, with such diplomatic skills as were still left to me, to entice her to become our new chairman, though I had been warned she would always decline any such suggestion.
I shall always remember Pat's indomitable spirit, matched by the courage with which she faced the doctor's verdict on her condition.
Many of us will also recall the closing words at her thanksgiving service on 7th" December:
"You who live on will use your lives more fully having known Patricia and for having shared in her life."
I knew Pat Edwards as a dedicated, selfless and strong minded City Councillor who was not shy in making her views known. I knew that she cared deeply for Winchester and had a good understanding of the planning system and plenty of experience in its operation. She recognised its importance in helping to shape the environment and to protect places and buildings of historic or architectural importance. She held very positive views about planning matters, but as Chairman of Planning was always prepared to listen to the views of others and the advice of her professional advisers. On some issues she held very firm views and would not be shifted. This might have resulted in bad feeling, but disagreements were neither personalised nor allowed to spill over into other issues. Thus there were effective and often lively debates between members and officers resulting, I feel, in the making of better decisions.
My knowledge of Pat Edwards was confined to our relationship in the work of the City Council. I knew where she lived, but I was ignorant of her personal family circumstances and there was no social contact. Her private life was just that, but nevertheless the news of her sudden and premature death came as a personal blow to me and many others and I am grateful for having had the positive experience and the privilege of working so closely with her.
I first met Pat in the early '70s when I joined the Winchester Tories, amongst whom she was a very live wire. We were both concerned about what was happening to the City - hardly credible today. The then City Council had (with HCC) supported the demolition of the Durngate Mill, of a length of roman wall, of terraced Georgian houses in the High Street and of 199 'two-up-two-down houses' in the City centre - all for the benefit of the car - as were the emerging plans for the M3. We became very active in the party doing all we could to shake up the 'twin-set and pearls' brigade, and then became Councillors supporting each other in many areas - often going against the Tory establishment - which made us pretty unpopular with them. I resigned to work with the Theatre Royal project but for over 20 years Pat was a dedicated and very influential Councillor, devoted to the City and her ward. She was clear thinking, strong-willed, brave, outspoken and very determined - with the real interests of Winchester (including the survival of the Theatre Royal) in all that she did. She was the ideal person to take on the Chairmanship of the Planning Committee and, working with Jack Thompson as Director, achieved much in that role.
After leaving Winchester I would drop in to see her occasionally, often finding her happily pruning or digging in her much-loved garden - indeed her knowledge of trees and plants was often important in plans for new developments. Sadly she has gone, but all around us, in Winchester and the county, are buildings and spaces that owe their quality or survival to Pat; si monumentum requiris circumspice.
Pat's admirable characteristics stand out in the other contributions, so I have no need to enlarge on them, allowing me to say a little of the personal side of working with a colleague I have known since she joined the Trust Council in 1977.
On becoming vice- and then chairman of the City's Planning Committee she resigned and stood apart for 18 years so that there should be no possible conflict of interest. Pat was always a stickler for doing the right thing; on the last day of her life she signed a £1,000 cheque towards the Trust's Rutter book project; "make sure", she told her daughter, "that none of it gets spent on lunches!"
How good to know that her sense of humour persisted to the end. While she could drive one to distraction at times, humour was never far away and ensured, with her all-embracing affection, that no battle lasted longer than the moment. Moreover, though reticent about her private life, she was acutely self-critical and would regale us with accounts of her errors, whether falling over her cat or mistakenly making off with my coat and car-key for half a day.
She liked to be teased: Shione, exasperated by the chairman's tendency to do the menial task of re-arranging the furniture for meetings, started calling her Mrs Pickford; Pat loved it. This acquisition of extra duties was generally concealed from us: it was only by accident we discovered that the buffet laid out for a visit from another society, was all made by the chairman late the night before.
Wherever she is now, you can bet she's stirring things up and making many more friends than enemies in the process!
My mother was born in Ceylon where she was brought up on a tea estate with her two younger brothers. After early education in Ceylon, England, Northern Ireland and India she completed her education in South Africa. At Rhodes University she read Natural Sciences before returning to England at the end of the war. After secretarial training, she worked for a theatrical agency in London before returning to the family and marriage in Ceylon where I was born. In 1956, she and I returned to England, settling in Winchester and in 1961 Crabtrees became our home where she was a dedicated mother and, with an enormous amount of hard work, created a beautiful garden. She was always an inspirational gardener with an encyclopaedic horticultural knowledge.
My mother had a keen interest in people and local affairs, so it was no surprise in 1973 that she was elected to Winchester City Council `to influence some decisions about traffic'. For twenty-four devoted years she served her ward and the council in many areas but it was education and planning that were her particular interests. She applied her energy and clarity of mind to three school governorships, one as chairman, and for eleven years as chairman of planning with the future of Winchester her great concern.
With all her commitments she found plenty of time for her family, supporting her elderly parents in Bexhill and taking a keen interest in her two grandsons, nephews and nieces and their young families. Outside the family she was a loyal and longstanding friend to many she met throughout her life, her steadfastness and home providing a haven of stability to those who knew her. In spite of her illness, her characteristic determination ensured a happy visit to her brother and his family in Canada only a few weeks before she died.