My No.1 Inspirational Woman

We celebrated Mum’s life on Saturday, a year since my Mum (Shelagh) passed away. This posting is an article my Dad wrote for the local paper on the remarkable life she led and how she contributed to Ilkeston and Derbyshire life….

 “Shelagh's father, Stan Bircham, worked at Stanton all his life – in the blast furnaces then in the laboratory after he lost an eye in a works injury. Shelagh lived as an only child with her parents on Longfield Crescent, went to St Thomas's R C school then Hallcroft Girls. She left aged 15 before taking O levels, and quickly became established at Jackson and Moss Solicitors on South Street as a shorthand typist and office dogsbody – experience which certainly helped her later during her 20 years as a JP. When we got engaged in 1962 I would call at her office late Friday afternoon and saw her paying herself her weekly pay: ￡13 in ten shilling notes.

 I am still a newcomer – only 60 years since I came to teach French and German at Ilkeston Grammar School. I met Shelagh at a Belper Players post performance pub do and after a whirlwind romance – well five months – she accepted my proposal and we married at St Thomas's in April 1963. One of her many attributes was that she had her own Austin Metropolitan sports car – I hadn't even got a driving licence, so she never let me forget that she taught me to drive. I think she sometimes saw me as a possible route to moving to somewhere more exotic than Ilkeston – perhaps Cambridge or Harrogate, but after interviews at both places I managed to get a good promotion and settled in for 32 years at Nottingham Trent, so here we stayed.

Shelagh's second career began after she left Jackson and Moss in 1966 to have our two children (that's what mothers used to do). John Moss and his family became close friends and John’s blind father would send over his chauffeur to fetch Shelagh and baby for her to help him with his accounts. She also went into St Thomas's School as pianist and then often played for them for the annual First Communion Mass. Just to add to her list of church commitments she was later chairman of Governors at St John Houghton School and governor at St Thomas’s Primary School. Both children, Stephanie and Matthew, went to those schools before going on to take their degrees and move away.

In the early 70s Shelagh became a part-time lecturer at South East Derbyshire College on Field Road in a whole variety of subjects. Having acquired St John Ambulance certificates, she taught Human Biology and eventually a Pre-Nursing Course, which also involved visiting her students on their placements in hospitals. At the same time she had become an All England Badminton Coach and taught Derbyshire Police Cadets how to play the game.  Until very recently students of both callings, sometimes in uniform, would greet her and remember the strict discipline with which she taught them.

 Did you know that today anybody can apply to become a JP? This certainly wasn’t the case in 1980 when somebody proposed Shelagh as a suitable person, and after the necessary enquiries (including into my past behaviour) she was so appointed, and served for 20 years, mainly at the new courthouse on New Lawn Road, but also in Derby and Alfreton. She quickly became a JP chairman and dealt with Probation, Juvenile Panel, Family courts as well as running the new Schools Project. One of her favourite replies to pleading motorists was; “We are not taking your licence away – you are taking it away from yourself.” Over the New Year holiday there had to be a duty JP in case of need (perhaps a Market Place riot?), so once or twice over New Year Shelagh was in fact the law in Ilkeston. The Queen twice rewarded Shelagh for her dedication as a JP with an audience – firstly in 1991 at a posh Magistrates’ Association Reception at St James’ Palace, then at a Buckingham Palace Garden Party in 1995. The Lord Chamberlain did invite me to accompany Shelagh to the Garden Party but it didn’t go well. After getting our cucumber sandwiches and cups of tea I managed to grab a couple of picnic chairs and said I would guard them whilst Shelagh dashed off to see the royal couple. She came back to find me fast asleep in the hot sun – that was something else she would never let me forget!

Shelagh had also become a director of Ilkeston Permanent Building Society which by then had moved into the old Post Office building on South Street.  She became renowned as one of very few female directors nationally when at a convention in Birmingham she was assumed to be a waitress, and one of the high-ups asked her to fetch him two coffees – much to the amusement of her male Ilkeston colleagues standing in the coffee queue with her.

We went camping and caravanning for the best part of 60 years including many trips to the Continent. For three years in the early 90s we combined our holiday with a week at the Nottingham R C Diocese pilgrimage to Lourdes, where Shelagh worked all day shifts looking after the severely ill in the hospital that we took over. Around then Shelagh had also taken up folk music, playing keyboard in two bands linked with the church and led by Vic George – Dialogue and Vagabond – which played and sang at Care Homes around the Ilkeston area. I got tired of just being my wife’s roadie so took up bass guitar to be able to join them. We went on to play with the Folk Group of the Camping Club all over the UK and Ireland. Highlights were playing in the band for the UK presentations at international meets in Millstreet near Killarney (2007) and Ipswich (2009).

Then there was Crufts. We had dogs for most of our married life and the last three were all retired guide dogs: Schumann, Flint and Arnie. Shelagh managed to cure Schumann’s skin disease which had shortened his working life and he became a beautiful Golden Retriever. She also trained him as a Pets As Therapy dog and took him to be stroked and patted in hospitals and homes in the Ilkeston area. At Crufts in 2008 he was chosen to lead the PAT junior display team round the ring pulling our 10 year old grandson behind him. Shelagh also became a fund raiser for the Ilkeston and Kimberley branch of the Guide Dogs Association, taking our last two retired guide dogs to be patted at many local fairs and festivals. The last one she did was at the Lakeside summer fair in Kirk Hallam in 2018.

Most readers will remember David Johnson and his wonderful DIY shop on Station Road. As an expert photographer he also ran the Ilkeston Photo 2000 Club which Shelagh joined with her friend Eileen, and proceeded to upset members by winning competitions before she had even switched to a digital camera. However, I believe that the only two female members were of course expected to look after the tea and the washing up!

Shelagh’s last major weekly voluntary commitment was running a Monday morning Chair Based Exercise for Falls Prevention session for up to 30 people, which moved from the old Albion Centre to the Arena Church and finally to the Charnos Hall at Ilkeston Hospital. She had joined her old friend Bridget Leech to do this around 2005 and retired shortly after her 80th birthday in December 2018 much to the dismay of her faithful patients.

Most recently Shelagh had found yet more hobbies and groups to join: in Ilkeston - U3A (calligraphy), and in Stanton-by-Dale – WI, Tea and Company, Gardening Club, and Girls that Sing in Stanton.”

Hopefully, you may understand why my Mum continues to be my No.1 inspirational woman.