Margaret Elizabeth Dean
30-11-1928 - 27-09-2022
Margaret joined the Daventry Branch in 2000 as a member at Kilsby, having learned to ring at Braunston and Daventry for the Millennium as part of a keen ladies team. She took over as Kilsby tower correspondent in 2013. Margaret was a prime mover in getting the bell frame repaired after rainwater damage; having three bells rehung on ball bearings and having the rope guide installed. She was a keen supporter of the branch and Braunston Monday Club, making cakes and organising quizzes in the village. Only the previous Saturday her number was drawn for the first prize in the Guild 100-Club!
Margaret rang her only quarter peal on the treble to Plain Bob Doubles at Flore on 24 March 2007. Her last ringing was for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee in June and at the branch meeting at Kilsby in July.
Margaret had been Mayor of Greenwich in her younger days and was proud of having usurped Ken Livingstone to give the order to fire the starting canon for the first London Marathon in 1981 from Greenwich Park.
Kilsby bells rang out on Friday 28th October to bid her farewell as the hearse and family cars paused and passed the church on the way to the crematorium. There were 14 ringers among the 80-90 congregation, who at the end of the service clapped along to her favourite Radetzky March.
Author: Geoff Pullin
