Sheila Annis Mary Fothergill

Sheila Annis Mary Fothergill was born on 4th May 1923 in Richmond, Surrey to Sam and Gladys Fothergill.

Sheila spent much of her childhood living in Barnes, SW London and attended the private St Paul’s Girls School also in Barnes. At the out break of World War 2 her father moved the family to Wembley Park on the hill, which he thought was safer. Sheila would recount seeing the Luftwaffe flying over and bombing London.

Sheila enrolled in the Women’s Royal Naval Service (WRNS), aged 19 in July 1942, where she specialised as a Coder. She was commissioned to Acting Third Officer and her discharge papers describe her as “A capable Cypher Officer with good organising skills who latterly combined the duties of CB and Cypher Officer. For most of the war she was based in various coding stations in the UK. She also made several trips to New York as a signal officer..”

Eventually she was posted to Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) where she was given the role of chief signals woman in Colombo harbour which was at that time a substantial port. One of Sheila’s final postings was to Singapore where her first duty was to find accommodation for the forces who were on their way to the island. Sheila left Colombo, via the Cape to head for home on the SS Nea Hellas.  It was just prior to this trip home in December 1945 that she met David.

On meeting David, Sheila’s mother Gladys did not think David’s bridge was up to scratch, however, as a result of meeting Sheila’s family his bridge skills rapidly improved. And her father once caught David cleaning his shoes in his bedroom and advised his future son-in-law “not to allow Mrs Fothergill to catch him”.

After marrying on 19th October 1946, at Christ Church Mayfair. Due to David’s military postings, they moved to Germany and then in March 1949 for a few weeks before David was posted to Enugu, Nigeria. They spent a happy year there where they lived a colonial lifestyle, not far from David’s uncle, going on treks and exploring the country and surrounding coutnries of The Cameroons and Sierra Leone.

They had two children Nicholas (b. 27th November 1947, d. 4th May 2010) and Susan (b. 7th October 1950). They moved back to the UK in 1950.

Sheila worked for Thelma Cazalet-Keir, a British politician and well-known feminist who forced the government to introduce equal pay for female teachers. Sheila was a Freeman of the City of London and Justice of the Peace (a Magistrate) from 1974-1982 and a member of the War Pensions Committee.

On David’s retirement, Sheila and David moved to St Helens on the Isle of Wight, where they had a large garden. After David’s death Sheila moved to Seaview in 1996.

Sheila died on 2nd October 2011 in Ryde.