Hester Davenport

Transcript

Hester -and her passion for life

TRIBUTES have been paid following the death of well-known local historian, author and campaigner Hester Davenport, who has died at the age of 77.

Hester, who lived in Church Road, Old Windsor, had a deep knowledge of 18th-century history and two of her books were biographies of Fanny Burney and Mary ‘Perdita’ Robinson, famous women of that period.

As a member and long-time chairman of the Windsor Local History Group. Hester was closely involved in the campaign to set up a long-needed museum in Windsor, which opened at the Guildhall last year, when Hester was very proud to meet the Queen.

She was deeply interested in the buildings and monuments of Windsor and several times drew attention with some success to the neglect of historical memorials, such as the Lutyens fountain.

Hester was born in Plymouth on August 5, 1936, daughter of Douglas Wilson, a marine biologist, research scientist and a pioneer in underwater photography, who was the subject of one of Hester’s books.

Her mother, Alison, was a botanist and talented artist and musician.

During the war, Hester was evacuated to a boarding school in Trevone, near Padstow, where she excelled both academically and in sport and became head girl. She studied English at University College, London, where she met her future husband, Tony Davenport, at the dramatic society.

Hester worked for Penguin Books before joining Tony in Leeds, where he was working at the university.

The couple were married in 1960 and celebrated their Golden Wedding in 2010 with all the family in the Gower Peninsula.

Hester taught English and drama at a technical grammar school for girls in Leeds, and also took on history classes, thus starting a lifetime interest.

When Tony got a new job at Royal Holloway College London, where he eventually became professor in the English department, the couple moved to Old Windsor in 1964 and eventually to their home in Church Road. As the mother of two young daughters, Imogen and Olivia, Hester taught part-time, mainly in adult education, and later took an Open University Victorian poetry.

Hester’s interest in writing grew, publishing articles, then a children’s book and a local history book, Writers in Windsor, in 1995. She was an interesting and enthusiastic speaker at conferences and for many organisations, and was a key member of the Fanny Burney Society.

She had wide-ranging interests and was involved in many local groups, the theatre, art and pottery, poetry and history.

In 2011 she published her last book, designed to interest a new generation of children in their town.

A Children’s History of Windsor mixed fact and fiction through Hester’s invented lead character, a boy called Borum who befriends a Roman soldier. She kept all the historical details about life in the town totally accurate.

Last year she played a big part in helping produce the Windsor History Group’s tribute book to the founder of the Express, Charles Knight, which was published to mark the paper’s bicentenary in August.

Her long-time friend Alison Haymonds said: “Hester will be sadly missed by her many friends. She packed so much into her life and had so many interests, but she always had time to be a loyal and thoughtful friend and a devoted wife and mother. Her death leaves an enormous gap in our lives.”

Another long-standing friend and collaborator in historical writing, Brigitte Mitchell, added: “Her writing is full of human intuition, reflecting her own intuitive kindness and gentle wit.

“She was inspirational, always full of good advice, and in the group, the voice of reason.

“Besides writing, she gave talks on a number of subjects, from women in the Crimea to the history of bathing. They were always well researched, fascinating but most of all hugely entertaining and delivered with great wit.“

She died on September 23, and the funeral service was held at Slough Crematorium on Thursday, October 3.

Contributions from Alison Haymonds, Brigitte Mitchell and Francis Batt.

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