Mrs Lorna Judy Gascoyne.
LORNA Judy Gascoyne, wife of late poet David Gascoyne, has died aged 88.
Mrs Gascoyne was a prominent figure on the Island for more than 50 years and was involved in a number of organisations and events.
During the 1960s she established a youth club in the disused Yarmouth Railway Station and she was a long-serving member of Yarmouth Carnival Committee.
She regularly collected money in aid of charities, including Cancer Research, which she began supporting after a health scare, and Leonard Cheshire Disability, having been inspired after a lecture by Leonard Cheshire.
Her first husband was West Wight veterinary surgeon Michael Lewis and the couple had four children.
She later married poet David Gascoyne, and the subject of their meeting was made into a Radio 4 play.
The couple settled in Northwood where she initiated many local projects, while supporting her husband. The couple attended poetry events around the country and internationally, where they would both give readings. In 2002 she published her memoirs, My Love Affair With Life. She was a life-long member of the Women’s Institute and gave regular talks on a host of subjects.
During the Second World War, at the age of 17, she was called-up as a signal box operator and taught at a school in Marlow, the town where she born. She also taught French later in life.
She leaves four children, ten grandchildren and seven great grandchildren
A funeral service will be held at St John’s Church, Northwood, on Tuesday, at 12.15pm.
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