Broadbent Margery

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Biografie:
Margery Broadbent d. 1982
The death of Margery Broadbent in 1982 is a great and very sad loss to many in different walks of life. I personally have known her since the early 1950s, when we met at the Ladies' Alpine Club and then found we lived only a few minutes apart.
Her husband, John Gack) Broadbent, was a member of the Alpine Club. They climbed much together, chiefly in Switzerland, and their climbs were noted in the journals of both clubs. Margery had always loved walking, but never seriously climbed until she was nearly 50. She had trained to teach physical culture and later in life Swiss guides remarked on her unusual stamina.
Art, and painting in particular, became perhaps her greatest love, and she further studied drawing to improve her painting. From then on, she went from strength to strength,-and still climbing. One never thought of age with Margery; she never seemed to change. I said to a man who had travelled the world,- 'She must have been very pretty as a girl', and he said at once,-'She still is'. Elsewhere another man said exactly the same thing when she was in her late 60s.
Before her marriage, she too had travelled round the world, by ship, and had adventures. In New Zealand, at a lonely sheep station, a halfcrazed man was about to attack her with' a long knife. She smiled at him, and talked, and 'he dropped the knife' she told me. She had courage and humour and a great sense of fun. At a gathering to meet Lord Hailsham, before we joined the Common Market, she asked him if it was a good idea. He said slowly, 'In the long run .. .' and she said to him, 'But I want to know if that means a short step-or a marathon?!' She was interested in politics. She had little use for many 'improvements' of these days, and she did not suffer fools gladly. With Jack, in their pleasant St John's Wood garden, there were happy, friendly parties, with their two cats usually in attendance. Loving all animals, she hated the cruelties they suffered.
Her paintings sold well in many places-she was very versatile in style and ideas and organised art exhibitions for charities and, interestingly, in London Post Offices. She never spared herself. After Jack's sudden death she still climbed, painted and organised art exhibitions. The day before she went into hospital, I saw her walking with her usual swiftness. She did not see me as I watched from a bus: my very last sight of her.
In her later 80s, she was returning to some literary work and beginning a book on her war-time experiences, chiefly with evacuees, some of it very amusing. Her work is missed in many a gallery. She had great faith and rare gifts: fortunate were those who knew her.
Eleanor Baillie
Quelle: Alpine Journal Volume 88, 1983, Seite 261-262


Gestorben am:
1982