3rd December 1951 – 4th December 2022
Maggie has delivered our crates to schools for the Schools Library Service for the whole of the 21st Century! She was a one-woman whirlwind who delivered our crates, gardened, created amazing pottery, flew kites, and was a friend to us all.
Coming to London from Cornwall in the sixties, she first did an honours degree in Fine Art and Sculpture at Brighton University and was on first name terms with Terry Frost RA and other renowned artists.
She worked for Price Waterhouse Coopers for many years, combining art and IT in desktop publishing.
She came to the Schools Library Service as a self-employed woman with van and has been at our beck and call ever since and is known to every school admin team in the Borough, ever flexible, ever organising things as efficiently as possible.
Latterly, she also undertook the delivery of BookStart packs for the Early Years Team.
A knowledge fountain of plants and gardening, she looked after the PDC garden and browbeat the staff into watering and looking after it when she was not around.
She took up kite flying in 2008, a hobby that took her on jaunts to kite festivals around the world.
Always an artist at heart, she has us collecting packaging and materials that she recycled into wonderful pieces of art. Over the years she had many exhibitions of her pottery and paintings in local venues.
Diagnosed with lung cancer in February this year, she was incredibly positive about her treatment and her future, but tumours developed in her head and on catching pneumonia, she was unable to fight the infection and passed away the morning after her 71st birthday.
She is survived by her two sisters, her brother and their families.
Maggie was loved by everyone, and she was able to get on with everyone. She always had time for others, and was ever positive and optimistic. She was multi-talented, and had very wide interests. Maggie was a very genuine person, with warmth, wit and wisdom. She will be tremendously missed.
Proud of her Cornish roots, multi-talented, a powerhouse, a good conversationalist, and great company, Maggie is a sad loss to us all.
Oh how sad to the sudden loss of Maggie.
Such a huge part of the Library Service.
Delivering all the needs for schools.
It was a huge privilege to have worked with her and shall always have fond memories of her.
Such a cool woman and an important part of SLS… we will always miss you!
What an amazing woman Maggie was! I have no idea how she navigated London in her little van with such positivity and good humour but that is absolutely the woman she was. I loved working with her and even more loved sitting in a pub with her! What a rich, full, interesting, and sometimes wild life she lived! A remarkable woman who will be greatly missed ❤️
We at THAMES will miss Maggie very much. We often had lovely chats together while she loaded her van with crates of books and we loaded ours with musical instruments. If we had an instrument that was beyond repair – cello, djembe drums and even a tuba – she would take it away to recycle it into a work of art! So sad to lose her.
Maggie!!!
Maggie will be sorely missed by all at Osmani Primary School. Ever so friendly and flexible. Our deepest condolences to all her loved ones.
Maggie was a wonder, so full of vitality and verve, positive even in her last days. She delivered the BookStart book packs for the Early Years Service and its subsequent incarnations (now Early Education and Childcare) with charm, warmth and humour along the way, she knew everyone in Tower Hamlets’ schools, early years settings, and the children and family centres. I loved hearing her stories, from international kite flying to ceramics, and innumerable gardening chats. We miss her hugely.