Former secretary to Lancaster mayors dies at age of 91

Maureen Hand held her key role with mayors between 1977 and 1991.

It was a job she loved, her son John said in his eulogy at the funeral on Friday December 8.

She was in her element, shorthand pad at the ready, behind the scenes organising dates, diaries, visits, speeches, letters typed on carbon copies, ensuring the mayor’s office ran with a calm efficiency.

Maureen worked for Lunesdale Rural Council at Hornby before moving to Lancaster Town Hall on local government reorganisation in 1974. She became the mayor’s secretary in Silver Jubilee Year.

She and her family had moved to Hornby in 1968 because of her husband Larry’s work.

Born Maureen Roskell in Preston in 1932, her father William was a woodturner and a deacon in the Congregational Church.

Her early life was strongly influenced by the church, Sunday School and the church youth club.

On leaving school at 14 she studied shorthand, typing and book-keeping.

Blackpool Tower Ballroom and the Winter Gardens were a bus ride away and dancing on Saturday nights to big swing bands led to a chance encounter with her future husband. They married in 1952.

Maureen’s job as mayor’s secretary led to an invitation to join the city’s Soroptimist Club, a global volunteer movement working to transform the lives and status of women and girls through education, empowerment and enabling opportunities, and she was a proud member for more than 30 years.

As club secretary, she arranged meetings, dinners and guest speakers, part of a lifetime organising for others, which led to valuable friendships.

It was through this relationship that Maureen became involved with the Lancaster Talking Newspaper for the Blind. For more than 10 years she spent many hours at St Martin’s College (now the University of Cumbria) recording news summaries and articles.

As well as son John, Maureen leaves two daughters Gillian and Penny and two more generations. Larry died in 2019.

She died at home in Hornby on November 22 and the funeral took place at Beetham Hall Crematorium.

Donations in Maureen’s memory were given to Lancaster Soroptimists and Galloway’s Society for the Blind.