Notices
Mrs Pamela Spiller (née Grimwood)
In College 1927-1938 Downside and Farnley Lodge
Pamela was born in Colombo, Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon) in 1919 and died in Woodbridge, Suffolk on 28th May 2007 aged 87.
Her son writes:
My mother often regaled us, with tales of life at CLC. As a young pupil from overseas she was allowed to keep a rabbit and other pets, and spent her school holidays being boarded out to various maiden ‘aunts’, one or two bishops and others. She loved her swimming and sport in general, including ‘lax’ (lacrosse), and fondly remembers her Housemistress, the late Miss Grayson, as being a truly kind and caring lady, possibly one of the most important adults in her formative years. Being overseas her parents rarely visited and although she had fond memories of her time at school it was also tinged with less happy memories of loneliness and a sense of separation. She was, however blessed with an energetic and outgoing personality; by all accounts she was always a bit of a rebel!
After leaving school, much to her father’s dismay, she enrolled at Birmingham College of Art to study Dress Design. With the outbreak of WWII, never one to sit by and do nothing, she found herself working for the Ministry of Supply. She ended the war marrying Squadron Leader J L Spiller DFC in 1945 and settling firstly in Cambridge for a few years and then moving to Suffolk. She was a highly talented artist in both oils and watercolours and loved the great outdoors. She enjoyed hunting with the Easton Harriers for many years. She loved working with young people and for some years at various times she taught art and dress design in the Hollesley Bay Detention Centre and schools in Ipswich. She was also a Cub Scout Leader and received her Silver Acorn at Windsor Castle for 25 years service.
In later years she thoroughly enjoyed her “Old Chelters” reunions, as she called them, and enjoyed all the reminiscences.
Pamela Spiller died peacefully at Woodbridge Lodge, Woodbridge and was buried at St Mary’s Church, Great Bealings in Suffolk, in the village in which she had lived since 1951. She was a mother of four children, a grandmother of ten grandchildren and at the time of her death, a great-grandmother of three great-grandchildren.
David Spiller
October 2007