Liberal Democrat campaigner Marjorie Lyle wins Lord Mayor's special award

by Alex Perkins, Canterbury Liberal Democrat Leader

 

After nearly fifty years of teaching, guiding, lecturing and inspiring young and old in and around Canterbury, Marjorie Lyle’s contribution to our community, and to the understanding of our history and archaeology in particular, is unquestionable.

From tales of crystal balls in Saxon graves to lectures on the Dissolution of the Monasteries, her expertise has brought history to life for thousands in the classroom, in print, and on television and radio. And her enthusiasm for telling the stories of the past is utterly infectious.

Having taught literally thousands of young people history at Barton Court, Dover Girls Grammar school, and the University of Kent's School of Continuing Education, Marjorie eventually retired from her post as Head of Humanities at Geoffrey Chaucer School in 1979.

But for someone as energetic and enthusiastic as Marjorie, retirement brought even greater challenges. You see, even before her retirement Marjorie had attended a meeting on the 14th of June 1975 at which a group of local experts and enthusiasts had taken the decision to set up the Canterbury Archaeological Trust. And in 1979, the year of her retirement, the Archaeological Areas Act highlighted the urgent need for a professional conservation body to act as a guardian of our heritage at a time of expansion and change in the city centre.

Marjorie threw herself into the working for the trust with the same vim and vigour with which she approaches every task. As Education officer and as a fundraiser her contribution to the institution that is the Archaeological trust is simply remarkable.

Not least in her great list of achievements was the setting up the Archaeological trust shop. She arranged to borrow a large amount from the bank and the city council to buy the shop as a fundraising outlet for the trust. A long-term friend of Marjorie’s and a fellow supporter of the trust told me “Marjorie had to go and see a bank manager to ask for a huge loan. Her energy and enthusiasm must have simply overwhelmed him. He never stood a chance!”

When in 1992 the shop finally finished trading, Marjorie had more than paid off the loans with a combination of rent from student flats on the first floor and impressive clothing sales. A letter of thanks she received following the subsequent sale of the property estimated that the shop had contributed over a quarter of a million pounds to the trust's purse.

Marjorie's family history is as colourful as the front cover of one of the wonderful children's historical novels she has written. She has variously uncovered in her family evidence of slave trading in the 18th century and anti-slavery campaigning in the 19th Century.

More recently, her grandfather fought the Dover Constituency for the Liberal party in 1906. That, as I am sure you are all aware, was the year of the great Liberal landslide. To stand as a Liberal and lose in that year was almost an impossibility. But achieving the impossible is a trait that runs in the Marjorie’s family.

My favourite memory of Marjorie stems from a public meeting at a school probably ten years ago. It was our job to ensure the meeting went well and so we decided that one of us should try and warm the audience up a bit before the main speaker came on. I was desperately trying to think of a plan when, without warning, Marjorie suddenly mounted the stairs and walked out onto the stage. “Good evening “ she beamed at everyone. “I thought you might need cheering up. So here are some of my favourite Victorian musical hall songs.” Upon which she hitched up her skirt and launched into a rendition of “My old man says follow the van”. I learnt a lot that evening.

According to Marjorie, the motivation for her own broad and inspirational career is simple. She once said "I believe that people should be in tune with where they have come from, and this is the key to knowing yourself. Whether it be selling politics to sleeping voters or education to reluctant children, the key is communication."

Her 12 grandchildren would agree that she has communicated better than most. The thousands who have at some stage heard Marjorie in a classroom, lecture hall or in one of Canterbury's streets, would certainly fall into line behind them.

She has also often said that she was inspired by the one-time Canterbury archivist, William Urry. Well if that is so – then we all owe to him a great debt of gratitude.

She was once asked at an awards ceremony, or so I am told, what it was that inspired her to work so hard as a volunteer. She replied simply, as only Marjorie could, “It comes naturally to me – you see, I am a vicars daughter!”

And it is one of her short tales, of life as a vicars daughter, which I would like to share with you now – simply because it shows not only her skill as a story teller, but also the way she weaves her great wit, her wonderful literary skills and her love of living history into the written word.

She once wrote:
“ My father was vicar of Boxley, from where I watched first the Battle of Britain, and then the flying bombs.
" One morning a piece of shrapnel hit his shaving mirror, and then another his breakfast coffee-cup. As he was recovering over the newspaper, a third piece lodged in the wall by our budgerigar's cage. It dropped off its perch, dead with shock.
" 'That's the third, anyway,' my father said.
" Our maid obviously thought he was lucky, for during one night raid my parents found her under their bed. `What are you doing there, Ivy?' They asked.
" 'I thought I'd be safe under the vicar,' came the muffled reply."

I asked a few of Marjorie’s friends and colleagues to tell me the words that they felt best described her.

The first word that everyone of them said was “enthusiastic”. Then came “dedicated”, “energetic”, “funny” and “kind”. “A wonderful teacher.” “She loves children.” And “everyone loves her.”

And that is clearly the case! It is an honour and a privilege to be given the opportunity to nominate Marjorie for this award. As Norman Smith, chairman of t he Friends of the Archaeological trust said to me only today:

“Lawrence and Marjorie – they deserve every award going!”