Lonsdale, Mrs Marjorie Walton, OBE
1915-2002

Educationalist and Vice-President of the Conference in 1961, she was born into a Methodist family in the mining village of Coundon, Co. Durham. On her marriage in 1939 she moved from Co. Durham to Rye, Sussex, but her husband, in active service in the RAF was killed over Malta in January 1942. She returned to teaching in Durham and the Wirrall, and in 1952 joined the staff of Trinity Hall, Southport, where, despite serious eye problems, she served as Headmistress from 1957 and achieved a PhD. She travelled widely in support of the Trinity Hall appeal. She served for fifty years as a local preacher and was national Vice-President of the Order of Christian Witness. Her academic and literary interests were wide and she published short stories and plays. H. Sinclair Walker declared: 'This lady's best service to Methodism has not been either her work for Trinity Hall or her abundant labours in pulpits up and down the Connexion, but simply the testimony of her own personal example.' When the school closed in 1970, she became Deputy Head at Hunmanby Hall until her retirement to Bridlington in 1975. There she was involved in many causes, notably the Townswomen's Guild. She died in Bridlington on 23 February 2002.

Sources
  • Methodist Recorder, 6 July 1961; 16 July 1970; 4 April 2002
  • Conference Handbook, 1961