Catherine Mary Irene Fowke

Catherine was born on 27th July 1919 at Danebank in Lymm, Cheshire. Her Father, Villiers Loftus Philip Fowke was in His Majesty's Consular Service Service so much of her early childhood was spent in Japan and Korea. Villiers retired in 1928 following the unexpected death of his wife (Gladys nee Watkin) in Sheringham Norfolk. From then on until 1940, Catherine and her brother Francis (father of Michael and Philip) lived in Bramham Gardens, Earls Court, London and were sent to Catholic boarding schools, Ascot and Ampleforth respectively. Villiers died in 1940 at the age of 52 . Catherine initially trained as a nurse and after the War she entered the Sacred Heart Convent in Brighton where she remained for three years. In 1956 she moved to the newly built block of flats in Lexham Gardens devoting much of her time to the Church and other charitable work. Her lovely, pure soprano voice was a great asset to a number of choirs who greatly appreciated her talent and she also played the violin for many years with the Fulham Municipal Orchestra. She also had a great interest in travel, and in the 1950's and 1960's had a number of intrepid adventures including tours of Africa, South America and Vietnam.

Catherine was a person of wide interests, insatiable curiosity, and strong opinions. She enjoyed sociabilities, family gatherings, parties and festivities of every kind. She was never so happy as when surrounded by people known and unknown, a plentiful supply of food, cakes, puddings, jellies, sweets, conversation and wine flowing in equal measure. A cruise with her nephew Philip when she was 90 saw her in her element combining the sea, entertainment and touring ancient cities. She also had a capacity to embrace new technology. Never wishing to be left out of new developments, she signed up for I.T lessons in her mid nineties, bought a laptop and soon became addicted to YouTube, Google and surfing the Internet. Emails written in gigantic red typeface regularly flew though the airwaves. She soon grasped the principles of Skype, and sessions talking to the top of her head, usually with audio difficulties, became the norm. Texting was another item on her list of her goals to score. Sadly, her sight put paid to this as did her continued use of her beloved laptop. She sent her last emails in her early hundreds.

In her long life, Catherine made many friends who always remained faithful and forbearing. She could sometimes be confrontational and argumentative, never one to shrink from speaking her mind, vociferously and in alarmingly inappropriate situations.  However, given her privileged upbringing, she was intrinsically a broadminded person, accepting of people from whatever culture or background. She had a strong sense of social justice and was troubled by poverty, inequality of opportunity, lack of education and human suffering in general. Paradoxically, she was more accepting of the vulnerabilities and complexities of others than of herself.  In her later years such issues troubled her increasingly and her conversation often returned to these themes.

Her overriding qualities were steadfastness, and loyalty to her family and friends. She was unwavering in her deep personal faith, so it was apt that she should end her days in a religious community. It is what she would have wished.