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Death of Miss Lucy Facer - Distinguished public service
Loughborough Echo - 20th October 1972
The death of Miss Lucy Facer, of Quorn, on Friday, October 13th, brought to a close a long life of distinguished public service. A member of the old Quorn family of Facer Brothers, who had a wheelwright’s and joinery business, and educated at Thomas Rawlins Grammar School, she early showed her independence of character by being one of the first women of Leicestershire to volunteer for active service in the First World War and in May 1917 went overseas as W.A.C., being based at Abbeville at the motor transport depot. After the war, in which one of her two brothers was killed, she entered the Civil Service, working as an officer of the Ministry of Labour in various Midland towns and in Sheffield, retiring in 1955 as senior woman officer of the Leicester branch.
Employment problems
Her experience of employment problems and her essential fairmindedness led to her being appointed about three years ago as chairman of the Midland Joint Industrial Council of Hosiery Dyers and Finishers, a compliment which she greatly appreciated and a role in which she was highly respected.
After her retirement from the Civil Service, Miss Facer, whose remaining brother had died, took up the reins of the family business, and was active in its recent re-organisation and expansion. From this period also dated her deep concern with Local Government. She was co-opted on to the health committee of the County Council in 1955, to the home safety sub-committee in 1956 and served on these and allied committees until the time of her death.
In 1958 she became the first woman member of Quorn Parish Council, being chairman in 1967 and 1968, and from 1965 onwards was a member of the Barrow-upon-Soar Rural District Council, serving on the housing and town planning sub-committees. Her membership for 36 years of the Leicestershire Association for the Disabled of which in recent years she was vice-chairman, her active role in the provision of suitably planned housing for the elderly, her interest in the Home Help Service, which she helped to establish in Leicester after the second World War, and her valuable membership of several local charities, all testified to her compassionate and most practical concern for people in need.
Many activities
Since its inception in Quorn, Miss Facer had been a member of the British Legion and president of the women’s section. She had been a member of the Soroptimists in Leicester, and a governor of the Rawlins School, Quorn, and of Humphrey Perkins School, Barrow-upon-Soar.
She had a passionate love of Quorn and its history and of the Charnwood district, and was generous in her support for local organisations, in her private gifts to people, and in her desire to make Quorn beautiful through provision of trees, seats and flowers.
Indeed, her last act was to order tulips for the garden surrounding the War Memorial and to arrange for the planting of trees to embellish the new old people’s bungalows in Catherine’s Close. A woman of dignity and courage, with a well-balanced and a high ideal of practical service, she will be greatly missed and her death widely regretted.
The funeral service was held at St Bartholomew’s Church, Quorn, on Wednesday, conducted by the Vicar (Rev R N Everett), at which there was a large attendance, including representatives of the various bodies with which Miss Facer was associated. The nearest family mourners were Mrs N Stevens, her cousin, with her husband and family, from Woodbridge, Suffolk. The committal followed at Loughborough Crematorium.
The first photograph appeared with this article. The second picture was taken of Lucy Facer around the time of WW1.
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Submitted on: |
2011-01-03 |
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Submitted by: |
Kathryn Paterson |
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Artefact ID: |
1119 |
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Artefact URL: |
www.quornmuseum.com/display.php?id=1119 |
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