TRIBUTES have been paid to former Bridport mayoress Esme Summers who died at the age of 90.
The town stalwart – the mother of West Dorset District Council chairman Gillian Summers – has been eulogised by friends and colleagues alike.
Coun Sandra Brown said: “She was a kingpin in the local Conservative association.
“She was a very charming person and I found her very enthusiastic. Whatever she did she gave her all to it.
“I always found her very friendly and approachable.
“She worked very hard, certainly for the Conservative association.”
Antony Stanley, of the West Dorset Conservative Association, added: “She was very active with her husband Harry in the 1980s for very many years.
“From the association’s point of view she was a stalwart over many years and did a lot of work in the community for the town of Bridport.
“She was a lovely lady and a very loyal worker for the association and for the parliamentary candidates she worked for over the years – Oliver Letwin, his predecessor Jim Spicer and his predecessor Simon Wingfield Digby.”
Former mayor Geoff Ackerman said: “She was a wonderful lady, very pleasant and she loved the town.”
Esme Summers was born Esme Myra Walker, in Stetchford, near Birmingham, daughter to Harvey Walker, latterly known in Bridport for his watch and clock repair skills.
Her father worked for the Air Ministry as an air accident inspector, and was involved in analysing the causes of many air accidents during the Second World War and inspected an R101 after it went down near Paris.
Mrs Summers inherited many of her father’s attributes, not least his love of gardening.
She enjoyed bringing her garden to perfection on time for the annual Conservative garden party which she and her husband hosted for many years.
She was president of the Conservative branch in Bridport and also a town councillor.
Mr and Mrs Summers were mayor and mayoress in 1982 and in 1988.
They almost managed a third term with Mrs Summers as mayor but Harry won the election by eight votes.
Mrs Summers worked for many years in the fashion world, and it was when her workmate Bessie took her home to tea in Ware, Herts, that she met Bessie’s big brother Harry, who was already in the RAF.
She was smitten and they were married in 1939.
She followed him around the world as an RAF wife and lived in the former Rhodesia, Aden, and Bahrain, as well as many well-known RAF stations in England.
During this time they had five children, Gillian, Harvey, Penny, Carolyn and Clive, and now 18 grandchildren, 14 great-grandchildren and three step grandchildren.
When they retired from air force life they settled in Bridport, which they loved.
When they retired from air force life they settled in Bridport, which they both loved and Mrs Summers decided it was time to translate her diaries – which she kept from the age of eight – into a book of her life as a focus for her family. Family members read extracts of it at her funeral.
Mr Summers died in 1992.
Nine years later Mrs Summers moved into Harbour House in West Bay.
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