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Wyn's Biography

WYN LAWRENCE, former church steward and children’s work volunteer at Southlands and a retired local preacher, died in York Hospital late on Thursday night (25th June).

She was taken to hospital on Monday after a fall at home which caused a bleed on the brain and was admitted to Ward 26. The following morning she was found on the floor beside her hospital bed and another scan showed that the bleed had extended. Her condition gradually deteriorated and she picked up a chest infection before suffering a series of fits during Thursday evening.

Husband Bob, who spent the late afternoon and most of the evening at her bedside, said he understood that Wyn went to sleep after returning from a series of new scans and subsequently stopped breathing.
Wyn was a Cockney, having been born within the sound of Bow Bells. Her parents were of German descent and the butchers shop where her father worked was smashed up at the beginning of the Second World War.
As a child Wyn spent some time as an evacuee in Cirencester. She also twice suffered rheumatic fever which damaged her heart.

After the war Wyn spent some time working for a big insurance company, then went to work for the Connexional Home Missions department, based at Westminster Central Hall. She was turned down for training as a Wesley deaconess because of her heart condition but accepted for training as a teacher.

Bob and Wyn met at Ordnance Road Methodist Church, Enfield, when Bob moved to the borough to take up a job as Chief Reporter with the Enfield Gazette and started attending the church where Wyn was already a member. She volunteered to help in the youth club and junior club he set up there.

They were married at Ordnance Road on 28th October, 1972, and many of the Junior Club members were there for the occasion. At the time Wyn was already in her second teaching appointment, teaching English to secondary school immigrants in the London Borough of Waltham Forest, and Bob was assistant editor with the Gazette.

On 1st November, 1976, Bob took up the position of senior news sub-editor on what was then the Yorkshire Evening Press and at the end of the term Wyn willingly left her beloved London to join him in York as they bought a house in Copmanthorpe. It was several months before Wyn found a new job as infant teacher at Stamford Bridge Primary School.

Between them Bob and Wyn with the help of a number of volunteers started a youth club at Southlands which ran for 29 years. They also started a junior club at Southlands and, for a time, ran an inters club as well.

Both Wyn and Bob retired at around the same time, but in recent years Wyn had been having problems with her legs where were exacerbated following a fall in Bishopthorpe Road early in January.

Bob said: “Wyn was a great loving wife and I am glad to have been able to share the last 48 years with her.” 
 

Bob and Wyn on their wedding day 
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