Remembering happy family get togethers and a kind and generous aunt who had time for her family, friends and colleagues.

I attended her OBE investiture in Edinburgh in 1977 and more recently her honorary doctorate awarded by the University of Chester, Shrewsbury campus in 2018 by Prof. Anna Sutton. I remember the clarity and eloquence of her advice to the assembled graduands as well as the humor and humanity of her address.

Family was very important to my Aunt. She was an interested and supportive figurehead of our family. She shared her time, thoughts and energies with family in the UK as well as in Nigeria and the USA. She had recently celebrated the arrival of Jonathan her great grandson to Samuel who is working in the States which was a great joy. My family have been lucky to spend time with Lalage in Shrewsbury over the years. Before I had children, I remember tours through the Marches down to Woolstaston, Church Stretton and the Long Mynd. Aunty Lala would recall the excitement of seeing lines of tanks and armoured cars and troops alongside the A49 in June 1944 as a teenager.

It can be seen how important family was to her in cine film we have from Woolstaston of Lala, Jacka, Bev and my father Hugh playing in the garden throwing straw at each other and enjoying each other's company. There are stories of family trips to Europe together and lost picnics when one of the boys allowed a rucksack tumble away from the top of a hill. Lala was the glue of family life, supporting all her siblings as well as her mother, Dorothy who she looked after towards the end of her life in 2002

Our family visited Woolstaston in 2018 and she was very touched to hear my daughter Lucy playing the piano in the village church she would have attended as a young girl and where her mother, Dorothy is commemorated with a stained glass window.

Lalage was respected counsel for our family. My daughter, Katie spent 2 days with her this Summer talking about her life and experiences and their common interest in women's rights as well as Katie's then forthcoming departure to university to study History and Politics.

Over the last 2 years we saw more of each other remotely, Sunday night family Zoom calls were brighter for Aunty Lala's interest in us all and the wider world. The conversation would never dry up and there was a question for all of us on our projects and events of the week.

The loss of our aunt takes away a figurehead, friend and counsellor. Over the months ahead I look forward to learning more about her life and achievements and getting to know better the friends, family and colleagues she held in high regard to preserve the memory of a life so full.