Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon
Eva Smith Hardman "The End of an Era"
With the death on 30th March of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother aged 101, followed 4 days later by the death of Eva Hardman also aged 101, and their respective funerals on the same day, it is truly the end of an era.
Life doesn't always work out as we might think or plan. For the Queen Mother her life changed totally with the abdication of Edward 8th. Fascinating to read that even in the last year of her life, she completed 51 formal engagements.
For Eva Hardman, born and bred in South Wales, life changed unexpectedly with the tragic death of her twin sister in an accident whilst crossing the road at Wall End. As a young woman, she probably never thought she would end her days and die in Cumbria, although laid to rest in her beloved Dinas Powys.
Eva and her twin sister Ivy were some of the first Girl Guides, joining the movement at the age of 12 in 1913, only 3 years after the Guide Movement had started. She became a Guider and finally District Commissioner. It was good to have our own District Commissioner and Guiders in uniform to pay their respects and thanks to someone who had served Guiding many miles from Kirkby.
She spent most of her working life with what had always been a great British institution, known simply as the General Post Office, starting as a telephonist and becoming Civil Service Clerical Officer. In their spare time, both sisters loved tennis, winning medals and trophies.
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