Well known Ashford midwife is remembered well

Wendy served the area of Staines, Stanwell, and Ashford as a community midwife from 1959 to the late 90s, but also helped care for sick and troubled people at the Woodthorpe Road home with lifelong friend and fellow midwife June Young.

Eighty-three-year old June said: "I will miss her company. We shared everything and never did anything alone and we were more like husband and wife.

"Through our time here we saw big changes and Wendy just felt like she wanted to help the young people. She wanted them to have a home, and we took a lot of people in such as troubled youths and drug addicts.

"We never advertised it, but our pastor used to ask us if we could help certain people and we did."

The pair met 50 years ago at a hospital in Hackney where June became Wendy's student.

They shortly moved to Ashford and began living together as it was the norm for students and mentors to do then.

By 1967 Wendy had performed more than 1000 deliveries in homes in the area, as it was customary for the doctor to be called out only in an emergency.

When Wendy retired she kept herself busy by joining the local Salvation Army branch, and engaging in public speaking in the area.

John Howells, Wendy's younger brother, said: "She was a wonderful older sister to have. She was very talented and a good Christian example to me and will be sorely missed, but she had great pain in her life before she died.

"For the last few years of her life she found it difficult to walk, but she was a strong Christian so I believe it must have been a relief when she passed."

Wendy loved public speaking, painting, caravanning, and in 1999 she wrote a book called Loose Chippings, which was a collection of personal anecdotes on the humorous side of midwifery.