Daphne Taylor 1930 - 2022

Daphne joined LEH in 1941 during the wartime and on her three-mile cycle ride to school every day she was under strict instructions from her mum to abandon her bike, lie on the ground and take cover should she see any aircraft overhead, regardless whose side she thought they were on. Some of the lessons at school during air raids would be held in the corridors, as they afforded better protection.    

As was common, Daphne left school aged 16 and went to work in Barclays Bank in Station  Road, Sunbury. She left there in the early 1950s to work in her parent’s shop in Lampton, Hounslow, until they sold it in 1960.

Daphne then started what was to be her final job and remained there for the next 40 years.  She was recruited by a company selling frozen food. Not very exceptional, you might say, apart from the fact that many did not even have a refrigerator at the time, let alone one with a minuscule frozen food compartment. Some parts of the country were not even connected to the grid. Frozen food was a new concept and Daphne went out and sold, not only food, but the idea of frozen food to the world.  She really was an innovator. The original company changed hands many times over the years but every time it did, they took Daphne with them, such was the esteem in which she must have been held.  

Daphne never married but had a very full life, travelling widely and enjoying several foreign holidays a year. She enjoyed sport immensely, playing tennis, badminton and also golf which she played well into her 80’s being a member of the West Byfleet Golf Club.  She put her bank experience to good use there as she was appointed treasurer of the Ladies’ section.  She also played lacrosse at school as well as cricket.  Not content with that she was also a keen bridge in her later years.

Daphne started driving when she was 17 and very much missed her car when she had to give up driving a couple of years ago.  From 1960 onwards her company car was an essential part of her working life, driving all over London and the south of England, as well as taking trips further afield in the UK, mostly alone.  

Daphne will be greatly missed and was a much loved member of her extensive family of a brother and two sisters, nephews and nieces plus her many friends, witness by the fact she always seemed to have more Christmas cards than any of the rest of us!