Dame Margaret Weston
Title
Dame Margaret Weston
Description
Dame Margaret Weston or Peggy Weston as some may recall her was born in Oakridge in the late 1920's, the only daughter of the village Schoolmaster.
From any early age, she showed a keen interest in engineering and, after leaving Stroud Girls High School, during the war years, she obtained degrees in Mechanical and Electrical Engineering.
After 11 years with G.E.C. she joined The Science Museum in London, eventually becoming Director.
Dame Margaret gives a lot of credit for her present eminence to another neighbour. This neighbour was Mr. Walter Gardiner, the father of Mrs. Eileen Minchin, who used to live at Little Cleve.
Walter Gardiner taught her to use a lathe and gave her the freedom of his workshop. He was in his seventies and she says, "I think perhaps if he hadn't been, he would have thought it much older that this eleven year old girl was so interest. I used to spend every Saturday there. They used to repair bicycles together.
One of her vivid childhood memories is of the day she ran from her sick-bed in the Gloucestershire village of Oakridge to find a German bomber that has just crashed in a field. Mrs. Sidney Smith saw the airman come down to Le Bailey's garden.
Captain Weston (Home Guard) arrested the German.
The bomber came down on Strawberry Banks.
The War apart, rural Gloucestershire seems to have been idyllic. Her mother and father were both Heads of local elementary schools. Her father was of course, Head of Oakridge and her Mother at Bussage.
She was very well liked from an early age by a large number of Oakridge families.
As an early child, was the honorary 14th member of a family of 13 across the road, the Hunt family, who lived at Homeleigh Cottage.
"The Times" newspaper article wondered if Dame Margaret Weston would take up again her motorbike hobby. It would be quite something to see her on a small Honda or better still a Harley Davis zooming up Farm Lane and Butts Hill.
From any early age, she showed a keen interest in engineering and, after leaving Stroud Girls High School, during the war years, she obtained degrees in Mechanical and Electrical Engineering.
After 11 years with G.E.C. she joined The Science Museum in London, eventually becoming Director.
Dame Margaret gives a lot of credit for her present eminence to another neighbour. This neighbour was Mr. Walter Gardiner, the father of Mrs. Eileen Minchin, who used to live at Little Cleve.
Walter Gardiner taught her to use a lathe and gave her the freedom of his workshop. He was in his seventies and she says, "I think perhaps if he hadn't been, he would have thought it much older that this eleven year old girl was so interest. I used to spend every Saturday there. They used to repair bicycles together.
One of her vivid childhood memories is of the day she ran from her sick-bed in the Gloucestershire village of Oakridge to find a German bomber that has just crashed in a field. Mrs. Sidney Smith saw the airman come down to Le Bailey's garden.
Captain Weston (Home Guard) arrested the German.
The bomber came down on Strawberry Banks.
The War apart, rural Gloucestershire seems to have been idyllic. Her mother and father were both Heads of local elementary schools. Her father was of course, Head of Oakridge and her Mother at Bussage.
She was very well liked from an early age by a large number of Oakridge families.
As an early child, was the honorary 14th member of a family of 13 across the road, the Hunt family, who lived at Homeleigh Cottage.
"The Times" newspaper article wondered if Dame Margaret Weston would take up again her motorbike hobby. It would be quite something to see her on a small Honda or better still a Harley Davis zooming up Farm Lane and Butts Hill.
Source
The Pat Carrick Collection
Files
Collection
Citation
“Dame Margaret Weston,” Oakridge Archives, accessed May 14, 2024, https://oakridgearchives.omeka.net/items/show/477.