Local Face: Anna Morgan

Anna Jones-Rees was born in the Gower Peninsula. She attended the local mixed Grammar School but it was unusual for girls to go to University in those days so her father sent her at 16 to a boarding school in England where she emerged with excellent academic results.

Her father was always extremely supportive and wanted her to continue her studies at the local (Swansea) University but when she went for interview a young man, not so well qualified. beat her to the place. In that part of the world women were still second class citizens and higher education was not considered a priority for them but London University was more enlightened so Anna went off to study English although she was fascinated by chemistry.

This was a wonderful experience for an 18 year old from the provinces, as much for the three years of living in West Hampstead, visiting Selfridges and other department stores as for the academic discipline. In those days there were no grants so her father paid for everything and at the end it was expected that she would be self-supporting so Anna took the usual profession for female graduates teaching.

Anna started in a primary school in Worcester but then moved back to Wales to teach for a while before marrying her Welsh boyfriend from schooldays, Lyle Morgan. In 1937 this meant that she had to give up her teaching job. They lived at first in Sheffield where Lyle was lecturing in Civil Engineering at the University. It was a good life. By 1939 they had a baby daughter, Carolyn, so that when war broke out, mother and baby returned to the safe haven of the Gower for eighteen long lonely months.

By the close of war, the Morgan family had a son as well, Lionel Anthony, and started on a very long academic trek which took them all over the country. In Southend Anna underwent the long and rigorous training which enabled her to become a JP and hear some very interesting cases on the magisterial bench.

The final posting was a professorship at Cambridge. From here they retired to a beautiful but small Suffolk village, which Anna soon realised was a mistake. They had entered a closed community which did not take kindly to newcomers. However, Anna had always been active in the WI and now she was a member of the executive committee for West Suffolk and even went to conference.

The time came to move on and Anna decided to try living near her beloved daughter who lived in Buckinghamshire. Carolyn organised a room in Abbeyfield House in Dobbins Lane, Wendover and Anna has lived there happily for the past 18 years. She has tried living elsewhere. For example, when the en suite bathrooms were being built she went to Spain for a month. Her son, Tony, invited her to live with him in Worcester and more recently remotely in the welsh mountains but Wendover is flat and so welcoming that an active retired single lady can easily join in and become part of the community.

In Anna’s case this has centred mainly on Wendover Evening WI (local committee level only), Wendover Choral Society and St Mary’s Church. Anna finds that, in common with most ninety year olds she knows, she loves the company of younger people who are always looking to the new and can keep her in touch with what’s happening in the world today.

Anna’s daughter was struck by a terminal illness but her grandchildren Sarah, Amanda and Matthew all live in London and are very kind to their grandma. Anna is also the proud great-grandmother of Charlie.

Anna joined Wendover Choral Society 18 years ago because she had always enjoyed singing and piano playing in her youth. Under the careful tutelage of the conductors and fellow singers, she is delighted with the progress she made with the more challenging works but all good things come to an end and she has now retired from singing. She really enjoyed every weekly rehearsal as well as taking part in concerts. She found genuine friendship among the members which culminated in a remarkable farewell party on her 90th birthday.

Anna is so pleased to have come to Wendover because she finds the people so friendly. She was amazed how easy it was to establish herself as part of the community- more than once Tony has been abroad at Christmas and her good friends have invited her to their homes and made her feel so welcome. Having lived in so many different parts of the country, she sensed the community feeling immediately. Wendover is a place which is open to new ideas and new faces.