We Remember ... Heroes of the Faith at St. Michael's - Peggy York

PEGGY YORK
19 December 1914 - 15 November 2000

Born in Chiswick, Peggy Mackrory (christened Kathleen Marguerite Muriel) grew up in Riverview Road. She attended Hogarth school and then Chiswick County School and on leaving started work at Acme Metal Works in the Great West Road. She married Sydney Arthur York at St Michael’s and had two girls, Elizabeth and Anna. Sadly the marriage did not last and Peggy, now living in Alwyn Avenue, brought up her girls on her own and cared for her mother until her death, aged 95.

The family moved to Heathfield Gardens at the end of the 1950s and Peggy, now working as the school Secretary at Strand on the Green Infants School, attended the 8 o’clock communion service every Sunday and took the Sunday school which had now moved from Sunday afternoons to Sunday mornings. Peggy was very proud of the fact that she had 78 children on the Sunday school register with most of them attending every week and all of them attending the Christmas Parties, which she arranged every year in the old Parish hall. Peggy always got on very well with the various vicars of St Michael’s but was a doughty defender of and advocate for the Sunday School. She retired from the Sunday school aged 70, having started helping in her early twenties and becoming Superintendent in her thirties.

As well as Sunday School work, Peggy strove tirelessly for St Michael’s. She was churchwarden for some years, including an extended interregnum. She cooked for Harvest suppers, baked for cake stalls, sorted clothes for jumble sales, sold tickets for shows and was a stalwart member of Quiz teams. One year the proposed date of the quiz was altered so that she was able to be on the team! She was also a founder member of the St Michael’s Players and was an accomplished actress, appearing in the majority of the Players’ productions over the years.

In her old age, Peggy moved into a warden flat in Whittingham Court but continued to attend St Michael’s every Sunday. In 1999 she moved into St Joseph’s convent and was able to attend services there until she was admitted to hospital, where she died in November 2000.