We were saddened to hear of the passing of former Wakefield Civic Society President Mrs Margaret Morgan on 25th January.
Margaret first joined the Society’s Executive Committee in 1990 and served until May 2018 when she decided to retire from the role although she maintained her membership of the Society until her death.
Elected Society President in March 1991, Margaret continued in the role for four years until March 1995. She remains one of only two people to serve as President for longer than three years in the Society’s history (the three-year limit was set under the Society’s constitution at the time – a limit that has since been removed).
Part of her work on the Society’s committee was to organise the Society’s annual programme of visits and excursions – at first on her own and then later with the assistance of colleagues from the committee.
Margaret was well known to many of our members and regularly attended our events. She was also an active participant in the Society’s monthly Dining Club until the advent of Covid and lockdown in March 2020 at which point many of the Society’s face-to-face activities had to be paused.
As well as her involvement in the work of the Society, Margaret was also a trustee of the Gissing Trust for many years, including serving as chair of the Trust for a number of years. (The Trust was set up to celebrate the life and work of Wakefield-born novelist George Gissing.) She was also a member of the Friends of CHaT Parks, an organisation set up by the Society, and a volunteer at Nostell Priory.
Our photo above was taken at our Annual General Meeting in 2016 when the Society marked Margaret’s 90th birthday with the presentation of flowers and other gifts as an expression of our appreciation for her long service to the Society.
Below is an extract from the Society’s Newsletter published in January 1999.
