Nancy Safford née Marshall (HA 1946)
15 January 1929 – 27 August 2021

Written by Nancy’s children, Judith, Nick and Roger

Nancy Safford, was born in 1929 in Chislehurst, Kent. With nature all around, chickens next door and pets, her early years with her brother
Geoff and sister Gill were happy. With the outbreak of war, they moved to Clevedon near Bristol. The bombing of nearby Bristol and the sound of guns was a nightly backdrop.

In 1942, when Nancy was thirteen and away at boarding school, her mother died suddenly. Nancy took a substitute parent role for her nine-year-old sister Gill, so Nancy’s move to St Swithun’s shortly after must have been difficult for them both. During her time there, the school buildings were in use as a military hospital, so lessons and dormitories were in large Victorian houses in Highcliffe.

Despite the difficult circumstances, she spoke fondly of the school which fostered her deep knowledge and love of literature and culture, and the capacity to produce often startlingly pertinent references and quotations, or entire poems, into her late 80s. She would have liked to go to university, but times were hard and decommissioned men from the services had priority. St Swithun’s was all the more important to her for this.

After the war, her father retired to nearby Chilbolton and Nancy stayed with him after leaving school, working at Winchester Cathedral with Roger Lloyd, an influential Anglican priest and Christian Socialist whom she had met through the school. He was a lifelong influence for her; this was an important and happy time.

She then took an intriguing series of jobs, including stints as a secretary for a flamboyant Cambridge don and then for the Royal household, bringing back colourful accounts for all to enjoy.

She married her husband John in 1958, moving to Richmond in Surrey. Three children were born between 1960 and 1967, and she often joined them in their hobbies, such as horse-riding; one even won the school squash cup, while she herself ended up with tennis elbow. While raising her family she took on much voluntary work in healthcare and justice, campaigning successfully with the National Association
for the Welfare of Children in Hospital to change the practice of allowing parents very little access to their children in hospital. She was active as a juvenile court magistrate, in the local Community Health Council and with a youth counselling service Off the
Record, still active today.

When John became ill with heart failure, for seven years until his death in 2007 Nancy was his carer. She stayed physically fit, going on long walks well into her 80s and remarkably, her striking chestnut hair did not start to grey until she was nearly 90. In later years, in a local support circle for the elderly, memory problems led her to observe, wryly, that she was not sure if she was a helper or patient; the answer was surely both.

Nancy had great determination and loyalty, incisive perceptive powers, a gift of spoken and written expression, and deep empathy. These qualities not only advanced the causes she cherished but also left an example for those who knew her, not least her three children and six grandchildren, who continue to be inspired by her integrity, compassion and strength of spirit. ■

Published in the OGA Chain 2025.