Angela Underhill née Starkey (V 1939)
27th September 1925 – 5th June 2025

Written by Angela’s son, Simon Underhill

Angela was born in Reigate in September 1925 to Richard and Grace Starkey, the second of four children. She and her elder sister, Rosemary, shared a close childhood in Winchester, both attending St Swithun’s School. Angela was proud to be chosen, aged seven, to present a bouquet to the Princess Royal at the opening of the new school buildings. Childhood memories included watching the abdication of Edward VIII and, at the death of George V, forcing tears by thinking of her cat rather than the king. She lived through the reigns of five monarchs.

In 1939, when her father was recalled to the Royal Marines, the family moved to Portsmouth and experienced the devastation of bombing raids. Angela and her sisters attended Byculla School in Southsea, boarding away from home for long terms.

At 18, she began training as a nurse at St Bartholomew’s Hospital, London. Life was tough: twelve-hour shifts, a dormitory of sixty, and wartime London beyond the gates. Though clever enough for university, wartime expectations kept her on a vocational path. She became a midwife and worked on Martha Ward, caring for East End mothers with humour and compassion, though Guinness and jellied eels were never to her taste.

In 1948 she joined Queen Alexandra’s Royal Naval Nursing Service, seeking travel and adventure. Two years later, while nursing in Plymouth, she met her future husband after he was admitted following a motor accident. They married in 1951. A Siamese cat named Suki soon joined them, the first of seventeen cats Angela would love through her life.

Her first child, James, was born in 1952, followed by Sarah in 1955 and Simon in 1959. Family life was shaped by her husband’s naval career: frequent moves, long absences, and postings overseas in Londonderry, South Africa, and Washington, D.C. Angela was not naturally suited to cocktail parties and embassy circuits, but she made friends her own way, planted instant gardens, and always found a cat to adopt.

Back in England, the family settled in Haslemere, where Angela took work as a relief sister at the Royal Naval School. Colleagues remembered her as conscientious, caring and devoted to her vocation. She even took up skiing at 57, preparing seriously with long training walks. She also became President of her local St John Ambulance.

In later years, Angela and her husband moved to Suffolk to be near Sarah’s growing family. Angela cherished this time, helping with her four grandchildren and enjoying with her husband the family life they had missed during his years at sea. The bond with her grandchildren remained strong.

There were sorrows too. The death of her son James in 1993 was a lasting grief, one she often contemplated in her garden. Her husband died in 2009, after which Angela admitted to thinking of him every day. She nursed him through his illness and described it as “like getting to know him all over again.”

Angela’s resilience showed in how she rebuilt life after each loss. She returned to painting, studying watercolours with Elizabeth Jane Lloyd and producing floral works treasured by friends and family. She tended her gardens with energy, mowing lawns and hauling watering cans into her nineties. At 94 she bought a new petrol car, Bluebell, undeterred by her family’s concerns. Though computers baffled her (“What does boot mean?”), she embraced her iPad, playing crosswords, emailing and video-calling loved ones, especially during the isolation of Covid.

She never lost her sharp mind: she recited poetry from memory, quoted Shakespeare, kept up with politics, and read newspapers daily. She asked mischievous questions – “What is woke?” – and debated the merits of Sunday broadcasters.

Angela’s 99 years were full of contrasts:demanding yet kind, high standards yet humour, independence alongside devotion to family. Her eccentricities – cats on buses, moving furniture for fun, disdain for orchids – were matched by her warmth, loyalty and intelligence. She kept in touch with lifelong friends, who returned her affection.

She is survived by her children, Sarah and Simon, her grandchildren, Katie, Nicholas, Tom and Emily, and her greatgrandchildren. She will be buried with her husband and son James in Pettaugh, at peace in a garden she loved, with a Siamese cat forever on her lap. ■
 

As published in our OGA Chain 2025