Beti joined MTGS in January 1947 into Lower IV from Streatham House and she left at Easter 1951 in Lower VI to go into a welfare and management post at Littlewoods.

However her main passion in life was singing, and she was for many years, the longest-serving member of the famous D’Oyly Carte Opera Company.

In later years she married a fellow member of the D’Oyly Carte Company, Michael Lynch.

Beti died on 6th March 2014.

The following extract is taken from a D’Oyly Carte Opera Company article on Beti….

THE D’OYLY CARTE OPERA COMPANY

Beti performed with the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company from 1956 – 1982.
Born Crosby, Liverpool 25 Aug 1933, died 6 Mar 2014
Beti Lloyd-Jones was one of the longest serving members of the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company, appearing in the chorus from September 1956 until the Company finally disbanded in February 1982. She also took several small parts and was understudy to the principal contralto for many years.

Her Gilbert & Sullivan career began in 1952 with the Crosby Amateur Operatic Society in her native Liverpool. During her first season with the D’Oyly Carte (1956-57) she filled in on occasion as Pitti-Sing in The Mikado. In September 1958 she assumed the part of Lady Saphir in Patience, and during the 1958-59 season filled in again as Pitti-Sing and took the small part of Inez in The Gondoliers when Alice Hynd was playing the Duchess (September-November 1958, February 1959).

Beti Lloyd-Jones played Saphir until March 1962. She shared Inez with Alice Hynd and Jeanette Roach for one season (1959-60), and took the role as her own from September 1961 to March 1962. In March 1962 she reverted to the chorus, appearing in the 1962-63 program as Inez only when Jeanette Roach filled in as the Duchess.

When Miss Roach left the Company in October 1963 Beti Lloyd-Jones was given Inez and made permanent understudy to the principal contraltos. For the next thirteen seasons, until July 1977, she was the Company’s regular Inez. She filled in on frequent occasions in all the major contralto parts: Lady Sangazure in The Sorcerer, Little Buttercup in H.M.S. Pinafore, Ruth in The Pirates of Penzance, Lady Jane in Patience, the Queen of the Fairies in Iolanthe, Lady Blanche in Princess Ida, Katisha in The Mikado, Dame Hannah in Ruddigore, Dame Carruthers in The Yeomen of the Guard, and the Duchess of Plaza-Toro in The Gondoliers. She also appeared as the regular Mrs. Partlett in The Sorcerer for two seasons (1973-75), and took the small parts of Salata in Utopia Limited and Bertha in The Grand Duke when those operas were performed during the 1975 Centenary season.

In August 1977 Miss Lloyd-Jones was replaced by Elizabeth Denham as Inez and principal contralto understudy. She reverted once more to the chorus, but when The Sorcerer was revived in October 1979 she was cast again as Mrs. Partlett, playing the pew opener until the last days of the original D’Oyly Carte Opera Company.

Beti Lloyd-Jones may be heard on the Company’s 1961 recording of Patience (as Lady Saphir), the 1976 Grand Duke (as Bertha), and the 1977 Gondoliers (as Inez). She was in the chorus of the 1966 film version of The Mikado. Miss Lloyd-Jones also sang Lady Blanche’s part in the duet, “Now, wouldn’t you like to rule the roast,” with Lorraine Daniels at the Company’s “last night” performance on February 27, 1982.

After the closure of the Company, Miss Lloyd-Jones remained involved with Gilbert & Sullivan, producing H.M.S. Pinafore for the Deeside A.O.S. in October 1982 and The Sorcerer for her hometown Crosby A.O.S., in January 1983

Yvonne Pugh  née Forshaw

MTGS 1945-52     Died 8^th June 2014

Obituary

On the 29^th August 1933, the stork delivered a bonny bouncing baby to the Crosby home of Phyllis and Charles Forshaw.  She was their third child and a sister to Joyce and Adrian and because of her mother’s interest in French she was baptised Yvonne Desiree.

The first school she attended was Forefield Lane and later won a scholarship from Halsall Girls’ School and entered Merchant Taylors’ at 11 years of age.  She was a good all-rounder and always played games to win.  Unfortunately she had a bad fall on ice and fractured a leg so I had to wheel her to and from school each day in an old fashioned three wheeler wicker invalid carriage.

She loved all animals and during the war would clean out the shippens in Jump’s Dairy in order to get a ride on the pony and trap delivering milk.

After leaving MTGS she trained in cardiography at the Royal Infirmary, Southern Hospital, Walton Hospital and other medical institutions on Merseyside.  She enjoyed her job and was especially interested in cardiac malfunction.  Unfortunately, as a result of surgery to fractured legs, she developed pulmonary embolisms and because of this had a lot of discomfort through the years.

She was a Girl Guide and enjoyed camping and the outdoor life and was a member of Hightown Club.  It was there she met Captain Charles Pugh of the King’s Regiment.  He had called there on army leave to look up friends.  Shortly after this Yvonne announced they were to marry and defied her father’s opposition as he didn’t want a Roman Catholic in the family simply because of religion.  It is good that times have changed.  Yvonne and Charles were married on 10^th Sept 1955 and had a military wedding at St John’s RC Church, Formby.  Their first child was Tony and the Regiment was posted to Germany where their second son, Mike, was born in 1957.

Her father suffered a severe coronary attack and was compelled to retire to a dressing gown existence but being an active person with fifty years of engineering skills he could not lead an inactive life so invented a paint roller, which filled with paint, from a perforated cocoa tin wrapped in a polyester sleeve.  Charles Pugh retired as a Major and found employment in Liverpool.  Phyllis and Charles Pugh decided to purchase a property licensed for light industry in Bath Street, Waterloo and the Pugh family lived in the upper part of this. Yvonne found herself, along with Joyce, working machinery manufacturing paint rollers and sponges.  We went collecting empty cartons from shops which sold TVs and then made up orders which Yvonne delivered in an old second hand van.

Charles Forshaw senior died in 1972 and the company was restructured.  Phyllis Forshaw was Chairman and Yvonne Works Director.  She could operate every machine in the factory and trained others in different departments.  She had a very responsible job and without doubt contributed greatly to the success of the company.  The business had grown from a cellar to a workshop, a converted dairy and later a designer built factory in Sandy Road, Seaforth and employed 149 workers when it was sold. The Pugh family moved to Lydiate, but unfortunately Yvonne’s health deteriorated.  Each time the farmer had sprayed his fields adjoining their property her breathing became more difficult so they returned to Blundellsands to live in an apartment.

In later years Yvonne carried portable oxygen and moved in a wheelchair.  Her last attack was on June 8^th 2014 when she passed away peacefully in the presence of her much loved husband and family.  She was smiling, conscious and peaceful.  It is sad that so many health problems beset her from a young age yet she always had a smile.

It is impossible to do justice in a short obituary to such a multi-talented and unique personality so I conclude with words she wrote for a dying woman in her story “Darwin be Damned”.
Heaven, that is my destination
For my soul is tormented
And it is searching for peace.

Strong winds blow my soul on its journey
Let me not lose direction
As I pass through the stars.

Travelling from the sunshine and shadow
In the wide open spaces
I have found some release.

Bright lights in the distance draw nearer
Weary souls feel the welcome
And are ready to rest.

Joyful is the greeting we get there
Feel the love overflowing
Fills our souls with new zest.

New life in this world of hereafter
For all souls it’s a haven
Called the Land of the Blessed.

Y D Pugh

Joyce Winter née Forshaw  MTGS 1939-45

Ruth Mary Badcock, known as Molly, left Merchant Taylors’ Girls School in 1940 and went on to study Zoology at Liverpool University, gaining a First Class Degree. Molly then did Postgraduate research at Liverpool which led to her M.Sc. She then worked as an assistant lecturer at Glasgow University.

In October 1951 Molly secured an appointment with the Biology Department at Keele University, where she continued to work up until her retirement in May 1987.

Molly lived her many years in retirement between her home in Springpool and her house in Welshpool, Mid Wales.

Molly died on 10th January 2014.

Rachel Ashton – Old Girl (1988-1995)

I can remember now the feeling of trepidation, age 11, walking into MTGS on my first morning at ‘The Big School’, wondering who I would meet and if I’d make friends. I needn’t have worried, the first person I met was Rachel, who greeted me with a smile, introduced herself and it felt like we’d known each other forever. Over the following seven years, we stuck together and through our mutual love of singing, drama and avoiding PE became firm friends, a friendship that would endure long beyond school.

She was one of the big characters of our year, known and loved by all for her quick wit, comic timing and bubbly personality, who threw herself wholeheartedly into any challenge (except PE, where we always came last in cross country). It became clear very early on that she was an immensely talented actor and singer, with a knack for impressions and a facility for dialogue, and had really beautiful handwriting. Her impersonation of Mrs Stubbs is legendary.

She always had projects on the go, whether writing a new Red Dwarf script, memorising Alec Guinness quotes or arranging TV theme tunes (like Blackadder) for organ, as she was the organist at Ince Blundell Hall, another one of her talents. She was an enthusiastic member of the choirs (though grew a little tired of singing Beatles songs), and in latter years performed a number of solos, where she could show just how brilliant a singer she was. The last time she and I ever sang onstage together was at Prize Giving, where we performed Rossini’s Cat Duet, something we both found hilarious and relished every second.

Whatever her choices, they were always completely individual and she would never be influenced by others. One example of that was her insistence that she wanted to learn Russian, a language she embraced and loved, and she was highly entertained on arriving in Russia on a school trip (staying with a family she was convinced were Mafia) for people to keep asking why she was speaking with a Scottish accent (well done, Mr Aitken…).

After A-level, she studied Linguistics and Italian at Lancaster University, and worked for a time for the Charities Commission. It was her love of singing and music that won the day, though, and she gained a place to study at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, after which she sang professionally and also trained as a music educator, so she could pass on her love of performing to the next generation. Not content with that, she also appeared as a straight actor in a number of productions and continued to write plays, her love of drama undiminished from when she was younger.

That she was so full of life and hitting her creative peak made the shock of her cancer diagnosis even worse. With characteristic stoicism, and a relentlessly positive attitude, she faced chemotherapy and radiotherapy with real courage, even teaching herself to play the mandolin to alleviate her boredom whilst recuperating. On being told that she was in remission, she gained a place to do a Masters Degree at Birmingham Conservatoire and she began the course with relish, loving every second and grabbing life with both hands. It was a hard blow, then, to discover the cancer had returned but once again she faced months of treatment with positivity and determination, and her sense of humour remained fully intact to the end.

She wasn’t able to complete her Masters, but was granted her degree posthumously, something that would have made her immensely proud. She was an incredibly talented individual, taken from the world far too soon, before she had fully had an opportunity to demonstrate just how gifted she was, in any number of fields, although she will be remembered for her singing above all. But more than that, she was a much loved daughter, sister, auntie and friend, someone who was kind, thoughtful, funny, loyal, witty, brave, and unique. I, along with everyone who knew her, will miss her enormously and I am honoured to have called her my friend.

Jennifer Johnston
Old Girl (1988-95)