Audrey Theodosia Bryant, RIP

Audrey Bryant died peacefully on April 10^th 2015, aged 88. Her grandmother was Theodosia Badcock, neé Downes. The name has been passed from daughter to daughter through five generations so far.  Her funeral in Walgrave and her interment in Cornwall were attended by her brothers Arthur and Michael, by her children Shane, Ginnie (who flew over from California), Terl and Suzanna, by her grandchildren and many other relatives and friends.

I have revised her entry in my book Carden of Barnane to read as follows in the next edition.

AUDREY THEODOSIA CARDEN was born 10 December 1927, daughter of Eustace Carden and Lucy née Badcock. Educated Byculla School, Winchester School of Art, New York School of Interior Design.

Married Terl Malcolm Bryant (“Terry”) 19 January 1952, issue Shane 1956, Virginia (“Ginnie”) 1958, Terl 1961, Suzanna 1963.

Audrey and Terry travelled widely in USA for four years (where she worked for Georg Jensen, Fifth Avenue and British Publications), before settling at the Dial House (her Badcock grandmother's home) in Northamptonshire. She worked for Scott Bader in 1977-80 for the Lotus-Crystic Systems subsidiary and then was appointed to create the Kettering Volunteer Bureau which she managed for 12 years. During that time she set up 'Furniture Turnaround' and 'Pleasure Gardens', both Manpower Services schemes to help people in need, and initiated LEAP (Local Emergency Accommodation Project) which won Housing Association funding for two hostels for the homeless, and which expanded to seven hostels over eight years. She was regional representative and a Council member of the National Association of Volunteer Bureaux for several years. 

Audrey was an artist, poet, active Christian (member of Synod and Bishop's Council), ecology movement activist (taking part in the Molesworth and Greenham Common anti-nuclear demonstrations in 1978-83), co-founder and National Co-ordinator of Christian Ecology Link, member of the Green Party, stood in the Euro Elections in 1984, 1989 and 1994, in 1989 gaining almost 21% of the vote, one of the best Green Party results in any constituency.

She and Terry sold the Dial House and separated in 1979; they divorced in 1991 but remained good friends.  After living in Kettering for a while, Audrey moved back to Polruan in Cornwall (her childhood home) in December 1998, having been offered a council house with views of the ocean and harbour. In 2000 a stroke removed her powers of speech, which she later recovered, showing great determination to do so. She continued to live happily in her little house at the top of Polruan, packed to the brim with books, paintings and memorabilia. She painted in oils again, chiefly portraits, and was much involved with local and church affairs, representing council tenants on the District Tenants Forum. She visited Virginia and David in California in 2002. In 2006 she produced a 60-page booklet of her poems, The Long View, and another Mountains of the Mind, in 2009.

However, after suffering additional strokes (one of which involved a helicopter flight from Polruan to Truro, which she much enjoyed), her children arranged for her to be transferred to a care home in Buckinghamshire in 2013 and later to another in Corby where she died peacefully on 10 April 2015.

At her wish her funeral was held in Walgrave, on 17 April, and she was interred the next day at her beloved Lanteglos Church near Polruan.

The photograph above shows family members after the funeral, by the graves of Audrey’s mother Lucy, grandfather Thomas and the latter's brother John.