Coronavirus: Tributes to sportswoman Diana Townsend (79)
TRIBUTES have been paid to Diana Townsend, a well-known champion of community causes and sportswoman, after she died having contracted coronavirus.
Former teacher Diana (79), who lived in Sway, had been suffering from cancer and died at Lymington hospital on Sunday.
Her family said: “Diana will be sadly missed by family, friends and the community she served throughout her wonderful life.”
She was a member of the Charter Lymington Bridge Club for more than 50 years and a leading light at Hale Gardens Lawn Tennis Club where she helped set up its junior tournament.
A spokeswoman for the bridge club said: “Diana was a much-loved member of Charter for almost 60 years and a keen and formidable bridge player. She will be missed very much.”
Tennis club chair Kenzie Revington said: “It is very sad that her death coincides with our junior tournament due be reinstated this very week. I know Diana would have been present and supporting the juniors as she has done for so many years.
“Diana played for many years at the club and when her mobility issues meant she could no longer play, she still supported many social events, particularly the quizzes. Teams will certainly miss her wide range of knowledge and superior intellect.”
She was also active at the Lymington Centre as a trustee and a supporter of the St Barbe Museum and Oakhaven Hospice.
“We were so very saddened to hear about the recent death of Diana,” the hospice said. “Oakhaven have been heavily reliant on the dedication and commitment of volunteers in our community from the beginning, and that remains so to this day.”
Born in Jerusalem in November 1940, Diana’s father had a love of Africa that stemmed from his time serving in the King’s African Army, and she was christened at St Andrew’s church using water from the River Jordan.
During her formative years she saw a lot of the world, especially Africa, since her parents worked several jobs in Kenya, while she occasionally came to the UK to stay with her grandmother, who lived in Lymington.
Throughout her youth Diana attended many schools, including Kenya High School – where she first played tennis and got involved in tennis management.
By her teens she could boast of travelling aboard luxury liners and aircraft, seeing the Follies in Paris and fireworks in Monte Carlo, and mornings spent wading into the Suez Canal.
She passed her driving test in Kenya and worked at accountants Barber Bellhouse before returning to the UK to attend St Andrew’s University. She threw herself into university life, and became adept at chess, bridge, badminton and tennis, graduating with first-class honours.
While at the university Diana visited the Isle of Wight and Norway, returned to Kenya to work at an accountancy firm and tutored the children of a wealthy Italian family in
London for a spell in maths and Latin, on one memorable occasion driving them in a Bentley to Italy for their holidays.
After graduating she returned to Kenya in 1962, working as an economist statistician. Her colleagues included future Kenyan president Mwai Kibaki.
Her decision to make this trip had a huge impact on her life – on the journey aboard the City of New York ship she met its second officer, Hugh, who later became her husband.
When Diana returned to England in 1965, they got married in Redgrave and honeymooned in Glencar, Ireland, where they both kissed the blarney stone and climbed the country’s highest mountain Carantoul, before watching the men’s Wimbledon final on the journey home.
The couple first settled in Pennington and Diana worked at Wellworthy in Lymington as a computer programmer, and for a spell at Christchurch plastics firm Scintellax. They moved to Sway in 1966.
After answering an ad in the A&T looking for a ‘graduate to teach physics’, she got a job at Fernhill Manor School in the early 1970s, where she stayed for 27 years, running ski trips to Italy, Austria and France.
The couple had two children: Tim and Chris. Hugh died suddenly in 2006.
Diana also leaves grandchildren Harrison, Ethan, Sophie and Max.