Barbara Conway, a civil servant and trade union representative at the Department of Health and Social Security, has died aged 94. She was also a churchwarden, school governor, and volunteer.
Early life and career
Born in Derby, Barbara was the second of four children of Doris (nee Ward) and Arthur Dyche, a Rolls-Royce factory worker. Although clever and ambitious, she was unable to take up her place at Homelands grammar school aged 11, when it cost six guineas to attend, until the age of 13, when it was free.
Leaving school at 17, Barbara worked for the county treasurer, before marrying Alan Conway, a first-generation graduate from London. He worked in various roles in industry before joining the civil service and together they moved to Trumps Green, Virginia Water, in Surrey. Following the births of two girls, first me, then Zoe, the family settled in Berkhamsted.
Civil service and union role
Returning to the workplace in the early 1970s as a clerical officer in the former Department of Health and Social Security, Barbara rose to the role of executive officer. She also operated as the office’s trade union representative.
Volunteering and community work
Much of her free time was spent volunteering. The first woman in more than 750 years to serve as churchwarden at St Peter’s, Berkhamsted, Barbara was a verger and a stalwart of all church functions. She also organised the coffee rota for more than 60 years, into her 90s.
As well as her role as a school governor, Barbara loved being a Brown Owl in the Girlguiding movement and was a keen supporter of St Francis hospice, where she volunteered as a bereavement counsellor. A longtime governor at Victoria Church of England infants’ school, in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, Barbara was, for several years in the early 2000s, a member of an independent review panel reassessing decisions to exclude pupils. She was also the chair of a committee reviewing admission refusals for the first choice of school.
Retirement and legacy
In retirement from 1992, she travelled extensively, played badminton, enjoyed walking and spent time nurturing her grandchildren, Ben and Ellie. She had many friends, most of whom she outlived, but several continued to visit her in the nursing home where she spent her final years.
Barbara’s life exemplified the Christian, public service and charitable values in which she believed. She worked hard and made sacrifices so that her daughters, grandchildren and women to come would have opportunities that she did not. She is survived by Alan, Zoe and me, and Ben and Ellie.
