With great sadness, I have to report that Peggy Champ, our Vice-President, died on April 7th at the age of 84. She was a staunch supporter of the Lin(d)field One Name Group from the very beginning and we are all going to miss her lively and fascinating articles. I really liked Peggy: she was unconventional, an extremely talented writer and poet, and a gifted actress. She was also young at heart, with a mischievous sense of humour and I am going to miss her anecdotes and funny stories gathered through a lifetime of acute observation. In many ways she was the family historian’s dream: not only because she collected together so many old family photographs and papers, thereby preserving them for future generations, but her phenomenal memory combined with an extraordinary ability to bring people back to life. When you were listening to one of her stories, you knew the people she was telling you about – you were there with her! Not surprisingly, she inspired my own initial interest in family history and I have been hooked ever since. Thanks Peggy.

I would encourage our readers to look through their old copies of ‘Longshot’ and re-read her articles: their appeal to the general reader is obvious. The words flow from the pages, the style is eminently readable and the content fascinating. Compare this to the many dull and boring articles which often appear in family history publications and which are therefore of very limited interest.

We will all miss you, Peggy. Thank you for your support and friendship over the years, and the interest you have inspired in family history.

We offer our condolences to Peggy’s daughter, Judith and to her three grand-daughters, Kate, Rachel and Vicky.